Corporate Team Building Games

Team building training is a great way to develop key workplace skills like collaboration and communication. You can energize your training with corporate team building games that make training a blast!

17
jan
1

Align Your Goals With Your Vision to Boost Your Team Performance

Posted by Coaching Skills, Corporate Team Building Games, Corporate Training Materials, HR Training, Human Resource TrainingNo Comments

By Jesse Lyn Stoner

Are your team’s goals aligned with a shared vision? As Yogi Berra said, “If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.”

Taking time out to look at the big picture and where you’re going will save you time in the long run.

In our book, Full Steam Ahead! Unleash the Power of Vision, Ken Blanchard and I explain that “Vision is knowing who you are, where you’re going, and what will guide your journey.”

“Who you are” is your purpose, your reason for existence. “Where you’re going” is a picture of what it looks like when you are fulfilling your purpose. “What will guide your journey” are your values, how you proceed as you go forward.

In our book we give an example of an accounting department that thought their purpose was to collect and financial information. They were having difficulty getting the information they needed from other departments. In working on their vision, they realized that their purpose was to provide sound information to help leaders make good financial decisions, and they identified values of responsiveness, accuracy and dependability. As a result, they set very different goals, their relationships improved immeasurably and they became much more effective.

When goals are not connected to a clear purpose and values, people often work at cross-purposes with each other, not “rowing in the same direction.”

When you see a clear line of sight between your goals and where you are going, it’s easier to stay motivated. You see why they are important and it helps answer the question “What’s next” once they are achieved.

A vision that stems from your team’s values and beliefs generates a tremendous amount of excitement and commitment. Team members see themselves as part of a larger whole and they see where they fit in. Day-to-day activities have more meaning because it is clear how they make a real contribution to the team.

Leaders spend less time managing others and day-to-day crises and have more time focusing on planning and big picture issues.

And because everyone knows they each desire the same result and share the same values, they can act more independently without concern for competing self-interest, creativity flourishes ,and there is a greater level of trust.

3 Tips to Align Goals With Your Vision

  1. Set the right goals.

Goals are the milestones that mark your journey toward your vision. They are the means to get there as they quantify and define the steps you take along the way.

Where your vision is broad and big, goals are tangible and specific. They answer questions like “when?’ and “how?” and “how much?”  SMART goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound.

To select the right goals, always keep your vision in mind. Look for some goals that will you leapfrog forward, some that address the greatest pain, and some that provide some quick wins.

Remember, you’re going to be held accountable for achieving your goals, so choose those that are a stretch but also realistic.

  1. Make goal-setting an ongoing process, not an annual event.

The problem with annual goal-setting is it doesn’t work. You can’t plan an entire year and know in advance all the goals you will need to achieve.

As you proceed, things will happen that make some of your goals irrelevant. Things will happen that require setting some new goals. Some goals will take less time than you anticipated to accomplish, and others will take longer.

SMART goals are measurable and trackable. As you track your goals, revisit your vision, to be sure they are still aligned.  And as you complete a goal, set new ones in relation to your vision.

  1. Create “structural integrity”

Not only must goals be aligned with your vision, but to be successful, your team needs “structural integrity”- where all of the underlying systems and processes that support your team are designed to steer you in the direction you want to go.

A team might start off aligned around a shared vision, but unaligned systems and practices can quickly derail them.

Are team members dependent on each other in order to accomplish certain goals?

. . .  If so, what communication processes are in place so they can effectively coordinate their efforts?

Does their vision include providing excellent customer service?

. . . If so, do customer-contact people have the authority to make key decisions regarding the customer?

Do any of the goals depend on a team effort?

. . .  If so, are there provisions to evaluate and compensate team members on team performance or are they rewarded solely on the basis of their individual performance?

This article was reprinted with permission from the author.

Jesse Lyn Stoner and HRDQ-U are hosting a webinar January 25th at 2pm ET. Save your seat here!

a665ee8b51475babfb4e2e345b3c318a_f-200-cJesse Lyn Stoner is founder of Seapoint Center for Collaborative Leadership and coauthor with Ken Blanchard of the international bestseller Full Steam Ahead: Unleash the Power of Vision, translated into 22 languages.  A business consultant and former executive, her clients include Edelman, Marriott, SAP, Stanley Black and Decker, Skanska, and Yale University, to name a few.

Named as Inc magazine’s Top 50 Leadership Expert, American Management Association’s Leader to Watch in 2015, and ConantLeadership 2016 Leadership Champion Award, she writes a popular weekly leadership blog and has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Huffington Post, and Forbes among others.

