From a discussion and blog comments back and forth with friend and TeamBuilding colleague Anne Thornley Brown of Executive Oasis, then to a Girl Scout program I volunteered some time with for friend Tracy Diina…

Got me thinking about Team Building & Leadership how to make an impact;

Making teams and leaders better, through improved team processes and individual effectiveness. Resulting in increased productivity and people who love the work they do.

Facilitating team development programs can be tough.  The people don’t have to LOVE the team building, in reality a percentage will hate anything you do. What matters is did you deliver, facilitate whatever you call it – the results that were expected and that you promised.

Being involved in this field of experiential training and development for almost 20 years now I am still learning how to make teams and leaders better. Plus it’s still a mystery. 

Thinking about this and talking with TACC (the amazing Christine Cardus) I realized.

With teams and individuals I quickly find what THEY enjoy doing, what their strengths are and do more of that.

If I find they don’t enjoy what we are doing I STOP IT! and do something else.

That is the secret to facilitation.

Quickly find what works and do more of it. If something is not working, STOP IT! 

Resistance to the activity, facilitator, theories, application, etc… are all going to arise during your work. How you, as the facilitator handle that is what you are paid for. Generally you can respond in 1 of 3 ways.

• Resistance – you choose to fight the team and people and do what you think is best. Sticking to the agenda and program design.
• Knocked Down – you just fold and become a limp noodle, choosing to allow the resistance to take control of you and your facilitation.  
• Find what works – you are able to understand the resistance and use it to your advantage finding the small wins and bright spots then building upon those.

I prefer to Find What Works, and that has worked really well for me.

How do you Find What Works?

This is where YOUR EXPERIENCE and knowledge to make decisions and solve problems is tested. This is where you have to turn the processing and reflection tools back onto yourself.

What do you think?

I’m sure you have met with resistance in your team building & leadership programs, how do you make it work? What tools and method do you use, or can you recommend to improve the the decision making and problem solving of us and yourself?

Plus if you are looking for a train-the-trainer team building program…check out what I have to offer—>click here.

michael cardus is create-learning

image by teamstickergiant

Related posts:

1. Photo Inquiry Friday: How far have you gotten? What worked to get you there? What does x + 1 look like?
2. Resistance / Cooperation with Teams and Leadership Arises Through Perception
3. Visual Auditory Kinesthetic…How experiential facilitation draws learning