What team practices are supporting relationships?
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From the realm of high performance we know that teams which excel have strong relationships. Part of this is making sure we have strong team practices – that could include Monday morning meetings, a mini-team event each month, a Thursday night social or a quarterly team development activity.

Consider your team right now and think about what is needed on the part of the team. What will help the team connect, have fun and get to know each other? Having fun as a team is important as it can help people relax and bring themselves more naturally into their work. If they are not able to bring their natural self to the workplace, disconnect may happen between how they work at home and how they work at work.

Here are seven different ways teams may be connecting with each other:

1. Daily huddles or quick status meetings (10-15 minutes) to keep projects on task.
2. Monday morning meetings – a meeting at the start of the week can support focus and alignment for the team, assisting with priorities and information sharing. Monday meetings may also flag issues that need to be addressed but haven’t been noted before.
3. Monthly project assessments – some teams may do a short monthly team meeting, highlighting key projects which need attention and/or doing a review. Some of the more common project questions are included under the next category of team debrief.
4. Team debriefs post major project (or mid-term). These may get the team to identify lessons learned, what’s working, what’s not and suggestions for the future.
5. A weekly or monthly social event around town. PingPong and darts are favorite options. Escape rooms and/or axe throwing are for teams who are more edgy (note: these options may not be applicable or appropriate for every team and their culture!).
6. Quarterly Booster Shots – Dedicating half a day or a full day to team development and/or learning. It could be undertaking an assessment together such as the Everything DiSC, or StrengthsFinder.
7. Key to making these valuable team practices, teams will want to consider the purpose and efficiency of each approach. Just because you do it, doesn’t mean it’s going well.
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What is the team finding valuable? What needs a change?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

This week’s Team Building Tip #205 in the series, gets you to think and be in discussion about the question “What team practices are supporting results?”.
Whether it’s a Monday morning huddle, a Thursday after work social event, or a mid-week lunch and learn, what are the activities (and meetings) which are helping the team get the results they need?

Regular communication in ways that work for the team, along with clarity around goals and objectives, helps team members align and understand how their work connects with each other. Team practices are especially important for virtual teams, particularly our “out of sight, out of mind” mindset. Virtual teams may want to be even more intentional in their focus on building in regular times to meet, socialize, connect and share information.

Think about what you are doing as a team.What’s working? What’s not?
What events are you holding to focus on results and goals? On relationships? On having fun?
 
Let us know what you are doing by using the comment link below.

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

#204 – Is everyone clear what exceptional team performance looks like?
Today we are at Team Building Tip #204, getting you as a team to explore the question “Is everyone clear what exceptional team performance looks like?”.
In today’s team context, where virtual teams sound, and people may not have the luxury of operating together, and seeing work outputs visually, spending time as a team to clearly define what “Exceptional Team performance” and results looks like is key.

One of the tools I share in my latest book, the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner, is that of the IS/IS NOT Table.  When assigning tasks, or talking about performance, are we getting really specific and granular about what the end results IS and IS NOT? Making a list of these two in contrast, can help to tease out some of the unspoken expectations.

Another great way to prompt this conversation about what exceptional team performance looks like is by having some discussion around your “PEAK EXPERIENCE”. Have your team discuss and share times when you were at your best, and have done your best work. Share details about WHAT you did (Behaviors), HOW you did it (Practices), and the Characteristics of the Work and Your Relationships.
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Revisiting these questions regularly can help with alignment and propelling the team through the murky waters of performance.
Let us know what you as a team have done to ensure that everyone is clear about what exceptional team performance looks like.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

​It is Thursday and time for another Team Building Tip. Today we are at Team Building Tip #202. This week’s question gets you to consider the question “What are the different roles team members are playing?”.

In a team roles are critical in helping the team excel and get results. Different team members may also be better suited to fulfil different roles, based on their strengths and natural talents. Consider these issues:

What are the different roles needed for the team to excel? Consider project initiator, social coordinator, Devils Advocate, Get it Done Person.
One of the better know role frameworks as it relates to team development is Belbin’s Team Roles. Read more about their nine team roles here.
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Issues to consider with roles:

• What are the roles different people are inhabiting?
• How are the different roles helping the team?
• What is needed by the team right now?
• Is anyone getting entrenched in the roles they are filling?
• Are roles creating more silos than connection?
• As you look ahead to future work, what roles are going to be required?

Take a look at other posts related to Roles by exploring these posts here. 

Enjoy!
​Jennifer

What is the team doing to clarify their vision?
We know that having a clear, and shared, vision across a team helps with alignment, creating a strong culture and focusing results. This week’s Team Building Tip brings you back into connection with the topic of vision.
As a team this week, you may want to ask yourselves the question:
 
What is the team doing to clarify their vision?
This might involve:
Creating a structure around the vision – If the vision is in word format, putting pictures to it.
Updating the vision. If it’s been a while since you created your vision, spending some time updating it.
Creating a tag line or theme around it. Some visions can get very “wordy”. What is the tag line or theme which encompasses the vision? How can you distill down the core elements of the vision into shorter sound bites that invoke the feeling or core essence of what you are trying to communicate?
 
