High-Performance Teamwork

I have just completed field testing a new workshop that features several innovative components. I am excited to announce this workshop.

New Situations And A New Approach

The nature of business teams today is different from teams in your grandparents' times. Today's teams are rapidly assembled to meet urgent needs. Team members are likely to be strangers to each other because teams are cross-functional and cross-cultural in nature. Teams work under tight time pressures in an unpredictable environment with incomplete information.

Traditional approaches to teambuilding and team training don't work effectively in creating teams to meet the demands of the modern workplace. It is true that high ropes exercises and white water rafting rapidly bond team members and excite them into working effectively during the teambuilding activity. However, the newly acquired trust, skills, and knowledge do not transfer to the workplace.

In contrast to traditional teambuilding approaches, we use a less threatening activity and constantly debrief participants to discover and specify strategies that can be applied to the workplace.

Teamplay Results In Teamwork

The heart of the workshop is Mattel's board game Break the Safe. This board game is unlike any that you have played before because it depends on cooperative teamwork. Surprisingly, this family game reflects all elements of today's workplace and provides an excellent metaphor for high-performance teamwork.

Workshop Outline

The workshop lasts for 6-8 hours and can be conducted with any number of participants. Its goal is to empower you (and every other participant) to become an effective member of a high-performance team working in an unpredictable environment. After the workshop, you return to your workplace with ready-to-use principles, procedures, techniques, and tools.

Here's a detailed outline of the workshop:

Module 1. Workshop Orientation

Objectives:

Identify critical features of high-performance teams in today's workplace.

React to the objectives and format of the workshop.

Activities:

Presentation and discussion

Module 2. Learn To Play

Objectives:

Learn the rules of the Break the Safe game using a teamwork strategy.

Set up and play a practice round of the game.

Identify key requirements for effective team goals and team membership in a high-performance team.

Activities:

Play an Each Teach game to master the rules of Break the Safe.

Play a practice round of Break the Safe.

Debrief to focus on team goals and roles.

Module 3. Plan To Play

Objectives:

Select specific principles for effectively achieving the team's goal.

Identify key tasks to be completed in the team activity.

Prepare a teamwork plan by listing key principles and tasks and assigning them to specific team members.

Activities:

Select and allocate teamwork principles by using a collaborative strategy.

Select and allocate key tasks to team members.

Module 4. Play to Learn

Objectives:

Implement the team plan while playing the Break the Safe game.

Identify how teamwork principles can be adapted and applied to workplace teams.

Learn from team failure or success in an accountable fashion.

Activities:

Play Break the Safe game.

Debrief and discuss how to learn from team failures and successes.

Module 5. Give and Receive Feedback

Objectives:

Give positive feedback and constructive suggestions to other members of your team.

Receive feedback and suggestions with an open mind.

Identify suitable changes in personal performance to improve participation.

Activities:

Play Feedback Envelopes game.

Debrief to discuss workplace applications of giving and receiving feedback.

Module 6. Play with Strangers

Objectives:

Participate as an effective member of a team of strangers working under a tight schedule.

Apply teamwork principles to the workplace.

Activities:

Play Break the Safe with a new group of teammates.

Debrief to discuss workplace applications of effective teamwork principles.

Module 7. Words and Pictures

Objectives:

Identify key elements of high-performance teamwork.

Summarize these elements in an easy-to-remember poster.

Activities:

Play Words and Pictures game as a member of a new team.

Debrief to focus on continuous learning and application.

Module 8. Plan for Action

Objectives:

Review teamwork experiences and discussions to identify application ideas.

Write down a practical idea for improving teamwork in the workplace.

Activities:

Play Thirty-Five.

Debrief to identify high-impact guidelines for effective teamwork.

Module 9. The End -- Not!

Objectives:

Practice teamwork skills at every given opportunity.

Activities:

Select teamwork guidelines for personal implementation.

Prepare an action plan.

An Invitation

The first public offering of this workshop is scheduled as a preconference session at the 2004 ISPI International Conference and Expo ( http://www.ispi.org/ac2004/workshops.htm ) .

Please contact me ( thiagi@thiagi.com) if you would like to bring this workshop to your organization.

A Final Thought

High-performance teamwork depends on individual skills. Improve your skills by participating in our workshop.

5 Things That Make Thiagi's Workshops Unique