Six Conversations for Team Success ? What To Talk About ...

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Having intelligent and productive conversations helps teams and individuals recognise their strengths and weaknesses, knowns and unknowns, facts and assumptions. A structure or agenda for the conversations helps keep discussions focussed and purposeful. The ?Six Conversations for Team Success? structure is a simple but powerful way to get to the heart of what?s vitally important for sustained success.

Many teams spend time and money talking about how to work together better and may even disappear off to the woods or wilds to learn more about each other. Not wrong, but they can become fascinated by what?s going on inside the team and forget that the sustained success is actually based on their relationship with outsiders not insiders.

To build team fitness it?s a good idea to spend some time on the questions and conversations contained in the ?Six Conversations for Team Success? model but remember these are only half the picture.

Working for Each Other ? Unless people feel a sense of commitment to each other and recognise they are all on the same side with shared objectives it will be difficult to consistently deliver the quantity and quality of output the team?s customers or stakeholders require. Structure and Organisation ? Organising people and resources to make the work and delivery as easy as possible seems obvious ? but sometimes old systems, structures and ways of working become counter-productive and need to be re-examined Continuous Learning ? Unless the team and its members update their skills, knowledge and attitudes as markets and contexts change there will come a time when what is offered is outdated and not wanted.

The really important conversations, those that are vital to survival and sustained success are about the outside world ? where the customers, suppliers, investors, stakeholders, sponsors, partners and supporters live. So the conversations need to focus on these three areas:-

Success Criteria ? What is in people?s minds when they choose to make an investment of time, energy or money in the team and its outputs? What will give them the feeling that they have got a valuable return on their investment? Stakeholder Management ? What does the team actually do to actively engage the outside world in what they are doing? Stakeholders become uncomfortable when they don?t hear anything ? and if the first thing they hear is a nasty surprise then it?s always bad news for the team?s reputation. Delivering on Promises ? The team?s record for delivering to specification ? on time, on budget and to the quality required ? builds trust land confidence. Just like the ratings on Google or EBay, people are more likely to buy if there?s a record of success and satisfied consumers.

Intelligent and productive conversations talk about the right things. ?Six Conversations for Team Success? gives a structure for the topics and focus which allows team to survive, thrive and become a sustained success in changing times, economies and markets ? and that success is strongly dependent on healthy relationships with the world outside the team.

Clive is co-owner of ClearWorth , a company specialising in bespoke manager, leader and team development for major organisations around the world. Clive lives in the UK and France and works all over the world from Ohio to Oman, London to Lagos, Surrey to Syria. Clive thinks, teaches and writes about leaders and teams, negotiation, influence, interpersonal relationships and cross cultural communication.

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