I’ve had many conversations about teams, both in my programs and in other contexts. I’ve come to the conclusion that we use the word “team” to mean any group of people with something in common, such as work or a sport. This very unclear definition leaves out the purpose of the word.
A team is a group organized to work together. Let me define the word further by considering the role of a team in a work situation: A team is formed at work to accomplish a task or effect a change when one person would not be sufficient. A team may be formed when a small group of people with different talents and backgrounds come together to accomplish a task or effect a change that one person could not do alone.
With this in mind, what do you call a large group of people in the workplace? I would define people working together as a “community”: a group of people having common interests, people who work in the same location with a set of rules or guidelines that govern them.
It makes more sense to call a workforce a community rather than a team. Each person in the community has assignments and tasks to accomplish that assist the whole organization to reach its goals. The tasks are done on an individual basis with expectations on the individual.
But there are times when an individual will not be able to take on a task or cause a change, because a broader base of knowledge is required. It is in this context that a team is formed.
An orchestra is a great example of a team within a community. An orchestra is a community with the vision to play together a great piece of music extremely well. Many musicians bring their talents to the group to do their part as individuals. Each section, such as the violins, then forms a team to accomplish a specific task within the music. Individual violinists work within the smaller group, perfecting specific parts of the overall music. The practice as a small team is then brought into the overall playing of the piece.
A team is a small group of people drawn from the larger community and given a specific task to accomplish. Once the task is completed then that team is no longer required.
It takes leadership to know when to create teams, and it takes leaders to accomplish a team’s task.
Teams are a way to build a better business and be successful through your own people.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Top Ten Tactics for Team Building Success
To make a start in developing those around you to become a great team, it's vital to ensure that you recognize that the power of your business will depend on others doing great work.
You and your business will succeed faster and more effectively, as you do less and less of the 'stuff' in the business and focus on making the most of the people you have working with you.
Here are ten top team building tactics for you to develop, in your own management style, in your own business, to make the most of your people - every one of them.
Be Clear
Express a very clear vision for the business and share with all your people. Better, get them involved in looking to the future and where you can take the business.
Show Complete Fairness and Consistency
Make sure that you have one set of rules by which everyone works and one set only - for everyone including yourself. Making sure that everyone knows the acceptable behaviour and standards in the business between each other and business colleagues, in and out of the workplace.
Delegate Effectively
Excellent team building comes through sharing key workload, enabling team members to succeed, develop and deliver the result. For small business owners this can be one of the most challenging things to do. Letting go of key tasks which they may believe can only be done well by themselves.
Leave Well Alone
If you are a good leader, you will be very clear on what you want your people to do and then let go. You make clear the 'what' and let them get on with the 'how'! Whilst this may initially seem to be a risk, if you are authentic and trusting, you will come to recognize that the best results come from collaboration and the ideas of many, rather than having all the best answers yourself.
Provide Resources
If you want to get the best from your people, it's vital that you give them what they need to perform well. If you can enhance the relationship with your team by ensuring that they have all they need to get the job done, whilst subtly alerting them to potential difficulties, you will get the best from them.
Give and Take Feedback
In open and honest relationships when you are team building, you will encourage a shared responsibility for business activities. This will also mean that all of your people as well as you, yourself, have to accept positive as well as constructive and challenging feedback.
Blame No-one
And then when things go wrong, you need to be able to let your people know that you appreciate their risk taking as a way to evolve the business. A safe place to play is vital in energetic organizations, whatever their size.
Develop the Team
Sometimes it's important to recognize the combined value of the team as a whole. The sum of the parts is greater than the simple addition. Then experiences are shared, synergies are exploited, and above all, team members are challenged and stretched to maximise their individual and the team's achievements.
Appreciate Individuals
There are great individuals in great teams and the leaders job is to appreciate that they all bring something unique and valuable to the party. Every one needs to know that they are important and contribute great personal value as a part of the overall output.
Celebrate Together
And mentioning 'party', means that there is a real and valuable importance in celebration. As a team. With successes comes the need to make the most of success, to learn and reflect from what really did go well and also what might have gone better if things were done a little differently - and prepare for the time ahead and new challenges!
You and your business will succeed faster and more effectively, as you do less and less of the 'stuff' in the business and focus on making the most of the people you have working with you.
