Strategy Survival Guide

Working as a team
In Practice: SU Drugs Project
At the beginning of the project we held a kick-off meeting for all team members. This included introducing
ourselves to each other and sharing our academic backgrounds, whether we had been on any previous
projects and what our relevant skills were. It also included setting out our issue tree and hypothesis tree,
identifying potential stakeholders and their level of interest in the project.
We held a number of additional away days during the project: either when new team members started, or
at other critical points in the project – e.g. when moving from one phase of the project to another.
Regular team meetings were a vital form of communication within the team. Throughout the project a set
time was allocated for a team meeting each week. We would firstly discuss the action points from last
weeks meeting and then move onto discussing relevant meetings from the past week and the outcomes
that arose from them. These would be discussed within the team and the follow up work allocated to
particular team members. Forthcoming meetings in the week ahead were also discussed and preparation
for them set. After each meeting, action points were always typed up and sent around the team.
Detailed project planning also helped to facilitate effective team working by raising people’s awareness of
each other's roles and responsibilities.
Another useful arrangement was a regular email update from the team leader that set out the team’s
priorities, what had happened in any meetings and what we needed to follow up on.
Strategy Survival Guide – Strategy Skills
Page 55