Leadership · Workbook · 90 minutes
The Team Clarity Workbook.
A structured conversation guide for leadership teams stuck between activity and alignment. Six sessions, ninety minutes, and a team that leaves knowing what matters and who owns it.
What it is
Not a strategy retreat. A single honest conversation, run well.
Most teams do not lack effort. They lack a shared sentence about what this season is for, and an agreement about who decides what. This workbook walks a team through both in one sitting.
It works for staff teams, boards, executive teams, and volunteer leadership groups of three to twelve people. No consultant required, though a neutral facilitator helps.
Use it when
Four signals your team is busy but not aligned.
Everyone is busy, nobody is sure why
Calendars are full and the work is real, but the team cannot say in one sentence what this season is actually for.
Decisions get remade
The same topic returns to the table month after month because no one is clear on who decides and what counts as done.
Meetings stay polite
Real disagreement happens after the meeting, in hallways and text threads, instead of in the room where it could help.
Priorities multiply
Every good idea becomes a project. When everything is important, the team quietly loses the ability to say no.
The workbook
Six sessions, ninety minutes, in order.
Run them straight through. The order matters more than the timing, each session depends on the honesty of the one before it.
Name the present
Each person answers two questions on their own before anyone talks: what is working right now, and what are we pretending is fine. You read the answers aloud without debate. This gets the honest picture on the table before the strongest voice sets the tone.
Define the one thing
Write a single sentence that describes what this team exists to accomplish in the next 90 days. One sentence, not three. The workbook gives you a sentence frame and a short list of tests to know whether it is specific enough to act on.
Sort the work
List everything the team is carrying and place each item in one of four columns: essential, useful, expiring, or someone else's. Most teams discover a third of their load belongs in the last two columns.
Clarify who decides
For each essential item, name one owner, one decision maker, and who simply needs to be informed. Ambiguity here is the source of most team friction, and it takes minutes to fix once it is visible.
Say the hard thing
A structured round where each person names one thing they have been holding back. The format keeps it specific and non-personal, and gives the team practice doing in the room what usually happens outside it.
Commit and schedule
Write down three commitments, who owns each, and the date you will review them. Book the follow up before anyone leaves the room. Clarity that is not scheduled does not survive the week.
Before you start
Five things that decide whether this works.
- 1
Block 90 uninterrupted minutes and pick a room without screens on the wall.
- 2
Send the two questions from session one ahead of time so nobody improvises.
- 3
Choose a facilitator who is not the senior leader, so the senior leader can participate honestly.
- 4
Bring the actual project list, not a summary of it.
- 5
Agree at the start that nothing said in the room becomes ammunition later.
What you leave with
Clarity you can put on one page and hand to someone else.
- One sentence describing what this season is for
- A shortened, ranked list of what the team is actually carrying
- A named owner and decision maker for every essential item
- Three written commitments with dates
- A scheduled review so the clarity holds
Go deeper
Bring in a neutral facilitator.
Some conversations are hard to lead and participate in at the same time. Stephen facilitates this session with leadership teams, then helps them build the follow up rhythm that keeps the clarity alive.
Start here
Take the free leadership assessment.
The Right Thing Assessment is a free leadership style quiz from Stephen Hay's Power of Availability framework. Twelve questions, about ten minutes, and a scored snapshot of your character, motives, impact, and boundaries.
Pair this with a Working Genius assessment for your team or the organizational health assessment guide.
Go deeper
Renewing a church? Start with the church revitalization hub.
Plain answers to the questions leaders ask most, what church revitalization is, how to revitalize a church, how to revitalize a small church, the signs your congregation needs it, and how long it takes, alongside the articles, assessments, and podcast episodes that go with them.