12
dec
0

Learning & Training Pros – A Few Words From Bob Pike on Your Personal Development

Posted by Corporate Team Building Games, Corporate Training MaterialsNo Comments

Training pros always strive to refine the art and science of this noble trade. Training as a profession is in many ways still in its infancy throughout the world. For the past 35 years I’ve spent three to eight weeks working outside of the United States, and on every trip I’m reminded that many of the training skills and tactics we routinely understand and apply in the United States fall into the category of new and remarkable elsewhere.

This experience, coupled with the increasing number of foreign visitors who attend the annual conference sponsored by the Association of Talent Development (ATD) (formerly ASTD), assure me that American training professionals truly have much to offer the world. But I am also aware, because of my work throughout the United States, that many of us here are neglecting to learn and practice some of the basic “art and science” of training.

I’m not looking to embarrass or intimidate anyone; nor am I looking to applaud anyone for how much they know. But in the interest of creating awareness about this “condition,” I’ve developed a short quiz.

Whether you know all the answers or none, my point is there is more for all of us to know than we now know if we’re to be true professionals in our field. We’re all preaching that adults can never stop learning if they want to succeed in the workplace of the future — and that has to include us trainers. We probably all have some gaps in our knowledge base, and it’s important we identify those and deal with them.

After you finish reading this column, take the quiz and see how you do. The answers are upside down in the colored box below my signature (no peeking!).

If these questions turn up some gaps for you, here’s the beginning of a reading list I’d suggest for the next 12 months. (I believe that 10 minutes of reading a day in a chosen topic can make you an expert in a year.)

  • The Master Trainer’s Handbook 4th Edition (formerly “The Creative Training Techniques Handbook”) published by HRD Press.
  • Figuring Things Out, Ron Zemke and Tom Kramlinger — available used on Amazon.com.
  • ASTD Handbook, 2nd Edition, Elain Biech, editor published by ATD.
  • Training for Impact, Dana and Jim Robinson, published by Pfeiffer.
  • Beyond Transfer of Training, by Mary Broad, published by Pfeiffer.

As trainers we sometimes worry that the changes in the workplace somehow mean we will be less needed in the future. I believe we will be more needed than ever, but we have to know our stuff.

Abraham Lincoln said, “Unless we prepare, when opportunity comes it only makes us look like a fool.”

Continually developing new knowledge and skills will help us prepare for those unexpected opportunities we know will come.

I’d like to hear from YOU-  what are your reading recommendations for training professionals — from beginners to the more experienced?

Share your recommendations in the Comments below!

The Quiz:

  1. What are the four levels of evaluation?
  2. What are the three most commonly used needs assessment methods?
  3. “6 x 6” is a commonly stated guided for creating audiovisual materials. What does it mean?
  4. There are five steps in the simplest of instructional design models. What are they?
  5. What are the three tests of an effective opener?
  6. What are the three tests of an effective closer?
  7. Why is it important to have participants revisit content, rather than review content?
  8. When performance is the question- training is the 6th answer- what are the first five?

Until next time, add value and make a difference!

This article was reprinted with permission from the author.

Bob Pike and HRDQ-U are hosting a webinar April 5th at 2pm ET. Save your seat here!

bob pikeBob Pike, CPLP Fellow, CSP, CPAE Speakers Hall of Fame, is known globally as the “trainer’s trainer.” He has written more than 30 books and created a dozen video systems on designing and delivering training. His Master Trainer’s Handbook is the bestselling train-the-trainer book ever published, with more than 333,000 copies in print in four editions. He has designed more than 600 training programs of one day or longer since 1969. He has presented at every ATD International Conference & Exposition since 1977, and is a regular keynoter at global training and performance conferences. He has worked in more than 25 countries during his career and his works have been translated into Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish.

Quiz Answer Key

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8
nov
0

INFOGRAPHIC: How to Uncover High-Potential Employees

Posted by Coaching Skills, Communication Styles, Corporate Team Building Games, Corporate Training Materials, HR TrainingNo Comments

By Rick Lepsinger

Have you ever promoted someone who was great in his or her role but fell short of your expectations in a leadership position?

As it turns out, many of the criteria we use to promote employees—such as instinct, seniority and personality—are poor predictors of leadership potential. This causes us to invest significant time and money into the wrong employees while overlooking the right ones, who become discouraged and move on.

How can you uncover the high-potential employees who are most likely to succeed as your company’s future leaders?

Let this infographic be your guide.

Blog_infographic_highpotential

OnPoint Consulting helps some of the world’s most successful companies uncover their hidden gems using practical, cost-effective and data-driven techniques.

This article was reprinted here with permission from the author.

Rick and HRDQ-U are hosting a webinar November 30th at 2pm ET. Save your seat here!

