Start with New and/or Good
GIVE YOUR MEETINGS A FRESH START |
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The New Year is a great time to re-think your team rituals and to establish some new habits. Start with your weekly team meeting.
If your team is slow to get started during those routine weekly meetings and you feel like you are doing all the talking, try this simple, yet powerful exercise to get things started.
Before jumping into the meeting agenda, go around the table and ask each team member to briefly share one thing that has happened to them since the last meeting that is new and/or good. The nugget can be of a personal or professional nature. The only rule is that no one can opt out. As the manager, you might want to begin the commentary with something new and/or good such as:
"I finally got the garage cleaned out."
"Our team met its quarterly goals."
"A customer called to say thanks for _______."
Your contribution sets the tone for how the others will respond. This simple exercise has several positive effects on the group:
1. It allows everyone to participate in the meeting--within the first five minutes. No one can just sit back and hide. This warm up requires active participation right up front!
2. It begins the meeting on a positive note. In my experience, this is a great time to share the birth of babies, the marriage of children, and even the little accomplishments in life like, "My son scored his first goal in soccer."
3. It adds energy to the room. If your team meetings lack enthusiasm, this exercise has the potential to add some fun, humor, and personal connection right from the start. A few favorite responses I've heard from meeting participants are:
"My daughter finally got her driver's license!"
"I booked vacation reservations!"
"We got a new piece of equipment for the team to use!"
It's hard not to smile when a colleague reports something they are excited about. The enthusiasm is quickly contagious.
4. It allows the team to strengthen connections. Many times during this quick warm-up, meeting participants will share something of a personal nature that illustrates a similarity they have with someone else on the team. These flashes of connection ("Oh, you are from Ohio too?") allows otherwise individual contributors to better relate to one another.
Begin 2014 with an assessment of the rituals you use in team meetings. If a little boost is in order, try beginning each meeting with something new and/or good. When the exercise is repeated meeting after meeting, team members begin to look forward to sharing their "something new" and your meetings will begin to take on a positive, forward-focused tone.
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Free Painless Performance Conversations Training
DON'T MISS THIS GREAT OPPORTUNITY!
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Final Footnotes
NEWS & EVENTS FROM MARNIE
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Once again, we are giving away signed copies of Painless Performance Conversations to randomly selected readers of our monthly E-tip. This month's winners are Kirk Haines and
Rick Naimark. If that's you, please send me an email with your mailing address and we'll get a signed copy sent to you right away.
I'll be speaking for the Northwest Arizona Human Resource Association on January 9 in Kingman, AZ and in Las Vegas, NV on January 29 for a special client engagement. If you are in the area on these dates, please give me a ring and let's connect!
 As always, I'd be happy to talk with you about improving your organization's performance management practices. Just give me a call at 480-705-9394 or shoot me an email. I'd love to hear from you.
Happy New Year!
Marnie Green, CSP, IPMA-CP
Principal Consultant
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