Building an Action Plan

This six-step activity is designed to get your group moving in a clear and productive direction.  Focused team action like team solving problems, researching, brainstorming, creating, building, and promoting stimulates a willingness to trust, communicate openly, and collaborate.  In short, it is the stuff upon which teams are built.

Step One: Discussion-- “What is the difference between a group and a team?”

Step Two: Reflection Exercise—Envision your group as the perfect team.  How would you function? What would make it work? How would members interact?  What would define you as a team?

Take a moment to discuss with a partner your vision of your perfect team.

Step Three: Team Focus Areas—Think about what your team should be doing; your reasons for existence.  List them and select three to seven of them to serve as your team’s core focus areas.  These focus areas may include items like To solve problems or To develop and promote a consistent leadership message or To develop and support high performance work teams and leaders.

Chart your focus areas on a chart like the sample below .

Step Four: Action Questions—Next to each of the focus areas write one to five action-based questions.  These are specific questions that clarify what specifically needs to be solved, researched, brainstormed, defined, created, or promoted by your team. These questions should encourage your team to think like a learning group.

Example:

Step Five: Moving to Team Action—For each action question identify one or two specific actions that the team can work on together.

Example:

Step Six: Prioritizing—As a group prioritize the action items.  Number one should be the action that you feel is the most productive use of your team’s energy, expertise, and time.  Then decide which actions will get your team’s attention and begin your work as a team.