The second law of thermodynamics says that ANY system will experience more disorder over time. As anyone who has led an organization knows—this law applies to companies, too.
When you’re growing, systems get more complicated and harder to maintain. It’s a law of nature.
When this happens, it gets hard to “see the forest through the trees.”
It’s hard to see the big picture, and it’s definitely hard to get back to a sense of order.
Here’s a foundational practice that will quickly get your team reoriented when everyone seems to be running in different directions and things don’t seem to work anymore.
It’s a conversation to see the big picture of where you are to get everyone on the same page.
Put simply, it’s a town hall style discussion on the current state of affairs.
Here’s how it works:
- Assign a facilitator to take notes and lead the conversation.
- Have the conversation as a whole team and write everyone’s responses on a flip chart.
- Ask: What’s going well for us right now? (write down everyone’s answers, no cross-talk, just get it al down.)
- Ask: What’s in the way for us right now? (Again, write it all out, no cross-talk or debating, just get all the different perspectives.)
- What are some possible solutions we can try? (Write ‘em out!)
Welcome conflicting opinions and document all of them.
At the end of this Town Hall you should have a clear picture of what’s going well with your team, what’s standing in the way, and what could be even better if you doubled-down on what’s going well.
Now you know where you are, you’ll see new perspectives for options very quickly.
How does your team handle high-level conversations?
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