Team Building Exercises

The best learning comes from hands-on team building exercises. Use engaging training to teach the core values of collaboration and communication to your team members.

10
nov

Tool Time: Giving Meaning to Measurement

Posted by Team Building ExercisesNo Comments

By: Debbie Ward

Who hasn’t heard some of the following team conversations?

It’s true that we get things done on our team, but we take no time to get to know each other as people.

I really don’t get the value of sitting around shooting the breeze when I have deadlines to meet.

Things would be a lot better if we were all on the same page.

For each of these expressed sentiments, there is likely another team member who would see things differently.  These differences can be embraced and utilized to team advantage.  OR these differences in how people see the world can lead to conflict, poor decisions, throttled back results and unhappy people.

Fortunately, most teams have a choice in how they want to work together.  By using a well-researched model and tool, a team can identify their current reality and see how that differs from the way they want to be.  This will allow them to create an intentional pathway to appreciating differences, achieving goals, and often a more enjoyable and satisfying team experience.

Most of us agree that there are lots of tools to choose from when embarking on a DYI project that requires some specialized equipment.  Similarly, when looking for a tool that is most appropriate for assessing individual or team patterns and behaviors, there are many options that are designed to measure different elements.  Some tools focus on interpersonal elements or dimensions of personality; some explore conflict style; others look at cognitive style, and still, others assess various aspects of teaming.

Regardless of what is being measured, most tools are based on a model which provides:

  • A bigger and more thorough picture of the current situation
  • Neutral language for describing the various dynamics
  • A way for each person to see him/her self in the picture as well as a way to see others in the same frame as themselves

Models can help a leader, a team member, and/or a facilitator of a group describe what she/he sees is happening in a team or in an interaction so that the folks involved can find common ground in the model itself and where they fit into the model.

What are some things to consider when selecting a model?

  • Be clear about the situation or dynamic you are seeking to describe and/or measure so it will provide relevant feedback or perspective: for example, teamwork, social styles, decision making, conflict, communication style.

And, what do we look for in a tool in order for them to be truly valuable for you and those with whom you are working?

  • Is it valid? Does it measure what it says it measures?  There’s nothing worse than having a dozen people in the room looking at their results from an assessment and having some or all of them question whether the results are accurate for them personally.
  • Is it reliable? Does the tool provide consistent results over time?  Are there situations in which results should change?  What are those situations?
  • Is it user-friendly? Is the administration and/or de-briefing process something that either a team member or external consultant can understand and execute with confidence and ease?

Once you’ve done some research you are ready to work with your team.  Here are some helpful guidelines:

  • Select a model that actually reflects the issue(s) you are focusing on and is evidence-based.
  • Read about the model. Think about how it relates to your group.
  • Practice describing the model and identify the questions or challenges that your group members might ask and prepare your responses.
  • Develop some open-ended questions to stimulate constructive conversation among your group, using the model.

If you decide to also use a tool related to the model, take these steps:

  • Learn about the tool. Consider validity and reliability.  (see above)
  • Take it yourself. Perform an objective assessment of the findings and the experience.
  • Perhaps ask a few colleagues to take it and let you review it with them while also seeking their feedback on the experience.
  • Obtain and review a facilitator guide or manual, which is typically available for small or no additional cost.
  • Get clear about the directions for administering the assessment and prepare to answer questions that might come from participants.
  • Decide whether you will debrief the results individually or in the group; whether you will ask individuals to share their results separately or whether you will share the results as an aggregate.
  • Design the 1-1 or group session so that there is a focus on what has been learned and how the data will inform future actions.

While the selection of a model or tool for use with a team is critically important, the thorough review and discussion of the findings are essential.  Consider some questions that will help give meaning to the measurement:

What surprised us about the findings?

What are elements of the data that suggest areas of strength?

Where are some opportunities for improvement?

What do we need to talk more about in light of what we learned?

Would you like to go further to find support for your team to strengthen itself?

