Secrets to High-Performance Teaming

Achieving Better Attitude, Better Communication, and Less Stress on the Job

 

A Three-Part Seminar

This program consists of three consecutive half-day modules, each module building on the previous one.

The learning experience will bring participants through a highly interactive, comprehensive experience. It takes best practices from multiple fields of interpersonal skills and blends them into a unique, sustained focus on teaming.

The module sequence is structured as follows:

 

Module I: Building a Better Attitude

This module will lay the groundwork for all subsequent modules in the workshop. The attitude that people bring to their work—and their interactions with colleagues and clients – is a critical factor in all facets of effective teaming.

Section A: Raising Attitude Awareness

This opening section helps recognize negative vs. positive attitudes and how these attitudes affect participants’ workplace:

Section B: The Power of a Positive Attitude

With a “positive attitude” defined, this section moves through the benefits of having one at work – both as an individual and as a team member.

Section C: Developing a Positive Attitude

This brings participants through several proven ways to gain a positive attitude – changing “I can’t” to “I can.”

Section D: Keeping a Positive Attitude

Positive change is good, but to be really effective it should become a permanent part of working life. This section presents real-world steps to keep a positive attitude.

 

Module II: Better Communication

This half-day module presents the three most critical communication skills in powerful teaming:

Section A: Active Listening

Participants learn to listen more effectively to elicit clear communication from colleagues. They learn to neutralize unconscious beliefs affecting their reception, to read body language, and to “broadcast” back to the speaker the message received so that it can be clarified.

Section B: Effective Meetings

Participants learn the power of consensus, and apply active listening to improve team and cross-team meetings. They learn the duties of the Facilitator, Recorder, and Member roles which will make them advocates for each other in meetings, ensuring clear communication, accountability, and follow-through.

Section C: Group Problem Solving

Participants learn to solve problems as a team, instead of relying on higher-ups to do so. They learn how to define problems to encourage creative thinking, to create a no-judgment zone that protects people from attack, and to translate their ideas into action.

 

Module III: Reducing Stress

Section A: Conflict Management

Participants are reminded that conflict is a fact of work life and will never go away entirely. Strategies presented enable participants to defuse conflicts when they arise and often make them into learning opportunities.

Section B: Expressing Appreciation

Participants learn that reducing stress in the workplace starts with a supportive work culture that validates the contributions of each team member. Strategies presented will clarify the type of language that makes people feel valued and motivated on a team.

Participants develop an awareness of cross-cultural rhetorical models, and recognize that some miscommunication is based in cultural backgrounds. Participants learn to focus on content and common goals, rather than on judging modes of communication. Participants learn to identify differences in values that are culture-based, and how they affect communication.

Section C: Managing Diversity

Participants explore their own core values and identify which groups or cultures contribute to their unique identity.  They learn to identify differences in values that are culture-based, and how they affect communication.

Students learn to recognize areas of cultural miscommunication.  They are empowered to take advantage of these differences to learn valuable lessons about their diverse team members, strengthening and enriching their team.

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