Effective Team Briefing

For me, team briefing was always a vital component of employee engagement in the businesses I worked in. It enabled me as a manager to know that all employees received information about the business and their own teams’ performance, as well as being a great source of feedback from them. I believe team briefing is a vital skill for any manager no matter what position they hold and being able to deal with tricky or difficult briefing situations is an important part of a manager’s toolkit. I have briefed many teams over the years and have found the following tips useful in managing and dealing with difficult briefing situations. 1) Set Expectations. Setting clear expectations is a great way to ensure that a briefing runs smoothly without constant interruptions. By stating expectations at the start of my team brief it helped me to manage the process more effectively. For example, I would set expectations around the length of time the team brief was expected to take, how and when questions will be taken, and the level of attention required - i.e. mobile phones and other electronic devices to be switched off! 2) Dealing with Questions. My experience is that you shouldn’t ignore a question, as doing so may be taken as a sign of defensiveness on your part and so I would answer questions directly and honestly. Even if questions were inappropriate or ill-timed, I tried to acknowledge them and thank the other person for asking them. Sometimes I would refer to the expectations I set out at the start, and answer any questions at the end. If I did not know the answer, I would respond with “I don’t know” to some difficult questions. I never felt that I had to know everything. People will soon see through any answers made up on the spot anyway. However, in the majority of cases, not getting an answer to someone's question was not acceptable. I would say, ‘Thank you. I do not know the answer to that very interesting question. I’ll have to get back to you on that, after I’ve spoken to (x). I will do this by (y)”. 3) Dealing with questions that keep on coming. One of the most common difficulties you are likely to encounter is a barrage of questions from either one or more people. Sometimes these people really want answers to their questions but at other times the interrupter may have a disruptive motive. However, you may not be able to tell which is which! I found that the least confrontational way of dealing with a constant stream of questions was to answer each question as briefly as possible. I tried to limit my answers to one ‘breath’ in length. Before stating my answer, I would check if this material would be covered later in the briefing. If it was, I would tell the questioner that the material will be covered later. I tried not to expand on my answers, because lengthy replies containing additional details will only serve to give the questioner additional opportunity to ask more questions. Remember, keeping your answers brief minimises the negative effect of any interruptions and allows you to move on. Another tip if you find that giving short answers and setting expectations haven’t deterred interruptions, acknowledge the question but delay the answer, letting the other person know that you will cover this at the end of the briefing. 4) Dealing with off-topic questions and discussions. My view is that one or two ‘off-topic’ questions from the audience isn’t a problem, but if there are a lot of them this can be very disruptive and cause the briefing to wander or over run. One technique I used for dealing with an off-topic question was to ask for its relevance to the briefing. The sooner I could relate the question to the briefing, the sooner I could move on. 5) Dealing with confrontational questions Occasionally I might get a very confrontational question. However, I learned the hard way that if I responded to the tone with a challenging or sarcastic response, I simply lost some credibility. However, it’s vital never ever to lose control. I would try to rephrase and restate the question in a neutral way to reduce confrontation. 6) Dealing with someone who is angry or frustrated If you encounter someone who has become particularly angry, upset or frustrated during your briefing, the best way to deal with it is to accept that they are feeling angry, upset, etc (you are not necessarily agreeing with them), but deal with it after the briefing. For example, “I recognise that (x) has made you angry / frustrated etc, and that you want it resolving. I suggest therefore that we discuss these issues separately after the briefing”. 7) Dealing with a ‘Heckler’ You may find you are conducting a brief and a member of the audience decides to make comment out loud (sarcastic, amusing or otherwise) about what you are briefing. Again, never get upset, or lose control. The best way I found in dealing with these people was to find merit in what they are saying, or express agreement on something, and simply move on. 8) Always have the final say. While it can be helpful to keep the questions until after the brief is finished, I felt it was important to make sure that I had the final say – literally, by summarising the points covered. Team briefing is a vital management skill and hopefully by sharing my experiences above, it will help you to improve your briefing skills too.