When Building or Strengthening a Team

 Define your Mutual Purpose:

• Clarify your MISSION: What positive impact do you want to make in the world around you?
• Clarify your VISION: From where you are now, where do you envision you need to be in the future?

Identify your Prioritized Aligned Activities (your Strategy):

• Determine the Strategic Objectives that need to be achieved to make your VISION a reality.
• List the activities needed to achieve each Strategic Objective.
• Challenge the list: Are these the right activities? Are there other paths to achieve each Strategic Objective?
• Align and Prioritize the activities based on your TIME, MONEY, PEOPLE, and RESOURCE constraints.
• Does the set of activities have FOCUS or are some distracting, unnecessary, or weakening the others?
• Where do the activities FIT together in ways they can strengthen and support each other?
• What TRADE OFFS do you need to make by prioritizing some activities over others and are there activities that should not or are unable to be done or would be negatively impacted if certain activities are prioritized (i.e., consider opportunity costs and competing activities)?
• Which activities sustain the others (e.g., billing/accounting, marketing, IT support, front desk, etc.)?
• Which activities should be done first or in a particular order? Which ones benefit by being done later?
• Which activities are the most important and need to be prioritized when allocating TIME, MONEY, PEOPLE, and RESOURCES?

IMPORTANT: Without clear, well-thought-out objectives along with activity alignment and prioritization with FOCUS, FIT, and TRADE OFFS, your list of activities is simply a “to do list” of work and not a good strategy. Work may get done but may not get you to where you want to go.

Clarify your Roles

• Clarify your RACI Roles for the activities:
  • Who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed for each activity’s work progress, issue resolution, status updates, and completion?
• Clarify the DCI Roles for when activities need decisions:
  • Who is the Decider, who is Consulted and who is Informed when making a decision?

Obtain and utilize the Right STEPPPS to complete each activity:

• SKILLS: need the right skills for each role and activity; get training when needed
• TOOLS: need the right tools; these are the things that make work easier (e.g., templates, software, etc.)
• EQUIPMENT: need the right equipment; these are the physical goods required for the work
• PEOPLE: need the right people in each role and activity; hire only when needed and only those aligned with your mission, vision, and values
• POLICIES: need the right policies and rules; document them for clarity and consistency
• PROCEDURES: need the right procedures; document them for clarity and consistency; checklists can be helpful
• SYSTEMS: need the right systems for monitoring and controlling the activities; identify risks/issues early, adjust if needed

Clarify your ways of working to gain and maintain Mutual Trust and Respect

Clarify your core VALUES: This should not be a list of platitudes or words that are selected to sound good. These core values are the key ingredients you feel that make you who you are as individuals and as teammates.

Clarify your ways of working together.

Adhere to and find ways to increase the things that are known to build Trust and Respect:

• Be Ethical
• Be Kind
• Build your Competency
• Be Reliable
• Be true to your Mission, Vision, and Values of your Mutual Purpose

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