On Nov 11, HRDQ is offering a webinar, Using the ETI: Enhancing Your Effectiveness with Teams, on how to use a particularly well-researched team model and tool: Extraordinary Team Inventory.

Learn More
15
oct

Reality Check: A Healthy Habit for Teams

Posted by Team Building ExercisesNo Comments

By: Sally Starbuck Stamp, Extraordinary Teams Partnership

What is Reality for your Team?  How does knowing and agreeing on your reality affect your team’s ability to be effective?

In their landmark research into Extraordinary Teams, Geoffrey Bellman and Kathleen Ryan discovered that we all bring certain human needs to our group or team interactions.  And while we no longer join together for simple survival or perpetuation of the species, we continue to enter into groups and teams with the hope of meeting our needs for inclusion or belonging;  bonding with a sense of shared purpose, and understanding our reality so we can make a difference. (Bellman, Geoffrey, and Ryan, Kathleen. 2009. Extraordinary Groups: How Ordinary Teams Achieve Amazing Results. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.)

Bellman and Ryan further suggest that only through understanding the current world and how it affects the group will a team be able to achieve their goals and fulfill their purpose.  And they recognize that the world will differ from team to team as it is the most “immediate setting that is relevant to the group.”(p.43)  For your team, understanding your reality is about understanding your world (however you define it) and how it affects the team.

There’s no question that individual and collective realities have been impacted significantly by the historic pandemic that took control of our work and our lives in a matter of weeks earlier this year.  And even before that, the pace of change in organizations moved from steady to rapid so agility became a necessary element for not just success but survival.

So what does your team’s reality look like now and how do you begin to assess it?  What are some practical ways to paint an accurate picture of the present so you can navigate the rapidly evolving future?

While any assessment of reality must include both external and internal factors, we chose to look at the internal assessment of your team.   Consider the following steps in this process:

  1. Have a team meeting to discuss the importance of understanding the current reality and solicit input into how the team might proceed. Make sure that all voices are heard and that team members are able to commit to this effort.
  2. Develop a design for the process that includes full participation by all team members. A frequently used approach is to develop questions that each team member can answer in writing or in a group exercise.  This requires a strong spirit of collaboration as well as trust and psychological safety.

Sample questions might be:

How do you see reality for your team?

To what extent do team members share a view of reality?

How clear are we about our purpose?

What needs to change to achieve our desired results?

Using an instrument such as the Extraordinary Teams Inventory can also provide valuable insight into your team’s current reality using evidence-based indicators of team performance.

  1. Determine how the assessment findings will be evaluated and translated to actionable items. Consider prior initiatives where new and current information led to a permanent policy, procedure, and/or behavioral change.  Identify the degree of structure that will facilitate desired movement without stifling innovation or progress.
  1. Agree on a tentative timeline for completion and identify metrics to measure the effort. Clearly defined roles and responsibilities serve to increase accountability.  Measurement of the effort, in some way, allows for increased learning and celebration of the experience.

The steps above outline the Doing part of the process.  Of equal importance are the Being elements.

Be Courageous. Accept the challenge to explore what truly is rather than what you’re hoping it might be.

Be Hopeful. Adopt and maintain an optimistic outlook for the future.

Be Committed. Establish a shared purpose and codify some simple rules for ongoing focus by the team.

Be Connected. Acknowledge and celebrate the difference you can make together.

Be Open to Influence and Change. Appreciate differences and look for ways to be responsive rather than reactive.

Be Energized and Ready. Enter into the process with full engagement and the honest intention of acting on the findings in a way that allows the team to fulfill their purpose and achieve greater success.

Once you have completed an assessment of your team’s reality, you can continue to chart the course for your team as you face continuing challenges.  Knowing your strengths and areas that can be improved will allow you to be more agile in your responses to what is now a constantly changing environment. And by having an accurate understanding of your reality, you can identify where and how your team can have the greatest impact on the organization and the world.

Now is definitely the time to shift from taking your temperature to taking the temperature of your team.

