A 2-day toolkit for leaders on the art of team-building & the science of team design...
Teamworking: part of every leader’s landscape
Processes don’t do the work, people do, working in teams. It’s through teams that leaders get results that really matter. Finding ways to get teams to work well together is a major mission for all leaders. No matter what level they’re at, they need to know how to form teams, facilitate them to work collaboratively, maintain and improve them and help them continuously rethink and re-invent how they work together. Leaders also need tomanage team relationships and performance, build team capability, get commitment to common goals and get rid of barriers that get in the way of good teamwork. It’s a tall order...Getting clearer on what it takes to work well in teams makes a big difference to people fitting in and getting along. Without team skills, many leaders bumble along, making the same old avoidable errors that get teams in a tangle. Whether you’re forming a team from scratch or want to fine-tune your existing team for superior performance, the ability to mobilise cohesive teams and get people to work in well with each other is an absolute necessity for all successful leaders. It’s a key way others tell your effectiveness as a leader.
Most workplaces say they work in teams but fewer know how to make teams work.Like anything else, teams break-down, under-perform, disintegrate, cease to function as they should and need revitalising, re-forming or fine-tuning from time to time. And that’s where Leading through Teams comes in…
What does Leading through Teams cover?
This 2-day toolkit looks at teams and teamworking through the dual lenses of team-design and team-building. It explores what’s involved in the leader’s role as team-builder, designer and facilitator and takes a step-by-step approach to show leaders how to form teams, how to maintain them and to help existing teams rethink and re-invent how they work together.Here’s some of the topics we touch on in this invigorating clinic:Difference between true teams and groups
Foundations of effective teams and teamwork
Designing teams: the 5 key reform dimensions
Collective vs. individual silo work styles
Teambuilding and team formation steps
Redesigning team boundaries and work processes
Team operating principles and blueprints
Developing team visions, goals & targets
Sharing leadership and distributing decisions
Team empowerment and self-responsibility
Facilitating teams – models, tools and steps
Team conversations, dynamics and interactions
Getting participation and engagement
Encouraging accountability, creativity and learning
Managing team problem-solving and performance
Action planning for team reformation
Who’s this clinic for and what can you expect?
This clinic can benefit anyone who leads teams from director level down, who wants to work with their team on developing shared visions, new team designs, operating principles, workroles and decision-making practices. It’s also useful if you’re looking to learn how to plan and facilitate teambuilding sessions or reform and revitalise teams...Each participant brings a real-life team leadership situation to work on with others – to develop a personalised team action-plan and contract to carry out back-at-work activities. We think people learn best by doing so there’s lots of practice to build your confidence to use the tools back at work, backed up by a comprehensive self-coaching guide to support your continued learning and sharing with your team. /
Do you need to:
Redesign, reform or revitalise the way your team operatesBreak-downboundaries to work more together as one-team
Develop more of a shared team vision, common values or goals
Fostermore shared accountability, involvement and ownership
Empower teams to take initiative, problem-solve and make decisions
Get people to work in better with each other and share the load
Give teams more self-determination and self-management
Implement new team performance measures or clarify roles and goals
Develop team-building sessions or a team improvement action plan
Learn steps and tools to design better teams and build teamwork
What they say about this clinic:
Very relevant. Your approach is easy to follow, logical, well-paced with content andactivities well-delivered. And the guide is such a great take-away resource…Mickey Polkinghorne, Dept of CommunitiesGreat facilitation and great activities. You got the group engaged and created an easy-going atmosphere. Great toolkit too to go back to refresh and develop skills further. Well worth the time off work!Olivia Falvey, Qld Health
Excellent, very relevant to my workplace. If you work with teams this is a must...Danny Lynch, Council Works Supervisor
Do this course – it’ll be beneficial. Good presentation and activities. Larry Hales, Qld Health
Very practical - most beneficial training I’ve been on for some time. Theory well-reinforced with practical examples… Very worthwhile. Garry Baills, Council Manager
This traininghad a very positive effect on our team. Very well presented with a nice mix of humour, realism and a down to earth style as well as a good reference book we regularly refer to. Kym Harland – Disability Services
Find out more about Teams…
See our free FactFilesandEzinesfor articles, tool-tips and ideas and ourWorking Better Together Prospectus for our take on team-building.Contact Us…
For information, brochures and in-house quotes contactBill Cropper:Tel:07-4068 7591
Mob:0429-687513
Email:
Web:
Crank up your conversational capacity and improve the calibre of your team-talk...
