- There are many ways to build team trust and empathy,
but I'd like to share with you a format we found
very effective at FROG, the team leap.
The length of the team leap will vary
by your team size,
but it's generally an hour or so
of formal team alignment,
where you openly discuss personal goals,
working styles, and individual priorities.
To run a team leap you want to get all
of the core day-to-day team members engaged.
Get them in the room.
And team leap should be conducted after
you've had your first big team meeting
to talk about a new effort, the goals,
and the timelines so that everyone is up to speed
on what you're working on.
If you're in a long-term working team do a leap
when you kickoff a major initiative, re-organize teams,
or add new team members.
And at the end of the activity,
your team will have a refreshed understanding
of each other and awareness of what will make
working together successful.
Let's walk through leading a team leap.
You gather the team in the room
and hand out the team lead worksheets.
You can snag the frog line from the exercise files,
but the worksheet isn't necessary.
You can do this with regular paper too.
Describe the goals of the activity.
In essence that, we're going to be working together a lot
and before we get in too deep let's establish our team
working norms to get to know each other better.
Then briefly describe the sections.
The first is my working style,
where people share their working styles and personality.
Like, I love to collaborate on frameworks and the big idea,
but when we get into the details,
I like to work late so I can focus.
The second is my development goals,
where you share things you'd like to get
our of this program, beyond what the business
or the client has asked for.
For example, I'm trying to improve my client
presentation skills,
so I'd like opportunities to present,
and feedback on how I do.
And the third is your life beyond.
What should we know about your other commitments?
It can be anything from, when you get in in the morning
to things we need to plan around,
like vacation time.
And finally, think back to past projects.
Are there any pet peeves you'd like to share with us?
Keep it friendly,
but if it really bugs you when people
show up late to meetings, let us know.
Then, ask everyone to take 10 minutes
to fill out the form,
and you should too.
After those 10 minutes are up the next step is
individual share -outs.
Limit the share-outs to no longer than 5-7 minutes
per person and ask the group to hold questions.
As a facilitator I recommend you gather post-it notes
of themes as you go,
and definitely capture any time off dates on post-it's.
After everyone has shared, the team then completes
the team leap poster together.
The poster can be pre-filled with known program dates
and each team member and their roles,
and I'm assuming these have been covered previously.
The goal of the poster is really to discuss and generate
team norms.
Team norms are the team agreements for things
you'll try to do, in order to work well together.
So for example, I have a hard time getting to the office
on the dot at 9 a.m.,
so the team set our daily check-in at 9:15
because for several folks,
late arrival is a big peeve.
At the end, place the poster on the wall
of the team room and as the programs moves forward,
update the team norms and dates as they change.
And also, keep yourself and the team honest.
If a norm is consistently being contradicted,
talk about it or change it.
So yeah, I'm bad about getting in by 9 a.m.
and it's ok to call me out.
By doing the team leap,
you've supported the team trust
that's important for having a design thinking mindset
by recognizing the needs of all the team members,
and setting an optimistic working environment
and setting a safe ground work for experimentation.
So give this a shot with your team and see how it works.