Teams365 Blog - Potentials Realized

#TEAMS365 #1837 – Team Building Tip #218

1/10/2019

It’s Thursday and time for a Team Building Tip. It’s number 218 in the series. Today’s question is “Our pacesetter is…”

In today’s world of complexity and ongoing change, one area we still have control over is our pace. A great question to consider is “Who is our pacesetter?” OR “Our pacesetter is….”.

As you consider the landscape of your work, who is setting the bar?

What are the practices or examples you can learn from, or aspire to…?
Who on your team is going to set the pace and get things moving?
Who are the people on the team who can keep moving you forward?
There may be people on the team who are inclined to keep going?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), Coaching Business Builder (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Now available – PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner - Order a copy today on Amazon

#TEAMS365 #1714 – EVC Tip 61 - Virtual Team Leadership Skills

9/10/2018

This week’s Effective Virtual Conversations tip, #61 in the series, brings us to the topic of virtual team leadership. In my book, Effective Virtual Conversations, I explore the many skills required by virtual team leaders and virtual team members alike. These include:
Working Across Differences
Intercultural know-how
Innovation
And Resilience and Agility
As we consider each of these skill areas, team members of all kinds require these skills in order to be effective. What are you doing to build the skills in the areas.
For more posts on these topics, check out my past posts on the topic.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Effective Virtual Conversations | Coaching Team Leaders
We provide team and leadership development support through coaching, consulting and training services
Author of several books including the 2018 Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner & Effective Virtual Conversations (2017)
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326

#Teams365 #1236: Weekend Quote

5/20/2017

Our Saturday quote comes from Walter Lippman - "When all think alike, then no one is thinking".

Diversity of thought is important in a team. Group think can lead us to poorer decisions and blindspots in a team context.

What do you notice about the diversity of thought that exists within your team? How does it help to support you in getting the results you want?

If everyone is thinking the same way, what changes do you want to make?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats.
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Phone: (416)996-8326

Connect with us to be the first to know more about launch events around my newest book - Effective Virtual Conversations - coming out later this spring/early summer!

#Teams365 #1083: Team Development Activities I through L in Focus

12/18/2016

This week we've covered a number of additional Team Development Activities and focus areas including:

Teams365 1081: Team Development L is for Lifecycle - View it here

Teams365 1079: Team Development K is for knots - Click here to read.

Teams365 #1078: Team Development J is for Jeopardy - Click here to read

Teams365 #1077 - Team Development I is for Innovation - Click here to read

What have you tried out with your team? What impact did it have?

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 getting your best results through coaching, training or a retreat program
Looking for more cool things to do with your team? Check out our Potentials Realized store for books, emanuals, and the Conversation Sparker Cards.
(416)996-TEAM (8326)

#teams365 #1077: Team Development Activities: I is for...

12/12/2016

We are at I today in the a-z of team development activities. There are a number of different focus areas we may explore when we are at the I including incentives, innovation, as well as what's above and below the waterline of an iceberg.
Innovationi is a topic area which requires focus for so many teams today. At the core of innovation is creativity and thinking outside of the box. Experimentation and the abiltiy to "Fail forward" is also key.
There are a number pf activities you can undertake to get the "juices flowing: incluing using different word pullzes (see the slide today) or giving the team some materials and a time frame to se what they can create.
What are the activities you want to use to foster more innovative thinking
What is important about innnovation in hyour work?
Here is a great article from Inc which covers 8 Ways to Foster Innovation. You can read it here.

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 getting your best results through coaching, training or a retreat program
Looking for more cool things to do with your team? Check out our Potentials Realized store for books, emanuals, and the Conversation Sparker Cards.
(416)996-TEAM (8326)

#Teams365 #1004: Off the Bookshelf - fall Reading

9/30/2016

rWhatA few weeks ago a foot infection had me unable to make a trip to a conference in Arizona. With a couple of extra days on my hands I found myself heading to the library for some quiet time for research and also clearing out some of the TO-Dos which had piled up over the summer.