Here are ten top team building tactics for you to develop, in your own management style, in your own business, to make the most of your people - every one of them.
Be Clear
Express a very clear vision for the business and share with all your people. Better, get them involved in looking to the future and where you can take the business.
Show Complete Fairness and Consistency
Make sure that you have one set of rules by which everyone works and one set only - for everyone including yourself. Making sure that everyone knows the acceptable behaviour and standards in the business between each other and business colleagues, in and out of the workplace.
Delegate Effectively
Excellent team building comes through sharing key workload, enabling team members to succeed, develop and deliver the result. For small business owners this can be one of the most challenging things to do. Letting go of key tasks which they may believe can only be done well by themselves.
Leave Well Alone
If you are a good leader, you will be very clear on what you want your people to do and then let go. You make clear the 'what' and let them get on with the 'how'! Whilst this may initially seem to be a risk, if you are authentic and trusting, you will come to recognize that the best results come from collaboration and the ideas of many, rather than having all the best answers yourself.
Provide Resources
If you want to get the best from your people, it's vital that you give them what they need to perform well. If you can enhance the relationship with your team by ensuring that they have all they need to get the job done, whilst subtly alerting them to potential difficulties, you will get the best from them.
Give and Take Feedback
In open and honest relationships when you are team building, you will encourage a shared responsibility for business activities. This will also mean that all of your people as well as you, yourself, have to accept positive as well as constructive and challenging feedback.
Blame No-one
And then when things go wrong, you need to be able to let your people know that you appreciate their risk taking as a way to evolve the business. A safe place to play is vital in energetic organizations, whatever their size.
Develop the Team
Sometimes it's important to recognize the combined value of the team as a whole. The sum of the parts is greater than the simple addition. Then experiences are shared, synergies are exploited, and above all, team members are challenged and stretched to maximise their individual and the team's achievements.
Appreciate Individuals
There are great individuals in great teams and the leaders job is to appreciate that they all bring something unique and valuable to the party. Every one needs to know that they are important and contribute great personal value as a part of the overall output.
Celebrate Together
And mentioning 'party', means that there is a real and valuable importance in celebration. As a team. With successes comes the need to make the most of success, to learn and reflect from what really did go well and also what might have gone better if things were done a little differently - and prepare for the time ahead and new challenges!
Recipe for Highly Effective Teams
All too often, companies waste their hard earned profits on team building efforts that result in little, or no, improvement in performance. If the only results the leadership wants to see are to have fun and spend some cash, then that is perfectly fine. However, if the leadership desires highly effective teams, then they will need to follow the recipe for teamwork.
As with most recipes, it is recommended you adhere to each step at first. After getting some experience, it will be safe to adjust ingredients to the team’s personal taste.
Step 1:
Pre-condition the environment for the changes in team operating principles. It is important that the environment is set just right, or the team will not reach its optimal performance. This collection of people will, from this point forward, be known as a team. The team will be expected to accomplish certain things and achieve specified results. The environment, also known a culture, should be generously and evenly coated with leadership. The leader must set the tone for a collaborative and cooperative culture. Although there have been cases where highly effective teams exist in an environment with the boss rules with fear and intimidation, it is very rare.
Step 2:
Add a significant amount of Mission to the organization and each individual on the team. It is widely known, that people cannot operate effectively if they don’t know where they are going. The more people understand the mission, the more likely they are to be effective. Add to the mission a good dose of understanding individual roles and responsibilities. Team members must be aware of how everything they do supports the mission and how they are expected to relate to others. People on poor performing teams often do not understand how their efforts affect the overall mission.
Every individual on the team must have their own goals. They must have one or two primary and several secondary goals. When they achieve these goals, the mission will be accomplished. The individual goals should come from the person and not the boss. They can and should work together on identifying the goal, but the individual must make a personal commitment to attaining the goal. This commitment will only come about, if the individual believes the changes are important to them personally.
Step 3:
Now fold in a clearly defined operating process for team members to follow. Every successful team has established rules and guidelines for members to follow. These processes should include how team members should communicate internally and externally. They should tell members how they should resolve conflict and encourage each other. Problem solving mechanisms are also included in these processes. Effective operating processes also help build the “chemistry” among the team players. This chemistry comes from every team member having the just the right amount of attitude.
An attitude of cooperation, collaboration, and compromise will go a long way in creating an effective team.
