Alternatives to Team Meetings

In addition to the traditional meeting involving all members and including a multiple-item agenda, some exciting alternatives exist for you to use occasionally. One such alternative, serial one-on-one sessions, requires more time from the team leader than it does the members. The leader arranges for individual team members to be relieved from their current duties for fifteen to thirty minutes to meet with the leader alone. The leader asks each member five to seven questions and records their answers. The leader is committed to keeping each individual's responses confidential but provides a summary of the themes that emerged across the membership for each question asked. The findings are reported at the next team meeting in a manner that protects the anonymity of the respondents, and the team can use the report to engage in a team development planning session. Members are encouraged to keep their responses short (two to four minutes for each question) to stay within the time frame dedicated for each session. While the questions you use should vary according to your circumstances, here is a generic set to help you get started:

• What have you noticed about our team lately ( especially about how we communicate with each other)?

• What do you think our team does well?

• What do you think our team needs to do better or differently?

• How is this organization helping our team become more effective?

• What obstacles exist that might interfere with our team becoming more effective?

• What could you do to help this team become even more effective and satisfying ?

• What could I do to help?