Philosophy and Style behind The Innovative Team

STYLE:

The style of the training will be “experiential” — experience-based, keeping participants highly engaged and active in their learning.

The content of the workshop will be transferable — participants will be able to use the learning immediately upon returning to work.

TONE

The tone for this workshop will be set through my facilitation. Participants will be welcomed in a friendly atmosphere, lead to a feeling of safety, challenged to do their best work and supported when they struggle. Overall, getting the participants to trust the setting, the trainer and the workshop material will be instrumental in achieving the best results.

CONTENT GOALS:

(Note: the program models that follow this section will further discuss the how of accomplishing the goals for this workshop.)

Personal Responsibility - My work with teams focuses on personal responsibility; the concept is woven throughout my workshop. If your staff believes problems are because of others, then they will benefit from an experience in which they find success in first looking to themselves for solutions. Positive change is most possible when we focus our energy where we have the greatest control, ourselves. Through out the workshop, participants will be asked to look first to themselves when engaged in a struggle. When individuals hear that others are beginning to take responsibility for their own actions, blaming behaviors will decrease and people will begin looking to themselves. In the workshop, we will bring the connections between employees to a more "professionally intimate" level as we witness a more respectful tone and learn what makes each of us human and worthy of the reverence of others.

Communications - Communication skills are something that every team wants and needs and will be addressed in this program with the aid of the concept of "Shared Mental Models" as inspired by Peter Senge's book "The Fifth Discipline." Effective communication is an art and is rarely present in many team settings and exchanges. A number of initiatives will demonstrate very clearly how differently we communicate and will leave team members wondering how often they personally have failed to get their point across to peers, clients and even family. Clear communication is probably one of the skills that will transfer the most noticeably.

Initiative is a term defined in my field-of-practice to mean a team-oriented, problem-solving task introduced verbally or in writing and charging the team with finding success and learning in completing the task. Processing during the initiative and debriefs at the end of each section will allow us to hear the learning that took place in other groups and hear new voices that we might not otherwise get to hear during the day.

Problem solving - Successful Problem solving as a group is a wonderful way for individuals to learn to work better together. This workshop will focus on team problem solving and in the development of Shared Mental Models for simple and effective processes to make problem solving a successful experience. In addition, participants will also gain a new level of resilience for those tasks that take a prolonged time and a great deal of energy to complete.

Decision Making - When team members have an expectation of being allowed to make decisions and then have this taken from them, they very quickly become frustrated and loose trust in those around them. In teams, decisions are often forced by those with stronger voices or with more perceived power (or real power.) This workshop will use a form of consensus based decision-making and work to make this style a Shared Mental Model. Participants will have repeated opportunities to make decisions as a team. They will discover through their own experience how listening to all voices, creating buy-in and moving forward together will end the bad taste of forced decisions and create a tremendous new energy of commitment to the goal.

Leadership - The role of leader, with time and training for the team, becomes a role of "facilitator". In successful teams, leadership can shift from person to person. What makes this style of leadership work is the existence of Shared Mental Model of processes for getting things done. Participants will discover the need and the importance of a single person to "lead" or facilitate them through the challenges of the workshop. Once the need for this assistance is seen, team members will be thankful each time someone steps forward to lead, especially if they follow a process that others can predict and support.

Trust - Trust is the ability to predict another's behavior / actions. In teams, sometimes trust is broken when one person believes that a promise or agreement has been made by another (who does not feel that they made a promise) and that "promise" is not fulfilled. This workshop will discuss some of the foundations for trust, the need of making clear agreements and importance of following through.

Boost Morale - Overall morale will be a function of how team members feel about the operation of the work place and their relationships with peers and superiors. This workshop can be a component of raising morale, but all team members must listen carefully to the issues that come up during the workshop and carry needed changes forward to the actual workplace. Morale will rise if they see results to their requests and commitments.

Build A Team Spirit - This should happen easily. The nature of the initiatives will highlight the need to work together and help them to develop a spirit of working toward a common goal.