Accelerate

Time Required: 15 minutes per goal

59% of people agree that clear goals have the biggest impact on productivity. These tools will help your team review the goals you prioritize using Whole Brain^® Thinking for improved productivity and performance outcomes.

The Team Lead Will Download:
Clarify Your Goals with Whole Brain^® Thinking (Download PDF)

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Instructions: 

1. Before you start, make sure team members can review the team goals identified during the Prioritize Your Goals exercise during this activity.

2. Review your team’s thinking preferences. Are all quadrants of the Whole Brain^® Model well represented, or are there some that are likely to be overlooked? Designate someone to be the "voice" of any potentially overlooked quadrants.

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3.  Select one person to lead this activity for the team.  The team lead will download the Clarify Your Goals with Whole Brain® Thinking PDF, open the file and share their screen with the team. They will then lead the team through the following steps:

• • Use the Clarify Your Goals with Whole Brain^® Thinking PDF to review each goal by using the four-quadrant checklist. Make sure each goal covers all four thinking preferences of the Whole Brain^® Model. There are five pages in the PDF for you to clarify up to five goals - make a copy of the file for more!
    
    
  • The team lead will share the PDF with the group, then type the goal in the center, and lastly, check off items as they are discussed by the team, refining the goal if needed based on the discussion in relation to the Whole Brain^® Model. 

Next Steps: 
Once each goal is reviewed and clarified, capture the team's goals and put them somewhere the team can easily refer back to and track progress at any time. 

Time Required: 20-30 minutes for a team of 10

The Team Lead Will Download: 
Whole Brain^® Teams Norms Tool (Download PDF)

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Team norms are a shared set of standards collectively produced to outline how a team agrees to work together. Creating norms involves discussion that ensures the team is aligned and sets everyone up for success. Along with team norms, standard meeting protocols and agendas will ensure your team is efficient and effective. 

Instructions:

1. Select one person to lead this activity for the team. The team lead will share their screen and review the team's thinking preference map - notice if/how team thinking shifts under pressure. Refer back to this map during the activity to make sure norms leverage strong thinking preferences on the team and account for any gaps that might be overlooked.

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2.  Download the Whole Brain^® Team Norms Tool PDF, open the file, and share the screen. The team lead should also share the PDF file they downloaded with members of the team so they can use the file on their own computers. 

3. Using the Whole Brain^® Team Norms Tool, each member of the group will select their top 6 norms on their copy of the PDF. 

4. Invite and capture everyone's responses. The team lead will check off which norms team members selected on the copy of the PDF they are sharing. 

Tip: If your team is having difficulty getting to an agreement, take a quick break and then finalize the discussion. 

5. Review the collective responses and evaluate for the top 6-8 team norms. Discuss to make sure the team is aligned and in agreement. 

6. Document your team norms as a part of your collective agreements. 

Next Steps: 
When there are challenges with the group, revisit the team norms to help create agreements, make decisions, and solve problems. 

Time Required: 10-15 minutes

The Team Lead Will Download:
Team Meeting Agenda (Download PPT)
Whole Brain^® Meeting Checklist (Download PDF)
Actions & Decisions Log (Download PPT)

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Agendas give your team a guide to effectively leverage the time and thinking resources available to move your projects and priorities forward. With a better understanding of your team's thinking preferences, you can design more effective meetings for any purpose. Use the Whole Brain^® Templates below to plan and lead meetings that leverage your team's diverse thinking preferences. 

Instructions: 
Think about what's needed for conversation, communication, and decisions in your next meeting. Use the Whole Brain^® Team Meeting Agenda, Meeting Checklist, and Actions & Decisions Log to plan a meeting that actually works. 

Next Steps: 
Regularly review your meeting agendas using the tools provided to ensure the meeting will work for your team. Check out Meetings That Work for more tips, tools, and templates to supercharge your meetings with Whole Brain^® Thinking.