This is where a good deal of trust is folded into the mixture. Every team process is based on trust. Team members must trust the leader and each other. Team members cannot take individual credit for team accomplishments. As the old saying goes; there is no “I” in team. It is true however, that a team consists of a number of “I”ndividuals.
Step4:
Just a dash of attention must be given to the way team members interact with each other. They must respect and assist each other if the team is expected to excel. Team members and leaders must reinforce positive team behaviors and deal with team behavioral issues. Just the right blend of people, doing the right jobs, will make for great team results. A sprinkle of attention should be directed to how team members interact with others outside the team. All too often, a highly performing team can alienate outsiders and find their mission is compromised because of external factors. A team can never be more important than the overall company mission and objectives.
Step5:
Finally, sprinkle in rewards to taste. Rewards must be appropriate for the team and the team should receive the reward. The fastest way to make a good team go bad, is to select one or two team members and recognize the team efforts trough them. If everyone achieved their individual goals, then everyone should share accordingly. Ask the team members, they will tell you if it’s fair. That is, if the environment is right in the first place.
The mix of these ingredients will make a high performance team. The secret is how to adjust the quantities of each and just the right blend for your company and group of individuals. Through years of experience with building high performance teams, Terry Wisner, the “Life Saver Dude” has developed an effective process to remove barriers to effective teams and create and environment for teams to excel. Cook up the right recipe for highly effective teams and become more successful, through Partnering To Success.
As with most recipes, it is recommended you adhere to each step at first. After getting some experience, it will be safe to adjust ingredients to the team’s personal taste.
Step 1:
Pre-condition the environment for the changes in team operating principles. It is important that the environment is set just right, or the team will not reach its optimal performance. This collection of people will, from this point forward, be known as a team. The team will be expected to accomplish certain things and achieve specified results. The environment, also known a culture, should be generously and evenly coated with leadership. The leader must set the tone for a collaborative and cooperative culture. Although there have been cases where highly effective teams exist in an environment with the boss rules with fear and intimidation, it is very rare.
Step 2:
Add a significant amount of Mission to the organization and each individual on the team. It is widely known, that people cannot operate effectively if they don’t know where they are going. The more people understand the mission, the more likely they are to be effective. Add to the mission a good dose of understanding individual roles and responsibilities. Team members must be aware of how everything they do supports the mission and how they are expected to relate to others. People on poor performing teams often do not understand how their efforts affect the overall mission.
Every individual on the team must have their own goals. They must have one or two primary and several secondary goals. When they achieve these goals, the mission will be accomplished. The individual goals should come from the person and not the boss. They can and should work together on identifying the goal, but the individual must make a personal commitment to attaining the goal. This commitment will only come about, if the individual believes the changes are important to them personally.
Step 3:
Now fold in a clearly defined operating process for team members to follow. Every successful team has established rules and guidelines for members to follow. These processes should include how team members should communicate internally and externally. They should tell members how they should resolve conflict and encourage each other. Problem solving mechanisms are also included in these processes. Effective operating processes also help build the “chemistry” among the team players. This chemistry comes from every team member having the just the right amount of attitude.
An attitude of cooperation, collaboration, and compromise will go a long way in creating an effective team.
This is where a good deal of trust is folded into the mixture. Every team process is based on trust. Team members must trust the leader and each other. Team members cannot take individual credit for team accomplishments. As the old saying goes; there is no “I” in team. It is true however, that a team consists of a number of “I”ndividuals.
Step4:
Just a dash of attention must be given to the way team members interact with each other. They must respect and assist each other if the team is expected to excel. Team members and leaders must reinforce positive team behaviors and deal with team behavioral issues. Just the right blend of people, doing the right jobs, will make for great team results. A sprinkle of attention should be directed to how team members interact with others outside the team. All too often, a highly performing team can alienate outsiders and find their mission is compromised because of external factors. A team can never be more important than the overall company mission and objectives.
Step5:
Finally, sprinkle in rewards to taste. Rewards must be appropriate for the team and the team should receive the reward. The fastest way to make a good team go bad, is to select one or two team members and recognize the team efforts trough them. If everyone achieved their individual goals, then everyone should share accordingly. Ask the team members, they will tell you if it’s fair. That is, if the environment is right in the first place.
