build-team

Outcome:
If your aim is to get all team members physically together for all meetings, there's a good chance you will fail. So how can you ensure that all team members are part of the conversation and have an opportunity to contribute, while still fitting in with busy schedules and high workloads?

Suggestions

 * Agree to your team processes right from the start.
 * Decide on the most effective way of meeting. It may be as part of your regular course team meetings, or it may be separate. How long are you willing to set aside to work on this? Short and intense? Longer and less intense? Face-to-face or using online meeting (or similar e.g. skype).
 * Who will form your strategy team? All team members? A core strategy group of the most interested staff? If a core group, you'll need to find ways to ensure that the others are able to vet decisions and come into the core group if they feel their needs aren't being represented.
 * After each meeting, share the decisions made with all team members.
 * Require everyone to view decisions made, and respond to them within an agreed timeframe, especially those who weren't at the decision-making meeting. All decisions will need to be held in a core place that is used regularly by your team. S drive, Interact site ... whatever is used most.
 * At key times, bring the whole team together to review all decisions, and how they fit together e.g. with other theme areas.
 * Consider getting different team members to work on different initiatives identified as important for your team, and report back to the group.