Team Optimization

Every organization strives to develop high performing teams but effective teamwork is one of those elusive qualities that can be hard to achieve. It’s not that leaders don’t know what it takes, but putting it into action is another matter. Teamwork can be hard to measure and it requires deep levels of courage, discipline and emotional energy to get it right.

This workshop uses Patrick Lencioni’s well known “5 Dysfunctions of a Team” as a broad framework and will engage intact groups in a series of powerful exercises to take teamwork and cohesion to the next level.

Key elements of our approach include:

  • Pre-assessment:  We help identify performance gaps by leading the team through an assessment of the current state of teamwork.
  • Trust building: We engage the team in exercises that build trust through disclosure and feedback.
  • Conflict resolution: We help each person better understand their own conflict style and how to adapt it to the situations that arise in the operations of the group.
  • Commitment: We examine tools to secure greater commitment to decisions and agreed on overall strategic direction.
  • Roles and Responsibilities:  We help clarify authority boundaries for team members and how they need to involve others over a wide range of issues.
  • Accountability: We discuss the importance of team members holding one another accountable and how to do this productively.
  • Results: We examine and help mitigate any other barriers and opportunities that prevent the team from focusing on common results.
  • Guiding Principles:  We help establish a short list of guiding principles that define how the team will handle issues such as conflict, meetings, responsiveness, email and any behaviour deemed essential to team effectiveness.
  • Team Charter:  All decisions and other outputs from the session are documented in a “Team Charter”.
  • Post-assessment: We perform a reassessment at a future date to ensure that the team has lived up to the team charter and achieved the results they were aiming for. They say “what gets measured gets done”…

This facilitation is designed for intact teams. For non-intact groups, please see our Leading High Performance Teams and High Performance Team Member workshops.

Format

Our team optimization workshop is typically offered as a 1-day session, plus follow-up over time. It is highly customizable and can be either shorter or longer depending on the need.

Testimonial

Kwela did a great job of facilitating a team optimization process for our senior management. The work (which stretched over a period of 4 months) made a difference in better aligning us to our strategy and business plan.

Kwela’s work with us contributed to our business results: in the last year the MOV has seen its admissions rise by 35%, along with increases in membership, sponsorship and general media coverage.

Our achievements have recently been recognized by the Canadian Museums Association (CMA) with the National Award for Leadership Innovation.

Nancy Noble, CEO
Museum of Vancouver