Building team alignment and operating as an effective unit is only possible when you have a solid shared understanding of each other. Creating a positive team dynamic starts here, and one of the best ways to develop this is using Team Canvas. This article will define Team Canvas and walk through how to use it to be successful.
What is Team Canvas?
The Team Canvas is defined as a business model template that helps build productivity and team alignment. It can develop tight-knit teams and create group consensus. In the right hands, this tool can be very powerful in forcing teams towards their personal and shared goals.
Success in a team depends on teamwork, and a team depends on its members. This means that to find success, a good team leader must build consensus within a group so that the team’s shared goals align with people’s personal motivations. This is the best way to create team alignment and is a big motivation behind the Team Canvas.
Team Canvas’s structured approach helps clarify confusion and leads to productive interactions. Many teams have successfully adopted this format to coordinate remote work during the pandemic. Since it is a generic interface, any team may put it to good use.
Understanding The Team Canvas
The basic Team Canvas template consists of four quadrants. Each quadrant implies a specific focus area, vital for bringing the team on the same page. This is not the only version of a Team Canvas, however, and there is another that is more in-depth and touches other potential pain points for a team. The basic format begins with four sections: Goals, Values, Roles & Skills, and Rules & Activities.
The system has the flexibility to set more granular templates. An example could include ‘personal goals,’ ‘strengths,’ and ‘weaknesses.’ Other template ideas include ‘team evaluation,’ ‘improvement suggestions,’ and ‘ project instructions.’ All of these are options and, depending on your team, could be valuable for setting up a successful dynamic.
As with any organizational tool, the secret to success depends on how you use it. Two teams working on a similar project may use a Team Canvas template. However, they might use slightly different versions and have different solutions depending on their needs.
Regardless of which version you use, here are some guidelines for the various sections and methods to help get the most out of your template.
Conduct Time-Restricted Collaboration
The best use of the Team Canvas template is via the question-answer format. The following sections provide further details on how to set the questions. However, using this template in a timed environment is also essential. The team administrator has a pivotal role in optimizing this tool as they are responsible for tracking the time and completion of the board. As such, they must assign questions and answers for a time-bound execution.
The amount of time you take within your activity is up to you, but it’s recommended that you take anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours to complete the template. Shorter periods will create a more pressured environment, while a longer amount of time will allow more time for discussion.
Goals Breakdown
The basic template in Team Canvas only mentions Goals, but you can classify this further into personal and team goals. To generate interaction, one must ask the proper questions. Also, the team lead should pay attention to respecting intimate private spaces. It’s important to keep in mind that, when discussing personal motivations, some people might not want to open up fully.
The focus ought to be professional and directed at the project completion. The idea is to assess and optimize the comfort level of team members and expose the team’s overall motivation. This encourages people to share their personal feelings and align themselves with the greater group environment.
Team Goals Questions
- What do you think makes the teamwork?
- How can we, as a team, maximize productivity?
- Are you content with the performance of other team members?
- How can you contribute as an individual to the team dynamics?
- How do you feel about the performance of the team?
- What are the main goals of the team?
Personal Goals Questions
- Do you feel free to express your opinions here?
- What are your expectations from this project?
- Are you comfortable with the tasks assigned?
- Are you a self-motivator?
- How does this project help you to grow as a person?
- What are your personal goals within this team?
Asking the right questions in the Team Canvas is crucial in setting the foundations for teamwork. Also, it is an excellent way to assess the motivations of each team member. For example, unassertive responders could be assigned under a senior team member.
Everyone within the team must be honest about their answers and communicate transparently. This is a litmus test for the team leader, who must be a wise judge of the answers. Also, you need to track the scope of the answers with your personal knowledge of each member and see if it is congruent.
Putting principles before personalities is vital for effective collaboration. In effect, no member is above the group as a whole. Even the team leader is liable to answer the same questions. Questions dealing with personal expectations help understand whether the members put the team’s interests above mere self-increment.
