TEAM MEETINGS: involve all members of the team in consultation. This requires commitment and respect within the team, and an acceptance of differences.

Three important attributes are required of team members for a team to be effective...

 

LISTEN: listen to what is being said. Reserve judgement until all the evidence has been heard.

 

NEGOTIATE: discuss what you have heard. Engage in positive criticism of all aspects of the meeting. Differences of opinion are easier to accept when goals are clarified for each team member. Decisions should be well-thought - and fought - through, before being established as team goals. The process demands quality argument, care and patience, but the result is worth it.

 

SUPPORT: the consensus of the meeting. Progress to a common goal needs nurturing and support by the various team members. (However, particularly in regard to health and safety, do not blindly follow a decision you feel will lead to a negative incident. The possibility of 'group think' where team-members blindly accept and go along with, or are brow-beaten into accepting, group decisions is a hazard in itself, and deserves assessment in any group. Some teams even allow for a 'devil's advocate', whose role is to question everything.)

 

< Back to Triangles index