What’s in it for me? Discover a powerful and easy-to-use tool for project management.
We all want to have more productive meetings.
And, during those meetings, we want to know that every team member is on board and on the same page.
Alas, this isn’t always how things go.
More often than not, meetings turn into rambling, chaotic messes.
Team members, though uncertain or confused, may remain silent; they fear that they’ll look silly if they speak up.
In the world of project management, such silence is all too common, even when problems arise.
Enter the Team Alignment Map – a tool that sets out to combat each and every recurring project-management problem.
This simple chart can help you plan and check in on projects while letting team members be more active, empowered, and collaborative in the process.
If you’ve ever had to lead a team project, this tool may be the game changer you’ve been waiting for.
In these blinks, you’ll learn why so many meetings and projects tend to fall apart; how the “backward pass” can resolve problems before they start; and how you can empower your team by stepping out of the room.
There are common reasons why teams get poor results.
Everyone loves team meetings, right?
Wait, what?
!
You don’t like meetings?
You actually dread attending them and think they’re unhelpful, annoying time-wasters?
Well, as it turns out, you’re not alone.
According to research conducted by the Atlassian software company, half of meetings are an unproductive waste of time; around 37 billion dollars’ worth of salaries are squandered in meetings by US businesses alone.
This is partially because many teams are downright dysfunctional.
According to a report in Harvard Business Review, only 10 percent of team members can even agree about who else is on their team.
So is it any wonder that less than 30 percent of team projects turn out to be successful?
The writing is on the wall: meetings aren’t working.
For teams to succeed, we need new tools and a new approach to project management.
The key message here is: There are common reasons why teams get poor results.
We need teams to be successful.
The biggest and most important projects require effective teamwork – there’s simply no other way.
To come up with a solution for better results, we first need to look at what some of the common problems are.
Let’s start with two of the biggest ones: unsafe team environments and activity misalignment.
It’s not hard to spot an unsafe team environment.
This happens when people don’t feel comfortable speaking their minds, raising concerns, or disagreeing with others.
Team members tend to feel unvalued, and there’s a sense that it’s all about competition rather than collaboration.
Likewise, there are noticeable red flags when team activities are misaligned.
The most glaring example is when team members are confused about the roles other team members are playing.
Then there are the countless meetings that never clear anything up.
Priorities keep shifting, and no one communicates.
Because of all the confusion, efforts get needlessly duplicated, and progress inches forward when it should be making leaps and bounds.
Sound familiar?
Solving just one of these problems isn’t enough.
In order to conquer highly complex problems, you need both a safe team climate and perfectly aligned activities.
And that is where the Team Alignment Map – or TAM, for short – comes in.
In the blinks ahead we’ll look at how the TAM can help you plan projects and make sure everyone feels confident and clear about how to work together to achieve amazing results.
The Team Alignment Map promotes clarity and provides SMART objectives.
Planning and assessment: both are crucial to any project's success.
Planning involves laying out the mission, setting goals, assigning roles, and getting people on board.
Assessment is equally important; it involves checking in, tracking potential problems, making adjustments, and sustaining morale.
The Team Alignment Map aims to help with both of these areas.
It’s a simple chart that keeps everyone on the same page and gives everyone a voice.
The key message here is: The Team Alignment Map promotes clarity and provides SMART objectives.
The TAM is a simple, four-column chart with a header.
The header contains the Mission and the Period.
The Mission is where you put the purpose of the meeting or the project, while the Period is where you provide a time frame or deadline.
The header is all about establishing a clear direction and focus for the project, whether you’re in the planning stage or conducting an assessment meeting.
The Mission should be motivational and meaningful to all the team members, and everyone should agree with it.
When they look at the Mission description, they should be able to see what’s being created or improved – and why it’s important.
And when they look at the Period, they should be able to see a concrete time frame that clearly explains how long the project or a particular phase will last.
Below the header are four columns that lay out the four pillars of the TAM.
In the first column is Joint Objectives.
Next to that is Joint Commitments.
Third is Joint Resources.
And fourth is Joint Risks.
In the Joint Objectives column, you provide answers to two questions: What are we going to achieve together?
and What work must be done?
In other words, this is where you not only spell out the goals and end results, but also list the actions, tasks, and activities that are required to reach those objectives.
It’s best to be SMART about things: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound.
Don’t just write down “higher revenues” as your goal.
Instead, write, “Grow market share in China by 20 percent for the entire product line, by the end of the year.
” Everyone will understand the goal and how you intend to get there.
In the next blink, we’ll finish the map by looking at the final three pillars.
The TAM empowers team members and tracks potential problems.
Now that you’ve established your Mission and Joint Objectives, everyone should have a good idea of the project’s purpose and how you intend to reach that goal.
In the next column, Joint Commitments, you can start to break things down further by figuring out who will do what.
The key message here is: The TAM empowers team members and tracks potential problems.
Joint Commitments is basically an opportunity for someone to step up and join the team.
With the objectives laid out, you can now open the door for individuals to commit themselves to tackling those objectives.
