The Power of the T-Chart

If you are looking for a simple and high impact team development tool, I"ll put my money on the power of the T-Chart every time!

As I watched a team use this tool I had introduced to them a few months ago, the impact was clear. They were mentioning specifics, celebrating the things that were going well and taking actions to continuously improve and keep their work on track. They were on target for their results and the high quality of relationships in the room was evident. I have seen this pattern repeated many times across dozens of teams with this method and so I decided to make it a topic.

The T-Chart provides a quick, simple and powerful tool for continuous improvement of any on-going team or group effort.

How do you conduct a Plus - Delta Review?

The plus/delta review is best in the final 10 - 15 minutes of a meeting.

Step 1: The facilitator of the review asks the team to think about how the team is doing on the three key dimensions of team success:

• Results
• Process
• Relationships

Step 2: Ask the group is "What is going well?"

List the responses given with no comments, evaluation, judgement or problem solving on the spot. Give everyone the opportunity to comment if they want to.

Step 3: Ask "What do we want to do differently?"

Again, list the responses without judgement or problem-solving.

Step 4: The facilitator asks the group to keep doing the things that are going well.

Key Step 5: The facilitator and meeting leader to review the "delta" list immediately after the meeting. If they are able to identify and either take action to resolve some or all of the delta's or create an agenda item for Team Continuous Improvement at the next team meeting this will demonstrate tangible evidence that this is a high performing team that will get even better. The content of these lists can very greatly between teams and over the life of a team.

Examples I've recently seen include:

• Sue was 20 minutes late today for the third consecutive meeting
• I think we spend too much time talking about obscure what ifs and hypothetical examples
• I am greatly concerned about this tight time frame - there is no margin for any error
• I still don't believe we are fully appreciating the potential impact of X and I would like to spend more time on that in our next meeting
• I think we need someone on the team with strong financial skills
• I propose that we use a fish bone diagram to ensure we are really dealing with the root cause issues

This is such a powerful practice because it provides the team a space early on to discuss things that are holding them back from being at their best. As the team builds this practice they become very adept at dealing with issues and warning signs early before time, emotional energy and resources are wasted unproductively.

This process requires some risk and vulnerability but the benefits are well worth it. Give it a try this week!