Leadership and teamwork: agree how the work fits together

To organise team work, agree the shared result, roles, decision process and a way to raise obstacles. Set a review point where the plan can change. A useful leadership contribution makes it clearer how people's work fits together and where they can get the help they need.

Describe the shared result and constraints

Imagine a small team preparing an educational workshop. One person builds registration, another writes the programme and a third arranges the venue. If they use different dates or describe different audiences, individually completed tasks will not add up to a workable event.

Begin with one shared record: who the workshop is for, what participants should be able to do afterwards, when and where it happens, and the spending limit. List anything still unconfirmed separately. For example: “The venue is provisionally available; we expect confirmation on Wednesday.” A working assumption is not yet an agreement.

Agree how the pieces fit together

The Center for Creative Leadership's DAC model examines shared direction, coordinated work and mutual responsibility for the group. It offers a way to discuss the collective process alongside the coordinator's individual qualities.

For this workshop, record a few connections:

• Registration uses the confirmed date and programme description
• The venue contact supplies timing and capacity constraints
• The programme author checks that activities fit the available time
• The coordinator collects unresolved questions and takes them to whoever has authority to choose

Each result needs a clear owner, necessary access and a way to accept the work. The task-delegation template helps define an individual assignment. Here, you also need to see the dependencies between assignments so that one person's next step is not hidden inside another person's task list.

Make the decision process explicit

Distinguish what a person can decide independently, what needs a colleague's input and what requires wider agreement. The page author might choose the order of sections independently, while a change of date first needs agreement with the venue and coordinator. The whole team does not need to review every corrected typo.

If a discussion is consultative, state who will make the final choice. If you agree to vote, establish the rule beforehand. The leadership-styles comparison helps distinguish these arrangements. Calling a meeting collaborative is not enough if participants understand their authority differently.

Make obstacles discussable

At a brief check-in, ask: “What cannot move forward, and which decision is needed?” “I'm waiting for access to the form” gives the coordinator a concrete issue. Record the owner of the next action and a response date. If the task no longer fits the available time, discuss scope and priorities rather than relying on a promise to try harder.

When someone disagrees, ask for a constraint or example. “There is too much text” might become “A visitor cannot see the date without scrolling.” If your original information was wrong, explain the correction and its consequences. Avoid punishing a contributor for reporting a difficulty early.

“Speak openly” does not guarantee trust. The response to real concerns matters: was the issue considered, was the decision explained, and was any new allocation of work agreed? Prepare focused feedback questions when you need help making a discussion more concrete.

Review readiness through the result

Before publishing registration, follow a participant's route: are the date and location visible, can someone register, and is the confirmation understandable? “The page is ready” should refer to an agreed result that can be inspected, not merely time spent creating it.

After the event, discuss one thing that worked and one difficulty. Choose a small change for the next cycle and identify who will check it. If you want to improve your own contribution as coordinator, select one leadership behaviour to practise. Refine the working arrangement through observation while keeping everyone's commitments and capacity clear.