Teams that can talk together stick together…
Conversations are at the core of constructive teams. They’re the way we stay in touch, build bonds, exchange ideas, sort out plans, fix problems and take action.Communication or lack of it is a constant complaint in most teams – and at the bottom of better communication is an ability to have better conversations.Better conversationmeans better teamwork. The way teams talk together is a telling indicator of morale, culture, climate, performance and team cohesion. It’s a key element in the effective functioning of any team. Yet while we engage in them all the time, the importance of becoming more skilled at conversations seems to escape us. Many of us work together for years and never take the time to reflect on how we come across or talk to each other.
It’s as though conversations are so fundamental to everyday life, most of us never stop to think how we might become better at them.If your team’s never talked openly over how you work in with, and come across to, each other, you’re probably perpetuating errors and omissions in the way you see and relate to each other. And that’s what this clinic is all about.
What Talking with Your Team does?
This fast-track condensed from our longer 2-day clinic, covers 7 principles for more constructive conversations along with a useful set of foundation tools to replace dysfunctional debate with the art of more skillful discussion. Whether you’re a team leader or team worker, you explore how to apply a range of easy-to-learn discussion tools you can deploy in all sorts of settings in a supportive, safe and fun practice environment. Topics and tools we touch on include:The 7 Principles for Constructive Conversations
Seeing you in conversations - what’s your team-talk like?
Staying in dialogue and staying out of the argument trap
Pay attention to your parrot: getting in touch with your inner voice
Level-headed questioning and the lost art of listening
Conversational gears - perspectives, positions and assumptions
Advocacy or Inquiry: balancing your say with hearing what they say
Asserting yourself positively - say what you need to saycleanly & clearly
Engaging others and using strategies to get them to speak up
Raising levels of openness and disclosure in discussions
The 5-P model of skillful discussion and prac sessions on protocols
Conversational Coaching Scorecard - what are you like in conversations?
Setting conversational coaching improvement goals for self and team
Who is this clinic for?
Participants at our conversational coaching clinics come from all sorts of work backgrounds. It doesn’t matter what level they’re at or what kind of work they do, they all have one thing in common: they're keen to learn new tools to boost their conversational capability, professionalism and conduct more constructive and skillful conversations in a range of different discussion arenas.Whether you’re a team leader or a team member, knowing how to use different tools to have more powerful, persuasive and connectiveconversations and improve clarity and confidence in your day-to-day team interactions is a vital yet overlooked area for better teamwork, better leadership and better performance.What can you expect?
Part of the appeal of our clinics is you get to practise in a safe, small group environment on new strategies for managing conversations in a more mindful and effective manner. We think people learn best by doing so we give you lots of practice to build your confidence to use the tools back at work, backed up by a comprehensive self-coaching guide to support your continued learning... /Do you want to:
Make team-talks more meaningful?Get people to talk up openly and say what’s really on their mind?
Put your point across persuasively?
Challenge each other’s viewsbut avoid falling into the argument trap?
Get to the bottom of conversations and stop frothing around on the top?
Stop conversational game-playing?
Engage in more skillful discussions that stay on-topic and on-track
Say what you need to say on issues that matter and work through them?
Have more supportive conversations to make it safe to raise hard issues?
What they say about our clinics:
Very positive and useful, with a good balance of input and practice.Roslyn Parkes, Coorparoo Secondary CollegeThoroughly enjoyable, challenging in a positive way and insightful. I’d do it all again! The guide has become my ‘bible’! Hellen Lund, Queensland Health
Lots of tremendous activities to assist with my practice and development. Christine Barney Department of Communities
Thanks for a great learning experience. Some activities thought provoking and some just plain good fun - and the guide is full of excellent tools. Jane Cutler, Queensland Health
Excellent practical tools and ideas, structured very well and delivered in an interactive way.Kellie Shively, Beenleigh Special School
Very enjoyable. Interactive activities were unique and hands-on approach was very useful – as was having a bit of a laugh along the way. Tameeka Sainsbury, Pacific Pines SHS
More on Conversations?
Our freeFactFilesandEzinesfeature topical tips on conversations, leadership, teams and emotional intelligence. Other conversational coaching clinics we run include:Leading through Conversations
Positive Performance Conversations
Dealing with Difficult Discussions
In-House benefits for Teams…
Programs delivered in-house tailored to your contexts, enhance shared understanding, and encourage mutual support in applying new ideas productively in ‘real-time’ back at work.Tel:07-4068 7591Mob:0429-687 513
Email:
Explore 10 emotional dimensions crucial to creating more cohesive and connective teams
The Emotional Side of Teams
We all love to work in happy, harmonious workplaces that are warm, welcoming, positive and supportive, where we get along well together, feel safe, respected, value each other and there’s a real sense of team.Yet working well together in teams doesn’t come naturally. We have to learn how because lots of us lack the emotional and social skills needed to form and maintain healthy team relations.Emotional Intelligence (EI) is at the heart of great teamwork. It’s one of the key differentials between effective teams and ineffective ones. The more positive emotional connection there is in a team, the more people feel friendly, happy, enthused, focused and productive. Morale is high, climates are positive. The reverse applies too. Apathy, anger, aggression, anxiety, cynicism, contempt, or sullen silence set off negative emotional chain-reactions that turn teams toxic.
