High Performing Team Development

Very few groups of people working together in organisations are true teams, where people know and trust each other and work very collaboratively. Most of them are workgroups, which are often somewhat inefficient, friction-filled, loosely-associated groups of people covering their roles, trying to get things done and go home. One of the first steps to become a true team is to have open, honest communication that strengthens relationships, improves productivity, and moves the team towards results. These events provide a safe and stimulating space to have highly constructive open conversations that provide the framework for high performance AND sustaining individual and team wellbeing.

All three events draw on an understanding of how the brain works, based on psychology and neuroscience research, to help individuals and the team be more positive and resilient. These events are ideal for individual teams and for small organisations, where everyone can be included. The ideal number of participants is less than 20, though we have run events for large teams of 35 to 40 people where the focus is more about facilitating team collaboration than personal development for team members. Each masterclass can be run as half day to full day events, or can be reduced to 2 hrs when we select reduced content. The Power of Positive and Mental Strength masterclasses work very well when combined into a full day team away day.

 

 

 

Navigating Team Challenges

 

This half day or full day team session starts with a keynote followed by interactive facilitated sessions using the frameworks to transform your team's current challenges. It is often booked for leadership teams and is also relevant to bring any team together through difficult conditions with a sense of purpose, belonging and optimism.

 

Core Message: When you are navigating into headwinds of uncertainty and change, or stuck in the doldrums of uncertainty, be aware of the power of mental models as the deepest levers to influence the system for implementing change. Recognising your human reactions to complex challenges, change and uncertainty gives you the power to take control of your mindset, choose the way you are showing up and set yourself up for success to navigate change and uncertainty.
“It’s not what happens to you, but how you respond that makes the difference.”

 

The specific elements of the masterclass are designed around your current requirements. A typcial session includes the Navigating change and uncertainty keynote, then interactive sessions on Choosing your state, Aligning divergent strategies, Harnessing the positive power of team diversity, and a Systems awareness workshop using the iceberg framework to harness the power of mental models and systems structures.

 

“The team enjoyed the session a lot. I certainly returned from it feeling like I have refocussed .” From an event organiser.

“Excellent session. Relevant topics and tools are immediately applicable to issues being faced today. The Iceberg exercise was particularly useful.” From a participant.

 

The Power of Positive: Building High Performing Teams

 

This fun, highly interactive masterclass gives your team the essential ingredients to create the positive environment and ‘can-do’ culture for working successfully together as a high performing team. It is ideal when you are kicking off a new team and want it to run well, when your team is not performing as well as you would like, or when your team could do with a burst of positive energy to revitalise a project or manage changes.

Working in pairs, small groups and as a whole team, we look at ways to build positive thinking and emotions into everyday life at work, making it easier to work more effectively together and raising wellbeing and engagement.

 

Evidence from neuroscience shows that feeling positive, and especially safe, unstressed and unthreatened, opens up access to the higher reasoning cognitive part of brain which leads to more creative thinking, inspiration, new ideas, solution finding, problem solving, focus and improved social interaction, all of which support higher performance at work. When you feel negative or stressed, your brain literally shuts down access to the cognitive areas of the brain, resulting in poor focus, feelings of overwhelm, interpersonal conflicts, inability to listen to different perspectives and poor decision making, all of which have a negative impact on performance and productivity.

 

You will get to know each other better and recognise the strengths each person brings to the team; understand that the way the brain works predisposes us to notice the negatives and learn what you can do to counteract that; and discover relevant actions that your team can do now to raise a positive team culture that will make your team more effective.

Benefits
• Sow the seeds for a can-do and resilient culture.
• Discover hidden talents of your team members.
• Raise positivity in the work place.
• Improve working relationships.
• Encourage positive feedback.

 

“ The event was extremely interactive, upbeat and fast-paced, with many useful takeaways.”

“I left the event feeling extremely optimistic and excited about building a new team and adding value to the work of the Institute.”

“Warm, supportive and fun atmosphere - nice to spend time with colleagues to focus on appreciation.”

 

Team Resilience: Building High Performing Teams

This masterclass will help your team be more resilient, deal effectively with change, stressors, pressures and challenges and perform at your best whatever the circumstances.

This highly interactive session involves working in pairs, small groups and as a whole team to work with the current challenges you are facing and find ways for individuals and the whole team to embrace them more positively and find constructive solutions and new opportunities.

 

The session includes
• A review to understand stress and the role our mindset plays in how we respond to stressors and experience stress and overwhelm.
• An introduction to the Mental Toughness MTQ Plus model for building resilience which we use as a framework to choose how we respond to stressors, pressures and challenges.
• Brainstorming as a team to identify what is currently working well and the current challenges that are causing stress, conflict, uncertainty and other negative outcomes which you would like to change.
• Understand better the underlying factors that contribute to what is going well.
• Shift your perspectives on the challenges that will encourage new ways of thinking and reveal previously unnoticed possibilities.

 

Benefits
• Raise and maintain performance irrespective of circumstances.
• Deal effectively with change.
• Improve focus.
• Improve working relationships.
• Improve wellbeing and energy levels and reduce stress.

 

“The session was well organised with a good array of discussion activities. I liked the shared experiences and finding resolution to some of the problems our team faces.”

“It was constructive to take the time as a full team to do this to prepare for the upcoming change. Good to know and understand colleagues' opinions and feelings better.”

“I liked the group discussions. Recognising our hidden assumptions has reduced that sense of helplessness. I feel more able to face change positively.”

“Interesting and helpful session. The overall process of change and the importance of managing expectations were particularly useful.”

“A relaxed atmosphere. I liked the team activities, brainstorming ideas, and coming up with action plans to improve.”

“Positive session that made me feel good about my ability and being part of a good team.”