Guidelines for the Team Members

A Healthy and Enjoyable Climate

• Openness: Team members are willing to get to know one another, are open to new ideas, diverse viewpoints, and the variety of individuals within the group. They listen to others and balance the need for cohesion with the need for individual expression.
• Trust and self-disclosure: Team members trust one another enough to share their ideas
• Support: Team members cheer on their peers and help those who may be experiencing difficulties; they view one another as collaborators not competitors.
• Respect: Team members communicate their opinions in a way that respects others, focusing on “What can we learn?” not “Who is to right or wrong?”

An Effective Team Process

To be productive teams need to follow an effective process:

• Individual responsibility: Team members agree on tasks.
• Constructive Feedback: Members give and receive feedback about ideas. Giving constructive feedback requires focusing on ideas and behaviors, being positive, asking for and offering suggestions for improvement. Receiving feedback requires listening well, asking for clarification if the comment is unclear, and being open to change and other ideas.
• Problem solving: Members help facilitate group decision-making and deal productively with conflict.

• Communications: Brainstorming is all about communications: creating ideas, talking with  each other, refining ideas – for best outcomes, invest yourselves in the occasion and shut-off your phones!!