Even great teams can get off track
We used this rhythm to catch things before they went off the rails.
It gives space to work, sets appropriate constraints to guide the team, and enables a healthy coaching and support dialogue.
Invest 45-60min every 2-4weeks.
Format - 5 Questions
- What have you achieved since last time?
- Planned before next time?
- What is on your minds?
- Keeping you up at night?
- What do you want help with?
Some will feel lost without guidance and constraints.
Others may initially feel restricted. Often they're not used to being supported, so they don't recognize it, especially if they misinterpret it as micromanagement. Find the right balance between leaning in and letting them go. Adjust as the Trio forms and levels up.
1. Achieved since last time?
What are you proud of? Show the metrics, activities, and outcomes.
Look for continuity and aim for further updates on past deliveries.
Most changes take a while to take effect, don't review only when they ship.
Followup.
2. Planned before next time?
Watch for overt optimism or sticking too rigidly to the plan.
It can help to contrast planned vs. what happened. Dig into the reasons for changes.
No change can signify low learning or adaptiveness, just as constant change can signify thrashing or being unfocused.
3. What is on your minds?
Use this to learn how they're thinking and to notice blind spots. With Trio's, keep an eye out for signs of collaborative thinking. Good signs are when team members reinforce and build on each other's perspectives. Warning signs include all tech questions to tech and no one thinking about the relationships and interactions.
4. Keeping you up at night?
Ideally, the answer is nothing. When things crop up here, it's worth knowing about them early.
5 Need help with?
We added this separately from the above to avoid "jumping in" when we aren't needed. Only some problems need help, and usually, it gets requested differently than you might instinctively do.
Make sure you aren't inflicting help.
Step back as the team demonstrated their capability.
- Initially might be more activity focussed, later more outcome focused.
- In some cases, this was a public forum. Other Trios would observe and learn from each other.
What do you think of this approach? What would you tweak?
