Team Dashboards

One idea that has emerged recently in our teaching is the importance of trust in the context of ambiguous challenges. As educators, our goal is to encourage students to step outside their Comfort Zone, and venture to the outer limits of their Learning Zone.  When we build trust, we create a friendly, familiar tie to the Comfort Zone. This creates confidence in facing ever-greater degrees of ambiguity.

A really important source of trust is having a strong, effective team. Ambiguity is definitely a team sport! Just like with deep-sea ocean diving, you wouldn't ever attempt to dive to the ocean floor on your own — you need a team to get there.

If teamwork is such an essential component in navigating ambiguity, we need to help set teams up for success.

One tool we've used before, both in our own personal practice and with our students, is something called a Team Dashboard.  It's both an activity and a routine practice.  

The idea is that there are a set number of dashboard elements that your team checks in on at a regular basis. These can be calibrated based on the team and the project; see the example below.

Each team member writes their individual thoughts on post-it's either ahead of time or at the start of the meeting.  Then when everyone's ready, individuals go through and share each of their post-its, putting them up on a wall or whiteboard to build a team shared visual.  

The team can have conversations as they go along, or at the end when everyone has shared, whichever feels most organic.  The point is to use this for alignment, calibration, and discussion.

It's not completing the team dashboard that's most useful, but rather the act of going through it as a team and using it as a discussion tool and a self-awareness moment.  

It gives space and a container for difficult conversations sometimes, as well.

This can also be a great tool for coaches / teachers to get a pulse on teams and know where to begin a conversation.