Organization Development : Team Building : Leadership : Create-Learning http://create-learning.com/blog Organization Development : Team Building : Leadership Training - Executive Coaching - Facilitation Wed, 19 Jun 2013 00:06:38 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 Solution Finding Stimulus. The Expert Knows Question. http://create-learning.com/blog/images/solution-finding-stimulus-the-expert-knows-question http://create-learning.com/blog/images/solution-finding-stimulus-the-expert-knows-question#comments Tue, 18 Jun 2013 23:57:04 +0000 mike http://create-learning.com/blog/?p=7291

Thinking about what you want SOLVED…Pretend that you left the company, or team or room or situation, and someone new was brought in that has solved something similar before to fill your vacancy.

What is the 1st thing they would notice about your challenge?

What would be their 1st step in solving this?

Describe what they would do in clear tangible terms…

SOLVED Solution Focused Stimulus the other person knows question www.create-learning.com

When your team and you are stuck a stimulus will get you moving again!

What do you think?

Share your responses and practice being Solution-Focused.

Team Building Leadership Innovation expert Michael Cardus

michael cardus is create-learning

]]> http://create-learning.com/blog/images/solution-finding-stimulus-the-expert-knows-question/feed 0 Solution-Focused Consulting and Training in Toronto, Canada http://create-learning.com/blog/team-building/solution-focused-consulting-and-training-in-toronto-canada http://create-learning.com/blog/team-building/solution-focused-consulting-and-training-in-toronto-canada#comments Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:14:52 +0000 mike http://create-learning.com/blog/?p=7285 Spent time with the Solution-Focused Consulting & Training North American Chapter in Toronto Ontario Canada.

It is a fun group of people who meet and talk and share about Solution-Focused coaching and finding what works.

Solution-Focused Consulting and Training North America (4)

Opening the meeting with some ‘About Us’ talk.

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Alan Kay sharing highlights and lessons learned from a conference he attended in Germany.

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Robert sharing his steps to weave together motivation and outcomes in a solution-focused manner.

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Leading the group through I2U2ME2WE to illustrate visual solution-focused methods and to share some activities that work. Alan, Mike and Judy decided which image to choose.

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Layla and Robert sharing.

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Layla framing her solution and Richard listening intently.

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Following I2U2ME2WE. I decided to just make something up and have the group coach each other to find what works.

Right now calling it Visual-SOLVED working on a write up and better name.

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Gord is being coached through the Visual-SOVLED process by Richard and Alan is observing and taking notes.

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Layla being coached through the Visual-SOLVED process by Mike.

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One Visual-SOLVED completed and next steps.

The use of images and Solution-Focused steps proved to be useful.

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The other one completed, it looks different and that is what worked.

Had a great time, I always do, with the Solution Focused Consulting & Training North American group.

Here are some links that I shared with the group afterwards:

What do you think?

How might your team benefit from finding what works and doing more of it? Interested in learning more about the SFCT?

Team Building Leadership Innovation expert Michael Cardus

michael cardus is create-learning

]]> http://create-learning.com/blog/team-building/solution-focused-consulting-and-training-in-toronto-canada/feed 0 4 Questions to Determine Team Building Objectives and Measurements http://create-learning.com/blog/team-building/4-questions-to-determine-team-building-objectives-and-measurements http://create-learning.com/blog/team-building/4-questions-to-determine-team-building-objectives-and-measurements#comments Fri, 14 Jun 2013 11:30:00 +0000 mike http://create-learning.com/blog/?p=7259 Create-Learning’s Team Building programs are focused on making your team better. The programs develop both individuals and teams, connecting team goals, personal goals, actions, and processes and aligning them with your organizational goals, culture, mission and values.

Contact Mike of Create-Learning to make your team better – call 1.716.629.3678

 

Team Building and Leadership Desired Outcomes www.create-learning.com

Team building means many things to many people…

For me team building means actually building the team. Improving upon the system and way work gets done to allow people to do their best work and be engaged in the work they are doing…this all leads to productivity and effectiveness.

