Action Item 4:
How will your team/subteams work with the target audience to achieve the desired outcomes? Develop a chart and indicate the desired outcome, the target audience, and the method that will be used to achieve the outcome. Then think about who will be involved from the team in developing and delivering the methods that are used.
Desired outcome Target audience Method to be used to achieve the outcome Who needs to be involved?
5.4 Use of Continuous Communication Communication often makes or breaks the success of a group in achieving goals. First, as a team you must determine what is the most effective and efficient manner for you to communicate as a team on an ongoing basis. Develop a plan and stick with it. With today’s technology and dispersed teams, interactions in an online environment are common. This may mean regular team check-ins are conducted using an online platform that allows members to interact in real time. Or it may mean that the team works virtually to develop documents and products of its work through online platforms that allow each member to contribute on their own schedule. Either way, the team needs to decide what tools will be used, how frequently the team will meet and how, and what expectations are for progress between meetings. The Southern Region Development Center (SRDC) recently sponsored a project to develop training for virtual teams http://srdc.msstate.edu/virtualteams/index.html. Your team may want to participate in the training as a group as you determine your expectations for virtual collaboration. Regardless o f whether an initiative’s framework uses a project roadmap, a logic model, or other tools, the team needs a way to keep track of its progress. The old-fashioned approach of keeping meeting minutes that are shared by the group is still effective in reducing repetitive discussions and keeping teams moving forward. However, there are new tools for collecting this information and sharing it with the team. But the team needs to buy-in to the process used for doing this, so this should be a team discussion.
Action Item 5:
Develop a communication plan for your team. What messages need to be disseminated to achieve your desired outcomes? Who is the intended audience for each? What method will you use to reach the audience? How will you determine whether or not the communication was successful? Who will provide the communication?
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