Around Dec 24th, your whole organisation turned the lights off and went to sleep. Then slowly across January, the lights started to switch back on.
One-by-one, in random spots, people have trickled back to work and flickered back to life.
Then it takes ‘til February or March to get up to speed. Wouldn’t it be better to help people RAMP up quicker, connect better – and shine their light brighter?
You can get your team fired up by using 4 principles that spell RAMP to design a team kick
off – or RAMP up – session for the year.
R is for Reflecting on 2020
What were the high points, low points and turning points of 2020? What learnings can you apply to 2021?
Teams who do regular retrospectives can end up being 25% more effective according to a study of after-action reviews by Tannenbaum and Cerasoli.
A is for Aligning around team goals
Make sure everyone is clear on the strategy and priority goals for 2021 – and what it means for them.
Most leaders overestimate how widely their goals are understood.
According to one study, “A mere 7% of employees today fully understand their company's business strategies and what's expected of them in order to help achieve company goals”.
M is for Motivating individuals with a plan for personal growth
Dan Pink’s book on motivation suggests three themes to motivate your team.
Autonomy – a sense of agency and control to do things my way.
Mastery – the opportunity to learn important new skills.
Purpose – connecting my work to helping others and achieving meaningful outcomes.
Can you combine these areas to ask people what important skills they want to improve which help deliver your organisation’s purpose?
If so, you’ll probably end up with a highly motivated team.
P is for Purpose - connect people to why this all matters anyway: who are we helping?
A client of mine took these 4 principles, R, A, M and P and ran a session for her team. Afterwards, she emailed me to say it went brilliantly.
When I asked, “What was particularly useful?” she said it was the Purpose part. She’d invited someone senior in another part of the business to come along and share stories of how the team had helped the wider organization and made a massive impact on their customers and stakeholders.
It brought the Purpose to life. Which is a great way to start the year.
Run your own RAMP session – or get help
Use the four principles above to create a team experience in late January or early February. You can do it online or face to face (or a mix). Depending on your team you might want to address all four principles. Or you could pick two or three to focus on. They take between 30-60 minutes each, so you might be looking at a 2-3 hour kick off meeting.
If you need help planning or facilitating a team event like this, get in touch and I’ll help you fire up your team for 2021. Written by Rob Pyne