The purpose of any meeting you lead plays a major factor in your selection of participants. Needless to say, if it is a staff meeting, all your employees will attend. If a crossfunctional group is involved in developing a new product or resolving an organizational problem, then you might want participants with relevant expertise.
Generally, in selecting individuals to participate in crossfunctional projects, you should look for people with both knowledge in their functional areas and strong interpersonal skills, although you should be realistic enough to set aside people skills if the project has a strong technical bias. If the project calls for a major shift in organizational direction, you will be better off with people who are unafraid of change than individuals with caretaker mentalities.
Needless to say, you want individuals who are interested enough in the project to give sufficient time to it. If a prospective member doesn’t see participation as a worthwhile challenge, then another candidate is better for consideration. Look also for diversity in putting together your team. Limiting the group to people with interests similar to each other or your own would limit the final result as well.
You should also look for creative thinkers for your meeting, although you don’t want only hotshot ideators. You should have more traditional problem solvers on board as well. The best teams are made up of both types of individuals. Creative innovators will give you an idea out of the box but may not have the patience to hang in there during implementation. The more-traditional problem solvers are more likely to find ways to make those breakthrough ideas work.
Further, bringing highly creative individuals who only think out of the box into a project whose goal is continuous improvement will only frustrate the creative persons, because their approach to problem solving goes far beyond the goal of the project.
As meeting leader, you will have to take this group through four stages.
- Forming. The group finalizes its mission and agrees on acceptable team behavior.
- Storming. During this phase, conflicts may arise. As ideas are shared and action plans are developed, proprietary feelings will grow. Being aware of the potential for such problems, you should attempt to exert greater control during this phase.
- Norming. The group is ready to get down to business. During this phase, participants will begin to take on informal roles as well as assignments. For instance, one member may emerge as an organizational leader, skilled at determining what needs to get done and when and able to get everyone pulling in the right direction. Another member might emerge as a writer/reporter, not only keeping the group’s minutes but also taking on a major role in the writing of the final group report. Still another member might become an information gatherer, searching for facts and other information to help the team during its problem-sensing stage.
- Performing. The group finally gets down to the task. Research is shared and decisions are made. If the group is a crossfunctional team, they may disband once the project is done. If the meeting is made up of staff, ongoing sessions will be held to support their operating and planning needs.