As teams move from being supervised or facilitated during their development to a more self-managed work team, members will take on more responsibility in their different team roles. As part of this process, members will rotate 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 awareness.

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 from the left. Next, the team must decide how often to rotate the roles: weekly, monthly, quarterly, or something else. If the rotation is to be weekly, the role titles are placed in the top row. The dates that each member is to play a role would be placed in the cell where the name and roles converge. If the rotation is less frequent, put the months or terms in 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 = Minute Taker, T = Timekeeper, G = Doorman, etc.

Another option for weekly role rotation where there are few member roles, such as in meetings, is to go alphabetically by each member’s last name. The different roles would succeed each other over three periods 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 in for them in their role if they will not be available the week they have an assignment. An example of alphabetical name rotation might look like this for a four-member team with three rotating meeting roles over a 4-week period:

• Member “A” would be the meeting facilitator for week 1, and then would be the minute-taker for week 2 and the timer for week 3. When week 4 rolls around, “A” has no role other than the participating team member.
• Member “B” would be the meeting facilitator for week 2, and then would be the minute-taker for week 3 and the timer for week 4. For week 1, this member is just in his usual role as a member of the equipment.
• Member “C” would be the meeting facilitator for week 3, and then would be the minute taker for week 4 and the timer for week 1. C’s week without an assigned role is week 2.
• Member “D” would become the meeting facilitator in week 4 and then the minute taker in week 1 and the timekeeper in week 2. D would have week 3 with no specialized role.

Using a role rotation process can also help the team cross-train and become a more flexible team with a better group understanding of all job tasks. During rotation, members rotate roles with each other 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 facilitate rotation.