Whether you’re just forming as a new team or an existing team considering the next step of your journey together, success requires getting everyone on the same page. A kickoff sets the stage for the next act. So, what are the steps needed for a successful kickoff?

1. Invite the right people. The team is often bigger than we think. An effective kickoff session engages both your core team and peripheral stakeholders who play critical parts in your team’s success. In addition to your core team be sure to invite operations, customer support, sales, marketing, compliance, and so forth as applicable.

2. Set the stage. The business sponsor and the facilitator prepare a script to guide the activities of the participants in rapid discovery. A kickoff is not a one-way presentation. It is an intense collaborative working session.

3. Reveal the disconnects. Most of the activities in a kickoff are designed to bring to the surface different perspectives and opinions. There will be conflict! Don’t worry. Healthy conflict will reveal different possibilities that may not have been previously considered. Some of these new insights may prove useful!

4. Converge on the (moving target). In addition to revealing disconnects, the activities in a kickoff serve to help the participants converge on a way forward. The path thus taken will be based on the best available information at the time. Above all, remember that we are stepping into a future full of unknowns. It is the future after all! Our learning as we work together will surely reveal better paths and perhaps even recalibrate our understanding of the target. Be prepared to be surprised and adapt accordingly!

Next time, we’ll take a look at the elements of a successful kickoff.