When was the last time you had a “no holds barred” discussion about what is working and what’s not working in your business? John Knight from Business Depot has some tips for effective team workshops that will prioritise the your most urgent actions.
Jim Collins was spot on when he said you need “the right people on the bus”. But not only do they need to be on the bus; you need them all facing the front with someone at the steering wheel.
With growth back on the agenda for so many real estate agencies, we are having more and more discussions about the ‘people’ side of business. What are you doing to maximise the positive impact your team has on your business? What are you doing to maximise team engagement?
Team engagement is so much more than Friday afternoon drinks. When you have an engaged team, the business will be nimble – decisions are easier, you are more trusting of your team and performance tends to go through the roof.
So where do you start? An alignment of values and clarity of vision are essential ingredients for any engaged team. Next, though, comes communication.
When I talk about communication I am not talking about a high-level conversation about their latest listing or their next planned vacation. I am talking about a deep two-way conversation about the interests of the individual and the interests of the business as a whole.
A great way to get the conversation started is with a team workshop – I often use one we call a ‘Good, Bad, Ugly’ workshop. Usually the workshop will go something like this:
- Set the scene and set the tone of the conversation. Do not hold the team back from talking about anything they want. Let them know you want to hear their thoughts and that there will be no repercussions for speaking their mind (something you must adhere to).
- Reflecting on the past 12 months, what has been good? Use a whiteboard or butcher’s paper to summarise what is discussed – I do a mind map with ‘good’ as the mind map subject. It is critical that the findings are visual, as this allows discussion points to be linked, for people to explain their point further or to refer back to something already mentioned.
- Reflecting on the past 12 months, what has been not so good? Again, use a whiteboard to summarise in a separate mind map what they say was not so good about the past 12 months. I always write ‘bad’ as the mind map subject first but then cross it out and write ‘not so good’ to broaden the discussion to include wider areas of improvement.
- Hand out the whiteboard markers and ask every person in the room (all divisions, all levels – yourself included) to tick the top three items that, in their view, would lead to more success in the business by enhancing the good items or fixing the bad ones.
- Summarise the top three items (those with the most ticks). You will find some items are similar or clearly linked. Group these items together and summarise the top three areas of improvement.
These workshops are a great way to get the communication flowing with the team. You can facilitate these discussions yourself but an external facilitator can often help. In my experience, the team want to contribute and want to make a difference – they just need to be given the opportunity.
Ideally, once you have your ‘top three’ you can then schedule follow-up sessions to determine together the actions required.
My top five tips for facilitating a great ‘Good, Bad, Ugly Workshop’:
- It must be visual (write with chalk pens on the windows if you need to)
- Don’t be defensive and don’t offer solutions (everything should be written on the board)
- Principals and/or senior management can set the scene early on (say something early on that shows you really want a completely transparent discussion – maybe even controversial)
- Adding an anonymous employee survey beforehand can help with big teams (presenting the findings will ensure nothing is missed)
- Don’t be tempted to choose more than three items (you can always come back and address the other items at a later date)
Good luck! Communicating is only the first step – it is what you do with the findings and observations that matters most.
