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Team Building Information
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Team Communication Critical To Success I'm often asked, "Why is my team always fighting fires instead of preparing for changes?" Finding the answer may take some digging. Here are a few possibilities. Team members: Conflict Is Cool Having experienced more than my fair share of conflict over the years, from street fighting to more sophisticated law cases, I have become an avid student of the subject of Conflict Resolution. My bookshelves are full of literature on the topic and the public library is thinking of charging me for overuse. Feedback - How to Make it Effective Let's look at the detail of giving feedback. Whether you want to reinforce behaviour - Confirming feedback or change unacceptable behaviour - Productive feedback, there are certain steps you need to follow to make it work. 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. Finding The Leader Within (Keys To Zen Leadership) Most believe that leadership is an innate quality that some have, not others. They believe that leaders are born not made. Nothing can be further from the truth. Each one of us has the potential to stand tall, be a light to others, clearly define a vision and mission and take charge. Within every individual an "Inner Leader" is waiting to be born. The 5 Bes of Motivation It's not true in every organization, but it is true in many. Managers often don't understand their employees. They don't know how to motivate, inspire, and correct people effectively. As I work with my clients, I hear the same questions repeatedly: "How do I get my employees to ? Grow Your Staff into a Team of Creative Problem Solvers As a manager, your employees will come to you with situations they don't know how to handle. When they approach you during these times, they are looking to you to give them the solution to the problem. This is understandable with big problems that have significant monetary and time consequences, or that may have a detrimental impact on your company's standing in the eyes of your professional community. How Leaders Unlock Potential in Teams Leaders are faced with unlocking the potential in the people that they lead and motivating the individual is a key part of this process. Motivation is not something that is done to an individual as they already posses it. What a leader does, to benefit the whole team, is to release, or unlock, it. Here are seven ways leaders unlock potential in people. Teamwork in the Workplace: A Definition A tight knit team is a group of competent individuals who care deeply about each other. They are fiercely committed to their mission, and are highly motivated to combing their energy and expertise to achieve a common objective. From our observation and studies on teamwork in the workplace, we have found three primary conditions that have to be met in order to attain higher levels of team performance and member satisfaction. Resources and Commitment Ownership and Heart Learning What Every Manager, Parent, and Teacher Should Know About How to Unify Employees, Families, & Youth Project Head Start has been successful not only for the youthful students, but for the teachers, supporting staff, and families as well. My first job while still in college was as a Teacher's Assistant during the summer of 1968. Years later I was a Mental Health Consultant with Head Start in the US Virgin Islands. Although a bit bias, I have nothing but respect for Project Head Start and their teachings. Do You Want to Get Others to Improve Their Performance? Then Expect the Best Recently I decided to stretch my athletic abilities and add a running program to my regular exercise routine. Although I had tried to run in the past, my level of success was pretty pathetic. This time, however, I decided to follow my own advice and find some expert runners who could teach me how to run. And that is exactly what I did. Leading the Witness: How Asking Questions as a Trainer Can Limit Learning and Reduce Trust "Asking questions can be a means of establishing authority, fulfilling leadership functions, and ensuring effective learning. In fact, asking questions is probably the most subtle power you have for controlling people. The person who asks questions always controls the conversation... if we could discipline our minds to ask questions instead, we could lead any conversation to wherever we wanted it because the other person would still be wrapped up in thinking what he or she wanted to say next...One of the rights you have as a trainer is to ask questions and expect answers. This is why question-asking is such a powerful tool. It challenges and avoids confrontation at the same time." Creating a Winning Staff Team As a business owner, I've had staff come and go over the years: some have done extremely well, and others not so well. During the time I was involved in running my business, I found some weaknesses in myself that tremendously affected things that were going on, especially from a negative point of view. It was not uncommon for me, whenever something was not going well, to ignore it. Sometimes I would hope it would go away, or maybe ask somebody else to solve it for me, whatever was going on. Listening Between the Lines Have you seen the tee-shirt with the slogan, "Talk to the hand 'cos the face ain't listening?" Do you feel it's like this sometimes when you are trying to get through to people? But just how good a listener are you? Do you actually "listen between the lines?" How to be Healthier and Happier In Your Organisation Did you know your work environment can actually make you sick? Business Innovation ? Group