In a recent effort to understand and document what I do with organizations to develop the ‘people’ side of things, I came up with 8 concepts that any organization could follow, sort of like a template. A leader (CEO, CFO, middle manager) can use these themes to deepen the buy-in of their supervisees and bolster collaboration and thus innovation. As people deal with their stressors and increase their communication skills negative team behaviors begin to decrease. As the dial of negativity (avoidance, sarcasm, aggression) gets turned down, the dial of learning, optimism, focus on results and strengths gets turned up. People begin to relate to each other more empathically and a flat organization is created, one that sees each other as equals fulfilling the mission and vision of the organization. I developed a series of 8 meetings from these concepts that I have created or integrated into my work. You will see that in all of the meetings I build in appreciations and relationship building activities. These build trust over time. Below is an overview, which I will flesh out each of the specific meetings as well as the art of facilitation in future blogs. I hope you enjoy!
Meeting 1: Triggers
Frame the overarching purpose of the 8 meetings: to meet each other as human beings, to get to know ourselves, to increase morale, to learn more about each other, etc.
Appreciations (to self, to others, to life)
Relationship Building activity (R.B. for short): What is one thing you love about working with this agency?
Is anyone done learning discussion
STARR model workshop
Closing
Meeting 2: Giving Feedback
Check-in from previous meeting
Appreciations
R.B.: Find 2 things you don’t know about the person (pair up)
Feedback workshop
Closing
Meeting 3: Receiving Feedback
Check-in from previous meeting
Appreciations
R.B.: dialogue about role (educate each other)
Receiving feedback workshop (includes defensiveness)
Closing
Meeting 4: Listening
Check-in from previous meeting
Appreciations
R.B.: Pair up and find one thing that is going well and one thing that is not going so well
Listening skills workshop
Closing
Meeting 5: Teamwork
Check-in from previous meeting
Appreciations
R.B.: penny activity (everyone gets a penny and looks at the year and says one thing about that year that is significant)
Ask: what is a team? What are the qualities?
What is conflict activity
Index card activity: strength and weakness
Synergy activity: 1+1=3
Closing
Meeting 6: Intention and Impact
Check-in from previous meeting
Appreciations
R.B.: Talk about a positive deed that you did recently (pairs up)
Intention and impact matrix (positive+positive=positive, etc.)
Closing
Meeting 7: Verbal Communication
Check-in from previous meeting
Appreciations
R.B.: what are you learning about recently?
Why are some components of verbal communication?
Assumptions: cow activity
Thing-a-majig activity or Back-to-back activity
Closing
Meeting 8: Team Building Game
Check-in form previous meeting
Appreciations
R.B.: What have you learned from our past 7 meetings?
Pick a team building game (helium stick, toxic waste, puzzling puzzles, bridge activity, etc.)
Closing
You will be amazed over time what happens when you bring these concepts to your team. As I said earlier I will take each module and give the details in subsequent posts so you can replicate this or modify it for your organization.