Strategy Survival Guide

If the project has an Advisory Group, Advisory Group meetings needs to be managed by the team leader to
ensure the Group is used effectively. Responsibility for supporting the Group needs to be assigned and
meetings planned carefully and in good time.
Below are some suggested guidelines:
Set the content
• Why call the meeting? (e.g. share information, brainstorm, scheduling)
• What tangible results do you want?
• What preparation do you want? (limit this to a minimum)
• Set the agenda – people will perform better with a map
Set the process
• What kind of participation do you want? (e.g. listening, problem solving, presenting)?
• What climate do you want (e.g. time-limited, open-ended, team building)?
• What role will the team leader play?
For the team to be creative...
• Everyone must be willing to share ideas, even (especially) in raw form
• Everyone must be willing to receive ideas, and synthesise/improve them
An open communication style is an important part of this
• Such a style does not necessarily come naturally!
• Always be explicit
• Solicit feedback along the way
Team Communications
For a team to work efficiently, it needs a standard way of operating. The processes that a team needs to
agree upon include:
• Standards of behaviour: Set clear rules to promote focus, openness, trust and commitment.
• Making decisions: As well as clear project governance arrangements, the team needs to be clear on
what decisions individuals can make, what decisions the team should make and how the team will
decide actions.
• Team communication: How will the team keep each other informed of progress? When does the
team need to meet and when are other communication methods, like email, appropriate?
Team communications are as important as external communications and principles and processes should be
clearly agreed early in the project. Team members should agree:
• What to share: Transparency alleviates anxiety. Feedback from Ministers and stakeholders and
updates on meetings should be communicated to the team
• How to share it: keep all communications focused and efficient. Team members should be
considerate in their use of group emailing (including only replying to sender rather than whole group
where appropriate) and use email subject lines to indicate whether content requires action or is for
information only
Strategy Survival Guide – Strategy Skills
Page 53