The mix of these ingredients will make a high performance team. The secret is how to adjust the quantities of each and just the right blend for your company and group of individuals. Through years of experience with building high performance teams, Terry Wisner, the “Life Saver Dude” has developed an effective process to remove barriers to effective teams and create and environment for teams to excel. Cook up the right recipe for highly effective teams and become more successful, through Partnering To Success.
The Down Side of 'Adding Value'
The corporate world has gone mad and we have gone mad with it. A disease unfortunately has penetrated too many organizations. In the age of ‘adding value’, we have become destructive, combative, ‘value adders’. In our quest to ensure we are at the top of the heap, we have forgotten the core competencies of teamwork, collaboration and organizational focus. We have abandoned the notion of organizational relevance for “me relevance”. The interesting thing is that the root cause of this behavior is not arrogance it is fear. It is the fear that we will not measure up, which leads to not getting a raise, which leads to not having a job and ultimately leads to not supporting our families. Whew, that is pressure. While the productivity spurt that fear causes is real, it is not sustainable and is clearly unhealthy for companies and individuals.
The ‘value add’ era has created a combative environment where everything is a fight and folks come out with both barrels to solve every issue. Everything is serious, brainstorming sessions and meetings turn into WWIII and sharing an opinion brings the wrath of ages down upon you. It is no longer coming up with the best idea that is the motivation; it is how I can make Mary or Bob look incompetent, so I can look better. This approach is not the type of environment that fosters trust, creativity or collaboration all of which are necessary for long-term survival of an organization. I completely get it that a company must survive in an era of extreme competition, but is this way to do it. No.
How do we unwind this tightly wound ‘value add’ culture and flip the switch so that we have ‘value in’. ‘Value in’ is where turf is abandoned for the good of the organization and the free-flow of ideas is embedded in the culture. It is not an initiative. It is simply, the way it is. The mission of the company is to be an incubator of new ideas that are discussed, added to or abandoned when they don’t fit. Combat is replaced with high-spirited innovation. I am not saying abandon arguing. I like a good, productive argument or debate. It is the intention behind the debate that makes all the difference in the world. Intent will determine if you are in an incubation discussion where ideas percolate or a destructive discussion where the motivation is to squelch for a much more sinister myopic reason. Only one of these fosters long-term gain.
Start with a grass root effort to change the environment. Schedule an ‘incubator’ meeting instead of a staff meeting. Demonstrate to employees that there is a new ‘value’ in town and it is ‘value in’. Let them see that their ideas are not crushed, but enhanced. Let them see the new behaviors rewarded and old destructive behaviors discouraged. This small step may be the catalyst needed to repair what is now a gaping hole.
The ‘value add’ era has created a combative environment where everything is a fight and folks come out with both barrels to solve every issue. Everything is serious, brainstorming sessions and meetings turn into WWIII and sharing an opinion brings the wrath of ages down upon you. It is no longer coming up with the best idea that is the motivation; it is how I can make Mary or Bob look incompetent, so I can look better. This approach is not the type of environment that fosters trust, creativity or collaboration all of which are necessary for long-term survival of an organization. I completely get it that a company must survive in an era of extreme competition, but is this way to do it. No.
How do we unwind this tightly wound ‘value add’ culture and flip the switch so that we have ‘value in’. ‘Value in’ is where turf is abandoned for the good of the organization and the free-flow of ideas is embedded in the culture. It is not an initiative. It is simply, the way it is. The mission of the company is to be an incubator of new ideas that are discussed, added to or abandoned when they don’t fit. Combat is replaced with high-spirited innovation. I am not saying abandon arguing. I like a good, productive argument or debate. It is the intention behind the debate that makes all the difference in the world. Intent will determine if you are in an incubation discussion where ideas percolate or a destructive discussion where the motivation is to squelch for a much more sinister myopic reason. Only one of these fosters long-term gain.
Start with a grass root effort to change the environment. Schedule an ‘incubator’ meeting instead of a staff meeting. Demonstrate to employees that there is a new ‘value’ in town and it is ‘value in’. Let them see that their ideas are not crushed, but enhanced. Let them see the new behaviors rewarded and old destructive behaviors discouraged. This small step may be the catalyst needed to repair what is now a gaping hole.
