Due to company expansion, the team had grown rapidly. Increasingly, it had become more difficult for new members to be heard over their more experienced counterparts. Growth of the team lead to more discomfort addressing differences frankly and a tendency to “play it safe” in team discussion.Time for team members to meet was extremely limited.
The Team Leader sought a method of rapidly gathering “best thinking” from managers and consultants to review emerging trends, analyze potential approaches to them and presenting a highly-supported action plan to the Company’s Owner. He wanted participants to be able to “speak” to each other candidly without losing the best thinking honest differences might trigger. Providing a level playing field for newcomers and veterans was a key objective.
Group Solutions provided process design, technology and facilitation to support a series of listening sessions and planning meetings.
Working simultaneously, the team was able to explore and prioritize actionable items in key areas of concern. The highest priority action items were analyzed using multiple criteria to reach consensus-based team action recommendations.
Team members reported high levels of participation and the ability to discuss difficult issues frankly. Automatic record keeping enabled the team to review results immediately and to prepare recommendations knowing comments had been completely captured and “unfiltered.”