You can either allow people to come to the board and write their name next to an objective, or you can ask someone if they will commit to a certain role.
That person will then have to verbally agree in front of everyone else at the meeting.
Either way, this represents a commitment that has taken place in front of others, which is much more effective than assigning roles from on high.
It also eliminates unspoken commitments that can lead to confusion and low morale.
So, the Joint Commitments column should be a relatively clean and clear one, while still being as specific as possible.
It’s simply a matter of putting the individual's name next to the main tasks and responsibilities they’ve committed to.
The third column is Joint Resources.
What do the team members need in order to meet their objectives?
How much time?
How much money?
What about materials, equipment, computers, statistics?
Will they need legal advice along the way?
All of these things should be considered, and anything that’s needed should be fully noted.
Finally, there’s Joint Risks.
Could technical problems occur along the way?
Is the equipment not up to snuff?
Maybe the client lives in a different time zone, and this could cause serious delays that need to be factored in.
One team member’s risk is everyone’s risk – a problem for one person can easily end up affecting the whole team.
So these Joint Risks should be on the board for everyone to see and consider.
As we’ll see in the next blink, these last two columns are also important for creating new items in the Joint Objectives and Commitments sections.
Using the TAM can help you catch problems before they occur.
Let’s take a minute to run a scenario and see the TAM in action.
In this example, we’ll look at what’s known as the forward pass, which is getting from the heading to the Joint Risks.
Then we’ll see what’s known as the backward pass, which is when the final two columns inspire a reconsideration of the objectives and commitments.
The key message here is: Using the TAM can help you catch problems before they occur.
Let’s say you work for a communications agency and are hired to quickly come up with a social-media campaign for a client.
You pull together five team members – Tess, Lou, Matteo, Pablo, and Honora – to break down the project using the TAM.
First up: Mission and Period.
Here you write “Develop Social Media Strategy”and “Four Weeks.
” Next come the Joint Objectives.
Everyone agrees that a keyword analysis needs to be done and made into a report.
Client interviews also need to be conducted.
And someone needs to perform a competitor analysis.
With the objectives settled, you move on to commitments.
Honora agrees to do the keyword analysis, and Matteo agrees to write the report.
Everyone agrees to chip in on the client interviews, while Pablo, Tess, and Lou agree to conduct the competitor analysis.
So, what Joint Resources are needed?
Honora and Matteo need analytics software.
Everyone will need database access to compile the client interviews.
And Tess will need to clear some time in her schedule.
Finally, the Joint Risks.
Honora points out that the client has mentioned that they won’t always be available.
And Pablo explains that this project runs the risk of being too dependent on data.
With that, the forward pass is done.
And now it’s time for the backward pass.
Is there anything in the last two columns that can become objectives now?
How about database access?
Let’s move this out of Joint Resources and into Joint Objectives, where it becomes “Grant Database Access” and Honora agrees to take on the commitment.
As for the client not being available, this gets moved to Joint Objectives as well – under the title of “Schedule Interview Meetings Ahead of Time.
” Matteo agrees to take this on.
Now the team can validate the map.
The analytics software is available, so that’s fine.
Tess can rearrange her schedule to make time, and everyone agrees to keep in mind the potential problem – being overreliant on data – while working on their tasks.
The map is set.
Take a picture of the finished map that you can send to everyone, and then it’s time to get to work!
Spot and repair problems with rapid assessments.
As we mentioned up front, the TAM isn’t just an effective planning tool.
It’s also great for conducting assessments.
Assessments are key to keeping projects on track.
Too often, there isn’t a system for checking in, and members can spend too long going in the wrong direction; they think they have the right idea but are actually veering far off track.
The TAM offers a way to perform rapid assessments while largely avoiding the need for long, ponderous meetings.
The key message here is: Spot and repair problems with rapid assessments.
Rapid assessments can be made using the same TAM model we described earlier.
The only change you need to make is to draw two horizontal lines across the four columns – creating a top third, middle third, and bottom third in each section.
In the Joint Objectives column, the top third should be labeled Clear, the middle Neutral, and the bottom Unclear.
In the Joint Commitments column, starting from the top, it goes Explicit, Neutral, Implicit.
For Joint Resources, it’s Available, Neutral, Missing.
For Joint Risks: Under Control, Neutral, Underestimated.
Now, when starting the assessment, the Mission section within the TAM header can contain the project name – or you can focus on a single objective.
Either way, when the subject is clear, each team member is then given the chance to vote on how things are going.
This can be done anonymously if it makes people feel more comfortable.
It works like this: each team member gets four markers – one for each column.
Then they use their markers to indicate how they feel about each part of the project.
Their first two markers might indicate that they feel unclear about the Joint Objectives and neutral about the Joint Commitments (which means they think some roles have been fully discussed, while others haven’t).
The last two markers could indicate that they feel like the resources needed to do their job are missing, while the risks remain underestimated.
Once everyone has voted, you’ll have a good visual representation of where things stand.
The team can then begin to interpret, reflect on, and discuss the problematic issues.
In some cases, a simple discussion can properly clarify things and move markers up to the top of the map.