Sometimes it is team building activities, sometimes it is 1 on 1 coaching with the manager, sometimes it is clarifying what the goals / roles and procedures are of the team, sometimes it is Organization Development work on Complexity Management, sometimes it is Talent Pool Assessment, and sometimes we are not sure what to do…

The 4 questions above working with the decision makers to answer and ensure understanding is something I’ve found useful.

Writing the 4 questions on flip chart paper and facilitating a discussion will reveal a better understanding of what the client is looking for, what you can offer, and how you both view team building.

  • 1. What business need(s) will be met?
  • 2. What will people do differently and better?
  • 3. Who will confirm that people are doing these things, different and better?
  • 4. How will you measure and document the results?

Work to determine tangible responses that can be seen and observed. Avoid responses like “People will feel better about coming to work”.

If you have a response like that, ask If people feel better about coming to work how will you see that in their interactions? In their output? Describe how you will know they feel better about coming to work.

 

What do you think?

What does team building mean to you? How can the 4 questions above be useful? What do you find works to create a shared agreement on what is expected?

Team Building Leadership Innovation expert Michael Cardus

michael cardus is create-learning

]]> http://create-learning.com/blog/team-building/4-questions-to-determine-team-building-objectives-and-measurements/feed 0 7 Principles of Leadership Development: The Chief Executive http://create-learning.com/blog/manager-training/7-principles-of-leadership-development-the-chief-executive http://create-learning.com/blog/manager-training/7-principles-of-leadership-development-the-chief-executive#comments Thu, 13 Jun 2013 14:07:52 +0000 mike http://create-learning.com/blog/?p=7248 An earlier post listed the 7 Principles of Leadership Development in no specific order of importance:

Exploring lessons learned and how an organization and I developed a leadership development process for high potential employees.

Cascade-of-Planning www.create-learning

If you are in the top strategic managerial-leader role in an organization, you own the problem of selecting and developing the business leaders it needs, not just for today but also for tomorrow. You can share it with others and delegate certain aspects to others, but you are accountable. – John Adair

Leadership Development and the Chief Executive

Now that we have an idea of the needed skilled-knowledge, selected who should be involved, and began the development of using existing employees as mentors in the leadership development process, a shared strategy, we had to re-involve the CEO the highest ranking managerial-leader with this leadership development process.

This part was met with the greatest resistance by HR and the leadership development team. Some people stated, “He tasked this project to us and I feel we don’t need to involve him. He may take over and micro-manage us.” This may be a true statement and the CEO was a large part in determining the needed Skilled-Knowledge and working to identify through the Talent Pool Assessment the vacancies, strengths, and gaps that are projected over the next 3, 5, 10 and 15 years.

Plus I had been meeting and submitting reports monthly on the progress of the Leadership Development Process and adjusting based upon the CEO’s recommendations.

Meeting with the CEO and framing the need for him to also serve as a mentor to his 10 subordinates and setting the expectations that those subordinates will serve in a mentoring function with their subordinates and so on through the organization.

We had to ensure that the mentoring and development where part of the Organizational Metrics using criteria in the shared strategy and skilled-knowledge. Also, that these would be part of the monthly, quarterly, 6 month and yearly performance reviews.

managerial-leadership development and the role of the CEO www.create-learning.com

With the CEO the following responsibilities for the CEO and Senior Managerial-Leadership were decided:

  • The CEO is accountable for follow-up and maintenance of the succession planning and defined metrics of the Leadership-Development;
  • Publically sharing what the CEO is accountable for and his metrics based upon the Leadership-Development process in the quarterly town hall meetings;
  • Visiting the courses monthly and sharing a few words about the importance of development within the organization;
  • Quarterly meetings with the internal training & development staff that will be teaching the skilled-knowledge sections and working with the mentors. This will serve as an update meeting plus a way to determine what is working and what may be needed for more success;
  • Updates to the Board of Directors sharing the progress and how it aligns with the strategic vision of the organization.

The Leadership Development Team found the meeting with the CEO to be very eye opening and creating the accountability list above was useful for the CEO to know what was expected and he could share that with the Organization.

