Interested in participating or starting a success team?
- Yes, where do I sign up?
- No, I’m like the Lone Ranger
- Maybe, but I’d like to know more
0 voters
As Loretta suggested for everyone’s benefit, here’s more information about it and how many you might want to think about it for your own efforts and projects.
I’ve also asked another individual to post her ongoing Taiwan experiences with success teams and facilitation. Hopefully we can hear from her soon.
[quote]Benefits of the success team format for those who are interested in projectizing their ideas so that they can make it a business one day or acheive their goals are:
- Accountability. If you like your teammates and they’re helping you out, then chances are, you won’t be a twit and not do your “homework” because you’d be letting them down.
- Focus. Weekly format and the accountability helps you keep on track on reaching your goal. It would be like going to the gym, daily exercise or training for a marathon.
- Networking. Lead generation. Important for any one whether it’s for business, professional or social.
- Educational. Idea generation, learn from others who have breadth, depth, experience etc that could complement your efforts. [/quote]
How does this work in practice? The team will consist of 6-8 people. One of the members will be designated the Facilitator. The Facilitator is a key person who acts as the grease that makes the team run smoothly. This person is both a disciplinarian (think personal trainer) but also a person who has excellent people skills to make everyone feel comfortable and engaged in the process of helping the team members achieve. The Facilitators that work best are those who are well-liked, respected, and highly dedicated to the team’s achievement.
Members who belong to the success team do so because they feel that the group format will help them achieve their personal, professional, business goals. Members offer their support – knowledge, experience, skills, contacts – to each other so that their teammates will achieve their goals. By collaborating this way, everyone will receive something in return for their sharing. The team won’t be successful if there’s no teamwork, collaboration and dedication to each other’s success. It is a long-term commitment. It can last for a year or more depending on the team’s mission and team member needs.
Meeting formats tend to be weekly for 2 hours long. The agenda for the meetings revolve around member’s needs. Or the agenda could be set by the Facilitator each week. Members will decide how the process will work, each team is different. Often times, success team members will meet outside of the weekly success team meetings.
Things that could happen at a weekly success team meeting:
- Round table discussion,
- creation of action plans,
- flesh out ideas,
- brain storming,
- current events discussion, could be free form.
- “homework review” where members who asked for a specific help will get that help from the other members (such as a lead, information, contact number/address etc)
It could also be a “study group” where people have specific homework but this is where the success team is created for a special purpose such as helping members obtain a license or certification.
Group dynamics. Personality compatibility is very important obviously. But the mission of the success team is simple, you’re there to help others and to be helped by others. Because this is a weekly, long-term commitment, people’s personal issues will come into the group dynamics. It’s unavoidable. One of the toughest jobs for a Facilitator is being the “cheerleader” – to pick up members when they’re down or having a rough go. It’s not just the Facilitator’s responsibility but also other members responsibility to be supportive. However, it’s one of the Facilitator’s main jobs to do this work.
In my experiences with success teams, I didn’t start out as friends with them. In fact I joined them by accident. In the end, it was a place where I met really good people, made good friends, and gained important professional colleagues and achieved some of my goals while developing new ones along the way.
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