Creativity Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation. Secrets of Successful Teams To be a success is not always to be a success individually. In fact, most of the time we achieve our successes as part of a team. That is why I want to devote this issue to the secrets of successful team. The Top Ten Methods to Create a Successful Work Team Teams are often useful in situations where the task cannot be completed individually or if the task requires working interdependently. However, a successful team requires thought and planning. Too often, a group of individuals is simply thrown together, given a mandate, "marching orders" and then told, "Now go make us proud!" How the P.R.I.D.E. Team Changed my Call Center Several years ago I took an assignment as a Manager in an outsourcing Call Center. Shortly after I started it became clear that several areas within the department needed improvement; absenteeism was high (19%), call takers lacked the enthusiasm about the programs to deliver quality customer service and seemed unconnected to the goals and metrics. � With the overall morale of the center in a less than pleasant state the management team weighed our options. We determined that any new rules rolled out by management may be perceived as "us vs. them" by the call taking teams. Rather than try to manage down with force we decided to get the people who were doing the work involved in the improvements. � It was clear, in order to make positive changes the call takers had to embrace the existing goals and embrace any changes we tried to make. What better way to do that then to include them in the process of making the changes. From this idea the P.R.I.D.E. team was formed. � People Really Involved in Developing Excellence � The first step was to roll out the concept of the P.R.I.D.E. team to the supervisors. I explained how the team would work and what we hoped to accomplish with it. The supervisors then rolled out the concept in their team meetings. � Basic Roll out: � Each team on the floor votes for a representative from their team to attend the P.R.I.D.E. meetings. P.R.I.D.E representatives gather issues, concerns and ideas from their teams and present them at the P.R.I.D.E meetings. The P.R.ID.E. Team will take action for improvement based on the ideas and discussions from each meeting. Meeting minutes will be distributed to the floor. � Once the roll out was complete and the teams elected representatives, the first meeting was called to order. We congratulated the new P.R.I.D.E. team representatives for being voted in by their teams and broke the ice by getting to know each other. � The group agreed on some ground rules and established time limits for discussion. I reiterated that the meetings will not be a gripe session; we will focus on improvement. We began discussing the issues challenging the center. � The high rate of Absenteeism (19%) was the issue we chose to bring to the table first. We asked the group why absenteeism was so high and asked what we as the management team could do to help. The representative's answers provided insight and ideas to improve attendance. �Suggestions ranged from things as simple as being welcomed to work in the morning, to more challenging tasks such as supervisors building better relationships with their team members. � The ideas and thoughts we tapped into gave us direction to improve this metric. Instead of pushing an elephant up the stairs, we were following the lead to reach our destination. � After listening to and acting on the P.R.I.D.E. Team's suggestions we started to see some very impressive changes. Over a three month period Absenteeism dropped to 3%! People were more excited about doing their jobs and finding ways to improve. There was a general buzz around the center. � Communication was one of the keys to our success. In addition to the P.R.I.D.E. Team members discussing the meetings with their team members and other co-workers, we documented the conversations from the meeting then distributed them to the floor to ensure no "behind closed door" perceptions. If time allowed supervisors would bring the P.R.I.D.E meeting notes to team meetings for discussions as well. � The meetings evolved. The more meetings we ran the more root causes we discovered. We listened to every issue big and small. We created subgroups to focus on large issues. Sometimes there were issues we could not do anything about, but we always provided an explanation on why action could not be taken. Listening to the representatives' ideas and making changes based on them created buy in for change. The call takers were more apt to make the ideas work because they came from them. � After the P.R.I.D.E. program was well in place, I turned it over to the senior supervisors to run. It was a great development opportunity and helped build relationships throughout the group. � Overall the P.R.I.D.E Team created a paradigm shift in the center. The existence and actions of the team sent a message that everyone in the center was part of the same team. The representatives realized their importance. There was only "us" instead of "us and them". The program created involvement, strengthened commitment to the company and opened communication gateways. Functioning in a Dysfunctional Workplace Sometimes the greatest challenges lay not within the actions of competitors, or the needs of customers, they come from within one's own company. People new to their positions either through promotion, or as a new hire, are often stunned at the challenges they find waiting for them as they slide into the seat behind their new desk. The business cards have barely been ordered before elements of dysfunction begin to appear at their office door.
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