Below are some of the flip chart notes, from the section on the Team Performance Model.

Overview of this section – 7 Steps to Team Performance

• Explore the creation and sustainment of High Performance teams.
• Co-Create Solution Focused questions and methods for advancement of each step.
• Leave with a working model and application to your work and team lives.

Lessons Learned from this section – 7 Steps to Team Performance

• Knowledge of how to put this model into existing teams to improve effectiveness of people on the team.
• A series of question and tactics that can be used to move a stuck-team into motion and success.
• Examples and ways to implement this system into your organization, teams and individual contributors.

To learn more about this program and others like it…Click Here

Click on any of the photos to enlarge

michael cardus is create-learning

Network in Aging of Western New York, Inc.

Contacted by my friend Nancy Weil to lead a team building workshop for a group that she is a part of, The Network in Aging of WNY.

Mission

To help our members enhance their efforts to improve the quality of life for older persons and their families by providing them with opportunities for resource exchange, professional development, and stimulation of interdisciplinary collaboration.

outcomes from the Team Building Time:

• Increased trust and membership communication
• People got to know and learn from each other in an enjoyable environment
• Increased alignment of mission, vision and personal perceptions of the agencies mission and vision as it applies to the individual members, and the community at large.
• Created a shared understanding strengths and abilities of the people on the team.
• Awareness of the team and personal preference style for communication and information sharing.
• Take-Away information on improving their own work and Team performance.

Jeff Reed from Mount Calvary Cemetery Group was the contact person, and wrote this great testimonial about our time together. 

“My heart stopped pounding once Michael began to speak. Coordinating a team-building workshop for thirty people is stressful enough. Add to the mix that the thirty people attending are not co-workers or close personal friends, they are members of an organization you belong to and you are hosting the monthly event.

The stress started at our first meeting when we began to entertain the thought of a structured team-building program. Will people come? Might they be intimidated with the topic? Will they think, “Great another boring session of what not to do?” Will they even participate? We even thought of running the team building session on our own until one of my employees said she heard Michael Cardus speak at a retreat she attended and “he was amazing”.

Michael was engaging right from the start, he easily shifted us into groups where we did not know one another. Instead of telling us why team building was so important he walked us through an exercise that quickly opened our eyes as to how much we have in common as individuals.

A team was formed through our common bonds. No one was singled out or put into an uneasy position you could feel the positive energy within the room.

After a short break we returned to our tables only to find a black bag positioned in the center of the table. This test of connecting the varied lengths of plastic pipe and connecters made us one. As a group we had to work together, think through every suggestion that was made to complete the task and be flexible enough to change gears mid-stream when our best laid plan was going to fail us. While only one group completed the task, we observed and learned that there truly is strength in numbers.

The time we set aside for Michael’s program flew by, the bonding in the room generated by our interaction was infectious and the noise level kept rising as we moved forward with our assigned tasks.

We all walked away with a better understanding of what a “team” can be, how important communication is between people, and realized when pursuing a common cause or goal, having teammates to lean on makes the task at hand achievable.

The time spent with Michael was invaluable!”

Interested in similar results for your Professional Group, Organization and team? Contact Mike…and be the reason people stay with your team.

michael cardus is create-learning

The ASQ Statistics Division, some sharing on the ASQ Team Excellence Awards from the Quality Education Division, and a closing talk by Richard Kyte and Thomas Thibodeau of Viterbro Universities Servant Leadership Masters Program, made the conference amazing.

Here are some photos from the Conference.

The Demystification of Quality Leadership

In this highly interactive workshop we will demystify what is takes to be a Quality-Leader. You will leave with a clear and distinct understanding of what Quality-Leadership within your work and life is, and how to maximize the talent you already have to continually improve the quality of your organization, team and people.