For more on the topic of working with vision, be sure to check out these Teams365 posts:
Teams365 #1709 ​
Teams365 #1684
Teams365 #1674
​Teams365 #1534

Have a great week!
Jennifer

We are at a milestone of 200 Team Building Questions. Today’s question gets you to think about the question “What’s going to help you to be successful?”.

For the last 200 weeks I have brought you a different question each Thursday. My intention was to get you as a team into different dialogue.

As a former team leader myself, I know how challenging it can be to constantly be coming up with new questions to ask the team. That’s why I created the Teams365 Team Sparker Deck. Launched a few years ago, this 3.5 x 5.5 inch deck consists of 52 different questions (the first 52 in the series). Team leaders can pick a different card each week to share in their team meeting.

I’ve heard of teams using this as a wrap up question for the team to consider across the week, and other team leaders have indicated that they use it at the start of the week.
Pick up a copy of the Teams365 Team Sparker Deck – Tips 1 – 52 here.

​​The second Volume – tips 149 – 200 (the more visual cards) is going to be available in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!

​Best,
​Jennifer

This week’s Team Building tip gets us to the question “If you were able to make one change to the way you do things, what would that be?”.
As you consider your work and team practices this fall, what is working? What is not?
While change cannot always be effected overnight, there may be some small things which can be changed through the introduction of:

• New habits
• New practices
• Reduction of duplication
• Process mapping
• More regular 1-1s

What is going to help your team to be more productive and effective this fall, while having more fun? We spend an awful lot of time at work, so what’s going to make it even more impactful for everyone?


Best wishes, 
​Jennifer

Welcome back to another Teams365 Team Building Question - #198 in the series. This week you are encouraged to discuss the question:
If you were able to bring on one new team member, who would that be?
Take a few minutes as a team (or business owner) to think about who could help you  -

• Achieve the results you are looking for by the end off the year?
• Expand what you are doing?
• Elevate your work?
• Round out, or balance, your team?
• Or other?

Each week I take a look at a different question to get you in dialogue as a team. I’ve combined 52 of these questions (one for each week) in the Teams365 Team Sparker Deck. Each time you meet, you can pick a different card to “spark” discussion and dialogue.
We’re working on another deck which will be released later this year for those leaders who have been using the Teams Sparker cards. Stay tuned!

Enjoy,
Jennifer

PS – Don’t forget – Given that tomorrow is the last day of the month I will be hosting the virtual month end reflection and new month planning session I am going to host as one of my monthly Virtual Hacks from 9-10am ET. This is a 60 minute virtual planning session I host on zoom, using many of the templates I have created for the Coaching Business Builder. If you don’t have a copy of the book, pick up one. I also provide group members with digital copies of the relevant tools from the book. This one-hour session, and materials, costs $39 US
Click here to register and reserve your spot.

​Today's post marks Team Building Tip #197 which means that in the last three plus years I have included more than 196 different questions for you and your team to consider, on a weekly basis. How many of these have you brought in to your team building conversations?

This week pick out one of the many past questions, and bring it into your next team meeting.

With skills such as empathy, and collaboration being increasingly important in today’s workplace, the ability for a team to have a good discussion, know each other, be able to leverage their strengths and styles, in order to be work done easier and more efficiently, becomes critical. My intent in starting this Thursday series several years ago was to get team members with their leaders IN DIALOGUE with each other.

I thought it would be interesting to take a look back at a number of different posts and questions, to tap into some of the great conversation opportunities you may not have had. Here are a few questions I’ve posed along the way on Thursdays since the first question  which debuted as Teams365 #268 on September 24, 2015. Read it at www.potentialsrealized.com/teams-365-blog/teams365-268-teams365-team-building-tip-1

In that post, the statement was "What doesn't get scheduled, doesn't get done. Schedule in time for planning and team meetings". What have you scheduled into your calendar this fall?

Some of my other favorite posts include:
What habits can the team benefit from? (Teams 365 #429 -
What are the key networks you want to foster (Teams365 #1150)
Getting to Know The Team: I need ____ from you (Teams365 #1262)
What else? Team building tip #69 as posted in Teams365 #744

If you liked these, a reminder that 50 of the questions have been combined to make up the Teams365 Team Sparker Deck, which you can purchase here.
 
Enjoy!
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 include the summer 2018 Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner & Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) 
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326

Team Building Question #196 asks you to consider the questions “What’s the culture you have evolved as a team? Is that what’s going to take it to the next level?”.
Culture is something that evolves over time. It’s how we do things. It’s shaped by our stories, our icons, or experiences. What’s the culture that you have evolved as a team over the years?
As you consider where you are heading, how can the culture support you in taking things to the next level.
What values can help to support you?
Which ones do you want to focus on?
What are the specific way you do things which can help?
What are the past experiences you can leverage or springboard off of?
What do you know is your core strength?
What is your “super power” as a team?

If you haven’t had a chance to explore the topic of team culture before, here’s an opportunity to start the discussion. How do you uniquely do things? What makes you unique as a team.
 
Enjoy the conversation,
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 Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) 
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326