In this video, I’m going to talk about 5 key points, 5 big ideas you need to know when setting up your teams workshops. Here’s the first 2 of the 5 Key Points…

Point 1. Create Rhythm and Commit

It’s really about getting everybody aligned to the specific meetings that you’re going to have in a week, the workshops that you are going to hold, and ultimately, this is to drive constant and never ending improvement.

I’m going to talk a little more about how that is going to happen but ultimately habits will set you free like we just mentioned. So, setting the rhythms and just committing throughout the team and showing up on time and prepared and decide what the frequency is the best for you. It depends on the size of the team, you might have a small team right now and that’s fine. Get started like anything I said or anything I do, 70% is good, 80% is good and improve as you go.

But the most important this is just to get started.

Come prepared to these team meetings. What that looks like is people arrive on time, they’re prepared, you send out the agenda and minutes beforehand and cameras are on, people are engaged and they are present. Shut off distractions, we are here to do this right now and the good thing about technologies these days you can have a global team.

Use a Zoom video call, it is probably the best one for it. You can see everybody’s face in one screen. You can just see who is engaged and you can pick up body language. It is easier for you to see, if there’s something up with somebody or somebody needs conversation outside of the meeting. So it’s really helpful in that regards, as well.

If you are doing a daily scrum, which we could talk about soon, a lot of these are held standing up instead of people sat down and slouching. It’s a 15-minute quick stand up call, where you get clear on any impediments that any team member has.

Ultimately it’s about creating that rhythm, committing, adding them up to the calendars, having sure everybody is locked in and going to be ready 10 minutes beforehand and what we find is, just a quick tip, if you’ve got a team over in the Philippines or overseas then a lot of times it takes them 5 to 10 minutes to actually get on to the Zoom call because sometimes connection can be bad or whatever.

Just prepare 10 minutes before and get everything sent out to the team, either through a Team Slack Channel. We have Slack, where we have channels for all the different areas of the business, and we have a whole team channel which is where we post the agenda and the links for their calls.

Point 2. Create a Safe, Fun Place to Get the Truth on the Table

This is really, really important. You need to invite your team members to be heard.

This is a big part for me. Instead of me talking all the time or leading the conversation, step out of your team’s way and really be listening to them. If you think about it, it depends on how big your team is, but as you grow you need to listen to them.

If they are in the trenches doing the customer service, if they are doing the bookkeeping, if they are doing inventory management, any area of the business, they are handling product launches or whatever. If they are doing that on a day-to-day then they probably know that more intimately than you as the leader. So, it’s about listening to them.

Ultimately, this creates buy-in because the team collaborates week-on-week to improve the business. If you are just talking all the time, “This is how we’re going to do it.” “This is what I think we should do, just go ahead,” then the team is not bought into the idea. They don’t feel part of the team. They don’t feel valued as much.

It’s about allowing the team to come with their ideas based on their actions and trenches. They have been making notes on how they can improve a certain area of the business. For instance, Customer Service Agents getting a few complaints about products, the Customer Agent could say, “Well I’m going to bring this to the meeting and discuss,” may be a way we can improve that product.

Or, it could be there’s a challenge with answering with and there could be a way on how to improve the response time as using different software. It’s about bringing or allowing the team to make notes and create that safe space for them to open up.

It can be quite challenging sometimes with Filipinos because naturally they are quite shy as a nation but with time and practice you can have them open up. That should come part of the job role. It’s a non-negotiable part of the job to speak up and bring ideas to the table.

If you leverage on a team, whether it’s a local team, speaking your native language or your Filipino virtual team or where they’re from then encourage your team to speak up and create that safe place because ultimately that is going to build accountability.

It’s going to nurture the team environment. It’s going to ultimately bring your team together to improve the business week-on-week from the trenches. You are doing all these high level stuff. It’s going to be hard for you to see.

You don’t have to have all the answers for everything, that’s basically what I’m saying. You’re going to create that place where your team can be heard. They can put their ideas forward and you can help them have buy-in and feel like they are valued part of the team.

Richard Branson says, “It’s all about finding and hiring people smarter than you. Getting them to join your business, and giving them good work. Then getting out of their way, and trusting them. You have to get out of the way so YOU can focus on the bigger vision. That’s important. And here’s the main thing….you must make them see their work as a MISSION.”

If you can encourage that place, and have a safe place for people to bring their ideas, and you praise them, he said, “Like flowers flourish from water, people flourish from praise.” Create that safe place for people to bring their ideas to the table.

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