Shifting your focus solely from what you do as a team to incorporate how you function as a team can deliver enormous benefits to both engagement and productivity.
I specialise in facilitating, team, leadership team and engagement workshops. Engaging, entertaining yet productive. My team facilitation transcends “team building” to sustainably improve team functioning. I can help you get your team on the right track.
My clients typically engage me for facilitation within the following scenarios:
The creation of a new team (whether it’s a new project or the result of a restructure) is the ideal opportunity to create the foundation for effective team functioning. Think of it as the opportunity to create good habits before bad habits form.
My work with new teams typically includes the following:
- Initial meeting with Manager/Team Leader to define scope and focus areas
- Opportunity for team members to provide input before the session (individually or collectively)
- Team profiling (typically DISC or Team Management Profile)
- Facilitated workshop (virtual or face to face)
- Full day session or half day session with half day follow up (allowing team members to implement strategies in between)
- Focus on getting to know each other (communication and working styles), and establishing effective systems, processes and procedures for effective team functioning
- Follow up with Manager/Team Leader to monitor progress
No-one likes to think of their team as ‘dysfunctional”. The reality is that teams are made up of human beings. Each with their own unique personalities, motives and drives for being at work. High performing teams require deliberate effort and focus on the connection between individual members.
Symptoms that your team is dysfunctional may include:
- Overt conflict between individuals (or the team polarised into two “camps”)
- Team members stop giving each other the benefit of the doubt
- High turnover within the team (or people reluctant to join the team)
- Poor team performance and reputation
- Poor engagement survey results for the team
My work with Dysfunctional teams typically includes:
- Initial meeting with Manager/Team Leader to define scope and focus areas
- For teams with significant conflict, I recommend giving all team members the opportunity to connect with me one on one prior to the workshop. This gives them the opportunity to ‘tell their story’ and makes it more likely they will genuinely engage during the workshop
- Team profiling (typically DISC or Team Management Profile)
- Online Team Health Check Survey. This provides a great set of ‘data’ to debrief during the workshop
- Facilitated workshop (virtual or face to face)
- Full day session or half day session with half day follow up (allowing team members to implement strategies in between)
- Focus on
- education – what are the elements of a high performing team and how this can break down
- reality check – (using the data from the survey) what are the strengths of this team and where are things falling down
- strategy – developing a specific action plan for getting the team back on track
- Follow up session in 1-2 months to monitor progress
A senior leadership team isn’t just another team. The dynamics at play within this ‘cultural microcosm’ will manifest throughout the entire organisation, setting the tone for culture, performance and behaviours. Unfortunately, leadership team members are usually selected for their individual performance and achievements, rather than their capacity to engage as a high performing ‘team member’.
The result of this can often be leadership team meetings where members claim to have an enterprise wide focus, but in reality are entrenched in their functional hats. At worst this can create a dynamic characterised by low trust, competition for resources and status, as well as undermining behaviour. Unfortunately, this is usually quite visible to the rest of the organisation and the result can be silos, poor engagement results, low psychological safety and high turnover.
The good news is, with genuine engagement from the CEO and leadership team members, this can be resolved. You can feel when you are part of a high performing leadership team. Trust is high, defensiveness is low and communication is open. Competing interests and values are balanced. The leadership team has a good reputation in the business and engagement scores are high. You actually enjoy going to leadership team meetings!
My work with Leadership teams typically includes:
- Initial meeting with CEO/ to define scope and focus areas
- Individual meeting/phone call with team members – giving them the opportunity to connect with me one on one prior to the workshop. This gives them the opportunity to ‘tell their story’ and makes it more likely they will genuinely engage during the workshop
- Individual leadership profiling (usually Hogan Leadership Forecast Series), with the option of pre and post intervention 360 degree feedback
- Optional observation of leadership team meetings – this provides an excellent opportunity for me to give feedback to team members on how aspects of their individual leadership profile either enhances or inhibits their team functioning in practice
- Optional team profiling (typically DISC or Team Management Profile)
- Online Team Health Check Survey. This provides a great set of ‘data’ to debrief during the workshop
- Facilitated workshops (virtual or face to face)
- individual coaching/check in sessions for leadership team members
As well as facilitating team workshops, I am often utilised for facilitating other sessions, including:
- Facilitating engagement survey feedback sessions and focus groups to help participants understand their results and to get greater insight into ‘the story behind the numbers’
- Facilitating strategy development days
- Facilitating change management sessions accompanying new products, processes and procedures
I can also train your internal HR team members in “Enhanced Facilitation Skills” workshops.
