In this video Diana Larsen and Neal Taylor discuss the core team, how to facilitate this during a Liftoff, and which activities could follow on if needed.
What is the core team?
The core team comprises the people who are going to do the work, share the mission and help to make the vision a reality. Teams generally have 5 – 7 team members. When teams grow much bigger than this, the complexity of interaction between members increases and sub teams can begin to form, so it’s useful to try to cap the team size.
When we talk about the team and the team roles in the Liftoff we are aiming to ensure that each person is clear about their responsibilities – what they bring. It’s also important to ensure that people aren’t stepping on each other’s toes either (which just leads to conflict in the future).
If you feel that there is potential overlap between the roles, you can include extra exercises such as mapping out the responsibilities after this activity.
How to facilitate this during the Liftoff?
This is very simply visualising the core team, what everyone brings and what we need to know about each other.
Asking each person to name one thing that the others need to know about them (to work well together) is an insightful exercise.
Facilitate a discussion to enquire if we have all the skills we need to realise the mission.
What may also emerge is a team metaphor. As a facilitator, look out for this!
Potential follow on activities
- Market of Skills
- RACI
- Lightening talks about new skills
- Team metaphor
Further reading
Read about Team co-intelligence in “Lead without Blame”
Find out more about a workshop.