Teams365 Blog - Potentials Realized

#Teams365 #1619: Team Building tip #186: Conversations

6/7/2018

This week's Team Building Tips Question is #186 in the series. It gets you as a team to consider the question What's going to "make" the conversation?

We engage in conversation every day, but how productive, and impactful is it? Questions you may want to consider at the outset of every team conversation are:

What's our focus today?
What outcomes do we need from the conversation?
What's important for the person I am discussing with?/
What's the one thing I want to get across?

Enjoy your conversation!

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats.
Author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013) and Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2009) and Effective Virtual Conversations (2017)
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Phone: (416)996-8326

#TEams365 #1612: Team Building Tip #18

5/31/2018

This week's Thursday Team Building Question #185 gets you to consider the question "What are the mindsets that are hindering the team?".

Mindsets are a culmination of behaviors, values, perspectives and ways of doing things. They can help us, and they can also get in the way.

What are the mindsets which are hindering the team? What are the things which are not supportive in the current context? What changes are needed?

Mindset shift is not an easy endeavor, and it closely linked to culture change. It will take time, and often starts with dialogue, awareness and a new narrative.

What are the things you can do as a team to shift your mindsets?

With best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats.
Author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013) and Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2009)
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Phone: (416)996-8326

#Teams365 #1591: Team Building Question #182: What is helping you....

5/10/2018

Today’s Thursday Teamwork quote get you to think about the question of “What is helping you move consistently as a team?".

With a shift to approaches where teams may be smaller, more fluid and agile, having some common anchors to serve as guide posts, can help to ensure that the team is still able to move consistently, even if membership of the team changes, or tasks are radically different.

Some of those key anchors we want to ensure every keeps a line of sight on are:
Shared vision – In the bigger picture (at the team, department and organizational level). What is our vision? Why do we exist as a team? What are we aiming for?
Key goals – while not every team members needs to know each of the goals on the dash board – it is important to make sure that key goals are being shared and discussed. Part of key goals is knowing what success will look like, and understanding inter-dependencies – so, if I do something, how will it impact others? If I don’t do something, how will it impact others on the team. Also, what information do they need to know?

What are the things that are currently helping you move consistently as a team? What else will help?

Enjoy your Thursday,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Looking to spark more conversation with your team? Consider the Conversation Sparker(TM) Cards
Set up a conversation about how we can support you and your team best
(416)996-8326

#Teams365 #1584: Team Building Tip #181: This week's team question....

5/3/2018

Today's Team Building Tip #181 gets you to think about What is helping you navigate complexity? What are the things are going to help you grounded and focused as a team, even if things are ever-changing?

While this question was set a couple of months ago, when I laid out the first half of 2018 team building questions, it is fitting for this month's focus on change, and navigating complexity.

I hope that you will take a look at the various posts I'll be covering this month on change, complexity and collaboration. It requires trust, flexibility and open-mindedness.

Enjoy your conversation as a team,
Jennifer

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

Looking to enhance your virtual conversations - Conference calls? Webinars? Virtual coaching work? Pick up a copy of my new book, Effective Virtual Conversations, at Amazon.

#Teams365 #1577: Team Building tip - Rapid Change

4/26/2018

Change is everywhere in many industries and our ability to stay grounded in order to make decisions is key. Today's Thursday team building question get you to think about the question "What is going to help you be successful within a context of rapid change"?

Teams explore different approaches to rapid change including:
Embracing ongoing learning - in a context of rapid change ongoing learning becomes critical. Figuring out what "good enough" looks like rather than mastery may be an important mindset shift if this is possible in your work.

Becoming more curious - When change is ongoing the context may be changing and what we "know to be true" may also be changing. Being curious and open become key skills to foster.

Shortening cycles - Think about what needs to happen in terms of communication and feedback cycles as things speed up. What about work cycles? If you are now seeing change every quarter, rather than once a year, what implications does that have for how you share information, provide feedback and change processes.

Simplify - Process is key in rapid change, AND older ways of working and processes may be cumbersome. Is it time to simplify different processes? Is it time to simplify other components. What does simplify mean for you as a team?

Empower - Empowering your team and providing them with the responsibility and authority to do certain tasks is likely to be critical. Everyone's eyes and talents may be required. Helping the team bring their best skills and use them is also key to success.

Create peer sharing opportunities- Going hand in hand with empowerment is making sure that you build in opportunities for peer sharing. Whether it is formal job shadowing and mentoring or peer partners who meet informally throughout the month, part of rapid change often means a reduction of the silos and barriers which can exist in teams and in our work.

What changes are needed for you as a team in becoming more fluid in light of rapid change?

With best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Looking to spark more conversation with your team? Consider the Conversation Sparker(TM) Cards
Set up a conversation about how we can support you and your team best
(416)996-8326

#Teams365 #1570: Team Building Tip #170

4/19/2018

In today's collaborative space, where working across silos and teams is the norm for many, utilizing the skills of influence are essential. When we need to work through others influence is a critical skill set.

