Positivity – Communication

Tips and questions about Communication on teams:
– What does Communication mean on this team? What is the benefit of it?

– What does clear and efficient team communication look like? Sound like? Feel like?

– What does unclear and inefficient team communication look like? Sound like? Feel like?

– The first step is discovery: what are the team agreements around communication? How does it work on this team? If it were ideal, what would change?

– What communication vehicles does this team use most often? How is that working for you? What could be even better?

– Give examples of indirect communication habits on teams. Where does this sideways stuff get started? Why is it valued on teams?

– Often forgotten: the other half of communicating, is listening. On a scale of 1 to 9 how good is this team at listening? What would raise that score?

– What Team Agreements would support Communication on the team?

One exercise to practice communication is the Web of Connection. In this exercise the team discusses a process from start to finish, naming each step and the person responsible. As the conversation unfolds the team tosses a ball of yarn to one another for each step, creating a web. The visual impact of seeing inter-dependencies is powerful, it’s a new way to practice communicating about accountability, and the de-brief generates ideas about how to improve team communication.

Download the exercise here.