Developing a team and managing change

So how do you go about Developing a team and managing change? What are the key steps?

Today we received a request:

“I need some ideas and help please. I need to run
a simple first team meeting within the start up division I am employed.
There are 20 people in the division, and all have been employed no more than 6
months. Usual growing pains and fall outs and frustrations of no one quite sure
what they are doing. Do you have any ideas?”

Our reply to this request was…

It all depends on your goals… The following is an outline structure you may consider of value…

Change Management Structures and frameworks

A structure like:
Agree the objective(s) of the meeting

Have your one as “how do we get even better at what we do?” – what the most effective organisations and teams know…

Introduce the concept of personal change

Say that as individuals we all have change that impacts us in different ways

Introduce the personal change model….

Give an example of personal change (see www.rapidbi.staging.wpengine.com/changemanagement/ for an example)

Allow people to realise that change is normal and impacts people in different ways – sometimes a change can be quick… sometimes slow. This is about helping people realise that it is ok to feel uncomfortable or not sure. Ask them to give examples of when they have experienced different parts of the model.
One example I give is when my wife asked me to decorate… I said we only did it 5 years ago (denial)… then to finding excuses not to look at the colour charts and catalogues or reasons not to go to the DIY shops (resistance)… then when I started to say… well if we….. then we can…. (exploration)… once the exploration phase is reached then commitment usually follows.

Personal Change Model – the tarzan swing

The danger occurs when a person does the ‘Tarzan swing’ from Denial straight toCommitment without passing through the other phases (even for a brief time).

The risk is that as they have only ‘intellectually’ bought in.. not emotionally, when something goes wrong (even a little thing) these people may well say… see told you so.. knew it would not work. These people ‘swing’ back to Denial, and because there is no forward momentum – they are the hardest of all to change from this point forward.

The best way to avoid this is to spend time working on the resistance and exploration phases… allow questions to be asked – and the challenges is not to be defensive – of this show reason for the resistance.. our goal is to allow them through the resistance phase without confirming their real doubts…

Then when you have explored personal change…

Introduce The Tuckman Team Development model:

The Tuckman Team development Model

Split the group into 4

Ask each group to draw a flip chart describing what each phase of the model might look like – one for form, another storm… etc
Ask them to think about activities they can use to start moving from their part of the model to the next… Form –> storm….Perform –> Adjourn etc..
Give them 15 mins

Then each group to present back

Then ask the group where they thing they are as a team… ask why and to give examples

Then open up the team for ideas and to develop a plan as to what they can do to move the team on…

This should get the ball rolling…

I have used this type of structure with great impact.

For more information on change management visit our change management page