The High Performing Teams Workshop
Overview and Design
Teams and team building are the critical concepts we cover in this half day or a full day workshop. We offer a powerful discussion that illustrates the journey teams take through time on their way to high performance. Not many teams get there. Most give up somewhere along the way and become satisfied with performance that is OK, but never quite lives up to their potential. We know from our work with hundreds of teams, this does not have to happen to your team.
Our discussion begins with a creating collaborative “graphic history” of the team by its current members. The members of the team can tell the story of the team, and the challenges it encountered along the way. Taking a history is a powerful way to engage everyone in recalling significant events in the life of the organization and the leadership team.
Following the “graphic history,” we introduce the Drexler Sibbet Team Performance Model. We show the process that underlies solid team development that leads to high performance. We call our work “Immersive Facilitation.” From the very beginning of this session, we immerse the participants in a fun activity that illustrates the core issue of interdependence. The concept of interdependence is the glue that holds teams together and makes high performance possible.
We use the learning from our simulation to understand the Drexler Sibbet Team Performance Model, a unique graphic that is at once a map, a process, and vocabulary that enables team members to see where they are, where they want to be, and what they can do together to move themselves to high performance. Our discussion begins at a high level focusing on the big picture of teams and team development. As we move through the workshop, we help participants to be able to use the model to do an assessment of their back-home teams.
Team members learn the seven stages of team development as well as the keys to each stage. Improvement can begin at any stage and within any key. This new understanding gives participants a way to discuss team issues easily and productively. Our work is strength-based and future-focused. We illustrate several practical next steps that teams can use to liven up their team, increase engagement, and align themselves toward high performance.
One of the most important topics we cover is sub-grouping. All teams are made up of sub-groups. These “smaller teams” are how work actually flows through teamwork. If the sub-groups work well, the team thrives. If not, work slows down, irrelevant competition arises, and we get less than stellar results. The real secret to team building is learning how to optimize the sub-groups.
The end of our sessions always includes a check-in with all the participants about how they will apply the learning to help their own teams approach the critical choice-points necessary for moving into high performance. We have learned over many years of helping teams become extraordinary that “team issues” never resolve on their own, they must be worked.
This session is designed to be a high value tasting session that introduces team, and team development to our participants. We know from experience that real teamwork is led from everywhere. As safety develops, trust builds. Open communication and real time feedback become norms of the group. All of these aspects factor into building a remarkable team. This introductory workshop illustrates the way to begin building high performance teams. The participants leave with a new understanding of how to enhance their own work team experience.
Value
Our clients receive the real value from attending and participating in this session. They consistently identify the following:
- The language of team development: From the stages a team’s journey to high performance, the keys that support each stage and the actions that can be taken. Team members take away an easy way to describe their team’s development.
- A way to do an assessment of their back home team. By learning the model and some actions that can be used on their own teams, participants learn how to assess their own team.
- The power of sub-teams within a team. This little-known secret to team development creates a new understanding of “group dynamics,” making course corrections easier to understand.
- The importance of feedback and openness to teams. Building trust and creating space for team members to say what needs to be said.
- The importance of team membership. Real teams can be led from anywhere. Heating up team membership and getting ownership for results is a team responsibility.
- Introduction to additional resources. Access to a wide variety of additional readings, workshops, graphic templates, all time tested, are presented as choices for optional follow-up.