Starting Well as a Team

1. In order for a new team to gel, clarity on team norms/expectations and a common vision are vital. In order to arrive at these, sufficient time to discuss and explore expectations are needed. One of the best models for setting team standards is The 5 Disfunctions of a Team by consultant Patrick Lencioni (who happens to be Christian). See attached. Also, discussing conflict styles, communication preferences, spiritual gifts, MBTI, Strengthsfinders, or other inventories can help teams get quickly to a performing level.

2. Prayer cannot be underemphasized in the group discernment process for determining the vision for the year. One strategy is for each new team member to commit to prayer for the vision and for each other. Also, it is recommended that every leader be able to give a compelling elevator pitch to the question, "What is your fellowship about?"

3. New teams need to own the new vision. Just because the fellowship did X last year, it doesn't mean the new team needs to repeat it. At the same time, a new team that insists on everything being changed can cause "vision whiplash" for the fellowship. It also means that developing strong friendships within the fellowship is an important part of getting buy-in for a new vision.

4. InterVarsity recommends that every fellowship have 4 'buckets' of activity. What activities go into each bucket and how much goes in each bucket is up to each team. The buckets are:

Community: helping students, alums, faculty, and administrators build relationships and community
Spiritual formation: seeing the transformation of all involved to be more and more the image of Christ
Service and evangelism: addressing spiritual, economic, and social poverty of MBAs and the world
Integration of faith and work: encouraging students and alumni to live their faith out holistically, including at work

You can find more on this at http://mba.intervarsity.org/ministry-values

5. One common major goal for leadership teams in the spring and summer is to solidify the relationships with other 1st year students. Once the fall term arrives, most fellowships have difficulty retaining 2nd year students who are not on the leadership team in the fellowship, so building relationships now is vital. Another retention strategy is to ask those 2nd years to help out in some way early on in the fall term, e.g., mentor a 1st year, host a social event, or just show up at kick off meetings.

6. Having a fall plan for recruiting new students in place before the end of spring term is important. Certain outreach strategies require advanced planning, e.g., an all-school speaker event in week 2 of classes. Another common pitfall with recruiting new students is not having a structured plan for immediate follow up (e.g., a coffee chat) with accountability of leaders for meeting with assigned new students.

7. Summer internship is one of the most spiritually vulnerable periods for many MBA's, especially for those moving to new towns without a spouse or community, all while they are on what can feel like a 10 week long interview. Strategies for supporting each other during the summer have included: email prayer chains, Facebook groups, or regular shared devotionals (such as the one attached from an HBS alum created specifically for MBA's).

8. Whenever planning an event or a strategy, every member of the team should be clear on the purpose, the target audience, and the desired outcome. A common error is to recruit a celebrity-level Christian business leader for a speaking event and fail to recruit the right audience due to confusion, or fail to help the speaker structure his/her talk to fit the audience and time of year that is relevant to the MBA community.