The word "facilitation" comes from the Latin for "Facilis" or to make easy. As a team leader we play an important role in making things easier for our team.

As you consider key priorities for your team right now, what could you make easy? What would this take?

This week we have been focusing on retreats and facilitation. It's not always a natural skill set for a team leader. These are areas we specialize in, and I've worked with hundreds, if not thousands, of professionals in the last two decades equipping them with enhanced training, facilitation and coaching skills.

Perhaps you will benefit from joining us for an upcoming program by phone or in person, or perhaps we can support your organizationally. Contact me to set up a time to discuss your needs.

With best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPT
Potentials Realized - Leadership and Team Development, Coaching, Retreats
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
Email us to find out how we can support you and your team in enhancing your collaboration through coaching, training or a retreat program

Today's post is a reprint of an article I wrote back in 2007 on Six Principles for Designing a Powerful Corporate Retreats. It originally showed up at Ezine Articles.com:

Corporate retreats or offsites provide the opportunity for team building, planning, reflection and strategizing. They can elicit the response "Oh, no! Not another waste of time!" to "Wow! I'm really looking forward to it.". This article puts forth six design principles to make your next corporate retreat hit the mark.

1. Be Strategic on What You Want to Accomplish:

One of the common pitfalls for corporate retreats is that either too many or too few objectives are set. Be strategic on what you want to accomplish.

Ask yourself: What do you want to achieve during the retreat? As a result of the retreat? What do you want staff to take away? What are your largest priorities? What foundation do you want to create for the staff team?

Be as specific as possible, making your objectives measurable. As the old adage says, "What doesn't get measured, doesn't get done".

2. Get Employees involved in the design of a retreat:

Many times retreats fail because employees are not involved in the design of the retreat. What would employees like to see covered?. Find a balance between the corporate objectives and what employees really want covered. Is it a 80/20 mix? A 50/50 mix?

The retreat facilitator can survey employees to assess what they would like to have included, and to gather their expectations of the retreat process and outcomes. This can be done at staff meetings, if teams are small enough through one-on-one discussion, or via an email or web based survey tool.

3. Less Is More - Ensure You Schedule Enough Time:

A common pitfall with retreat design is that everything tends to get thrown in. In your design work, ensure that all stakeholders are clear on what really needs to be covered versus what they would like to have covered. It may be useful to categorize the possible topics into What's essential, What would be nice, and What can wait to another time or forum.

Less is truly more in terms of impact. Allow sufficient time during the retreat for participants to discuss the topics of relevance and to reflect. It is also important to leave time for participants to create an action plan, linking the retreat discussions back to the workplace. If not all your topics can fit into the retreat you have scheduled, look at adding an additional day to the retreat or scheduling another offsite later in the year.

4. Choose a Facilitator Wisely

Who will be facilitating your retreat? An external facilitator brings the benefits of neutrality and complete focus and dedication throughout the retreat process. When looking at the external facilitator option, choose a facilitator who is committed to partnering with your organization for the long term, at least for several retreat processes. This will foster stronger trust with your team, enabling subsequent retreats to start from a higher level. The external facilitator will also develop a better sense of your corporate priorities, culture and vision with time. When using a new external facilitator, ensure that sufficient time is spent on briefing, including discussions on expectations, outcomes and your past experience with retreats - what's worked and what has not.

Given that corporate priorities can shift with time, ensure that you leave sufficient planning time, and that the facilitator can adapt the program to meet the rapidly changing needs. To ensure success with an external facilitator, create an internal retreat planning team who can serve as the liaison throughout the whole process, ensuring a seamless fit.

Internal retreat leaders also play an important role within the retreat process, and bring "insider" knowledge as to what the organization is all about, the culture and the priorities. If an internal retreat leader is used, ensure that they are given sufficient authority and scope to undertake their role. You may also want to consider pairing an internal facilitator with an external facilitator.

5. Make it Regular!

To gain the same "traction" you have on retreat, make retreats regular and not just once a year. Schedule half to full days out of the office several times a year for departments and if possible the entire organization. Virtual Retreats can also be utilized to provide mini-retreat processes throughout the year, without the added expense of time and money to an offsite.

6. Follow Up:

Create the Learning Link Back to the Office - Many times learning is left at the retreat location and sadly does not transfer back to the office. Throughout the retreat process ask yourself: What can we do to bring this learning back to the office? What systems do we already have in place which can be leveraged to discuss our retreat learning? What systems should we create?

To strengthen the learning link back to the office, schedule time during the retreat to create action plans, at the individual, team, department and/or corporate level. Action Plans should identify time frames, resources needed, who is accountable. Action plans should be as specific as possible. Action plans need to be followed up on, either as part of regular team meetings, through one-on-ones with managers, or through other internal systems.

To keep the learning alive, consider holding group or team coaching sessions after the retreat with smaller teams or individual employees. Monthly or bi-monthly sessions can support the transfer of the learning back to the workplace.

With these six design principles in mind, your next retreat should be meaningful, engaging and sustainable, leaving your employees asking "When are we going to do this again?".

Copyright 2007 - Potentials Realized. All Rights Reserved

Jennifer J. Britton is the founder of Potentials Realized .  Jennifer works with corporate clients and business owners to achieve the success and impact they desire in teamwork, business, balance and performance issues, through the provision of coaching, consulting and training services. She regularly facilitates teambuilding sessions and retreats (virtual, on and offsite) with governmental, nonprofit and corporate clients. As a performance improvement specialist, she works with leading edge organizations across North America and the Caribbean. She is a Professional Certified Coach, a Certified Performance Technologist and a Certified Human Resource Professional. Jennifer provides team, group and executive coaching programs. Jennifer is known for her engaging, results-oriented, customized collaborations.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/538160


Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC
Potentials Realized
Author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013) and Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Everything DiSC® Authorized Partner
Contact us and let us know how we can support you in helping your team reach its' full potential: (416)996-TEAM (8326)

Team and organizational retreats provide an important opportunity to pause and reflect on what  is working well, and what's not. It also provides an important opportunity for teams to reconnect and get to know each other better.