I found myself browsing throughout the business section and walked away with five really fun reads for fall. I wanted to share these with you as I have enjoyed reading each of them:

1. The Sweet Spot - Christine Carter. An ideal book for those of us who are continually juggling hats and tasks between our professional and personal realms. Carter introduces the science behind becoming more efficient and focused on what's important.

2. The Ideal Team Player - Patrick Lencioni - Another must-read business fable by Lencioni. A great read not only for team leaders, but team members. AS you may have noted from reading our posts here at the Teams365 blog - team members play a key role in today's leadership context.

3. Unplug and Play - 50 Original Group Games by Brad Berger. As someone who is regularly facilitating group and team initiatives, it's great to pick up a book that gives you a spark for some new ideas. This is a quick read with some really good ideas/games which could be used as energizers or warm ups in retreats or even team meetings.

4. Scaling up Excellence: Getting to More without Settling for Less -Robert Sutton and Huggy Rao - Another good read focusing on innovation and how teams can get better.

5. One I picked up at the bookstore the same weekend - Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five days by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky. A fascinating read and process from Google Venture Lab's experience of working with teams, projects and start-ups. For those who facilitate, lead projects, this is a must-read into an iterative process you can apply to your own business challenges!

What books do you have on your bookshelf right now? What books are you enjoying reading?

Have a great week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Phone: (416)996-8326

#Teams365 #676 : 6 #Leadership Questions a day - Innovation

11/7/2015

Today's 6 Leadership Questions a day look at innovation, a theme we have been exploring this week here at the blog.

Here are six questions to discuss as a team:
1. What does innovation mean to us?
2. Where are we already being innovative?
3. What best practices around innovation are emerging in our organization? In our industry?
4. What do we need in order to be more innovative?
5. What benefits would it have for us? Our work? Our organization?
6. What is possible?

Enjoy your weekend,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC
Potentials Realized
Leadership, Teamwork and Coaching
(416)996-8326

#Teams365 #675: Leadership Toolbox - Innovation

11/6/2015

One of our themes this week at the leadership myth was that innovation is for someone else. It is likely that you are hearing more and more about innovation, but what exactly is it? What does it mean? Here are some resources to get you started thinking and exploring the topic of innovation more for you and your team:

HBR's Top 10 on Innovation - Click here to review it on Amazon

The Innovation Book How to Manage Ideas and Execution for Outstanding Results - Max Mckeown - Click here to review on Amazon

Vijay Kumar's101 Design Methods: A Structured Approach for Driving Innovation in Your Organization. Click here to review on Amazon.

Collective Genius - The Art and Practice of Leading Innovation. Click here to review it on Amazon.

Four Lenses of Innovation - A Power Tool for Creative Thinking - Rowan Gibson. Click here to review it on Amazon.

Best wishes

#TEams365 #673: Leadership Myth I - Innovation is for someone else

11/4/2015

Most of us don't operate in a time of "business as usual". In fact, change is the norm for many leaders today. What once worked may not work so well now. That calls on us to become more innovative and entrepreneurial at time. Years ago, organizations such as 3M coined the term intrapreneuring, to describe a more innovative and entrepreneurial spirit (characterized by risk taking, innovation, out of the box thinking) in corporations.

Today fostering more intrapreneuring and innovation in teams can mean the difference between merely surviving versus thriving. innovation is no longer the land of only R and D (Research and development).

AS you get yourself and your team thinking about innovation it may be useful to contextualize it for yourselves. Consider having some dialogue around these questions:

1. What does innovation mean for us as a team?
2. Why is innovation important?
3. What examples do we have of innovation around us?
4. What is needed for us to be more innovative (encouraging and fostering more risk taking, culture change, more autonomy for each individual)

Innovation is not a topic we have explored much here at the Teams365 blog, and my guess is that many of you are being challenged and asked to be more innovative. We'll dedicate some future posts to this, including this week's Leadership Toolkit.

What are your next steps around innovation?

Best wishes
Jennifer

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)