$ucce$$-Team

Since the end of the year is approaching, managers are beginning to put together plans for next year.

Teams win when all the players pull together towards a common objective, not when the leader autonomously sets the goals and dictates how they are to be achieved. Planning for next year is a great opportunity to elicit the best thinking of all your people, both individually and collectively, and it’s worth putting some thought into how best to accomplish this. Here’s one approach you might try.

Announce a planning retreat that is to involve everyone on the team, or even in the organization depending on how big it is. You must not only give people time to prepare, but also give them guidelines as to how to prepare for the event. You might, for example, ask them to consider their major concerns about going into the next twelve months. Tell them to write their concerns down, one concern to one sheet of paper, and bring them to the event. They don’t put their names on the papers.

Start the meeting by having everyone (including you) put their papers in a big box, which is then used in one of the following two ways.

Drawing one sheet from the container, each person then gives thought to the question on the sheet, thinking about his or her response to it and how important it is. Next, ask for voluntary views on the issues, one at a time. Your job at this point is to facilitate the discussion and elicit as much information from as many people as possible. It is not to impose  your views on the group. On some issues, in fact, it may be best if you don’t speak at all.

If you have a large group, divide into small groups and have each take one issue for discussion. The idea here is to sift all the ideas through the team group thinking to find out which topics are of most common concern. Then carry on as you would with a smaller group.

This process can, and often will, result in heated discussions. There’s nothing wrong with that, and you need to trust the process and your people.

I encourage you to rise to this challenge, as it has two major benefits:

1. Great ideas invariably come from unexpected sources. People who have never been consulted before suddenly find themselves listened to with respect and interest, and can be encouraged—and perhaps even inspired—to contribute in ways larger than you ever expected.

2. People are much more likely to buy into the plans, and do what needs to be done to reach the objectives, when they have been part of the process that arrived at them. So your objectives are much more likely to be met. This is how the best teams win.

The social climate of today, including that of the workplace, is one in which individuals demand input. The good news is that when that demand is met, the people feel valued, the team functions smoothly and the organization benefits fully from the brain power it employs. Everybody wins.

For more ideas for managers, visit http://www.themanagersjourney.com