An example of a team moving through the four stages – Part 1: Forming
In a previous article we discussed the four stages of team development as well as provided an example of a team moving through the stages. You can read Part 1 and Part 2 of that article here and dive more in depth on each stage before reading this example.
A number of readers have asked me to provide another example of a team moving through the four stages of team development. This is that example, adapted from a recent client project. This is part 1 of a 3 part article.
First, a bit of background. A health services client was expanding in size and was launching a year-long project to support the initiative. Some of the current facilities would expand in size, while others would be shuttered and reopened where the organization had more room for expansion and could serve a larger population. For those facilities being shuttered, individuals would be relocated to other sites. As part of this project, the CEO wanted to include change management components. A separate team was formed comprised of individuals from throughout the organization to assist in the change management portion of this project and, specifically, to help in coordinating the move of individuals to other locations. This was called the Stakeholder Support Committee.
Up to this point all that had been shared with the entire organization was that the company was expanding into new areas in the State and that more details would be following. The communication did share that no employee would be losing their role because of this expansion. That was important for communicating so that employees wouldn’t get distracted worrying about something that was not going to happen.
Stage 1: Forming
The Stakeholder Support Committee was comprised of 15 members from throughout the organization representing a number of job functions, including nurses, clinicians, pharmacists, medical assistants and others. The team was comprised of supervisory level as well as individual contributors to ensure an appropriate mix of individuals representing the organization. These committee members were the project’s champions. They had all expressed excitement about the expansion and a desire to be involved further.
The first meeting of the Stakeholder Support Committee was held on a Tuesday morning. It was a 4 hour meeting that was simply meant to be an introductory meeting as well as to enable the committee members to learn more about the initiative.
The agenda for the meeting was as follows:
|
Timing |
Description of Activity |
|
11:00 – 11:15 |
Brief introductions |
|
11:15 – 12:30 |
Information about the project |
|
12:30 – 1:30 |
Lunch break along with networking time |
|
1:30 – 2:30 |
A variety of team building activities to enable the group to get to know each other and begin to become comfortable with each other. |
|
2:30 – 3:00 |
Q&A, next steps, schedule of future meetings, and wrap up |
A SharePoint® site was set up to be used by the Stakeholder Support Committee to share information, have discussions, post issues about the initiative and overall to keep in touch with each other as well as with the project team. The organization frequently used SharePoint® so all that was needed in the way of training was a brief video walking participants through the structure of this particular site.
The participants left the meeting with a better understanding of the initiative and how they could support it as well as with a homework assignment to post in the SharePoint site some of their thoughts on how to communicate and engage the organization as a whole.
The next meeting was scheduled for 2 weeks.
