Friday Reflection: Three Questions to HelpYour Team Stay Focused and Aligned
designACE - your daily resource for meetings and workshopsAs a leader, you have the power and responsibility to guide your team to achieve goals. How do you ensure your team is focused and aligned on what matters? The answer is simple: ask these three goal-oriented questions every Friday and facilitate a meaningful conversation to help your team reach new heights.
Staying focused and aligned with your team goals is crucial for your leadership and teamwork. It can help you prioritize your actions, monitor your progress, and achieve your desired results. It can also help you build trust and collaboration with your team members.
“Research shows that reflection is critical to helping us deepen and integrate learning, and effectively apply it to our work and our lives. In fact, reflecting on what has been learned can increase performance by 23 percent.” - BetterUp
When to ask reflection questions?
To see how people feel at the end of a meeting or workshop.
After a significant milestone or project deliverable, see what people think.
On Friday, when considering your week and want to evaluate your efforts.
When you want to check in with your friends, family, or a loved one.
When you are on your own, pause and reflect.
Vote by Comment: Which of this week’s reflection questions are your favourite?
Vote by commenting and tell us which reflection question is your favourite. Bonus marks if you answer the question too!
How have our steps this week gotten us closer to accomplishing our goals?
How can we better align our tasks with our team/project goals?
What should we prioritize next week that we didn’t focus enough on this week?
Consider asking these questions to encourage continuous learning and development in your workplace. They can prompt reflection and alignment for both you and your team.
Question 1: How have our steps this week gotten us closer to accomplishing our goals?
This question helps you review and acknowledge your and your team's actions this week and pinpoint how these decisions have helped move the team closer to success. You can share what items have been done or completed, essential steps taken, or key findings that contributed to your goals and objectives. Alternatively, you might flip the question if the team experienced any pitfalls or setbacks. Asking, “what steps could we have taken to get closer to our goal?” is just as valuable as reflecting on the steps you did take, so depending on the week your team had, you can play with the framing of the question to get the value you need.
Why this question is impactful: Tracking and celebrating your progress toward your goals can increase your motivation, engagement, and productivity. It can also help you identify what works and doesn’t and adjust accordingly.
In addition, you can show appreciation and recognition for your team’s efforts and achievements by asking this question. You can also encourage your team to keep up the excellent work and share best practices with other team members.
Follow-up questions:
How do we document and share our progress with other teams and stakeholders?
How do we ensure that we are consistent and reliable in our actions as a team
Question 2: How can we better align our tasks with our team/project goals?
This question helps you evaluate and improve the alignment between your tasks, responsibilities, and team goals. It's not uncommon for team members to get wrapped up in countless project tasks or endless meetings and work on things that are lower priority or irrelevant to the project. Things can change by the minute regarding product and service design-based projects, so pausing to validate that your efforts are being allocated to the most pressing work is time well spent. Ensuring you are all working on the right tasks and still have a shared understanding of the key project objectives and goals will enable your team to work more agilely, rejigging your project plan and approach to maximize resources and drive success.
Why this question is impactful: Aligning your tasks and responsibilities with your team goals can enhance your efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of work. It can also help avoid duplication, confusion, or conflict among team members. You can also share how you communicate and coordinate with your team members to ensure alignment and promote work processes that work well.
In addition, you can show your commitment to achieving your team goals by asking this question. You can also invite feedback and input from other team members and foster a sense of ownership and accountability across your team.
Follow-up questions:
How do we effectively set and communicate our team goals?
Have our goals or objectives changed, and if so, how should we modify our tasks and project plan?
Question 3: What should we prioritize next week that we didn’t focus enough on this week?
This question helps you plan and prepare for the next week by reflecting on the current week's performance. The past is the best predictor of the future, so thinking about where you fell short and what had to be sacrificed helps ensure missed tasks or delayed deliverables are prioritized and revisited immediately.
This question helps the teams share the most important or urgent tasks or activities that you or your team need to complete in the next week and prompts a good discussion about why the tasks were “back burnered” or deprioritized. The team could benefit from understanding how decisions were made and determine if the course of action helped or hindered the team’s efforts and progress toward goals. You can also share what goals or outcomes you want to achieve in the next week, driving excitement and building momentum for the week ahead.
Why this question is impactful: Setting priorities and goals for the next week can help you focus your time, energy, and resources. It can help you anticipate problems or risks. You can show your proactivity and foresight as a leader by asking this question. You can inspire your team to take action, achieve results, and show that it's okay to make sacrifices for the greater good of the project.
Follow-up questions:
How do we assign roles and responsibilities for the next week?
How do we measure our performance and results for the next week?
Putting Your Reflection into Action
Achieving your goals requires open and honest discourse with your team about ways to work together more effectively and achieve greater productivity. Keep in mind that the purpose of this dialogue is not to point fingers but rather to facilitate clear communication and propel the team toward success.
Pro Tips:
Create a SMART action plan for each team member's tasks and goals.
Track progress, celebrate wins, and hold each other accountable for the action plan.
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Take Away
Encouraging a Friday reflection routine can uplift your team's communication, teamwork, and overall alignment. Leverage these open-ended questions to facilitate honest conversations. Then, spotlight the week's highs and learn from any lows so you start next week aligned on common goals and objectives.
