7 Your First Meeting as a Team
Learning Objectives
- To understand what to discuss in your first meeting as a team, and to have resources to support this.
It can be difficult to navigate your first team meeting. This chapter provides you step-by-step instructions to help understand your team members, their interests and establish some ground rules for teamwork.
It is okay to feel anxious or uncertain; you can use these activities to get to know others in your team. You may find your teammates feel the same way. Talking about how you feel and using some of the strategies identified below might help you overcome feelings of anxiety. This activity has been informed by Benavides (2022).
At the end of this section there is a simple version of these strategies you can download to use at your first meeting. The steps are explained in more detail here.
-
Strategy 1: Introductions and Icebreakers
-
Ensure everyone introduces themselves and has the opportunity to share something about themselves (eg. Favourite food, hobbies etc.). It is also a good idea to engage in an icebreaker activity (as outlined below), which can help everyone feel comfortable in the team space.
-
Ice-breaker Activity
Ice-breakers are often a dreaded activity in classrooms or teams, but they can be fun. Icebreakers are activities designed to ‘break the ice’ between team members, to help ease the anxiety team members may be feeling about working with unfamiliar people. The aim is to start a conversation, learn something new about your teammates or share a laugh together. The activity is designed to put you out of your comfort zone a little bit, but remember, all your teammates are feeling just as uncomfortable and apprehensive as you!
Here are some prompts you might like to consider getting to know your teammates:
- What colour socks are you wearing? (This can be a good opportunity to share why you chose those particular socks today, or if there is a story behind your socks).
- If you could pick any superpower (eg. super speed, flying, strength etc.), what would it be and why?
- What is your favourite animae? (This would only work if everyone watched animae).
- If money was not an issue, where is your ideal holiday destination and why?
- What are you currently watching on Netflix (or Disney +, or your preferred steaming service)?
Feel free to come up with any other questions that might help you to get to know your teammates better.
-
Strategy 2: Sharing contact information
- Record the contact details below for each of your team members. It is also helpful to discuss preferred mode of communication that you will use as a team, eg. Email or a messenger groupchat.
Team Contacts List
Access the PDF template below and have everyone share their preferred contact information. Decide as a team what your main method of communication will be. Ensure everyone has a copy of the contacts list.
Team contacts list (PDF)
-
Strategy 3: ‘How Do You Learn Best’ chapter resources
-
Use the information in the chapter ‘How do you learn best?’ to discuss your results from the ‘Welcome to Me’ resource, learning styles quiz, and group strengths quiz with your teammates. Mention any specific communication needs or accommodations you can make as a team to support each other. Only share what you feel comfortable to.
-
-
Strategy 4: Establishing ground rules
-
This can form your team charter and can be something everyone refers to throughout the project. Ensure everyone signs and has a copy of this team charter to refer to throughout the project. Complete the ‘Ground rules’ activity below together to determine these rules. Discuss what good teamwork looks like.
-
Ground Rules
Every team operates according to some rules, but they are often unspoken. These can be changed over time as you work together, but establishing a starting point is important. This activity will guide you to create some strong ground rules you can use as a team to ensure everyone agrees and understands the boundaries of the project.
- A good starting point would be to consider:
-
- Where and when the meeting will take place
-
- Methods of communication that will be used
-
- Shared aims, goals and outcomes
-
- How will the workload be shared
-
-
Agreement on each member’s contribution, commitment to make teamwork successful
-
What you’ll do if you don’t hear from a team member after a certain number of days
-
-
- Expected standards and behaviour
-
-
Avoiding plagiarism
-
Print this charter so everyone has a copy. Ensure everyone signs it to indicate agreement with it.
Time required: 20-30 minutes
-
Strategy 6: Setting goals and timelines
- These could be directly related to the assessment task but may also be about working as a team or other broad goals. Complete ‘Setting and Achieving Goals’ below, including the handout to identify aims for the team project.
- Establish a rough timeline for each part of the assignment based on the timeline suggested by your lecturer. This can be created as a visual planner, dates in diaries/ calendars or aligned to trimester dates (eg. Week 1, 2 etc.).
Setting and Achieving Goals
It is important to have goals as a team, so you know what you are working towards, and why you are working together. Having a goal allows you to know what your focus is and can give you something to celebrate at the end of the project.
Instructions
- Brainstorm what you would like to achieve as a team. Start big (e.g. complete the assignment), and use the handout below, or the website below to refine your broader goals into more manageable ones. You can also find your own way of creating goals if something is more suitable.
Goblin tools is a website that can help you to refine your goals: https://goblin.tools/
Time required: 15 – 20 minutes
Note: if you find it overwhelming to look at the whole task in one go or find yourself losing motivation over the course of the team project, breaking the task into small, manageable chunks can be really helpful.
When considering who is responsible for each task, also consider whether everyone has a fair amount of work. Is one person doing all of the admin work? How can you share the tasks fairly for everyone?
.
Here is an example template your team might like to use when creating your goals: Example Goal Template (PDF)
-
Strategy 7: Organise your next meeting
-
Organise the next meeting time and location at the end of your first meeting so everyone knows when you will next meet.
-
Copyright note: The above images are used under the Pixabay Content License.
Checklist
Follow this simple checklist at your first meeting. As you go through your meeting, try to tick off the activities you’ve completed.
Here is a PDF copy you can have handy: Checklist for Your First Meeting
|
1. Has everyone introduced themselves? |
|
|
2. Do you know at least one fact/ interesting piece of information about each team member? |
|
|
3. Does everyone have a copy of the group contact list? |
|
|
4. Do you know the best way to communicate with everyone (messenger, email etc.)? |
|
|
5. Have you decided on some guidelines or rules to follow as a team and does everyone have a copy of these rules? |
|
|
6. Have you set goals for your project? |
|
|
7. Is the work fairly and evenly distributed among team members? |
|
|
8. Do you have a rough timeline for the project? |
|
|
9. Have you arranged a time and location for your next meeting? |
|
Key Takeaways
- Refer back to this chapter at your first meeting, and throughout your assessment tasks to develop a good starting point for your teamwork.