29b89ba2d6ea268fe9acac13e66e60da_headshot-rlepsinger_200-200-cRick Lepsinger is President of OnPoint Consulting. His career has focused on helpingorganizations and leaders identify and develop leaders, work better virtually, enhance cross functional team performance, and get from strategy to execution faster.  He conducts numerous seminars and workshops on succession management, leading from a distance, leading cross functional teams, and enhancing execution.  Rick has written numerous articles and is the author or co-author of several books. Click here for more information.

23
aug
0

Three Beliefs That Will Sink Your Ship

Posted by Coaching Skills, Corporate Team Building Games, HR Training, Team Building ExercisesNo Comments

If you want your workplace culture to deteriorate in a hurry, make sure that people hold the following three beliefs near and dear to their hearts:

  1.  “We’re Like a Family Here”: At the heart of the we’re-like-a-family-here belief lies the notion that the closeness and caring that characterize family life allow members of the workplace family to cross colleagues’ personal boundaries without being hurtful or inappropriate.

Well, here’s a thought: Most if not all families are flawed entities. They are not idyllic structures imbued with nothing but love and support. Some families can cause their members intense pain. And in those work environments that are fraught with incivility (or harassment, or bullying), people use the family analogy as window dressing that permits them to treat each other rudely, sarcastically or in otherwise destructive ways. The family notion stops accountability at the door.

My recommendation: In the workplace, keep the worthy parts of family—such as connection, support, informality—and decisively weed out the counterproductive parts.

  1. “I Know Which Lines I Shouldn’t Cross Because I Know My Colleagues’ Sensitivities”. People often claim that they know their colleagues’ sensitivities and therefore they are able to decipher which lines not to cross. The truth is that this belief is used to allow people to say and do things that are offensive, uncivil and sometimes outright prejudiced. In short, it enables bad behavior that can be classified as workplace incivility.

And by the way, thinking that you know your colleagues’ sensitivities is an illusion. In fact, when it comes right down to it, one knows very little about one’s fellow coworkers, even those whom you’ve worked with for many years.

  1. “We Have the Right to Vent”: In some workplaces, people hold onto their right to vent as if it were one of the Ten Commandments. They use it to justify uncensored bad-mouthing of colleagues and managers behind their unsuspecting backs. They claim that venting is a legitimate way to release steam. Or they explain their behaviour by saying that there’s a lot of stress in the workplace, and when a colleague does something frustrating or upsetting, the best way to handle it is by going to another colleague (or several, why not?) to express their authentic frustration. They feel that doing so has a cleansing effect that enables them to return to their work relieved and relaxed.

Here’s my take on this belief: We are not machines that require the release of steam to operate properly. We are living organisms, and our actions can cause much distress to fellow living organisms. In the workplace, if a person is frustrated with a colleague, it is incumbent upon them as an adult and as a professional to handle the issue and those feelings in ways that do not involve spreading incivility and hurtful gossip. Need to vent? The place to do it is at home with your husband, dog or friend, or by tapping into professional resources, such as the employee assistance program, professional counseling or stress management programs.

Sometimes damaging beliefs creep up on us without us noticing. The good news is that we humans have the unique capacity to examine these beliefs and replace them with more helpful ones.

This article was reprinted with permission from the author.

Sharone and HRDQ-U are hosting a free webinar September 14th at 2pm ET. Save your seat here!

white background square headshot (002)Sharone Bar-David is author of Trust Your Canary: Every Leader’s Guide to Taming Workplace Incivility and president of Bar-David Consulting, a company specializing in creating respectful work environments and offering solutions for turning around the behavior of abrasive leaders. She is the creator of the Respect-on-the-Go toolkits and Trust Your Canary Team Civility Booster program. Over the past 24 years, Sharone has worked within a wide range of industries through training sessions, consulting, coaching and keynote speeches. With a background as a lawyer and social worker, Sharone’s ideas are featured often in the general media. She is known for her dynamic style and ability to create ah-ha moments for those with whom she works.

13
jul
0

The Secret to Improving the Accountability of Others

Posted by Coaching Skills, Corporate Team Building Games, Human Resource TrainingNo Comments

By Rick Lepsinger

Although it is usually difficult to predict what people will do or say, there is at least one principle of human behavior that appears to be predictable and consistent.  On employee surveys, when we ask people if they and others in their department are held accountable for results, we get a very high percentage of favorable responses.  However, ask them if people in other departments are being held accountable and the percentage of favorable responses is typically very low.  In other words, while we believe we take accountability for our actions we are just as certain that others do not.  This is one aspect of human behavior that you can take to the bank.