Retreats should not just be a "get to know you" but should also focus on what lays ahead. What are key messages which need to be communicated? What ideas could you use input around?

Powerful retreats focus on both building relationships as well as focusing on results for the teams. A concrete action plan with specific action steps and accountabilty around who is going to follow-up, by when, and how, is another important take-away.

Tomorrow I will be sharing an article I wrote a few years ago, based on my own experience of having facilitated dozens of retreats, both internally and externally. Stay tuned!

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPT
Potentials Realized - Leadership and Team Development, Coaching, Retreats
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
Email us to find out how we can support you and your team in enhancing your collaboration through coaching, training or a retreat program

Today's post is all about inspiration. Inspiration is a powerful fuel for teams, helping them reach goals they may not have thought they could. Inspiration is a powerful motivator.

Questions to consider:
What is inspiring to your team?
What is inspiring to you as a leader?
What has inspiration helped them achieve in the past?
What have you done as a leader to inspire? What has been most effective?
What organizational stories and figures are inspiring to the team?

Activity:
Facilitate a conversation around these questions.
Is there a metaphor or picture that the team could use as a touch point for inspiration?
Post this where everyone can see and provide opportunities for team members to add to it.

Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC
Potentials Realized
Author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013) and Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Everything DiSC® Authorized Partner
Contact us and let us know how we can support you in helping your team reach its' full potential: (416)996-TEAM (8326)

Expectations are critical in team success. Where have you set your expectations individually? Collectively?

Ralph Marston's quote encourages us to raise the bar for ourselves.

Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPT
Potentials Realized - Leadership and Team Development, Coaching, Retreats
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
Email us to find out how we can support you and your team in enhancing your collaboration through coaching, training or a retreat program

There will come a time when teams disband, whether it is because a project finishes, or whether team members change.

As much as possible it is important to pause and provide an opportunity to celebrate and acknowledge successes. For team members and leaders staying together, a dialogue of what has been working and what needs a change is useful, to reorient for new team members coming in.

As you move through closure with teams also focus on lessons learned, and make sure this information is documented and shared with relevant parties, so that the same issues do not re-emerge.

What is important for you to remember or keep in mind about the adjourning or closure stage?

How will you celebrate your successes? How will you capture your lessons learned and carry these forward?

Have a great weekend,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPT
Potentials Realized - Leadership and Team Development, Coaching, Retreats
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
Email us to find out how we can support you and your team in enhancing your collaboration through coaching, training or a retreat program

At the performing stage  teams are ready to excel. They are ready to roll. To be able to perform, teams need to know that they can rely on each other and need to understand how they .

At this stage, team leaders should continue to check in on progress regularly and should be ready to provide troubleshooting when problems arise, or provide resources when needed.

One of the challenges for teams to continue "performing". Just as athletes need to replenish and renew, so do teams. What will help your teams renew so that they can perform at their best?

Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPT
Potentials Realized - Leadership and Team Development, Coaching, Retreats
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
Email us to find out how we can support you and your team in enhancing your collaboration through coaching, training or a retreat program

The third stage of team development is the norming stage. During this stage team members are finally figuring out the different roles which will lead to success for the team, and also how they want to operate.

As a team leader it is important to facilitate the conversation regularly about roles needed within the team, especially as context changes. Continued conversation about expectations (shared expectations) and roles is critical. Note that teams can regress and slip back to the storming stage throughout this dialogue.

What do you notice about norming in your team? What will support the team the most?

Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPT
Potentials Realized - Leadership and Team Development, Coaching, Retreats
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
Email us to find out how we can support you and your team in enhancing your collaboration through coaching, training or a retreat program

Conflict is a natural part of the team development process. What is problematic is when teams do not have the tools or skills to navigate and work through conflict. Teams which are coming together early on will try to figure out who they are as a collective. Jockeying around roles and power is common place. As team members start to feel into their roles both overt and covert conflict emerges.

Overt conflict are the visible tugs of war - the visible comments and arguments. Covert conflict is typically also present, and in fact is more insidious to a team. These are the side bar conversations, the water cooler talk, and the team toxic behaviors.

As a team leader it is important to acknowledge when conflict exists, and to have dialogue within the team about what acceptable behaviors are, and are not. Ensuring that team members have the skills and a framework to work with conflict it also part of what we want to create. What conflict management models are you using in your organization? What training already exists?

Two resources I often recommend in the leadership development training I lead are:
Have a Nice Conflict - Patterson, Scudder and Mitchell
Fierce Conversations - Susan Scott

Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPT
Potentials Realized - Leadership and Team Development, Coaching, Retreats
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
Email us to find out how we can support you and your team in enhancing your collaboration through coaching, training or a retreat program

The first stage of team formation is the FORMING stage. Whether it's a new project team coming together, or a new leader joining the team, there are several characteristics common at the FORMING Stage:

1. Team is getting to know each other
2. Safety needs are high, trust levels are low or non-existent
3. Goals, vision and values are needing to be created

As a leader it is important to:
1. Clarify expectations you have.
2. Have the group or team create shared expectations of each other
3. Create opportunities for people to get to know each other
4. Ensure that safety needs are met.

What else is important at the forming stage? What have you noticed in past instances where teams are forming?

Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPT
Potentials Realized - Leadership and Team Development, Coaching, Retreats
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
Email us to explore how we can support you and your team
(416)996-TEAM