Unusual Cures For Boring Meetings
It is not even 10:00 am on Monday morning and it is already time to rush into one of those dreadful weekly status report meetings, a ritual that started sometime in your previous birth. You know no one will have anything substantial to report, a few trumpeters will hype up their trivial tasks, someone will hijack the whole meeting, a few egos will get bruised, and the meetings will go on till eternity or until your bladders burst. And those cups of coffee, tea and biscuits are fast taking you many steps closer to indigestion and ulcers.
Everyday millions of people waste time on useless meetings that serve no purpose. Worldwide meetings are one of the most life draining and unavoidable activities of the corporate world standing only next to performance appraisals in toxicity. Today many managers and employees go to office just to attend meetings throughout the day without getting a chance to do any meaningful work. Many departments even have daily status report meetings.
In many organizations a stage has been reached where the very mention of the word meeting is equated with something that is boring and life draining. True, meetings and conference calls are necessary to run things, but instead of running things they usually end up stopping things from happening. For example, in some organizations even the most trivial of tasks cannot be done without first calling a meeting, then a second meeting and countless other meetings. Also, another big challenge for meeting initiators is to keep all the attendees awake. Thinking out of the box, have you every asked yourself why do all team meetings have to revolve only around status reports, reorganizations, metrics, jargon filled presentations, performance appraisals, process improvements, customer complaints, finding scapegoats, etc?
Well, you may argue that is what the business is all about. So meetings are necessary whether people like it or not. True, some meetings are unavoidable and absolutely necessary to run the business. But as a manager in charge of leading and inspiring a team what can you do to make your team meetings more enjoyable, knowledge oriented and almost a pure joy for everyone?
What is the magic pill to make meetings more exciting and also produce better results? Quite simple. Have more meetings, but of a different variety. Apart from regular departmental meetings, periodically have at least 20-30% of your team meetings that have nothing to do with your business or customer issues.
Now you may again argue that you are not paid by your management or the customer to do such meetings as they have nothing to do with the business. Besides who will have time or money for all that stuff. But the unique meetings I am going to recommend can act as a tasty food supplement that can take you to a different dimension of business improvement and people management skills, well beyond the dry fodder that is fed as management best practices to organizations everywhere. And they can also lift you to a different plane of self consciousness that can help you inside and outside the workplace.
Have a look at the topics suggested below.
1. Inspirational quotes meeting: Have a meeting where you read, enjoy and discuss hundreds of great, inspirations quotes of various leaders around the world. Such quotes contain wisdom and advice that has withstood the test of time. Many quotes contain fantastic management wisdom. There have been numerous cases where a single inspirational quote has completely changed the life of many people. For example a quote like, ""It is a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead and find no one there-Franklin Roosevelt," or "There will be a time when loud-mouthed, incompetent people will seem to be getting the best of you. When that happens, you only have to be patient and wait for them to self-destruct. It never fails-Richard Rybolt," can start a very interesting conversation and self awareness.
2. Stress Management Meeting: Discuss and brainstorm useful and practicable stress management techniques that can be practiced within and outside the workplace. For example, a simple technique like a proper breathing exercise can be a great knowledge and productivity enhancer to the team to deal with stress caused by various workplace issues.
3. Life of a Great Leader Meeting: Have a meeting where you study the life of one or more great world non business leaders and freedom fighters like Lincoln, Churchill, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Rosa Parks or even Hitler. The lives of non business leaders around the world and the kind of troubles they have endured can have a terrific impact on your life. For example, the perseverance of Nelson Mandela who spent 27 years rotting in jail can make you feel like your workplace troubles are nothing compared to what some people have suffered.
4. Gift a Book Meeting: Most employees, including managers, don't read good books relating to management, history, religion, self help, etc. This is why there are so many workplace problems worldwide. But reading and re-reading a good book can take you to a different level of professionalism, confidence, business improvement techniques, etc., that can help both the business and the individual. For example, have your team members gift each other a good self help or management book to each other by investing invests ten dollars every two months.
