Helping people in an uncomfortable team
work together better.
This is an
example of Team building workshops.
"These help the people in a team,
work together effectively. They create a joint vision and identify and tackle critical
business issues."
The
team members were well qualified and did important but relatively routine work.
There was no experience of team building or other developmental activities. The
team had a history of uncomfortable personal relationships. They did not deal
with these problems directly. People would grumble to others instead. Workloads
were increasing too.
I
interviewed the team members and the manager individually to establish my
credentials, to find out what the issues were and to encourage them to tackle
them. These interviews produced a wealth of data and some positive attitude
change. The workshop helped the participants decide which of their issues were
the priority ones for action. I also asked people to say how they felt about working in the team. Most
felt very frustrated.
The
team chose to work on their internal communications. This was difficult because
team members were not direct with each other. I asked each person to say to
everyone in the group what they wanted from that person. This proved to be a
positive and helpful experience to all. The group also worked, in sub groups,
on practical issues such as the allocation of work and priority setting. They
set up working groups to meet later and follow up mechanisms. Their weekly meeting
is now much more democratic and less a top down briefing meeting. They are
starting to tackle their relationships with other groups.
The participants are now feeling far more positive, enthusiastic and committed. They have learned the value of listening and talking to each other directly. There is less grumbling too.
If you would like to discuss any of this further, or meet, please call Nick Heap on +44 (0)1707 886553 or email info@nickheap.co.uk