Team Reflections for a New Year
It is the start of a new year, and as most people do, the team at Gibson Group has done some reflecting on the year past. We love philosopher George Santayana’s quote “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”, and while he may have been speaking from a more political perspective, we know that it applies to every person and business alike. We used this as our model in planning to ensure we learned from the past by embracing our successes as well as challenges as we plan for the upcoming year.
We would encourage you to take a look at the year past and critique it from a “Lessons Learned” perspective. Here are some questions you can use to evaluate your team’s performance over the last year.
Celebrate your successes first
- What were three major accomplishments for the year?
- What methods worked well?
- What activity or action was found to be particularly useful to the team?
Celebrate your areas for Change
- What were our key areas of challenge?
- Are there any specific processes that need improvement moving forward?
Finally, investigate how the team is communicating. Many times, challenges arise because there is a block in communication. This may need to be the major focus area for your team in the coming year.
- How did your team interact both internally (with others on the same team) and cross functionally?
- Does your team have empathy for one another? Where is your teams emotional intelligence level of maturity?
- Is there a consistent effort made to ‘reach across the aisle’ and help one another when needed?
Agile methodology teaches us that in order to maintain a consistent flow of output, we must break down the silos of “not my responsibility” thinking and focus instead on the ultimate end goal. Communicating with each other and being willing to help out in other focus areas is essential.
In doing this exercise you will likely begin to recognize that there are areas for improvement. The need to train on how to work better as a team will arise. Just as a football team needs to practice their plays before a big game, a DevOps team will benefit from practicing their methods in a client free environment.
Gibson Group has several offerings to help with this training. Our business simulation training games are specifically designed to enhance communication, increase awareness and productivity while creating a more empathetic environment that can be carried into daily practice.
We would love to help your team advance in 2022 and become a well-oiled machine. Contact us today to set up an overview call and get this year started off with focused intention.