5. Family and Health Issues Meeting: Have a meeting that can openly discuss family problems and health tips. People often avoid discussing family and personal health issues openly as they consider it as washing dirty linen in public. But if you can overcome that inertia and slowly start discussing whatever is discussable it can often provide valuable insights into a person's behaviour and understand each other. Each employee is unique with his or her own personal problems that can impact their style of work. For example, on a lighter sense employees with no kids can perhaps understand why employees with naughty kids grow bald faster or cannot take work home. Also often nobody knows that the health condition of an employee's family member can play an important role in an employee's concentration and productivity in an organization. I have seen how a young team member of mine lose his concentration and interest in work due to a family member's terminal disease that lasted for nearly two years. Such issues can have a serious impact on a person's overall concentration, productivity and contribution to an organization. But the question you should ask is can such employees be punished for poor performance or should the team pitch in to lift his or her spirits and take teamwork to the next generation?
6. Financial Planning Meeting: Discuss ways in which team members can learn and enforce proper financial planning in their lives. Various studies have proved that most people know nothing about proper financial planning or its importance. They could be getting a great salary but saving practically nothing. But when the Damocles sword falls on their head it will be too late to do anything. You need to save for a rainy day to prevent serious trouble for yourself and your dependants and family members. Similar to an organization's disaster recovery and business continuity plans, it is important for you to have a personal disaster recovery and livelihood continuity plan. Enough money in the bank and other safe investments provides you that much need mental strength to handle workplace harassments, including job losses. Anything unexpected may happen to you at any time, and that is why it is important to save some money for emergencies through proper financial planning.
7. Work Life Balance Meeting: Discuss ways in which you can enforce work life balance to improve everyone's health. Today everyone talks about work life balance, but nothing substantial happens in any department. In my umpteen years in the workplace I have never come across any real management sponsored mechanism to reduce stress and improve health of employees. And, I have never seen any HR representative walk across the floors and chase employees out at 5:00 pm or on weekends so that they go home to enjoy a proper work life balance.
8. Hobbies Meeting: Discuss hobbies and interests of team members. You may be surprised to know the existence of great talent within your own teams that can be exploited and nurtured for mutual benefit.
9. Video Meetings: Today excellent DVDs are available containing speeches, presentations and coaching sessions on a variety of business and self help topics prepared by management gurus and reputed authors. Normally such videos are expensive but worth every penny as they can be very interesting and highly educational. Every department library should have a good collection of such DVDs and periodic video sessions can be arranged for the benefit of all your team members. Similarly, countless useful and beneficial topics like email etiquette, humour & harassment in the workplace, handling rude customers, charity, useful electronic gadgets, household tips, first aid, and even philosophy, etc., can be discussed to everyone's benefit.
Everyday millions of people waste time on useless meetings that serve no purpose. Worldwide meetings are one of the most life draining and unavoidable activities of the corporate world standing only next to performance appraisals in toxicity. Today many managers and employees go to office just to attend meetings throughout the day without getting a chance to do any meaningful work. Many departments even have daily status report meetings.
In many organizations a stage has been reached where the very mention of the word meeting is equated with something that is boring and life draining. True, meetings and conference calls are necessary to run things, but instead of running things they usually end up stopping things from happening. For example, in some organizations even the most trivial of tasks cannot be done without first calling a meeting, then a second meeting and countless other meetings. Also, another big challenge for meeting initiators is to keep all the attendees awake. Thinking out of the box, have you every asked yourself why do all team meetings have to revolve only around status reports, reorganizations, metrics, jargon filled presentations, performance appraisals, process improvements, customer complaints, finding scapegoats, etc?
Well, you may argue that is what the business is all about. So meetings are necessary whether people like it or not. True, some meetings are unavoidable and absolutely necessary to run the business. But as a manager in charge of leading and inspiring a team what can you do to make your team meetings more enjoyable, knowledge oriented and almost a pure joy for everyone?
What is the magic pill to make meetings more exciting and also produce better results? Quite simple. Have more meetings, but of a different variety. Apart from regular departmental meetings, periodically have at least 20-30% of your team meetings that have nothing to do with your business or customer issues.
Now you may again argue that you are not paid by your management or the customer to do such meetings as they have nothing to do with the business. Besides who will have time or money for all that stuff. But the unique meetings I am going to recommend can act as a tasty food supplement that can take you to a different dimension of business improvement and people management skills, well beyond the dry fodder that is fed as management best practices to organizations everywhere. And they can also lift you to a different plane of self consciousness that can help you inside and outside the workplace.
Have a look at the topics suggested below.