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Time Required: 15 minutes as a team, or this can also be done individually

When it comes to feedback, we all want it... but no one likes bad or poorly delivered feedback. Often, team members struggle to give feedback for fear of potential conflict. Feedback and effective conflict management both help teams perform better. This approach will help you give great feedback and manage conflict productively.

Instructions: 

1. Select one person to lead this activity for the team. You can also walk through theses steps individually to prepare for a 1:1 feedback conversation.

2. The team lead will ask a team member to suggest a situation outside of work where they would like to give feedback to someone, for example, someone is always late. Ask each person to type into chat what they might say for each process step found below.

3. Try these four process steps and as a group think about what you might say:  

A > C > D > B 

A Quadrant (Facts): Describe your view of the facts. What is the issue? 

Example: You’ve been late for the last 5 meetings we had booked.

C Quadrant (Feelings): State how this behavior makes you (or others) feel. Use “I” statements and feeling words. 

Example: I get frustrated and annoyed because this behavior makes me feel like you don’t respect my time.

D Quadrant (Future):  Ask your teammates if they have an idea for what your team-member can do in the future to change this, or share an idea you have.

Example: I might schedule my meeting time with you on my calendar 10 minutes early so I’m not late.

B Quadrant (Follow Through):  Ask your teammates what steps can we take to make this happen.

Example: I’ll go change my calendar now to make sure I’m on time when we meet next.

4. When preparing for a 1:1 feedback conversation, it's helpful to understand where your thinking aligns and where it diverges. Share your screen and use the tool below to search for a team member and compare your thinking preferences side-by-side:

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Next Steps:
As a team, agree to make it a ritual to use this process when giving feedback. Always start by saying, "Let’s use Whole Brain^® Thinking to give feedback." This helps the team align around the process regardless of their thinking preferences.

Time Required: Minimum 15 minutes, depending on the number of issues to solve

Thinking big is critical to driving innovation and getting out of your own mental traps when facing a problem. It redirects our energy to find solutions instead of worrying. The ability to think big is the first step to going beyond your self-imposed limits, in order to channel your energy to explore a bigger opportunity than you previously thought possible. It's a technique to help make the impossible possible.

Instructions: 

1. Select one person to lead this activity for the team. For the first time using this activity, pick one of these four “problems” to practice with; otherwise, use steps 2 and 3 to Think Big about a challenge the team is facing:
   
   
   • Reduce our costs by 50% so we can beat the budget.
     
     
   • Double our budget so we can accomplish all we want to.
     
     
   • Get a top leader to join our team in order to give us access to a more global view.
     
     
   • Go to a 4-day workweek and still get it all done.
     
     
2. Magic Wand: Have each individual write down at least 15 ideas they would offer if they had a magic wand that could solve the problem - with a minimum of 3 wild, off-the-wall, or seemingly impossible ideas. It's important to take the time to write out ideas individually instead of doing a verbal brainstorm to avoid group think.
   
   Wild Idea Example: To reduce the number of files I have to manage, I’ll just delete them all!
   
   Make sure to consider each quadrant for fresh thinking. Share the following questions with the team to spark ideas:
   
   
   • A Quadrant: What if our budget was unlimited? 
     
     
   • B Quadrant: What if we did not have to adhere to guidelines and rules? 
     
     
   • C Quadrant: What if we could pick anyone we wanted to help? 
     
     
   • D Quadrant: What if we could invent anything we wanted?
3. Ask team members to share the ideas that really solve the problem in chat, making sure there are some wild ones in the mix, and pick one that you want to keep workshopping as a team.
   
   
4. Lead a Tempting-Lacking-Change (TLC) discussion on the selected idea: Ask the group what’s tempting about it. Next, ask what’s lacking about it. Then suggest a specific change to make the idea viable. 

Example: Deleting all my files is tempting because it would reduce stress and declutter my desktop. It’s lacking because I might lose valuable information I need to do my job. To change the idea, I’ll archive the files instead of deleting them.

Next Steps:
Whenever the team gets stuck, suggest a Think Big session using the Magic Wand and TLC activities.