The Problem
Most organizations try to accomplish important goals with the support of a team. The saying goes, many hands make light work. While this is a true statement, organizing those hands to accomplish an important goal can be challenging. Having team members who are not clear on their roles, responsibilities, and time commitments can lead to frustration and hard feelings.
A team leader may expect that a member of their group understands their role or has the time to carry out the task. However, the team member may not share this understanding. Team leaders and members become frustrated in these situations, and delegation of tasks may stop. This lack of alignment does not have to occur, just because tasks are distributed to a group. Sometimes, we have to define the relationship.
I have been both a team member and leader who was not clear on my role and responsibilities. Through our research and practice, we have found at least one method that can help clarify the expectations and resources your team needs to accomplish tasks.
Defining Team Positions
Teams can draft position description charts that provide details about what it means to serve in each role. With written descriptions, each team member knows what to expect in terms of both tasks and time.
Here is how to do it..
- Review your organizational chart if you have one: Your organization chart helps you identify the key members of your team. These are examples of organizational charts from secondary schools implementing multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) (Word Doc)
- Name the role: Identify the title or name of the position (or subgroup) from your team.
- Identify key tasks: List the most critical steps the person (or people) needs to carry out in this role.
- Estimate the amount of time required: Determine how many hours per week or month are necessary to complete the tasks identified.
- Include sub-committees or teams: If you have sub-committees on your organizational chart, include them in your chart.
- Look for patterns in names: Sometimes, we color-code individual names to see who is assigned to multiple roles. If you see the same individuals on numerous rows on the chart, you might need to think about expanding your leadership pool.
Below you will find a short five-minute video you can use to walk teams through the process of defining their roles.
Examples
Here is a link to a school-level example (Word Doc) from a team implementing a schoolwide approach for MTSS. This link includes an example with roles for a district team implementing MTSS (Word Doc).
If you codify the roles of your team, you will find the members will have a better understanding of their role, and how much they need to support their tasks.
Practice
Take a moment to consider a role for which you currently serve. Using this blank version (Word Doc), and complete one row of the planning document including the title of your position, responsibilities, and the number of hours per week/month you need to complete carry out this role.
By codifying your team’s role, you will:
- Have a record of your team members’ current efforts
- Know what your specific team members are responsible for carrying out
- Be able to talk about what can come off a team members’ non-essential task list
- Support a smoother transition between current and new teammates
Without a written document of your tasks, you may experience:
- Drifts in roles and responsibilities
- Difficulty in knowing how much time team members need to carry out a task
- Frustration when transiting from one team member to another. This frustration may be particularly acute when all of the knowledge “lives in the head” of the person you are replacing.
For more information, check out chapter nine (Alignment of Professional Roles with Practices) in our book: Implementing Systematic Interventions A Guide for Secondary Teams (check out the book here)
When you clarify your role, you will move from a nebulous understanding of your tasks to a more straightforward definition of what success looks like for you and your team.
I would love to hear your thoughts about ways to support teams in defining their roles and responsibilities. Please take a moment to leave your comments below.