6.7 Making a Campfire

So, finally ... :) The word “Campfire” has come up a thousand times, and now we’re officially getting to it.

With teamdecoder and our consulting approach, we want to help the team learn to handle change more easily and to make adjustments to roles and groups without much hassle. That way, the team can keep improving, adapt to new circumstances, and won’t be knocked over by the next Wind of Change!

For that to work, it’s important that the team sits down regularly and reflects on two key questions:

• What’s not going well right now and needs improvement?

• What’s coming up soon, and how do we (structurally) need to prepare for it?

I recommend holding this meeting weekly at first, then bi-weekly, and never less than once per month. The team gathers around teamdecoder like around a 🔥 campfire (hence the name ;)).

It’s your job as a consultant to gradually teach the team how this works. You can:

• Find a moderator and train them over time

• Get the team lead on board and show them this is actually their responsibility

• Or get booked by the team once a month to run the meeting yourself :)

Knowledge Base article available — including agenda templates and suggestions.

🔥 Campfire Page

To simplify the process of this meeting and to collect all the topics the team should eventually address, there is the Campfire Page, marked with the 🔥 (flame) icon in the side navigation.

Using this page, you can (first on your own, then with the leadership, or even directly with the whole team) work your way through the following points:

All current topics “on the radar”:

• Feedback submitted by team members via the Reports

• All elements tagged with “Campfire” – including any notes added to them

All workload-related topics that need reviewing:

• People with too much work

• People with available capacity

• Roles that are understaffed

• Roles that are overstaffed

Prioritization questions:

• Are there any roles currently unassigned? Is that okay or do we need to take action?

• Are there roles currently filled by external people? Is that still acceptable or do we want to internalize them?

Personal development:

• Who is currently supposed to grow into which roles, and what’s the current status? (“fading in”)

• Who is expected to step out of certain roles soon, and is that still the plan? (“fading out”)

Are definitions missing for some elements to create clarity?

• Where is a Purpose still missing?

• Where are Tasks missing?

• Where are measurable Objectives missing?

Is there “new work”?

• Do we need to define new roles and/or groups?