By Tom Davidson
Here’s my fourth installment on An Introvert’s Guide to Groups, this one about setting a few ground rules for your team meetings.
Being an introvert is fine, until we are promoted into leadership. That’s when we have to learn how to speak up, get into the discussion, and hold our own in a world of outgoing, think-out-loud extraverts.
Here’s my fourth installment on An Introvert’s Guide to Groups, this one about setting a few ground rules for your team meetings.
Principle #4 – An Introvert’s Guide to Groups
Create a few ground rules about “how” the team will work together. Just as sports teams need agreed upon rules (e.g., every baseball field has its own unique ground rules), military units need rules of engagement and politicians need rules of order, teams of every kind can benefit by a few ground rules (i.e., taking turns, following a process, staying on track, challenging one another respectfully, and hearing from all parties to a relatively equal degree).
Without deliberately discussed ground rules, they will grow on their own. Like an untended garden, undesirable norms will grow among the productive ones and may strangle the good ones out! While there may be standard ground rules that are expected by your entire organization, each team is unique and should discuss the one’s that apply uniquely to them.
To establish ground rules, try the following:
1. Point out the need for ground rules by using the garden analogy, other metaphors mentioned above, or develop your own. You might need to give an example or two to help people understand the concept.
2. Ask team members to write some ideas down before you start the discussion, and be ready to offer a couple of your own (e.g., hear from everyone to approximately equal degrees, stay on time and on task, come back from breaks on time, etc).
3. After getting agreement on at least five ground rules, leave space for a few more and post them so they can be referred to during the meeting. Also, add new ones as the need arises.