This is a great way for a team to get a clear shared understanding of their purpose and direction together, by seeing themselves in a fun hot air balloon on a ride together!

We can spend a lot of time on what needs to be done to achieve objectives, but sometimes we forget about who needs to do that work, and how they do it together. This canvas is a great way to help a team get a clear shared understanding of how to work together for any project that they work on, or client they work with.

When to use this canvas

• As part of a project kick-off, to establish some team understanding and etiquette about how best to succeed in doing whatever the project is.
• At an offsite, to galvanise a team for a lot of work ahead.
• To (re)establish team direction, especially if there are new members, or if people in the team haven’t worked together before.
• As part of change managementstrong>, where there have been big structural changes within an organisation, such as restructures, or mergers and acquisitions.

You can discuss and complete the elements of this canvas in 30 minutes, or up to 3 hours, depending on the size of the team, and the complexity and ambiguity of the work involved. Here are the essential elements:

• Purpose - Why does our team exist? What will the organisation/world lose, if we don’t show up?
• Goals - Why do we need to achieve, to fulfil this purpose?
• Projects - How do we engage with other teams? What’s the work to be done?
• Secret sauce - What’s special about our team? If we could bottle it, what would be the ‘ingredients’?
• Collective strengths - What advantages and differentiators do we have, especially ones we›re not leveraging?
• Skills - What skills do we need to succeed? Who is responsible for what?
• Major opportunities - What are the main opportunities for us to pursue, and why?
• Hazards - What might blow us off course, or get in the way of success?

This resource contains:

• 1-page canvas, to either print out, or to copy onto a whiteboard or online collaboration canvas