Monthly Teal Meetings - How Do We Sync to Integrate and Keep Up With an Evolving Teal Organization

In a teal organization, the monthly meeting is an important event to sync up and keep up with the ever-evolving company. At nexocode, we use these meetings to share and debate on important subjects, as well as to integrate within the team. We’ve found that this approach helps keep everyone on track and informed of our progress.

Since the nexocode company decided to transition into an emerging organizational model like a teal organization, we have been looking for new and better ways to communicate and conduct our monthly meetings. We want to make sure that everyone is on the same page and that we are building relationships within the team. In this blog post, we will describe our approach to monthly teal meetings and how they have helped us evolve as an organization.

Teal Organizations - What Does It Mean?

Before we get into the specifics of our monthly team meetings, it might be helpful to define what teal organizations are. A teal organization is a company that has adopted the principles of self-management, wholeness, and evolutionary purpose. This means that the employees are empowered to make decisions and contribute their ideas in order to create a more meaningful work experience.

One way to think about teal organizations is by imagining them as living organisms. Just like a plant or animal grows and evolves over time, so too does a teal organization. The goal is for employees at all levels to feel like they are part of something larger than themselves - something that is constantly changing and evolving.

Monthly Teal Meetings - What Are They?

Our monthly teal meetings are an opportunity for the whole team to get together and sync up. We use this time to share important information, debate on key topics, decide on the strategy and integrate within the team. This helps us stay on track and informed of our progress as we continue to evolve as an organization.

The format of our monthly teal meetings is always changing, but there are a few core elements that remain constant. First, we start with check-in from each project and core departments at nexocode. This gives everyone a chance to share what they’ve been working on and how they’re feeling. Next, we move into a discussion of any pressing issues or concerns. This is followed by a brainstorming session where we generate ideas on how to approach our current and future decisions. Finally, we conclude the official part of the meeting by debriefing on the outcomes and next steps.

The next part of our meeting is focused on team-building activities and the personal growth of our self-managing teams.

What Do We Discuss?

Topics we cover during our teal meetings:

• Current project affairs
• Strategy and change management
• Innovation and product development
• Sales and marketing updates and plans
• Financial performance, budgeting, and investments
• People operations and social management
• Crisis management

How Do We Discuss Current Matters?

We use a variety of methods to discuss current matters. Whichever approach we take we focus on creating a safe space for discussion and debate. This helps to ensure that everyone has a voice and can contribute their ideas.

As long as they speak with interested parties along the way, teammates can provide counsel, propose methods, and suggest a change. The ‘advice process’ is the key enabling element. The purpose is also inextricably linked to strategy, and ’listening to purpose’ replaces traditional strategic planning.

Teal Decision Making and Advice Process

The decision-making process in teal organizations is different from that of traditional hierarchical organizations (red and orange organizations). In a teal company, each team member is urged to propose their ideas and then test them through the advice process.

In Teal, the emphasis is on finding new methods to serve the organization’s distinct sense of evolutionary purpose rather than outsmarting the competition. The advice process is a key element in the functioning of teal organizations. It helps to ensure that everyone has a voice and can contribute their ideas. The advice process starts with an individual having an idea. This idea is then discussed with knowledgeable peers who provide counsel and suggest changes. After this, the idea is tested, and if it is successful, it is implemented.

In the teal paradigm, the emphasis is on innovation and creativity. This implies that ideas must be discussed with knowledgeable peers, and for organization-level decision-making, our monthly teal meetings are always the starting point for bigger proposals and company-wide changes. Anyone, and everyone, can be an inventor in this organizational culture.

If you are interested in our communication culture, head over to one of our previous articles on effective workplace communication.

The Secret to Self-Management: Collective Intelligence

Of course, a decentralized decision process from teal management requires a flexible hierarchy and leadership. The most knowledgeable person to choose is the person with more expertise in the matter. Other factors for this work include fluid coordination, knowledge exchange within teams, value-driven culture, self-discipline, and good self-control of the ego. When engines function together, the collective intelligence of self-managed teams emerges. To do this, every procedure needs changing and tackling problems often avoided through transparency so everyone can have the information and context needed for complex decisions.

How to Build Peer Relationships?

The most important ingredient for a good relationship is trust. If you can’t trust the person, the relationship will be very difficult. Trust is built by being honest with each other and keeping your word. It’s also built by spending time together and getting to know each other.

In order to build trust, we need to be transparent with each other. We need to share information and context so that everyone can make informed decisions. We also need to spend time together so that we can get to know each other and build relationships of trust.

Team Building Activities in the Work Environment

Company integration is a key element of each teal meeting that aims in building peer relationships.

For the integration and team-building part, we usually set a lot of time divided into two distinct elements. The first one is focused on team-building activities and personal growth through participation in workshops and training people. We usually select activities that can aid our personal development, like mindfulness, public speaking, or productivity and time management classes, and on other occasions, we go for something more casual like cooking classes, wine or coffee tasting, and clay workshops. These activities give us space for personal development and fun while also building trust and relationships within the team.

The second part is more aimed at socializing and enjoying each other’s company outside of work. We believe that this provides the perfect opportunity for everyone to get to know each other on a personal level and build relationships that last. We usually pick a restaurant, bar, or other casual places to spend some time with each other and have honest, off-work face-to-face conversations.

This is how we conduct our teal meetings at nexocode. We believe that this approach helps us to sync up as an evolving organization and keep up with the ever-changing needs of our team members.

What Are Some Benefits of Monthly Meetings?

Monthly meetings in a teal model provide a number of benefits for both individuals and the organization as a whole:

• They help us stay informed and on track with our progress and challenges. This is especially important as we continue to evolve as an organization and a living entity. We focus on getting into a deeper sense of creating a transparent community.
• They create space for relationships to develop within the team. By getting together regularly, employees have an opportunity to get to know each other better and build trust. This is especially important as we are a remote-first company and rely on self-organized teams.
• They foster creativity and innovation by encouraging open communication and idea-sharing. By coming together to brainstorm, we are able to generate new ideas and approaches to our work.
• They improve communication and coordination between teams that do not work together on a daily basis. Regular meetings allow team members to share information and collaborate more effectively without hierarchies and unnecessary management structures.

Conclusions

While our monthly teal meetings are always evolving, we’ve found that they are an essential part of our organization. They help us stay informed and connected to one another, which is essential for creating a teal culture. We hope that this blog post provides some useful information on how to conduct your own monthly company meetings by applying teal practices or if you’d like to be a part of it - check our careers page and join nexocode teal company.