Exploring mutual expectations

Exploring mutual expectations

In this section you’ve seen the importance of looking outside the team and considered approaches you can use to do this. Use this Into Action to help build bridges with other teams and individuals, and then go on to the Unit Into Action.
Into Action
Draw on your work in this section to consider your team’s links with other teams and individuals. Choose one of these options:
Option 1 asks you to explore mutual expectations with another team.
Option 2 asks you to review with your team how you can make your links with ‘outsiders’ more effective.

Option 1: Exploring mutual expectations

Use a team discussion to explore mutual expectations with your team. From this initial discussion, plan to meet with another team (either as teams or with representatives from both teams) to discuss mutual expectations and then summarise the main outcomes from the discussion.
1 Hold a team discussion and use the questions in the table below to explore the expectations you have of three other teams and what you think they expect of you.
Team What do we expect to gain from this team? How well are our expectations met?
Met/partly/not met What do we think this team expects from us?

With your team, select one team with which you most need to explore mutual expectations.
Plan this exploration using the following table:

Who and when?
Who will discuss mutual expectations with the other team?
What would be an appropriate time/occasion?
Our team’s needs
Summary of our expectations of the other team:
What do they think we expect of them? To be discussed with the other team

If there’s a gap between our expectations and what they think we expect:
How could they help us more?

To be discussed with the other team

The other team’s needs
What we think they expect from us:
What do they actually expect of us?
To be discussed with the other team
If there’s a gap:
How could we help them more?

To be discussed with the other team
[Indentation of numbered list has gone awry from here – please correct]
2 Implement the discussion with the other team.

3 Ask the person/people who held the discussion with the other team to report back to your team, using the table in Step 2.
Agree any action your team needs to take:
to get your team’s needs better met
to get the other team’s needs better met.