A Reality Check may be the best way to keep your team in optimum health.

If you’re interested in learning more about assessing your team reality, join the HRDQ Webinar on 10/28/20 that features 2 members of the Extraordinary Teams Partnership, Debbie Ward and Brad Britton, who will present Reality Check:  How the Extraordinary Team Inventory Can Strengthen Team Impact and Agility.

 

 

 

 

20
aug

Trust Building® in the Workplace

Posted by Communication Styles, Human Resource Training, Team Building Exercises, Workplace ConductNo Comments

by Dennis Reina, Ph.D. and Michelle Reina, Ph.D.

Does your workplace exhibit toxic behaviors such as: gossiping and backbiting, confidentiality breaking or getting even?  These common behaviors can turn a productive team into one where trust is eroded and negativity becomes the norm.

Trust is fragile and takes years to build, yet can be broken in minutes. Furthermore, the level of trust within a team gets worse with each betrayal and every negative encounter. While these breaches may not get addressed, they don’t go unnoticed, leaving the core foundation of the relationships crumbling.

Ultimately, it is up to leaders to realize that there is a problem and begin the work of trust building in their workplaces.

The good news is there are obvious symptoms of eroded trust. Identify these three early signs and you can take action to stop the damage—and even reverse it.

A. Backbiting and Gossip

Do members of your team feel free to share ideas, where they can communicate openly and honestly about issues and challenges? Trust building creates an environment where people want to work.

Yet every day, trust is tested in team relationships, especially in the form of gossip at work.

Gossip is the number-one trust breaking behavior within teams. Rather than going directly to the individuals with an issue or concern, people talk behind their backs to everyone else.

If the gossip is unchecked, it becomes more prevalent, happens more often, and as a result, becomes more disruptive. People hear about things a co-worker said behind their backs. In turn, they gossip as well. Negative feelings grow. Distrust flourishes. Once distrust takes hold, people no longer work well with each other—they are guarded regarding what they say, they don’t offer new ideas and they demonstrate other coping behaviors. Tensions rise, as do other trust breaking behaviors.

When you notice team members talking about one another behind each other’s back, this is an immediate sign that there has been damage to the foundational level of trust within your team. The leader must address this situation in order to begin to build trust within the team.

B. Confidentiality Breaking

Confidentiality breaking has to do with how team members communicate with one another—their trust of communication.

Occasionally, something may interfere with a person’s ability to meet deadlines, or how they are performing at work. If you are able to share your concerns with your leader or fellow team members, that is essential. Let them know what your outside pressures or circumstances are so they can keep projects on track.

Yet, people are reluctant to discuss personal matters in an environment where confidences are broken and gossip is rampant.

Unfortunately, this is also true of professional confidentiality. When such things as intellectual property, company secrets or ideas for market growth and development are shared publicly, people become suspicious about whether their information is safe.

Trust building means that people feel confident their personal and professional information is safe and sound. Information that team members have been trusted to keep private—whether it is personal or professional—violates trust; and misunderstandings will arise.

Leaders need to step in when confidentiality is being broken and immediately address these breaches because they threaten to weaken the core foundation of their teams based on trust.

C. Getting Even

The above negative behaviors often lead to defensiveness and a “get even” attitude among team members. For instance: “They said something about me, so I am going to share personal information about them.” Or: “She didn’t get me the information I needed in time, so I’m not going to worry about this deadline I committed to meeting for her.”

This kind of behavior will continue to escalate if not addressed: further destroying the effectiveness of the team, eroding trust, creating deep feelings of betrayal and causing stress and anxiety in the lives of all.

Often, this type of trust breaking behavior is easy to spot because it to will get shared through the grapevine. People will begin to gossip about perceived wrongs, or use one person’s past behavior as an excuse for their current bad behavior.

When a leader hears or sees this “getting even” mindset, it is essential that they address it immediately to stop the erosion of trust within their team. Once this behavior is turned around, people feel less worried about making small mistakes and are able to begin building trust in the workplace.