Other times, new objectives and commitments will need to be made.
The goal is that another vote can be taken at the end of the assessment – and that all the markers are in the top section of each category.
That’s a green light.
The TAM provides structure, engagement, and ownership in meetings.
Meetings can be dreadful wastes of time.
But they don’t have to be.
And here, too, the TAM can help.
Even if you’ve had disappointing results with meetings in the past, you shouldn’t underestimate the power of meeting and discussing things face-to-face.
It remains one of the most impactful collaboration tools we have at our disposal.
Problems tend to occur when meetings are unstructured and chaotic – when they leave too many questions unanswered.
Fortunately, these are problems that can be easily fixed.
The key message here is: The TAM provides structure, engagement, and ownership in meetings.
It’s always a good idea to set an exact amount of time for your meetings, be it 30, 60, or 90 minutes.
It’s also wise to have an agenda written and distributed well beforehand.
A good example of an agenda would be a 10-minute intro on the subject at hand, 30 minutes for completing the TAM, and 25 minutes to address questions.
Given how the TAM is set up, filling out the map together can be a very straightforward and collaborative way to run the meeting.
Make sure that you set aside time to perform a backward pass before the meeting is over.
Once that happens, you can then finish the meeting by running a rapid assessment to identify questions and outstanding issues.
This will also ensure that everyone leaves the meeting feeling confident and clear about all the objectives.
There are different ways you can further boost engagement, morale, and ownership in meetings.
You can start by making sure each team member has between two and five minutes during the forward pass to speak their mind, address their concerns, and make their commitments.
Another effective way to run a meeting is to step aside.
If you’re a team leader or project manager, take part in the intro and establish the mission, but then step out of the room for 30 minutes and let the team conduct the forward pass themselves.
Let them determine the “how” by filling out the Joint Objectives, Joint Commitments, Joint Resources, and Joint Risks.
Then, when you return, you can all participate in performing the backward pass and the rapid assessment.
Empowering your team members, by giving them a voice and ownership over the project, can go a long way in ensuring a successful outcome.
In the final blink, we’ll look at some more ways you can build trust and lay the groundwork for a safe team environment.
A team contract will discourage conflict and encourage a safe environment.
Putting together a team means mixing together different personality types and people who have different expectations about communication and relationships.
As any experienced team leader will attest, this can result in some big-time conflicts.
So why not try to nip those conflicts in the bud by creating a team contract?
The key message here is: A team contract will discourage conflict and encourage a safe environment.
A team contract starts out as a large, rectangular poster with a big circle in the middle.
Within the circle is IN, and outside the circle is OUT.
The question is: What attitudes and behaviors would you like to see within the team, and what do you not want to see?
This should apply to general behaviors and communication styles, but also to issues like dealing with shared resources.
It’s a good idea to give everyone a chance to think about their responses – so pose this question to the team before you set out to create the contract.
Then set up a meeting, and ask everyone to bring along their answers written on some Post-its.
Each team member should get a few minutes to talk about their INs and OUTs – and why they picked them.
You can get the ball rolling by putting something like “Not speaking up when there’s a problem” as an example of an OUT, and “Listening to each other” as an IN.
Once everyone has added their ideas to the board, spend around 20 minutes or so going around the room, getting reactions, and consolidating the contract.
At the end, everyone needs to vote in agreement to validate the contract.
One thing everyone must agree on is that breaking the contract will result in a meeting wherein incidents will be discussed on a case-by-case basis.
While it’s best not to set automatic penalties ahead of time, it can be beneficial to let everyone know that major violations could result in the person being taken off the team.
A team contract will establish trust and psychological safety.
If you want to reinforce this positive team environment even more, use the Respect Card.
This is essentially a two-column chart.
On the left is a list of tips on how to demonstrate respect to others.
On the right are tips on how to show that you value others.
They include asking questions rather than issuing direct orders, and reminding people to be complimentary instead of openly critical.
With these tools, you should be able to turn your meetings into hotbeds of productivity and alignment.
They should also help create safe spaces where people are unafraid of raising issues before they become full-blown catastrophes.
Final summary
The key message in these blinks is that: Managing a project comes with more than a few pitfalls.
When you bring together a team, you also bring together different personalities and power dynamics.
People often feel uncomfortable speaking up if something’s unclear or if they’re pointing out a potential problem.
But such issues just get increasingly worse if they go unmentioned.
This is why the Team Alignment Map is the perfect tool for any kind of project.
It’s a simple and flexible way for team members to get more involved in the planning and assessment phases – and it lets them take ownership over their roles.
It also has a built-in way to identify potential problems before they occur and ensure that everyone is on the same page in terms of roles and objectives.
And here’s some more actionable advice: If your team can’t be in the same room, create a TAM using online boards.
The way we work has changed a lot in the past few years.
So if your team members can’t interact face-to-face, you may need to rely on video conferencing.
In that case, you can use online boards like Mural or Miro to create an online version of the TAM that everyone can see.
You can also use online survey tools to run assessments and get individual votes on whether things are clear, neutral, or unclear.