Planning the rotation of self-managed team members

As teams move from being supervised or facilitated during their development to a more self-managed working team, members will take on more responsibilities in their different team roles. As part of this process, members will rotate their roles so that everyone participates in the self-leadership process. During the rotation process, team members may also choose to cross-train to increase team flexibility and group knowledge.

The most common method of rotating team roles is to use a rotation grid. This method works best for teams with many different roles and any number of members. To make a rotation grid, the team leader should use Excel or another spreadsheet tool for quick creation. Make the grid with the names of the team members listed in the first column on the left. The team should then decide how often to rotate the roles: weekly, monthly, quarterly, or other. If the rotation is to be weekly, the role titles are placed on the top row. The dates that each member is due to play a role would be placed in the cell where the name and roles meet. If the turnover is less frequent, put the months or terms on the top row, and put a code for the role titles in the cell where the terms and names meet. Examples that can be used for role title codes are: F = Facilitator, M = Scorekeeper, T = Timekeeper, G = Goalkeeper, etc.

Another option for weekly role rotation where there are few roles for members, such as in meetings, is to go in alphabetical order by each member’s last name. The different roles would follow each other over three terms and the same member would have multiple roles. This method works well for small or large teams, as it is easy to follow without written guidance, as long as members arrange for others to fill their role if they won’t be available the week they have an assignment. An example of alphabetical name rotation might be as follows for a four-member team with three rotating meeting roles over a 4-week period:

• Member “A” would facilitate the meeting for week 1, and then take minutes in week 2 and keep track of time in week 3. By week 4, “A” has no role other than to participating team member.
• Member “B” would be the meeting facilitator for week 2, and then would be the minute taker in week 3 and the time keeper in week 4. In week 1, this member just fulfills his usual role as a committee member. team.
• Member “C” would be the meeting facilitator for week 3, and then would be the minute taker in week 4 and the timekeeper in week 1. C’s week without an assigned role is week 2.
• Member “D” would become the meeting facilitator in week 4 and then week 1 and the timekeeper in week 2. D would have week 3 without a specialized role.

Using a process of role rotation can also help the team to train and become a more flexible team with a better group knowledge of all the tasks of the job. During rotation, members rotate roles with one another so that everyone helps guide the team toward self-management. Teams grow best when they can move from having a supervisor or facilitator to managing themselves and how their team does their work and assigning responsibility for their various team roles. NOTE:

NOTE: Also see the article on “Power Bags for Team Roles and Rotation” for ideas to make rotation easier.