First Impressions
So you’re about to lead your first meeting with a new team? That’s awesome! You know you want to start strong. But what exactly is your game plan?
“You only get one chance to make a good first impression.”
Some say first impressions are everything. Whether you think the stakes are actually that high or not, the way you begin with a new team will say a lot about who you are as a leader and what kind of team culture you’re trying to build.
Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to facilitate launch meetings for countless teams. Sometimes, team members already knew and trusted each other. Sometimes, they didn’t. In some cases, teams had a clear “raison d’etre” and strong understanding of their goals or deliverables. In other cases, teams’ purposes still had yet to be defined.
There are as many different contexts for teamwork as there are stars in the sky. Despite this, I have found that there is one specific “Day 1” activity that I find myself using time and time again – the Hopes & Fears protocol.
Hopes & Fears
I first experienced the Hopes & Fears protocol about 15 years ago when I worked as a facilitator for the Boston Plan for Excellence. It was among the protocols included in The Power of Protocols. I encountered it again when it was adopted by Harvard’s Data Wise Project and adapted to serve as an introduction to a norm setting protocol.
I think all school leaders should have the Hopes & Fears protocol in their tool kits. The protocol helps leaders create space for team members to build trust and mutual understanding. It empowers every participant to share their hopes for their experiences with the team as well as their fears. It lays a foundation of trust, empathy, and mutual understanding. And it can be used to establish team “norms” (i.e., agreements about how we work together).
Here are the two main questions for team members to respond to:
Sharing Hopes
Ask: “For this to be one of the BEST team experiences you’ve ever had, what would need to happen?”
Sharing Fears
Ask: “If this were one of the LEAST EFFECTIVE team experiences you’ve ever had, what will have happened (or not happened)?”
Tips & Adaptations
Here are a few things I’ve learned about facilitating this protocol:
Encourage Reflection
Share the questions in advance. Or allow two minutes during the meeting so colleagues can reflect and write silently.
Let people think before asking them to verbalize. The quality of participation and contributions will be much higher.
Model Being Open
We lead by example. If you are asking for honesty, you need to model it.
You can go last when the team shares hopes. But you should go FIRST when the team shares fears.
If you are thoughtful and sincere, others probably will be, too.
Paraphrase
What actually matters most is that people feel heard.
Take the time to paraphrase in your own words what others have shared. Ask others if they want to paraphrase as well.
Or write down what people are sharing on a white board, chart paper, or shared document.
Don’t Rush
This protocol takes time.
Some versions estimate it will only take 15 minutes. Maybe if you only have a team of 2 or 3 members.
My rule of thumb? Multiply the number of team members by 5 and allot that many minutes.
You have a team of 12 people? Plan on a full hour, my friend.
Please don’t shortchange this conversation. “Go slow to go fast” with your new team.
Say Thank You
When others share something that is heartfelt, is helpful to the team, or (frankly) took some guts to say out loud, make sure to thank them for taking that risk.
Make Agreements
If you want, you can follow a Hopes & Fears conversation with a discussion of what working agreements the team needs. Simply ask:
“Keeping in mind our hopes and fears, what working agreements does our team need?”
Team norm setting deserves its own post, so I’ll provide more detail on this later on. Best of luck with getting things started on the right foot!