Productivity – Alignment

[Anonymous]

Tuesday, October 4, 2016
6:28 PM

Here’s an exercise for working with a team to get a quick visual impression of alignment on personal priorities and team priorities. This visual alignment can be a great start for the team to explore what individuals are working on, where priorities might conflict, where there might be synergies etc. This exercise can be very useful at the start of a fiscal year and/or for strategic planning.

Steps
1. Before the team coaching session, ask the team leader to spend some time reflecting on what they view as the high level priorities/objectives for the team and prepare a few key words for each priority, followed by a brief description. As a guideline, 5 priorities are ideal.
2. In the coaching session, invite the leader to share their point of view on the high level priorities with the team. Write each priority on a large sticky note with a marker, and put them up on the wall, evenly spaced along the entire team.
3. Ask each team member to spend a few minutes thinking about their own priorities, and have them write each priority down on a separate sticky note. For a small team, each individual team member can use their own colour of sticky notes.
4. Ask each team member to place their sticky notes on the wall under the high level priority with which they are closest aligned.
5. Optional: each team member briefly talks through their priorities. Alternatively, team members can get up and silently read each sticky note.
Debrief what you see – which priority has the most sticky notes? Which the least? What is the visual picture of priorities saying? What’s surprising? What’s not? Where is their alignment? Where is their not? How focused is the team? What priorities might conflict? If priorities were to be ranked, what would the ranking be, etc.? What does the team need to be aware of as result of this exercise? What actions might it take?

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