How big a problem is the lack of accountability in today’s organizations, anyway? Our research suggests it’s a fairly substantial one.  In our survey of over 400 senior and mid-level leaders, 40% report that employees in their organizations are not being held accountable for results and 20% report that managers in their organizations do not deal with poor performers.  It also appears that the presence or absence of accountability in an organization makes a difference—77% of leaders in top-performing organizations report that “employees at all levels are held accountable for results” compared to only 44% in less successful organizations.

Before-the-Fact Accountability Booster: Set People Up For Success

The best way to manage accountability is to ensure that people follow through in the first place, versus trying to hold them accountable after they’ve dropped the ball.  Three techniques can help you dramatically increase the chances that people will follow through and keep their commitments: clarifying actions and expectations, agreeing on due dates for deliverables, and establishing check points.  The acronym ATC can help you remember the technique.

Action. This is the starting point for both setting people up for success and being able to hold them accountable after the fact, so it is critical to get it right.  This is where you clarify expectations (what “good looks like”) and identify who is accountable for which parts of the work.  Regardless of how good an idea someone has or how sincere their intention, nothing happens until someone commits to taking some action to produce a specific deliverable.

It is unfair to expect someone to deliver the results you expect if those results are not outlined clearly and unambiguously.  In fact, if expectations and responsibility for specific aspects of the work are up for interpretation, it’s impossible to hold someone accountable for results.  Missing this first step often explains why many managers are hesitant to discuss accountability when people do not follow through or, when they do, why the conversation can deteriorate into “he said she said” arguments.

Timetable.  Just as important as clarifying actions and expectations, establishing an agreed upon due date is critical to ensuring everyone is on the same page.  Due dates like “as soon as possible” and “by next week” lay the foundation for misunderstandings because your “as soon as possible” may not be anywhere near theirs. (Does “by next week” mean before next week? Does it mean Monday of next week or Friday of next week?) In addition, commitments that don’t have a time frame frequently do not get attention and usually fall by the wayside.

Checkpoints.  One of the biggest mistakes people make is waiting to check in until the action or deliverable is due.  Although the pitfall seems obvious—waiting until the due date to check in does not leave time for problem solving—it is surprising how many people stumble into it.  One explanation leaders offer for this self-defeating behavior is that they’re afraid of communicating a lack of trust in the other person’s ability—or of being labeled a micro-manager.

The simple, yet powerful, solution is to establish periodic progress check points before the due date.  The frequency of the checkpoints will depend on the difficulty of the task and the experience of the person.  This technique simultaneously solves both problems: the implied lack of trust and the micro-managing.  Agreeing on checkpoints with the other person makes follow up and progress checks a shared and mutually endorsed activity.   The check-ins are now part of project management and they also provide opportunities for you to coach if there is a problem and recognize and reinforce behavior when things are going well.

In addition, because you’ve outlined the milestones you are comfortable with and built in time to get things back on track if you discover there is a problem, you don’t have to give in to the temptation to make spontaneous or surprise visits or to call when you get nervous about whether the project is on track.

After-The-Fact Accountability Booster: Three Accountability Questions

Sure, prevention is better than an after-the-fact remedy. But in the real world, people will drop the ball from time to time. Rather than berating a person for her failure to deliver results, reinforce her accountability and focus on problem solving.  Three questions will encourage the person to think about how she contributed to the current situation, what she can do to get things back on track, and what she can do to prevent it from happening again.

In addition to asking these questions directly yourself (which might come across as accusatory), you should coach the person to pose them to herself as a way to manage her own accountability. The three questions are:

  • Present: “What can I do now to get on track?”
  • Future: “What can I do to prevent this problem from happening again in the future?”
  • Past: “What could I have done to prevent the problem? What, if anything, did I do that might have possibly contributed to the problem”?

Although we are aware that it’s important, many of us still hesitate to hold others accountable for their actions.  In the heat of the moment it may seem faster and less of a hassle to let something go or to wait and see what happens. Discussions about accountability can be straightforward and potential conflicts less intense when everyone knows ahead of time what is expected and how success will be measured.  Plus, of course, establishing this clarity reduces the likelihood of having to have the discussions in the first place.

This article was reprinted with permission from the author.

Rick and HRDQ-U are hosting a FREE webinar July 20 at 2pm ET. Save your seat here!

29b89ba2d6ea268fe9acac13e66e60da_headshot-rlepsinger_200-200-cA virtual team expert with more than 30 years experience and a proven track record as a human resource consultant and executive, Rick Lepsinger is the president of OnPoint Consulting. He is the co-author of several books on leadership and organizational effectiveness, including Closing the Execution Gap: How Great Leaders and Their Companies Get Results and Virtual Team Success: A Practical Guide for Working and Leading from a Distance. Rick was on the faculty of GE’s Management Development Course (MDC) for four years and led the program, Making GE’s Global Matrix Work.

 

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