The importance of DIY end of year team planning

I’ve recently posted about our end of year People & Culture team session. This has become an essential component of our tactical and strategic planning at Pick Everard for our team. We enjoy the time to come together to take stock of the successes of the year, the challenges we’ve faced together as well as undertake essential coordination of our shared goals for the year ahead. This end of year get together not only focuses us on new business priorities but it’s also a critical time for team building and connectivity.

I’m an absolute advocate for drawing on the skills, ideas and talents of our own people when developing and delivering an end of year team planning session. By designing and running our own team sessions, I think about my team’s preferences, learning styles and their needs carefully in advance of any session. By running it myself and drawing on the input of the team, I feel it reinforces our culture, secures a stronger sense of ownership and helps people relax.

My aims are always clear:

• Strengthen the team and how we work together
• Celebrate and recognise each other for what has passed
• Focus and motivate for the year ahead, so we’re ready to share a new timeline of our priorities.
• Ensure we understand how our team and the individuals within it can be at their best

I always incorporate something fun to break the ice. We’ve designed our own vegas hotels, played through the keyhole, built bridges from slats of wood and overcome the helium stick together to name but a few. Starting the session with a simple team activity helps everyone to relax and be ready to engage.

As we move on to the key discussion points of the session, creating a safe space for colleagues to open up and be their authentic selves is essential. No matter how long you’ve been in the team, everyone’s view is as valid as each other’s. We move at our own pace. Strong facilitation, break out groups and individual reflection time help everyone contemplate and share the moments they’re proud of, as well as those they have had to dig deep on - and DIY allows us ultimate flexibility in how we do this.

Psychological safety is something I’ve reflected on a lot this year as we’ve expanded our people engagement activities to more groups across Pick Everard and I am committed to ensuring it’s in place for our own team. Psychological safety is the ability to share one’s thoughts and feelings without risk of damaging one’s reputation or standing. In teams, it refers to team members believing that they can take risks without being shamed by other team members. It’s about creating a space where team members feel accepted and respected. Ensuring everyone listens during team sessions as well demonstrating that I’m incorporating everyone’s ideas in to a new year plan shows tangibly to the team that they’re being heard. They matter. They have the best answers to what we’re facing and managing. It’s this approach that enables trust to be built, harmony to be harnessed as well as any new team members to integrate more fully into the team from the outset.

What my team don’t know (until they read this!) is that I’m also observing our dynamics in the session and who has potentially got leadership skills that we haven’t tested or explored yet. The group exercises and how they describe their professional needs for the year ahead gives insight to their natural ways of working as well as their onward aspirations. Leaders can emerge from the simplest of activities and may surprise you.

I’ve been running team sessions for many years and enjoy working with my own team in this area. We’ll kick off 2023 reminding ourselves of our commitments and agreeing what activity we’ll undertake outside of the workplace in Spring as we come through the first quarter of our new plan. This regular time together, as always, strengthening our communication, collaboration and approach to productive problem-solving.

I look forward to helping more of our teams across Pick Everard's business do the same over the coming months as we progress to the next stage of our strategic Plan 25!