By Carter McNamara on April 30, 2013
We often talk about good teamwork as everyone getting along and coming together with the same vision. It may sound counter intuitive to say the best way to promote teamwork is through conflict. Teamwork coaching rhetoric often tells us conflict is something to be avoided, but the truth is that a healthy amount of discord […]
By Team Building on October 10, 2011
GROUP DEVELOPMENT Below is an idea for a team building activity focusing on the what happens when new members join a team. Learning Objectives 1. To experience the process and feelings that arise when a new member joins an ongoing group with defined tasks and roles; 2. To explore the coping mechanisms adopted by the […]
By Team Building on June 8, 2011
The emergence of the team idea can be traced back to the late 1920s and early 1930s with the now classic Hawthorne Studies. These involved a series of research activities designed to examine in-depth what happened to a group of workers under various conditions. After much analysis, the researchers agreed that the most significant factor […]
By Team Building on April 14, 2011
It’s always going to be the case that you find some people easier to work with than others. Sometimes you can pinpoint the problem immediately (if, for example, your employee is lazy or unresponsive, comes in late and leaves early, shirks responsibility, or constantly questions your authority without cause). But there are times when your […]
By Team Building on March 2, 2011
Group. Project. These are possibly two of the most dreaded words to an Massachusetts Institute of Technology Student, inducing fears of getting stuck with the slacker partner or pulling an all-nighter to throw together a half-effort project. Team building can help stop your team creating a monster At least, this is how those two words make […]
By Team Building on February 15, 2011
To the point, this is a post on what most people call “teamwork.” Bored already? Believe me, I understand. Traditional talk on teamwork is overdone and underused. But the fact remains that most market evolutions rely on a team—somewhere, somehow, some way. And that’s why what happens inside teams, from a Presidential White House Cabinet […]
By Team Building on February 1, 2011
Based on five dysfunctions of a team Patrick Lencioni pinpoints the issue of building a great team and group behavior. “Team building is not complicated”, declares Lencioni, president of his own management consulting firm and author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Watch the short video below hear Patrick’s great advice:
By Team Building on January 21, 2011
This quick team building exercise gets small teams to communicate when they can’t see one another or their progress. Communication is the key to success with this team building exercise Overview The challenge is to take a length of rope and lay it out on the ground to make a perfect square. Throughout the task all […]
By Team Building on January 10, 2011
What separates the greatest teams from the rest is their mix of talents and, crucially their understanding of one anothers’ strengths. When team building there are a number of questionnaires (or psychometrics) that can be used to help teams identify their strengths and preferences. When this information is used to assign roles and tasks true […]
By Team Building on December 21, 2010
Can having fun at work boost productivity? Professor Babis Mainemelis from London Business School thinks so, his study with Sarah Ronson found that: “Play at work improves employees’ motivational and cognitive processes and diversionary play fosters creativity.” And the Institute for Social Research found that companies with high employee engagement saw a 13.2% improvement in […]
Carter McNamara of Authenticity Consulting, LLC, provides organizational development, consultant training and Action Learning services, and is developer of the Free Management Library. [Read more ...]