1. Inspirational quotes meeting: Have a meeting where you read, enjoy and discuss hundreds of great, inspirations quotes of various leaders around the world. Such quotes contain wisdom and advice that has withstood the test of time. Many quotes contain fantastic management wisdom. There have been numerous cases where a single inspirational quote has completely changed the life of many people. For example a quote like, ""It is a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead and find no one there-Franklin Roosevelt," or "There will be a time when loud-mouthed, incompetent people will seem to be getting the best of you. When that happens, you only have to be patient and wait for them to self-destruct. It never fails-Richard Rybolt," can start a very interesting conversation and self awareness.
2. Stress Management Meeting: Discuss and brainstorm useful and practicable stress management techniques that can be practiced within and outside the workplace. For example, a simple technique like a proper breathing exercise can be a great knowledge and productivity enhancer to the team to deal with stress caused by various workplace issues.
3. Life of a Great Leader Meeting: Have a meeting where you study the life of one or more great world non business leaders and freedom fighters like Lincoln, Churchill, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Rosa Parks or even Hitler. The lives of non business leaders around the world and the kind of troubles they have endured can have a terrific impact on your life. For example, the perseverance of Nelson Mandela who spent 27 years rotting in jail can make you feel like your workplace troubles are nothing compared to what some people have suffered.
4. Gift a Book Meeting: Most employees, including managers, don't read good books relating to management, history, religion, self help, etc. This is why there are so many workplace problems worldwide. But reading and re-reading a good book can take you to a different level of professionalism, confidence, business improvement techniques, etc., that can help both the business and the individual. For example, have your team members gift each other a good self help or management book to each other by investing invests ten dollars every two months.
5. Family and Health Issues Meeting: Have a meeting that can openly discuss family problems and health tips. People often avoid discussing family and personal health issues openly as they consider it as washing dirty linen in public. But if you can overcome that inertia and slowly start discussing whatever is discussable it can often provide valuable insights into a person's behaviour and understand each other. Each employee is unique with his or her own personal problems that can impact their style of work. For example, on a lighter sense employees with no kids can perhaps understand why employees with naughty kids grow bald faster or cannot take work home. Also often nobody knows that the health condition of an employee's family member can play an important role in an employee's concentration and productivity in an organization. I have seen how a young team member of mine lose his concentration and interest in work due to a family member's terminal disease that lasted for nearly two years. Such issues can have a serious impact on a person's overall concentration, productivity and contribution to an organization. But the question you should ask is can such employees be punished for poor performance or should the team pitch in to lift his or her spirits and take teamwork to the next generation?
6. Financial Planning Meeting: Discuss ways in which team members can learn and enforce proper financial planning in their lives. Various studies have proved that most people know nothing about proper financial planning or its importance. They could be getting a great salary but saving practically nothing. But when the Damocles sword falls on their head it will be too late to do anything. You need to save for a rainy day to prevent serious trouble for yourself and your dependants and family members. Similar to an organization's disaster recovery and business continuity plans, it is important for you to have a personal disaster recovery and livelihood continuity plan. Enough money in the bank and other safe investments provides you that much need mental strength to handle workplace harassments, including job losses. Anything unexpected may happen to you at any time, and that is why it is important to save some money for emergencies through proper financial planning.
7. Work Life Balance Meeting: Discuss ways in which you can enforce work life balance to improve everyone's health. Today everyone talks about work life balance, but nothing substantial happens in any department. In my umpteen years in the workplace I have never come across any real management sponsored mechanism to reduce stress and improve health of employees. And, I have never seen any HR representative walk across the floors and chase employees out at 5:00 pm or on weekends so that they go home to enjoy a proper work life balance.
8. Hobbies Meeting: Discuss hobbies and interests of team members. You may be surprised to know the existence of great talent within your own teams that can be exploited and nurtured for mutual benefit.
9. Video Meetings: Today excellent DVDs are available containing speeches, presentations and coaching sessions on a variety of business and self help topics prepared by management gurus and reputed authors. Normally such videos are expensive but worth every penny as they can be very interesting and highly educational. Every department library should have a good collection of such DVDs and periodic video sessions can be arranged for the benefit of all your team members. Similarly, countless useful and beneficial topics like email etiquette, humour & harassment in the workplace, handling rude customers, charity, useful electronic gadgets, household tips, first aid, and even philosophy, etc., can be discussed to everyone's benefit.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)