EI is knowing our emotional patterns and the affect they have on how weare. On a team level, it’s connecting with other people’s emotions, getting along well and managing dysfunctional emotionalbehaviour that erodesteamwork. When it comes to performance, team EI is critical.
What is Emotional Intelligence in Teams about?
This 1-day work-out takes leaders or members through a series of activities based on 10 EI Team Dimensions they can use back at work to create more cohesion and connectivity, raise their level of social intelligence and build positive emotional states like perseverance, resilience, tolerance, respect and empathy.Topics we touch on include:The 10 Dimensions of EI teams
Emotional patterns - how it feels in this team
Impact of toxic emotions on team climate
Giving and getting emotional feedback
Handling emotional hijacks and disruptive emotions
Likingness and trust: keys to connectivity
Resonance and rapport – relationship builders
Empathy – creating connective relationships
Team EI, stress and well-being
EI blind-spots– self-absorption, anger and blame
Resilience – the bounce-back emotion
Emotional bonding: values and behaviour
Emotional climate: safety, respect, support and understanding
Shared vision, mutual purpose and emotional energy
The Team EI Inventory - how emotionally intelligent are we?
Who’s this clinic for?
Participants at our EI clinics come from the ranks of leaders, professionals and workers of all sorts. We have specialist EI clinics for leaders and staff but this clinic is for anyone – leader or team members – who want to do something about improving the emotional climate of the team they work in. We find that often teams get better results when a number of people from the same unit decide to come along together to do this work-out and plan changes.Other EI Clinics from The Change Forum…
For those who’ve already done some EI leadership learning, our 1-day extension clinicCompassionate Leadershipshows how to mindfully cultivate connectivity, compassion, resonance and empathy to combat toxic emotions, relieve leadership stress and create vibrant work relationships.Our 2-day Personal Mastery: Leading with EI program offers leaders more in-depth exploration of tools or busy leaders may prefer to come along to our 1-day fast-track EI Leaderclinic. Send your staff along to our 1-day EI at Workseminar to explore what EI is, why it matters and how to applybasic EI tools and behaviours at work.Andteachers can explore classroom applications for social and emotional learning at Teaching with EI– just for schools. /Benefits of EI in Teams…
More connective, positiveteams that support each otherBetter able to manage moods and handle conflict, anger and hostility
Emotional self-responsibility jointly taken by individuals and teams
Increased awareness by individuals of the impact they have on others
Greater understanding, less stress and enhanced team well-being
More collaborative focus positive EI values and behaviours
Reduce disruptive emotions such as negativity, anger and resentment
Increases in positive behaviour like openness, valuing and respecting
Practical tools to raise EI team-skills
What’s said about our EI clinics:
Inspired by the workshop! I learned a lot about myself.Britt Armstrong, Qld HealthMade me feel stronger in working with others, understanding my feelings and how I portray those toward others.Bronwyn Minniecon, Communities
Everything was a high point. It was very worthwhile.Gayle Stenzel, Qld Health
Enjoyed the whole session, learned a lot – that as good as it gets really. Pauline Sloan, Rockhampton Women’s Health Centre
Very powerful, practical and impacting. Great take away tools…Bec Robinson, Community Youth Worker
If you have a chance to do this course, grab it! And the guide? Wow, this is a great resource. Judy Salk, Cathedral School
Is this clinic for you?Try this quiz. In your team lately, have you noticed more:
Despondency or de-motivation?Team fatigue – worn out, pressured,
Tendency to be disapproving, harsh, critical’ or disrespectful of each other
Anger, arguments, frustration,abrupt, abrasive or confrontational behaviour
No "fun", not buoyant or energised
Distancing or disconnection
If you ticked 3 these come along...
In-house Team-building?
Running emotional intelligence programs in-house offer remarkable team-building advantages for intact teams. Our Working Better Together Prospectushas lots of information on various ways we can help teambuilding. And our free FactFilesandEzines feature topical tips to share amongst the team. CallBill Cropperto talk about teams:Mob: 0429-687 513What about Cost – and how do I Register?
Course Fee (GST inc) covers lunch and refreshments and a comprehensive self-coaching Toolkit designed to assist your ongoing learning back at work. Fee discounts offered for early registration, schools and not-for-profit community organisations subject to payment in advance of attendance. Fees are not refundable but are transferable up to 14 days prior to an event. Substitute welcome. Max 20 places per event. Timing:8.30am Arrival – 4.30pm (unless otherwise advised). Registration: Form included below for return by Fax or Email or register on-line at .All Change Forum clinics feature...