| The
Innovative Team | About | Learning
Objectives | Components
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| Human Element of Business | Philosophy
| Program Models | Logistics
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I am providing you with the following unit briefs from which I will build your program. The units themselves are of my own design; the cumulative learning of over twenty-four years of working with teams and about sixteen years of training experiential educators.
The material in this workshop is drawn from The Innovative Team © and builds on itself. Each new unit provides another essential piece of knowledge and the experience to discover the need and use of new skills and tools.
Much of the material is introduced in an experiential process during which the team is engaged in a novel, problem-solving task. Each unit is tightly focused to deliver both a discovery element to participants (allowing for their own personal revelations and learning) and a skill development component (focused learning objectives and structured skills delivered through the experience of the participants).
The descriptions below are framed from the "Skill Development" perspective. The content is focused on learning and results. After a brief ‘warm-up’, we get right to work. And while having fun is actually a key element to great results, participants will at times be highly challenged cognitively and may experience some professional and intellectual stress. So much the better to learn skills and tools that will apply directly to those times in the workplace that stress and difficult decisions are simply part of the job. In any case, I will always be present to manage the energy and keep the environment safe for learning and growth.
The timing and sequence of activities will depend on the group as I find them. So much of my work requires that I get to see the group in action, read their energy level and run several diagnostic warm-up exercises at the start of the program. Once we get started, I will select from my prepared initiatives and training units in a sequence that I judge to be responsive to the collect team and the time available. I will be gauging everything on the performance and needs of the team.
My intention is to focus this program to provide maximum benefit in the time allowed. Should you see great benefit and wish to continue developing your team in this style, it will be simple for me to carry forward with more advanced units.
Faster Than Light© is a hard hitting introduction to problem solving, consensus building and team decision making that leaves teams with tool that they can implement immediately. The delivery style is direct and unbending and leaves teams with shared language and direct experience with new tools.
Participants learn:
Breakthrough!© builds on the experience of Faster Than Light© and introduces an experiential connection to the Human Element of the team (the feelings experienced by participants during a problem solving session) that lies just under the surface of team function. The Human Element affects every team and in its lowest state can lead to loss of team members, sabotage or simply decreased performance. When the Human Element is addressed positively, individuals step fully into participation and team productivity and creativity soar. Breakthrough!© is a powerful tool to both diagnose the level of the team’s collective and individual energy as well as strengthen the commitment and confidence that the team can rise far above their present performance. Breakthrough!© begins with a relatively simple initiative guided by the trainer that lays out the model in such a way that team members connect with their own energy level and actions in the moment. Each new step brings a growing awareness that members can connect with past experience and future action.
Participants learn:
Communication is one of the most understated needs of a team. Effective communication escapes so many teams because they fail to establish a Shared Mental Model. Shared Mental Models are a true matching image or concept of an idea shared by two or more people to the level that any team member could accurately implement or describe the image or concept.
In this unit, our collective experience will demonstrate just how often we lack a shared mental model in our conversations and negotiations. Further experience will demonstrate the tremendous loss of potential in the lack of shared mental models. Initiative tasks used in this unit are highly auditory in nature and will demonstrate clearly to participants their lack of clear language and how easily mis-communication leases us believing that others understand only to find out later that they did not. The crowning achievement during this session will be when participants begin to listen to their own communications and seek understanding from others to insure the effective transfer in essential communication.
Participants learn:
Have you ever had someone tell you what you were feeling, or tell you that they knew what you needed or your motivations for a particular action? Employers, team members, and people in general constantly make assessments of the behaviors of others and then act or react to that person accordingly. But what is the consequence to employer, supervisor, or team member when the assessment is wrong? Wouldn't it be great to be able to get a more accurate response when in question of the intentions and actions of others?
The Question© is a model for creating an awareness of the danger of mistaken assessments and provides an experiential (experienced-based) process for learn observation and inquiry skills that will end a majority of misplaced assessments. This tool is designed to intervene between what we think is going on with others and what is actually true for them. This model begins with a simple and safe activity that creates a sense of safety, both physical and emotional, for all team members. The debrief of the activity provides a simple tool for separating our observations from the assessments that we place on them. A further step to the model provides a simple process to inquire and receive the information we need to effectively direct our actions for the best possible outcome.
Participants learn
The premise of this unit is the belief that on any team, individuals communicate using vastly different styles and that some team members dominate team conversations. What is lost under these conditions is the creativity and contribution of less forceful members. When all members of a team have their voice, what is gained is a dramatic increase of contribution, ideas and perspective that can radically change the team’s productivity. Elements of the unit "Finding A Voice" will be introduced beginning in session 1 and continued right up to the formal session for this unit.
Participants learn: