On the experience of collaborating, with the other members of the team
Understanding your employees' level of working together with the other team members can help you support them more effectively. A way to improve this understanding is to openly discuss how the collaboration has been with the other team members.
Below, I suggest approaching this question from a distinct angle on how the employee collaborates and has collaborated with the other team members. The discussion should remain focused on the collaboration, even though it might easily deviate to interpersonal feelings - there is a separate meeting topic for that.
The objective is to observe and gain understanding, not to solve or decide on action. These conversations must be confidential and occur in a trusting environment without biases. The focus should be on on the benefits to the employee.
Guidelines to the manager
- Introduction: The theme today is not as much about feelings of collaborating with the other members of the team as the actual tasks and projects collaborated on
- Begin the meeting by clearing the space for discussion. Address any pressing issues or questions before diving into the topic of the one-on-one meeting
- Discuss the kinds of tasks and projects; the employee has collaborated with the other team members. Consider if a list would help in ensuring all are covered. Has the employee collaborated closely, mainly with a select few or everyone? Why is that?
- Discuss the collaboration which has left the employee wanting or disappointed. What could have gone better? Why is that? If the employee could go back in time, what could be changed to improve the outcome of the collaboration (to set it on a path of more likely success)? It is not about blaming but understanding team dynamics.
- Discuss collaboration that has gone well. What makes it different? Why were those situations chosen? How did the employee feel afterward? Were the people collaborated with informed of the feelings on the topic?
- Brainstorm how we could build on the experiences of successful collaboration. How could the situations or the environment be changed to achieve similar satisfaction in cooperation with other team members?
- Summarize the observations from the conversation and list actions you would like to implement in the future.
It is essential to communicate the higher purpose of the conversation and get the employee's permission before sharing information. Managers should consistently communicate that the purpose of the discussion is to improve team management.
A sample meeting agenda. Copy and paste to the employee calendar invitation.
The meeting invitation, calendar reservation
Title/topic/subject: Title/topic/subject: One-on-One Meeting - The level of collaboration with the other members of the team
Date: [insert date]
Time: [insert time]
Location: [insert room or a link to a virtual meeting]
Agenda:
- Introduction: The theme today is not as much about feelings of collaborating with the other members of the team as the actual tasks and projects collaborated on
- Address any pressing issues or questions before starting the day's topic (5 min)
- Experiences from past and current collaboration with the team members (5 min)
- Where collaborating with the other team members could have gone better? (5 min)
- Where collaborating with the other team members has worked well? (5 min)
- Ideation on how we could achieve success with collaboration with others (5 min)
- Key takeaways and action items (2 min)
Purpose of the topic today
- Gain insight into employee's experience of in-team collaboration
- Gain insight into employee's experiences where collaboration needs improvement
- Discuss ways to improve collaboration with other team members
Feel Free to send any questions in advance.
Best regards, [Your Name]
Content originality, plagiarism check - for your convenience.
- Plagiarism check, no matching content
- Originality.AI: 100% likelihood that a human wrote this content, and 0% by AI. For the calendar invitation, 11% Original and 89% likelihood of AI for the calendar invitation.