Team Building Information |
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Building Successful Work Relationships--Playing In The Same Sandbox
Remember playing in your childhood sandbox? If you enjoyed being outside for most of the day, you could play in the sandbox for hours on end-shaping and pouring the sand or mixing it with a little water to form a castle or hill. Children enjoy playing with sand or dirt and learn at an early age how to make the most of this play time activity. Playing in a sandbox usually starts out as a solitary exercise; however, smart parents know that in order to develop their child's ability to relate to others, another child or two must be introduced into that same sandbox. This is when the fun truly begins. When children play together in the same sandbox:
You're Never Too Old for the Sandbox There's a tremendous amount of pressure as we grow older to learn to act our age (whatever that means). In fact, most people consider age a number not an indication of vitality, health or maturity. Nevertheless, too many of us leave the things of childhood behind us. This is both good and bad. It is good to leave childish behavior behind, but bad when we discard many childlike behaviors that can make us successful adults. One such childlike behavior is learning how to develop reliable relationships with others through experiences in the same sandbox that teach us how to cooperate, exchange ideas, and communicate. When we play together in the same sandbox at work:
How to Have More FUN in Your Workplace Sandbox
If you're not having fun at work while playing in the same sandbox with co-workers, you're not doing it right. Give it another try. I think you'll be pleased that you did. Althea DeBrule, entrepreneur and seasoned human resources executive, has focused for more than 30 years on helping people achieve their career goals. Creator of The Extreme-Career-Makeover? and a founding partner of RADSGroup Organizational Consultants, she is recognized for her bottom line and practical application of career development and management strategies in a way that penetrates hearts and compels action. She speaks and teaches with inspired talent, humor and contagious zeal at management conferences and leadership retreats nationwide, and has been featured in CFO Magazine, Strategy@Work, Human Resource Executive Magazine. Althea is the author of Bosses & Orchards, a compelling and candid book about how to make your work relationship with your boss succeed. To discover how you can take your career to a new level, visit http://www.extreme-career-makeover.com/
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RELATED ARTICLES
Team Building requires one great dynamic for true Success - Mateship A Successful Team is built around mateship, around respect for your team mates and for yourself. I am not saying that everyone will get on like best buddies, what I noticed is that in all our 'differences' everyone was accepted as they were, got on within the boundaries of the club and got the job done. I have seen teams that have been full of stars, as I am sure you have too, and those teams have not succeeded. They have not achieved their full potentials as individuals or as a team. Yes, But What Are You Really Saying? More and more I hear people misunderstanding what someone else has said to them, especially when it came through a memo or email. This can lead to a great deal of turmoil at work and affect morale. How to Boost Morale In Your Organisation Who keeps the wheels turning in your organisation? Who holds it all together when chaos reigns supreme? Who can you rely on to run your department/business in your absence? Motivation - The Benefits of Spending Time with Your Team Benefit 1 - You get to understand them better Corporate Team Building There is a WHOLE lot of talk these days about Corporate Team Building. There are many, many options: vacation packages, rope courses, on-going office games, ice-breakers, etc. Management can also purchase videos, books, and seminar packages to assist them in building up their organization into a team worthy of belonging. A little later I will give you some ideas of where you can go for information on these team building tools. A Team That Gleamed Too many techies get a bad rap for lacking teamwork and communications skills. The stereotype is that while techies are great at what they are trained to do, they cannot parlay their knowledge onto others. Because of the stereotype that techies cannot communicate, they also can be stigmatized that they lack adequate teamwork skills. 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The secret to a productive mastermind team is for you to surround yourself with people who you can always learn from. A sign of a very intelligent person is to be smart enough to realize that you need to learn from others who can contribute to your WHY in life. In 2005 Collaboration is Key Perhaps you're a small business owner wondering how you and your employees managed to make it through the last year. You vow to make this year the year your business grows. You've got a great product or service and you've hired some really good employees. But you realize that things internally just aren't working quite as smoothly as you'd like them to be. Team Journaling The very effective tool of keeping a journal can be used in your workplace as well as at home. It is a powerful tool that can enhance our lives and support our personal and work well-being. 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Even a growing family has it. These three organizations share a common desire to build their prospective teams. For example, a college football team continually needs to bring in new players to replace the graduating players. A corporation builds its team to help it grow and meet the needs of clients. Young, married couples who are having children are building their own family teams. Each of these results has a different outcome. In the end, the goal is to work together, help each other, and collectively reach a higher level of performance. Whatever team you are currently involved with, it is surprising at how much organization is needed to build a great team. Furthermore, the following teams have their own equally important approach as to how they successfully build their prospective teams. Constructive Group Dynamics: How to Go from the S.N.I.P.P.Y. Syndrome to a C.L.E.A.R. V.I.E.W. If asked to look at your work calendar for the week, the odds are pretty good that you have a few if not several meetings already scheduled. Now, if asked how you feel about attending some of those meetings, the odds are even better that you may either roll your eyes, groan or mutter something under your breath. Sound familiar so far? Okay, that was the easy part. Company Picnic Ideas and Planning Tips The company picnic is a beloved tradition at many firms. Team Work So much has been written on this subject; Team Work, it's almost hard to add any thing at this point. T E A M; TOGETHER EVERYONE ACCOMPLISHES MORE. That is really easy to say and it makes for a great acronym. It seems it has even hit corporate America. They have integrated it into TQM "Total Quality Management". They call it "team building". They talk about quality. They talk about communication. They talk about goal setting. They talk about productivity. They talk about this; they talk about that. That's the problem; it's all talk. The real problem is that you can't talk about team building and downsizing in the same sentence. Building means growing, expanding, planning, etc. Downsizing is tearing down, discharging, shrinking. Which is it? Either you are building a winning team or you are starting over. If they are going to do both, they should downsize first and then team build second. Otherwise, you can talk all you want because no one is listening. The people are: either laid off, fearful of their job or not interested in the B.S. anymore Hand Out Warm Glows Do you remember how you felt after your last interaction with another person either on the phone or face to face? That person - it could have been a customer, a colleague, a salesperson, a friend or even a member of your family. Did they make you feel good, uplifted and more positive, did they leave you feeling neutral or did they make you feel down and more negative. Beyond Brainstorming ? Large Groups When leaders, consultants and managers require ideas, they automatically tend to herd people into a room and conduct a (usually ineffective) brainstorming session. One reason for their ineffectiveness is a failure to consider the impact of group size. Nine Ways to Contribute to Project Team Success The world of work has changed. It used to be that most of us worked as a part of a process, whether on an assembly line, managing interactions with Customers, or any one of a thousand other processes. Processes are ongoing, repeatable and never have an ending. |
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