As a team it can be useful to explore the question "Where might the skills of influence be needed"

as well as a related question of "What does influence mean to us?" or "what does it look like.

The term influence can have a very negative connotation in some industries, yet it is a skillset needed by professionals at all levels, particularly those who may not be in positions of formal power, and need to work through others to accomplish their tasks.

In order to be influential, we need to be trusted and reflected. Without this it is harder, but not impossible to influence. AS with so many other skills required to get things done, it is important to constantly reflect on how your relationship skills are working.

Enjoy the conversation,
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
Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team Authorized Partner
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)

#Teams365 #1563: Team Building Tip #178: Building In Pause Points

4/12/2018

It's time for Team Building Question #178 this Thursday and a prompt to ask your question "What pauses are we making to stop and reflect on what's working?".

When was the last time y ou took stock of your accomplishments as a team, individually or collectively?

This conversation could be part of your regular team meeting where you generate a team list, or everyone gets to share one success they have had. You can also do this by creating a shared chat board for the team, if you are using communication tools like Slack.

If you are looking for even more prompting questions, check out yesterday's post which included 19 questions to bring into your one-on-ones, planning sessions and project debriefs this spring.

Enjoy!

Jennifer

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

Looking to enhance your virtual conversations - Conference calls? Webinars? Virtual coaching work? Pick up a copy of my new book, Effective Virtual Conversations, at Amazon.

#TEams365 #1549: Team BUilding Tip #177

3/29/2018

In today's context of rapid change (think about this week's changes alone!) ongoing learning from others becomes even more critical. Our ability to look beyond our context is critical. This week's Team Building Tip get s you to consider the questions:

What can you learn from other teams?
Other departments?
Other organizations?

When was the last time you as a team slowed down enough to meet with another team at your organization and perhaps share notes or best practices of recent projects or initiatives. AS a former program manager myself I know how important these often informal, and infrequent (think quarterly or one or twice a year) cross-team meet ups served. These can help to:

Build relationships
Learn about what others are doing (inside and outside your organization)
Avoid pitfalls
Not reinvent the wheel
Identify others who might bring expertise or resource suggestions you need around current opportunities and challenges\

Having spent most of the early days in my career in rapidly changing contexts building the habit of outreach with others in the organizations, and contexts, I worked within was critical for success.

What practices or habits can you adopt as a team to become more regular in your outreach and sharing of practices with others?

In some organizations this is know as cross-silo collaboration. Siloed or not, what can you do to build your relationships across teams, departments and organizations this season?

For those who are stepping into a long weekend - enjoy,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Mentor RoadMap(TM)
Looking to spark more conversation with your team? Consider the Conversation Sparker(TM) Cards
Set up a conversation about how we can support you and your team best
(416)996-8326

#TEams365 #1542: Team Building Tip #175: Activities Key For Success

3/22/2018

We are at Team building tip #175 today, and the question to have dialogue around as a team is "What are the activities which are critical to your success and/or your mandate right now?".

These are two different question and get you to consider which activities are high yield, and are helping you both get results but also serve those you are in business for.

In today's business context "busy" can be a badge of honor. But are we always doing the right things, or the things that have highest impact. Failing to take stock of what you are doing, why and what impact it is having can make things appear very busy, but without results.

I've shared the Pareto Principle in past posts here, which asserts that we get approximately 80% of our results from 20% of our activities. In contrast that means that 80% of our activities may only net 20% results.

This week I hope you will "pull on the breaks" and ask yourself:
What are the key activities which are key to our success and/or mandate right now?

Enjoy!

With best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Host of the Teams365 blog - Celebrating its 5th year of daily blog posts
Potentials Realized - Programs and Supports for Leaders and Teams
GroupCoachingEssentials.com - Programs and Supports for Group and Team Coaching (ICF CCES), and Award Winning Coaching Skills for Leaders
Email us at info{at}potentialsrealized.com
Phone: (416)996-8326

#Teams365 #1535: Team Building Tip #174: Change

3/15/2018

Today's Team Building question #174 gets you as a team to consider the question "What are the ways you have been successful in navigating change? What do you want to keep doing?".

Change is ongoing in today's business context - from mergers and acquisitions to changes in the global economy.

This week, as a team, and as individuals you may want to consider these questions:

What are the changes your team has been facing recently?
How disruptive have these changes been?
What have you done as a team, and as individuals, to be successful in navigating change?
What lessons learned can you apply to future changes that lay ahead?
What do you want to keep doing?

Enjoy the conversation,
Jennifer

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

Looking for practical things to do with your virtual team? Refer to chapters 7, 10, 11 and 12 of my newest book. Pick up a copy of my new book, Effective Virtual Conversations, at Amazon.