Institute of Internal Communication

Cathy Augustine of Cchange Communications (www.cchange.co.uk) says that team briefing should be a straightforward process to ensure that face-to-face communication is regular and effective.

Team briefing is also a useful channel for cascading urgent messages throughout the organisation at short notice - at times of major change or crisis.

However, its success depends on all managers keeping to the schedules and responding to feedback. The process should be easy to follow, occur in a regular cycle and, once established, take on its own momentum based on an effective dialogue that is valued at all levels.

One model for a successful team brief process is to base it on a regular briefing or bulletin from the top of the organisation so that all employees have access to a message which everyone can hear/read before team briefings take place. This may be via email, the intranet or a printed copy. The message from the top remains consistent to all audiences and has not been watered down or become garbled.

The team brief can then deal with the issues raised in the bulletin, looking at them from a strategic and local level as they apply to that particular team. The briefing can also incorporate the outputs from any other relevant workshops or senior meetings that have occurred during that cycle.

Benefits

• Rapidly developing a shared vision
• Gauging progress towards the vision
• Strengthening new teams
• Gathering and exchanging information
• Sharing best practice through examples of success in other areas of the organisation
• Receiving immediate feedback
• Regular check on areas of opportunity highlighted through internal surveys
• Regular alignment of actions to the culture and vision
• Clarifying accountabilities and agreeing actions
• Fast problem-solving
• Meetings result in clear actions, responsibilities and deadlines

 Opportunities

• Circulating an agenda in advance gives participants a chance to influence the objectives of the meeting
• Gaining ownership and involvement through participation
• Adding variety by involving a number of presenters - from the team and "guest speakers"
• Agenda items can be tailored to various target audiences - but based on the same key messages from the "top level" bulletin

Potential problems .... and how to avoid them

• Late starts
• Postponement
• Poor time management - overrunning, misallocation of time to agenda items
• Overloaded agenda
• Unclear aims
• Sidetracking and falling into detail
• Cynicism due to ineffective meetings held in the past

These all relate to discipline either in terms of time or focus and can be avoided by bearing in mind the following:

• Don't wait more than five minutes for latecomers
• Ensure that an agenda (with timings against each item) is circulated in advance
• It's better to have shorter meetings more often than infrequent long meetings
• Detail can be handled through written communication as a follow-up
• Break agenda items down into small, well-defined subject areas
• Encourage participation
• Agree outcomes and actions

Timescales and activities

A communications calendar should be drawn up annually and team briefings entered according to the schedule.

The starting point for each cycle, is a regular bulletin (monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly). If there isn't a consistent pattern for other senior meetings and workshops then, in the cycle where these occur, relevant information should be incorporated into the team brief in addition to a discussion of topics in the bulletin.

Prior to the launch of a new process, schedules for team briefings should be established and circulated to everyone. Schedules should include an indication of how long each meeting will be eg, one hour, two hours, a whole morning or afternoon.

Bringing the process to life - creating a dialogue

The core information to be used in team briefing is the regular bulletin from the chief executive or managing director- which all employees will have had the opportunity to read prior to their briefing. Other information is added to the briefing as it occurs in particular cycles.

Each board member will discuss and explain different facets of the bulletin, according to the needs and interests of their immediate team. Questions arising from each team will vary according to their objectives, needs and roles. Their questions should be answered during the briefing wherever possible. If not, answers should be circulated with the minutes at the end of each cycle.

Questions arising from the first level briefings will help to tailor the second level briefings by highlighting areas of interest and concern in that particular department, and so on down the line.

By the time of the second level briefings, the material will be tailored to each department and may look slightly different for each area. All the questions, views and information gathered, should feed into the next briefing cycle, together with fresh information from the following bulletin.

A simple one-page overview at the end of each cycle - drawn from minutes of all the meetings by a team brief administrator - will highlight cross-functional issues and concerns to be answered in the next cycle of briefings. These issues may also form part of the agenda to be addressed at subsequent senior management and board meetings.

Feedback will only be forthcoming on a regular basis if people know it will be used and addressed. By building credibility and trust in the process, teams will remain interested and participative. Therefore, managers must keep to schedules and be seen to be responding to feedback, giving progress reports and revising objectives as relevant

Cathy Augustine (cathy@cchange.co.uk ) has worked in employee communications for Shell UK, KPMG and as Head of Internal Communications for Mercury before establishing Cchange Communications in 2000.

With clients including Pizza Hut, Yum! Restaurants International, Halfords, Britvic, Iceland, Linklaters, Alldays and Debenhams, Cchange works with organisations to develop realistic Vision, Values and communication strategies to attract, motivate and retain the right people for that organisation to succeed.