The Troops in the Loop worksheet is all about communication and information flow. In particular, information that needs to flow up the hierarchy to my supervisor and information that needs to flow down the hierarchy to my team.

Like you, I attend a lot of meetings and I’m always taking notes - sometimes I scribble them and sometimes I type them. Inevitably, during these meetings I learn some information that someone else needs to know about.

Whether it is a simple update that I need to share with my supervisor, or an executive decision that will impact my people in the organization, I need to pass that information along to the right people.  

The Troops in the Loop is a super simple take on my role as information traffic cop. First, you take notes in the centre section. When I note something that needs to go to my team, I mark the left column. When I note something that needs to go to my boss, I mark the right column.

Do I really expect you to print off this worksheet and use it in a meeting? No probably not. Troops in the Loop is mostly a thought experiment to remind myself not to withhold or hoard information. Maybe you’ll find it useful too.

Troops in the Loop Worksheet (1.9 MB)

Copyright, Use and Distribution

This worksheet is part of our Worksheet Wednesdays experiment. It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. You are free to copy and redistribute this worksheet. You can remix it or adapt it to your purposes, providing you share your revised version too. If you use this worksheet, please attribute Thirdway Think and link to thirdwaythink.com

Source of Inspiration

Allen, J. S., Kusy, M., and Vaill, P. (2011). The Little Book of Leadership Development. New York: AMACOM.