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Contributes to the Process
Your team meeting has two major focal points that require
your attention: content and process.
Content is what your team is working on; process is how your
team members are working together. If I asked you to tell me how your last
meeting went and you said, "We discussed the consolidation project, put together
a plan for year-end closing, and decided to set up a meeting with Quality Team
to discuss error rates," you would have reported on the content
of your meeting. Content sounds like those items you would summarize in your
meeting minutes.
If your response was, "Discussion became very heated and
members stopped listening to one another; the energy level was very low, and a
lot of time was wasted talking about unrelated topics," you would have described
your team's process. In other words, process is a description of how
members behaved during the meeting. Another work used interchangeably with
process is dynamics.
There may be times during a team meeting when you feel you
can't participate because you're not conversant with the topic being discussed.
Just because you can't contribute to the content doesn't mean you can't
contribute at all. You are in a perfect position to observe and facilitate the
team's process -- and that's where teams need the most help. Teams generally do
fine with content; they usually have the right items on the agenda and enough
contributing experts. Ineffective meetings are usually the result of
dysfunctional teams dynamics or process. The entire team is responsible for the
success of your meeting so all members should play an active role in
facilitating healthy dynamics. When you are not engrossed in the meeting
content, you have an advantage of perspective; you can concentrate solely on
process.
How do you know whether a team's process is functional or
dysfunctional? If the team strikes a balance between satisfying both its task
and relationship needs, it has a healthy, functional process going. Members
behave in ways that facilitate getting the job done and at the same time make
members feel valued, respected, included, and energized. Members leave the
meeting saying, "We were very productive and I sure do like being a member of
this team." When there is an imbalance between task and relationship need
satisfaction, or not enough attention paid to either, the team's process is
dysfunctional. If you hear members saying, "We got a lot of things accomplished,
but I can't stand the way members treat each other," it's a sure sign that the
team hasn't paid enough attention to its relationship needs. And if you hear,
"We are so cohesive; just like a family. But we sure didn't get much done," the
team has slipped on the task side. And if ever you should hear, "Another waste
of two hours--nothing accomplished. Why can't people at least be civil to each
other?" you know there is much work to be done on both the task and relationship
sides of the equation.
Learning how to observe your team's process and intervene
appropriately takes time and practice. If you randomly try to watch everything,
you'll see nothing. The key is to train your eyes and ears so that you can
focus your observations. A good way to start focusing is to become
acquainted with a few specific team facilitation roles, also known as
intervention behaviors. Then look for the appropriate situations during your
meeting to apply them. In other words, first learn what the helping behaviors
are, and why and how they help. Then you will more easily see places where you
can be helpful, as explained in Summarizer, Orienter, Harmonizer, and Other
Helpful Roles.
