What Type of Team-Building Do You Really need?
Number 2
Before we elaborate on this question, let me suggest you read the HBR Blog Network Article for which we have provided a link
This short article, “Team Building Exercises for tough times” by Pat Olsen will give you a unique number of perspectives on WHY building your teams during challenging economic times is so important. As the author suggests, not all team-building is the same. We like to view our work with teams as comprising 3 separate areas.Note: Each one of these has its place in a teams’ life-cycle. Each has merit, and of course, each one can be used incorrectly or at the wrong time.
1. RECREATION: There are many times when the only sensible thing to do with your teams is to have fun, rub elbows, get to know each other and celebrate success. This would be appropriate with newly formed teams; teams that are not psychologically ready to engage in difficult conversation; meeting openers or closers; times when you want to drive home ONE KEY POINT to your organization and do so in a playful way. Our website has several examples of some of these and we develop many more each year.
2. EDUCATION: There are times when a team needs to accelerate their learning regarding a pivotal competency or better understand some theory. This could be an aspect of Emotional Intelligence; Awareness of Strengths; Balancing Advocacy and Inquiry in Conversation; Approaches to becoming more Innovative and so on. We have also designed several courses where the end result has been to practice the exact behavioral skills that will be essential for an aspired cultural shift to succeed. The key here as is nicely summarized in the HBR article is:
· Present Real World Problems and real life scenarios.
· Account for different styles and personalities
· Choose a facilitator who will tailor the program for you.
· At the end of an educational workshop participants should have one or two key takeaways that will translate to work.
3. INTERVENTION: Not all teams are healthy and functional all of the time. There are times when a group needs to address non-productive behaviors and work on these. There are many variations on this theme from slight to severe. The one statement we can make about this type of development work is this: ONE DOES NOT INTERVENE IN A DAY. Often clients will ask for the 4 hour one shot big fix. It doesn’t exist. Project Challenge has been part of several successful interventions over the years and in each instance it was a result of being A PART OF A MULTI-DISCIPLINARY APPROACH OVER AN EXTENDED PERIOD OF TIME.
So there they are – 3 ways to engage in team development. While on the subject I’d like to share with you some of what we’ve been reading which will be an exemplar of INTERVENTION. The book “Immunity to Change” by Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey presents a model which can help individuals and teams break their immunity to changing and growing. The authors partly base their work on a recent study that shows that when doctors tell heart patients they will die if they don’t change their habits, only one in seven will be able to follow through successfully. Why such resistance to change even when death is the consequence? What could be more urgent? Is a sense of urgency enough?
The model they present will provide coaches, team leaders and facilitators with a tested blueprint for growth and change. Oh, and by the way…their interventions usually take 6 months, and include four full day workshops as well as loads of individual coaching.
So as the cliché goes, “if you only read one book this year…”
Read this one.
