Teamcanvas with snacks

All teams, whether they are starting or have been together for a long time, benefit from a clear team purpose, i.e., the team’s reason for existence. This ensures that the team members know what they are about, what they contribute to, and why they do what they do. This gives the team an identity with which the individual team members can identify and connect. 

A great tool to work with a team in a structured way is the team canvas. The idea is to fill in this canvas with the whole team during a team session or afternoon. 

• Check with the team: do all team members know the organization’s goals? Do they know what the product is, who it is for, and what the benefits for the customer are?

• Delve into the team’s purpose. What is the team purpose considering the product and developments for the coming period? What do we stand for? Why do we do what we do? What motivates us? Ask the team members to write this individually and then share it with the team. Then try to define the team’s purpose in one sentence.

• Clarify the team responsibility: what is within the team’s responsibility and what is not? And if something is not within the team’s responsibility, whose is it? Think of various activities around the product, such as maintenance, support, development, training, implementation, testing, promotion, etc.

• Work on the team goals. What are the goals for the team for the coming year? What do we want to achieve? Make pairs and write the goals on a Post-it®. Then bring the results together, cluster the goals, and make a top three. This top three is recorded on the team canvas. You can make the team canvas as creative as you like, for example, by visualizing goals and creating a team logo or slogan.

• End with the question of what the team needs (in terms of knowledge, skills, tools, or other things) to achieve the goals and take responsibility. Ask all team members to indicate from their perspective what they need. Cluster the result and record it on the canvas as well.

• Create a beautiful version of the team canvas and hang it at the team’s workspaces. You will see that this is inspiring for other teams and that they will want to do it too. Additional benefit is that teams gain insight into what each team is doing.

You can develop a game around this. For example, we created a pub quiz with questions about the teams and their team canvas. While enjoying a drink, the team that knew the most about the other teams received a plate of snacks.