Team Brief Guidelines - Businessballs

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TEAM BRIEF GUIDELINESii) THE AGENDAThe most important thing to remember is that no more than30% of the content of your team briefing should be madeup of items on the Core Brief. The majority of your briefingneeds to be made up of items of news from your own localarea of work. The following section ‘Preparing the LocalBrief’ will tell you more about the kind of items to include.As with all meetings, it’s best to put in some preparationbeforehand. This might mean writing yourself an agenda sothat you know which items you’ll be talking about.Remember you will be delivering your brief verbally so youwant it to sound natural - not scripted. You could trywriting headings and elaborating with a few key pointsunder each heading - just to remind you what messagesyou want to get across.PrioritiesLook at the brief through your staff’s eyes. Once you’vedecided what you want to talk about sort the items into:• Must know information - details essential to the team andit’s day to day activities• Should know information - details which staff shouldknow about as a matter of course• Nice to know information - information which might notdirectly affect the day to day work of your team butwould still be useful to know aboutSequenceAre there any logical links between the various items on thebrief? Is so, put the agenda into the order which suits this.This will help you in your delivery.TimingWork out roughly how long each item should take andmake a note of this on your agenda so that you can keepan eye on the time as you work through the briefing.Remember to allow time for questions after each item.iii) PREPARING THE LOCAL BRIEFThe briefing which you deliver to your staff should be madeup of two elements - the information contained in the CoreBrief from the Registrar (no more than 30% of yourbriefing) and a local brief with information relevant to yourown area of work.The Core BriefYour manager will tell you about the Core Brief which willhave been generated by the Registrar. This Core Brief willcontain items which may be of operational or strategicimportance to the administration as a whole.You should deliver this information to your team as part ofyour team briefing, however the information from the CoreBrief should only make up around 30% of your teambriefing as a whole. Where possible you should try to makethe information contained within the Core Brief as relevantto your team as possible. If the information in the CoreBrief is not relevant to your area of work then just mentionit but do not dwell on it.The Local BriefThe majority of your team briefing should be made up oflocal information which is relevant to your team. Here aresome pointers to get you thinking about the kind of thingsto include in your local brief.A good way to think about your brief is to split it up intothe four Ps:PeoplePromotionsAppointmentsRetirements/leaversVisitorsSuccess storiesChanged locations/functionsPoints For ActionNew and ongoing projects/activitiesSpecial eventsHealth and Safety issuesBuilding worksWork standardsUpcoming deadlinesProgressFigures, returns, numbersMarketingSuccess storiesQuality issuesCompleted projects/activitiesPolicy IssuesHuman Resources policiesStudent recruitment and retention policiesHealth and Safety policy4
TEAM BRIEF GUIDELINESIf after looking at the above points you really can’t think ofmuch local information to share with your team then simplyhold a shorter team briefing meeting. It’s better to dealwith just one issue fully than speculate or waffle aboutseveral issues you don’t know much about.Good news!Don’t forget to include good news and achievements. Goodnews does exist – you just need to find it and communicateit!ContextBriefers must always remember, and if necessary remindthose that they are briefing, that the object of the exercise isto provide information. Briefings are not designed forconsultation or negotiation. Team briefings are also not theright place to conduct ‘collective discipline’.Anticipating questionsRemember that your team brief is as much an opportunityfor your team to ask questions as it is for you to give theminformation. When you’ve decided upon your list of itemstry to think about the kind of questions your team couldask. Put yourself in their shoes and try to anticipate theirconcerns. This will help you to prepare some answers inadvance.iv) PRESENTING THE BRIEFRemember that you will be delivering your brief face-toface,so you should give some thought to how you comeacross to your team.Briefings should be fairly informal and by all means adoptan approach which best suit’s the culture and nature of yourteam. Even though you will have put some thought andeffort into preparing your briefing, try not to script what youwant to say - it will just come across as unnatural and youmay be thrown off course if someone asks a question!What you should do however is make sure that the style ofyour briefings is pretty consistent so that staff come toknow what to expect and what their role is in the briefing.A typical briefing might look like this:• Announce the beginning of the briefing• Note taken of any absentees• The briefer goes through the items on the brief - bothCore and local• Questions arising out of the brief are asked andanswered• The briefer refers to any significant anticipatedquestions that have not been asked• Make a note of any questions raised which you haven’tbeen able to answer• Remind the group of the date of the next meetingPoints about your presentation styleRemember that you are not addressing the United Nations!This is your own team so the briefing should be relaxed andreasonably informal.Try to be:Clear – avoid unfamiliar technicalities, acronyms, namesBrief – don’t ramble, sometimes you should repeat themessage to make sure it sinks in, but do it conciselyInteresting – be interested! Use examples that the groupwill recogniseIn control – arrange the group so that you are its focus.Watch the reaction you are getting as you go alongPositive – watch out for the habit of excessiveapologising. It makes you appear nervous and it can giveyour staff the impression that you don’t really agree withdecisions which have been made at a higher level.Remember that as a manager it is your responsibility tocommunicate decisions to your team regardless of yourown personal views, so don’t try to distance yourself fromthe brief. Wherever possible arm yourself with the reasonswhich lie behind the information you are giving out5
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Team Brief Guidelines - Businessballs

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