task is vital. What do you want to
accomplish? What problem are you
going to solve? What results do you
want to see? What learning do you
want to achieve?
Answering these questions together
is a crucial part of the making of an
effective team. A leader can’t feed
the answers to the team, as tempting
as that is. As the team struggles
together to articulate a well-defined
and deeply shared purpose, they
learn to be a team.
communicate? How will we make
assignments? How will we make
decisions? How will we be safe
enough for authentic conversation?”
In Learning Change, pastor John
Sparks writes, “We spent many
hours in the first days of our team’s
existence defining how we would
be together. We talked about
authenticity, what it meant for us to
be reliant on the Holy Spirit, and the
unique practices we would take on
during our meetings, like a time for
silence . . . We also had conversations
around my role as facilitator of the
team and how that differed from
my role as pastor. Each conversation
gave us ways to practice and drew
us closer to becoming a real team.”
Don’t rush this process. It is worth
taking the time to describe the
team’s purpose in a way that is
compelling, clear and shared. It is
crucial that every time the team
meets, every member can answer
the question, “What are we here for?” Again, don’t rush this part of the
process. Each conversation about a
Commit to a common approach.
common approach helps the team
After we begin to agree on what
clarify its values and agree ahead of
we will do, the more important
time on issues that threaten to derail
question becomes “How will we
the group once it begins to work.
be?” This is a way of asking, “How
will we work together? How will we
handle disagreement? How will we
24 Solutions
Decide on effective mutual
accountability. Although the word