As a free tool on our website, we have shared many detailed “write-ups” of team training exercises. We get hits (about 700 a day – not a lot by YouTube standards, but not half bad) from all over the world from trainers who take and then use these exercises to great effect with their teams.
“Keypunch” is one of the classics that we’ve used and shared. Since we penned that write-up, we’ve modified how we set it up and facilitate it to focus the team on how they ensure quality work, done safely, within tight time frames. “Quality,” “safety” and “timeliness” are often in tension, so how do you help a team understand these pressures and then make daily decisions which reflect your goals and the priority that you place on these values? For starters, you try the new, improved “Keypads”!
In the video (about 11 minutes long), you’ll hear from me and one of our strategic partners, Sardek Love of Infinity Consulting, as we take a group of engineers through the exercise. I include a picture of the flipchart that I usually prepare and post to set up the work. Detailed notes follow at the end. Enjoy!
I’m thinking of one business unit within a client organization which needs to clarify how to work as a team. This company has multiple offices; because of acquisitions and mergers, these offices house different functional units – one office focuses on business development, another on production, a third on support services. The employees at each of these geographically disperse locations need to better understand how to work as a team at their particular sites, the offices need to know how to work as a team and the business unit manager needs to know how to provide these teams leadership. Where to start?
Teams are not work groups or committees. The individuals within these teams, and the teams themselves, need information and structure so that they can effectively concentrate on and accomplish the task at hand.
KNOW WHAT TEAMS NEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL. Then help the team answer these 5 Simple (but not simplistic) Questions:
Clear Expectations: A Sample RACI Document
Every high performing team has clear, established and appropriate Roles & Structure. This ensures that the person with the right knowledge, skills, resources and availability is working on the right task, and that all necessary tasks required for team success are accomplished. (Follow this link for more discussion on the essential components of high performing teams).
Clear Roles & Structure doesn’t just happen on its own; they require thoughtful, engaged team discussion. Those discussions can be focused and fruitful, if you “do a RACI.”
RACI is a simple format and process to ensure that authority, responsibility and
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Rob, my name is …….. I am interested in discussing a need within my family. I am at the end of a two year divorce (not my decision) and would like any suggestions on “team building” to enhance the relationship between my three teenagers … and myself. I … hope to do all I can to provide the best up-bringing for my children.
Dear _____, I have children about your age – God bless you! Here are some ways that I might go about team building were I in your situation:
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We regularly get calls to assist with “team building.” A manager remembers the fun time that she once had on a challenge course long ago and thinks that this is the ticket for her team. When asked what she hopes to achieve, the sponsor usually responds with something like “I want them to get along better … you know, help each other out.”
She is expecting a four-to-eight hour session on the challenge course to help her team magically pull it together; unfortunately, with this degree of specificity, any intervention with her team is a shot in the dark. The time on the challenge course may produce (temporary) good feelings, but it will fail to get at whatever the root cause(s) may be.
If you’re dealing with a team or department that isn’t working together as you’d like, we recommend two preliminary steps …
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