Productive Teams

Effective team leaders need strong people skills, an understanding of group dynamics, and a well thought out team building plan. This program provides a solid foundation in all three areas and an opportunity to practice hands-on team leadership skills.

Team leadership skills are needed when working with formal teams, informal teams, problem solving or planning teams, and when leading staff meetings. Developing team leadership skills is a complex process and covers a wide range of skills and understanding. This often requires multi-day training programs or a prior foundation of leadership and communication skills.

Workshop Goals:

By the end of the workshop, participants will be better able to:

1. Understand what teams are and how they function
2. Design and lead a process by which a group becomes a self-maintaining team
3. Facilitate team activities
4. Diagnose and problem solve what teams need to move ahead
5. Deal with difficult and disruptive team members

Workshop Outline:

• Definition of a team (vs a group)
• Pros and cons of working in a team
• Obstacles to teams functioning effectively and efficiently
• Factors that support effective team development
• Understanding differences in work and communication styles and how this impacts on a team
• Stages of team growth
• Strategies to improve teams’ functioning
• Team building strategies and techniques
• Team facilitation/leadership roles, strategies and techniques
• Self-assessment as a team leader – strengths and weaknesses
• Diagnosing and resolving team problems
• Dealing with difficult and disruptive team members

This is best delivered as a two-day program to provide time for an in-depth discussion of core communication skills as well as allow more time for case studies and role play practice so participants can more fully develop their skills. It can be two consecutive days or one day per week. It can be run as a full-day program, eliminating the communication skills discussion and reducing some of the skill practice. It can also be compressed into a one-hour webinar or conference presentation touching on highlights of the key concepts and eliminating the communication skills component.

Many teams have regular meeting that go on and on and produce more frustration than production. Krieger Solutions’ program presents a thoughtful, easy-to-use method for designing and facilitating productive f otmeetings.

There is a science to running effective meetings and it begins with careful planning before the meeting. The two most important elements is a well structured agenda, well prepared participants, and tools for facilitating effective group problem solving.

Workshop Goals:

By the end of the workshop, you will be better able to:

1. Plan an effective meeting, including:
   • Developing successful agendas
   • Preparing for the meeting
   • Determining alternatives to meetings
2. Lead an effective and productive meeting, including:
   • Facilitating group dynamics
   • Maintaining an effective process and pace
   • Facilitating efficient group problem solving
   • Dealing with difficult behaviors
   • Effectively concluding a meeting
   • Evaluating meeting effectiveness

Workshop Outline:

• Explore alternatives to meetings
• Plan a meeting:
  • Agenda development – content, structure and strategy
  • Preparation of other team members
  • Selecting appropriate tools
• Manage the meeting:
  • Understand meeting/group dynamics
  • Role of the leader – working the agenda/conducting the business
  • Utilizing helpful people; roles other participants play
  • Using group problem solving tools
  • Dealing with difficult people /disruptive behaviors
• Effectively conclude and follow up a meeting
  • Summarizing as you go
  • Note taking/dealing with minutes
  • Planning next steps

This can be a full or half-day program. Participants have a workbook that they use throughout the class to design a real meeting using concepts taught in the program. The full day program allows time for facilitation practice as participants lead and debrief meeting simulations. The program can also be compressed into a one-hour webinar or conference presentation touching on highlights of the key concepts.

Most problems in the workplace impact on a number of people and often the entire team. As Ken Blanchard said, “None of us is as smart as all of us”, so solving problems in a team setting can provide added wisdom and better results.

On the other hand, team dynamics combined with interpersonal issues can make team problem solving and decision making much more complex!

In this program you will learn tools and strategies to facilitate a successful team process for solving problems and making decisions. Successfully working together to solving problems will result in a stronger team and improved patient outcomes.

In the rush to resolve problems we often solve the wrong part of the problem and issues continue to plague the workplace. We will show you how to correctly identify the core issues of a problem and resolve them in a way that leads to a successful solution.

Workshop Goals:

By the end of the workshop, you will be better able to:

1. Develop a process for facilitating team problem solving
2. Use tools that promote consensus based decision making
3. Guide a group through a problem analysis

Workshop Outline:

• The six key steps to solving problems
• Five tools that will help you facilitate a group through problem solving to solution finding
• What consensus is and is not, and when to use it
• How to identify the underlying causes of a problem
• How to prioritize criteria to guide successful group decision making
• How to create a team action plan that leads to successful implementation of solutions

This can be a full-day program, but for teams that will be doing a lot of problem solving, this may be best done as a two day program. Participants have a workbook that they use throughout the class to design a problem solving process for a real workplace problem. The two-day program allows time for facilitation practice as participants lead and debrief problem solving simulations. The program can also be compressed into a half-day or one-hour webinar or conference presentation touching on highlights of the key concepts.