An Edge For You

Reenergizing Your Team - Phase 2: Team Day

< Back: Phase 1 - Meetings and Evaluation

In a day with the entire team, we share the findings and goals that came out of the individual meetings and establish how we can use what each person wants in order to move the entire team and the company forward. The focus of the day is individual actions that help others see that things are moving in the right direction. This day also includes a short version of a real management meeting so that participants can confirm and use their new insights, and get feedback on their own "performance" against the targets they set for themselves.

Results of this team day typically include:

Deep insights into other colleagues' needs and frustrations	leading to	Discovering 'low-cost ways' for everyone to meet those needs
Individual commitment to personal changes		Every participant sharing action items and intentions with the entire team
Increased awareness of different communication styles		Sharing best practices
More openness and respect		Significantly reducing misunderstandings and prejudices about other team members’ intentions

Making this happen is a special skill. The result is the basis for more trust, cooperation and shared sense of purpose in the future. Therefore, people will look back on that day at the end satisfied and with a real sense of achievement. (Of course, the first half an hour of the one-on-one meeting is very different: there, everybody typically voices their concerns of wasting an entire day!)

In the individual meetings, every team member can brief me to observe specific things about them during the team day. For example questions about how they are perceived by someone else, or how a particular way of presenting or interaction works with the team, who they appeal to and who they lose by using a certain style – and my suggestions as to what they might do to change that. Asking this type of question is the first step to generating change. The second is getting relevant and insightful, future-oriented feedback, which participants receive one-on-one at the end of the day. This part is confidential, there is no debriefing to anybody.

Next: Phase 3 - Follow-up Meetings and Top Management Coaching