Trust Building® in the Workplace

The first step in changing trust breaking behavior is to realize how your behavior has contributed to the presence or absence of trust in your team dynamics. As Mahatma Gandhi said, “be the change you want to see,” address the issue by discussing how things should be handled within your team and follow through. When you recognize one of these behaviors, address it with the offending team member. Make sure your staff knows that these behaviors are not tolerated and provide them with alternative, healthy ways to communicate that strengthen trust.

By addressing common trust breaking behaviors and creating a culture that encourages trust building in the workplace, you will change your team into one that can transcend any challenge.

For more information on this crucial topic, join us on September 16 for an enlightening and engaging webinar, Trust Building® as Tonic for Toxic Workplaces and Bad Bosses.

Remember, Trust begins with you!

9
jun

Rebuilding Your Team After Corona

Posted by Team Building ExercisesNo Comments

By: Wayne Turmel

Odds are you’re either welcoming people back to your workplace or adjusting to whatever arrangements will be in place for a while. A sure bet is that your team will be configured differently than it was before the pandemic forced us to adjust.

One of the many unexpected consequences of having spent two or three months working in unexpected ways is that your team may look and feel very different to you. Some of the adjustments you’ll need to make include:

  • Personnel changes—not everyone who worked with you will be returning. Some by choice, some by circumstance.
  • You might not see the same people in the office at the same time. Some people will continue working remotely full time, others will do it more often. A lot of co-located teams will find themselves looking more like a hybrid team.
  • Physical changes to the workplace will change routines, schedules and the work environment.
  • Team relationships may have shifted, sometimes dramatically. Some tensions that existed before will be solved; others will be made worse. This is especially true of political or social tensions. Nerves will be raw.

As a leader, it will be your job to help focus the attention of your team and get them productive again, as quickly as possible. It won’t be easy, and it will be easy to rush into a sense of normalcy. Here are a few things you’ll need to consider as soon as you can to help your team re-form into whatever shape they will take from now on.

  • Talk to everyone individually and find out how they are feeling. This isn’t the usual check-in. Some people will have been bored and lonely during this time. Others will have been locked in with kids, dogs and spouses without a moment to themselves. Some people will be angry and believe this was all a hoax and won’t be shy about saying so. Others may have lost family members or friends to disease, or harbor deep fears about becoming sick. Are they excited to be back? Did they like working from home and want to do it more in the future?
  • Don’t expect everyone to just show up and get to work. Work is a social experience. People will want to catch up with each other, share their experiences, and reconnect. The first days will be lots of conversation, perhaps not so much solid work output. That’s not a bad thing in the long run, since work happens better and faster when people have good working relationships. These have been strained for a lot of people. Adjustment will take time. Set expectations accordingly
  • Keep an eye and ear out for tension. Between the disease itself and the social/political upheaval that has accompanied this time, people will have strong feelings about things, and perhaps be emotional. There’s every likelihood that someone who was unaffected by the virus will say something that triggers somebody who either fears for their health or even lost a loved one. Agreements to “leave politics out of the workplace,” may be harder to enforce (if they were ever a good idea in the first place.) Be proactive about checking in with people and don’t wait until the shouting starts.
  • Be honest about what the new team looks like. Some people will have discovered they like being away from the office (at least some of the time.) Others couldn’t wait to get back.  People who don’t have the responsibilities of kids still at home or sick loved ones may not return to the office full-time while others did. This will require shifting roles and responsibilities. The frequency and style of meetings will change. Be prepared for far more hybrid work arrangements than before this all started.
  • Be clear about expectations. Working alone, people may have developed short cuts that don’t fit the company’s processes. Perhaps those in the office will have to handle different responsibilities now that more people will be away from the workplace more often. Some people will just have forgotten some of the tasks that needed to be done before this all happened. Take the time to make sure people are clear, not only what their roles are, but who is handing what tasks and how the team will be configured going forward.