Learn more: Team Canvas Benefit
Roles & Skills Group
This category presents the perfect space to lay out the credentials of individual members. Also, this section can elaborate on the ability levels of the staff. You can use the responses here to set up the best sub-teams. The interaction here is also a gauge of the experience of team members.
Roles & Skills Questions
- What unique skills do you bring to the team?
- Can you train others?
- How does your relevant experience help the team?
- How can your skills help others?
- How does your role help the goals of the team?
This section on Team Canvas also helps people to connect on a professional level. It is also the responsibility of the team leader to avoid skillset comparisons. Keep the competition healthy, but also respect the individual skill levels.
Also, the team lead should encourage all members to put their queries in Team Canvas. People may have specific questions about technical skills. For example, you are working on an e-commerce project. Magento is a preferred programming language. However, the client may ask specifically for the Zend framework or Ruby on Rails.
These coding languages are incredibly diverse and have many types and sub-types. Individuals should be able to clarify whether there are other knowledgeable members. Accordingly, the admin can organize training sessions to see that the client’s requirements are met.
The Roles and Skills section in Team Canvas is perfect for cultivating the team’s collective knowledge base. It also encourages mutual professional respect. Human elements such as these are vital for a team to perform at its best. Even in core technical setups, ultimately, the interaction at an emotional level drives output.
No matter how good a professional is, they may not help others if they aren’t in the mood to connect emotionally. Team Canvas can play a crucial role in resolving psychological bottlenecks and achieving an acceptable solution.
Along with skills, it can also be ideal for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of team members. Strengths are easy to enlist, but even the best ones fumble in mentioning weaknesses. Nevertheless, it is of critical importance to interpret the level of personal honesty. If need be, the team administrator should help others to self-introspect.
Identifying Strengths and Weaknesses
- What do you consider your biggest strengths?
- What do you consider your biggest weaknesses?
- How do these strengths and weaknesses manifest in your work?
- How do they help/hinder the team?
Such questions help with soul-searching and being better at self-honesty. Besides, from an organizational perspective, these are extremely important. It is critical to be accurate to the letters in executing technical projects. Of course, individual work processes may vary within the scope of instructions, but the final execution needs to be perfect. To ensure proper execution, the team must have a solid understanding of their individual/shared strengths.
Everyone is ambitious, but it is essential to know what fuels the ambition? Is it a natural attitude to excel, or are you being a stepping stone in the corporate ladder? These are but key aspects to consider in team development.
Learn more: What is Team Collaboration?
Values Section
Value correlation is fundamental for team-building. It tests the essential integrity of team members. Point to note: you would never see ‘profit-making’ enlisted as values. This striking absence is a good reminder that team values should be separated from their goals. This section should focus mainly on what they find important in their work and each other.
Ultimately, a job is a job. The paycheck is as important as anything else. But, without a grounding of values, corporations lose their credibility in the public eye. Without public support or the consumer base, success is impossible.
Values Section Questions
- What do you know about the company values?
- Are values important to you on a personal level?
- Do you base your decision on values?
- How can our team create important values?
- Do you want to add to the values of the organization?
- How far do you think our company observes its values?
These questions are challenging but important to determine the shared values of the team. So, if you enlist transparency as one of your values, you should also value transparent opinions. The Team Canvas effectively helps clarify these aspects and impart the gravitas of the job to team members.
Every job is important, whether big or small. The social effect of your role may not be noticeable. But, a brand must always follow socially positive marketing to have a lasting impact.
Rules and Activities
Another important section of the Team canvas is the rules and activities portion. This is a place where teams can enforce specific rules to each other and the team at large. Additionally, they can talk about the activities conducted within each sprint and how these can be handled more effectively.
Conclusion
As previously mentioned, the team canvas is a business model that is built to create positive team dynamics and build a well-oiled workplace. There is much more to be said about the Team Canvas, so if you liked this article, stay tuned to IdeaScale Whiteboard to learn more.
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