When we had our 1st town hall meeting, about 2 weeks after kicking off the Leadership-Development Process, the CEO shared what he is expected to complete and how he will be measured. Sharing that “We are all in the company to be successful, I am with you on this journey we all have measures to hit and work to do…Let’s do this together.” There was a palpable sense of excitement and clarity of why we are doing this and that the company is serious about the future leadership development of all the staff.

With CEO and Senior Managerial-Leaders involved and having clear measures of success, a Strategy for Leadership-Development, the needed Skilled-Knowledge, Selection Process, Managers as Mentors and how we will Educate for Leadership the ~150 potential managerial-leaders, we kept on focusing on what is working and what the next steps will be…

What do you think?

How involved does the CEO need to be? What has been your experience in the past?

Team Building Leadership Innovation expert Michael Cardus

michael cardus is create-learning

Reference: John Adair; How to Grow Leaders

]]> http://create-learning.com/blog/manager-training/7-principles-of-leadership-development-the-chief-executive/feed 0 Thinking Differently. Enabling Innovation http://create-learning.com/blog/manager-training/thinking-differently-enabling-innovation http://create-learning.com/blog/manager-training/thinking-differently-enabling-innovation#comments Wed, 12 Jun 2013 11:00:00 +0000 mike http://create-learning.com/blog/?p=7239 Competitive demands require quicker, more effective and innovative problem solving. Problem solvers are required to quickly provide solutions to increasingly complex problems, develop and design new and innovative products and processes – all while reducing research and development time and costs.

Hire Mike of Create-Learning to Think Differently & Enable Innovation within your company and team. 1.716.629.3678

I’ve Been working on a series of workshops and consulting on innovation and developing a culture of innovation.

The slideshare above is from an interactive workshop about thinking differently and some tools that work to allow different thinking to happen. You can read more about the workshop in the description below.

Here are some links to the innovation activities that were part of a recent Thinking-Differently Enabling Innovation Workshop.

we ended with personal 2 week achievement plans based upon the Nine Windows coaching…Creating over 30 ideas in this companies Solutions Bank.

thinking differently enabling innovation www.create-learning.com

 

Thinking Differently – Enabling Innovation

Competitive demands require quicker, more effective and innovative problem solving. Problem solvers are required to quickly provide solutions to increasingly complex problems, develop and design new and innovative products and processes – all while reducing research and development time and costs.

Creative thinking is a critical skill required by all people within their roles at work, yet it is generally done by trial and error – the thinker creates an idea and determines if it will work – which is basically guessing. Not only is trial and error limited by personal knowledge, it can take many ideas and a long time, sometimes years to identify a good idea and thinking is constrained by a “stuckness” in how things are and how things should be.

Outcomes from Thinking Differently – Enabling Innovation

  • Learn ways to overcome “stuckness” in your thinking and quickly solve problems.
  • How to have discussions to lead others to think differently
  • Model’s and methods to think differently about existing problems that will lead to innovative products and processes
  • Use existing resources and knowledge to innovate solutions

What do you think?

What did you find useful in the slides above? How can you apply the ideas?Team Building Leadership Innovation expert Michael Cardus

michael cardus is create-learning

]]> http://create-learning.com/blog/manager-training/thinking-differently-enabling-innovation/feed 0 Solution Finding Stimulus. 1 small win then evaluate what worked. http://create-learning.com/blog/images/solution-finding-stimulus-1-small-win-then-evaluate-what-worked http://create-learning.com/blog/images/solution-finding-stimulus-1-small-win-then-evaluate-what-worked#comments Tue, 11 Jun 2013 11:30:00 +0000 mike http://create-learning.com/blog/?p=7236

All that is needed is one small step towards your solution. Once you take that step how will you evaluate success?

SOLVED Solution Finding Model www.create-learning (23)

When your team and you are stuck a stimulus will get you moving again!

 

What do you think?

Share your responses and practice being Solution-Focused.

Team Building Leadership Innovation expert Michael Cardus

michael cardus is create-learning

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