Whatever your team looks like going forward, you can handle it. What’s new will be obvious if you take the time to really assess where people are, how that ties to the work, and communicate effectively.

Join our upcoming HRDQ-U webinar titled “Re-Entry Without Burning Up: Getting the Workplace Back to Normal” on June 24, 2020 at 2pm ET/11am PT.

4
mar

The Pillar of Trust

Posted by Communication Styles, Team Building Exercises, Workplace ConductNo Comments

 By Sue Lanaday

Conflict is a part of life and can happen in all relationships. It rears its ugly head at work when colleagues have different ideas about how to achieve a goal, when they discuss who should perform certain work, and when personalities clash.

Given how common conflict is, it’s surprising that we’re not better at dealing with it. Rather than addressing our differences, many of us who are conflict-adverse choose to look the other way, brush problems under the rug, or assume we have no power to change the dynamics that cause our consternation.

Alternatively, those who are more comfortable with conflict may be seen as argumentative. These shouldn’t be the only two options. Rather, we should get better at resolving our differences, without avoiding them or getting into disputes.

What we need is a method for managing conflict. Those who are very good at it use a model I call ‘The Pillar of Trust.’ The pillar offers a structure that can support even the toughest challenges and allow individuals or disputing parties to reach their potential and achieve optimal results.

The Pillar of Trust – From the Bottom Up

  • COMMUNICATION

Good communication forms the foundation of the pillar. It is only through conversation – both talking and listening – that we can begin to understand one another.

  • RELATIONSHIPS

As we learn more about each other and our mutual understanding grows, so too do our relationships. The development of these personal or working relationships then become part of the pillar, making it stronger and able to the bear the weight of even more difficult challenges. In turn, these increasingly stronger relationships beget deeper levels of communication. In this way, communication and relationships continue to spiral around each other, together gaining strength.

While strong relationships are a gift in themselves, they also yield a host of ancillary benefits, including emotional support, confidence, reduced stress, good health, happiness, and trust.

  • TRUST

Confidence, health, and reduced stress are most certainly pleasant consequences of positive relationships, but the development of mutual trust is perhaps the most powerful byproduct. Trust allows us to take risks, open up, and look for mutually beneficial solutions when conflicts occur. Trust gives us peace of mind when we need to rely on one another, and comfort to share our vulnerabilities.

Trust is tricky – in order to determine if someone else is trustworthy, you need to make yourself vulnerable. However, with a strong base developed through communication and relationship building, that exposure is unlikely to feel risky.

The Strength of the Pillar

The triumvirate of communication, relationships, and trust creates a strong foundation and formidable structure, able to bear the weight of the toughest challenges. Looking at the model, you may wonder why communication is at the bottom and trust at the top, if the elements are so intertwined.

The reason is that trust rarely comes first. While it’s certainly true that you need to develop a certain level of trust before you can delve into deep or sensitive conversations, the reality is that individuals are more likely to use lighter conversation topics to build relationships and trust slowly, waiting until they are mutually ready to probe and share more deeply.

To begin building a pillar, don’t wait for others to make the first move. After you set the tone and model the type of honesty you desire, others are likely to follow suit.

Building Trust from the Top Down

Most people have a variety of relationships that differ in the level of intimacy. Though not impossible, it’s unlikely that total strangers would dive into a very deep conversation.

Because building relationships is an iterative process that takes time, perfect strangers, or those with a history of bad relations are more likely to start building (or re-building) their relationships with more superficial topics of discussion. After they’ve found some common ground and established a new base-layer of trust, they become better able to scratch below the surface and eventually have deeper, more personal and more difficult conversations.

Building Pillars, Not Walls

To build relationships strong enough to tackle the personal, professional, or political challenges we face today, we must start by communicating.

Through open, honest, and truthful dialogue; by sharing our feelings, experiences, fears and joys; the Pillars of Trust will rise. These pillars will enable us to enjoy supportive relationships both at home and at work, find common purpose, and resolve or respect our differences.

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