How to communicate with your team

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2011 :: By Andrea Buffa

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• UBT Meeting Report-Out [Tool]

In large departments, it’s not unusual for unit-based teams to have a smaller group of department representatives form a core team, rather than have every member of the department at every meeting. But how can representative UBTs keep the team members who don’t attend the UBT meetings informed about and engaged in the work?

A tool from the Northwest region can help representative UBTs become more systematic about communicating with the whole department. At the end of each UBT meeting, participants decide which points from the meeting to report to the rest of the department, and which questions to ask to get feedback from the department members who didn’t attend.

Have one or more participants fill out the key messages and questions on the UBT Meeting Report-Out form and take responsibility for being a “communicator,” who brings these messages and questions to other staff members.

In between UBT meetings, the communicators use the report-out form to mark down when they briefed other staff members and what the staff members’ feedback was. This feedback can be evaluated at the next UBT meeting.

Using the tool in face-to-face conversations with team members makes it especially effective, says Vicky McCloskey, a performance improvement adviser.

“We've tried other tools, and none really worked until this one,” she adds. "Many teams in our region are now using it. It builds accountability and good stakeholding practices, and it helps the entire team improve performance.”