ON A SCALE OF 1 TO 10 [ An Excerpt from The Power of a Positive Team ] A great way to informally gauge how well you and your team are communicating is to have a team meeting and ask, on a scale of 1 to 10, how well you communicate as a team. A 10 means you communicate perfectly and a 1 means you barely know each other's name. Having asked this question to numerous teams of all types I understand that the numbers are subjective and one person’s 8 might be another person’s 6. It’s not a perfect science or measuring tool. The idea is to stimulate the team to think about how well or how poorly you communicate. I’ve also found that the overall numbers are pretty consistent and indicative of how well a team communicates. Once everyone on the team shares their number, then the next question you should ask is, “Why isn’t it a 10? Where do we fall short?” And then ask, “What would make it a 10?” This helps identify various voids in communication and leads to many great ideas and ways to improve team communication. You can do this individually as well. Have each person write their name on pieces of paper. Pass the sheets around and on the other side of the papers have each team member rate how well that person communicates, why they fall short of a 10, and what they could do to make it a 10. When everyone is finished rating one another, have each person read some of the reasons why they fall short, what they can do to improve, and what they will do to be a better communicator. -Jon
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