Do you feel ownership in the success of your YPO Forum or Roundtable?
If so, here are four critical building blocks to make sure all members thrive from the YPO Forum experience. The Ertrachter Group has experience helping Forum groups get and stay healthy, as well as leading others through challenging times.
These four critical building blocks can help create and sustain success in your Forum.
1. Create a safe environment
- Develop group norms – what guidelines (behaviors) will you commit to in order to do your best work together?
- Participate in regular “getting to know” you activities – there are many activity ideas available free online, or Ertrachter Group can bring you proven activities to get to know other members on a deeper level. Picking the right activity is important.
- Pick the right location for your meetings.
2. Always work on building trust
One of our favorite definitions of trust comes from Patrick Lencioni’s book, “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team”— trust is ”the willingness to be vulnerable.” He shares: “Team members who trust one another learn to be comfortable being open, even exposed, to one another around their failures, weaknesses, even fears.”
To build trust in and among your Forum members:
- Participate in regular “getting to know” you activities.
- Create value statements for the group.
- Check-in with each other on a regular basis to work through any conflicts.
- Identify and practice a process for conflict resolution
3. Check-in with each other regularly to ensure each individual is getting value from their Forum experience
- Carve out time at each meeting to ask each other.
- Use a Retreat to identify what is working and what isn’t working for your Forum.
- Develop an action plan for things that are not be working.
4. Use a formal process for assimilating new members to your group
- Develop a plan for how you will welcome new members to an established group.
- The plan may include connecting the new member with an old member with the commitment to share a meal or an experience (I.e., golf) before the next meeting, sharing the group’s mission, values and norms and ensuring meaning and relevancy for the new member.
If you would like assistance with surveying your Forum members or coming up with an action plan to incorporate some (or all) of these Building Blocks, call The Ertrachter Group. We are ready to help you make the most of your experience.