Create a Transition Team

Creating a Transition Team can be helpful. The team can serve as a resource to provide support to team members. Below are a few tools that you can utilize to set up the team and ensure goal alignment.

Team Set-up: Setting Up For Success

Team Setup responds to 8 key questions that help teams get set up and prepared to function effectively.

Questions

  • Introductions: Who are the team members or participants, and how do they fit into the team or project?
  • Expectations: What does each participant or member expect to achieve or acquire?
  • Objectives: What are the planned outcomes and priorities?
  • Agenda: What steps or processes will be followed to achieve our objectives?
  • Ground Rules: What behavioral norms will we enforce to ensure our success?
  • Roles: Who is going to do what? (Especially critical functional responsibilities?)
  • Parking Lot: How will we deal with ideas or topics that may be interesting, but not currently relevant?
  • Ice-Breaker Team Building: How will we focus or recharge our energy and get the group engaged and working together?

Purpose

Team Setup facilitates discussions that engage a team for success, bring focus to key requirements, and create an open atmosphere for facilitated discussions.

Process

  1. Discuss each step as needed to involve team members and build shared commitment.
  2. Introductions: Ask each person to introduce themselves and share something unique about themselves to open up the atmosphere. You can include in the next step in the introduction, “Expectations”.
  3. Expectations: Capture individual expectations on a flipchart (with or without names) to revisit at the end of the session, verifying if expectations have been met.
  4. Objectives: Share meeting or session objectives with team members or participants to clarify the meeting purpose and priorities.
  5. Agenda: Share the agenda for each module or step and check for group commitment.
  6. Ground Rules: Identify behaviors that will enhance or inhibit the team's effective progress. Build team agreement and commitment before capturing them on a flipchart.
  7. Roles: Identify and assign key functional roles including Scribe, timekeeper, reporter, and process manager (facilitator). And, determine if there are any unique roles needed to support this team’s success.
  8. Parking Lot: Post and explain this space for ideas that may be interesting, but not relevant.
  9. Icebreaker/Team Building: Insert icebreakers and team-building activities as appropriate to build or recharge energy throughout the session.

GRPI Checklist: Setting Up For Success

The G.R.P.I. Check List is based on a simple model for team formation. It challenges the team to consider four critical and interrelated aspects of teamwork: Goals, Roles, Processes, and Interpersonal relationships. It is invaluable in helping a group become a Team as well as being used throughout a Team’s lifecycle to monitor their progress.

GRPI Checklist

  • Goals: How clear and in agreement are we on the mission and goals of our team/projects?
  • Roles: How well do we understand, agree on, and fulfill the roles and responsibilities for our team?
  • Processes: To what degree do we understand and agree on the way in which we’ll approach our project AND our team? (Procedures & approaches for getting our project work done? For running our team?)
  • Interpersonal: Are the relationships on our team working well so far?  How is our level of openness, trust, and acceptance?

Purpose 

An excellent organizing tool for newly-formed teams or for teams that have been underway for a while, but who have never taken time to look at their teamwork.

Process

  1. Distribute copies of the check list to all team members prior to a team meeting to discuss these questions; invite team members to add to the details on each of the four dimensions of the checklist.
  2. Meet as a group to discuss and resolve issues related to the checklist.
  3. Share certain aspects with Champion/Functional Leader if appropriate.
  4. OPTION: When there is considerable disagreement or tension within the team environment, team members can choose to complete the questionnaire individually and turn it into a neutral party (the Coach) who will collect the data and give it back to the team in an aggregate fashion (thus protecting the anonymity of individual team members).

Team Charter Checklist: Setting Up For Success

The Team Charter checklist verifies team alignment and commitment to the charter of the Change initiative.

Key Result Areas

  • What results are essential?

  • What are the milestones and measures?

Boundaries

  • Who should we involve, consult with?

  • What outside approvals are needed?

  • What isn’t in our scope of work through others might think it is)?

  • Can we act independently?

Roles & Responsibilities

  • Reporting relationship to Team Sponsor?

  • Team Members Roles & Responsibilities?

  • Team Leader Responsibilities?

  • Time Keeper, Record Keeper, Facilitator, etc. during meetings?

Guiding Principles 

  • What team behaviors are essential to creating an effective team environment?

Operating Agreements

  • How will we make decisions; resolve conflicts?

  • What are acceptable/ unacceptable levels of involvement?

  • How often and how long will we meet as a team?

Purpose

A process check to ensure the team is aligned with one another and their agreed charter.

Process

  1. Use the questions to check with the team on the fundamental areas around Expectations, Scope, Outcomes, Timelines/Milestones, Roles/Responsibilities, and Communication Rhythms.
  2. This list is not exhaustive and should be modified as appropriate for the project and team.