Team Building

Effective teamwork in the executive suite is increasingly important. There are fewer and fewer managers, and they are being asked to take on more and more responsibility. These developments are increasingly driving a need to optimize team effectiveness, as it significantly influences day-to-day operations, strategic planning, executive retention and bottom line results.

Measures of success for a winning team are:

Higher levels of trust
More effective communications
Greater understanding and appreciation of the different behavioral styles on the team
Higher productivity and reduced turnover
Increased understanding and appreciation of each member’s unique value to the team and to the hospital organization

Unfortunately, building effective teams is often an elusive matter in many organizations, as demonstrated by a lack of trust among team members; avoidance of productive conflict; lack of commitment to the team and team decisions; lack of accountability and inattention to results.

We work with executive teams to overcome these problems and enable them to work effectively together. To achieve these results, we use a variety of tools: scientific assessments; coaching for the team leader and individual team members; “shadow” team meeting facilitation; and team building exercises.

We focus on achieving absolute clarity of the team’s purpose or mission, i.e., why it exists and what it’s trying to accomplish. We assess the team and its members to determine strengths and weaknesses and behavioral styles. We encourage sharing the results of the various assessments among team members to promote mutual understanding. And we educate team members on how to communicate with and appreciate one another’s behavior styles.

Our team building work can be delivered in a series of separate 2-3 hour meetings over a 4 – 6 month period or in a 2 full-day workshop format. Either approach will move teams to a greater sense of trust, productive conflict, commitment and accountability. The positive results give the team and other members of the staff an appreciation for what the team has accomplished—and while all this is going on, we have fun together.

“You will be most effective when members can compliment each other without embarrassment and disagree without fear.” Anonymous

“None of us is as smart as all of us.” Ken Blanchard