Plus these Leadership skills;

• Create an Organization and Team that attracts trust and talent.
• Use the ‘Cascade-of-Leadership’ to increase the quality and throughput of your organizations work.
• Steps to develop high performance quality teams.
• Steps to lead high performance quality teams.
• A formula that can be used to match the right person to the right work. Ensuring the task is completed on time and within quality standards.
• Knowing your Quality-Leadership Strengths.
• How to determine strengths and constraints in other leaders and what to do about it.
• Improve the problem solving and decision making of yourself and others

If you are interested in learning more and offering this workshop to your team and leadership CONTACT MIKE

michael cardus is create-learning

Generally there are 12 types of team members that can become difficult. It is imperative that you 1. Try to figure out the team members behavior; 2. Look for cooperation and the positive side of the behavior and build on that; 3. Try the suggested ideas for ameliorating the negative sides of the behavior; 4. Treat the person as a competent adult due your full respect and attention.

12 Types of Difficult Team Members

• The Veteran
• The Perfectionist
• The Pain in the Neck
• The Rambler
• The Legalist
• The Mediator
• The Power Monger
• The Silent Type
• The Disengaged Member
• The Raging Bull
• The Not-Enough-Time Member
• The Big Kahuna

What do you think?

Have you had, or if you had ‘The Pain in the Neck’ on your team what are some ways that you can keep them offering ideas and remaining engaged in the team process?

This is content from ‘Quality Tools for Quality Teams’: Great Team Work happens on purpose. With a set of tools that people can be trained & coached to use. These tools allow all team members to do their best work in conjunction with the team. To learn more CONTACT MIKE

michael cardus is create-learning

image by sabih.ahmed

I was with a group of 8 managers. They hired me to coach and develop along with them what they called “techniques and systems to motivate their teams”.  What I called The productivity of our people is dropping and we have punished them, yelled at them, offered $$ incentives, and created a Thunderdome process. Holy shit more of the same is not working…we need help! And help is what I do.

The day was like like most, we opened with I2U2ME2WE, developed objectives, cleared up when the bathroom and snack breaks would be perhaps the most important part, and started.

What?

I shared with the group;

Adair’s Eight Rules in Motivating People

1. Be motivated yourself
2. Select people who are highly motivated
3. Treat each person as an individual
4. Set realistic and challenging targets
5. Remember that progress motivates
6. Create a motivating environment
7. Provide fair rewards
8. Give recognition

When I shared the above 8 rules, you would have thought that Jesus himself popped out of that screen. They reacted very positively to the 8 rules and quickly wrote them down.

It was as if they were looking for these 8 Rules their entire managerial careers, and I just showed them the light!

So What?

We were able to choose 2 that the team did really well.

• Give recognition
• Be motivated yourself

Armed with the above successes, and some time sharing examples of how those 2 are done well within their teams, we created some amazing steps for progress.

We finished with the team choosing JUST 1 area to focus on within their team over the next week, all the managers chose to focus on the same area – Treat each person as an individual.

The next 3 hours were spent discussing what that meant in their work and how to achieve the goal. I offered some coaching and understanding of self-directed behavior, treating people like adults, and managers responsibility for focus on the individual for team performance.

Now What?

Every time you speak with, interact with, or intervene with someone you never know the possible outcomes of that interaction. The 8 managers develop their own action plans and methods for Treating each person as an individual. And with their thinking and knowledge, plus existing motivation some changes will occur.

What do you think?

Looking at the 8 rules in motivating people, which does your manager or you do really well? How do you know that it is done well? Ultimately who is responsible for motivating employees or you to do the work? Do you have any examples of what motivates you?

michael cardus is create-learning

Thunderdome image from Makes Me Smile

Resulting with increased team productivity, on-time completion of team projects, and people who know how to repeat the success that they experienced.

The 7 Steps to High Performance Teams process is designed to take your team from where it is, to increased performance. While developing team systems that will drive the behavior needed for continued success.

This system has created significant results for many teams.

7 Steps to High Performance Teams

People on teams MUST have clear lines of accountability and authority. Knowing who does what-by-when within the prescribed standards and limits. People on teams NEED to know what they are individually responsible for and what others expect from them. People on teams NEED to see the connection of the teams, their own, and the organizations goals for the work to be valued, and accomplished within quality and time specifications.

This process makes your team better.

What is the purpose of our time together?

To supply you with tools and techniques to create and lead resonant, high performance teams that produce profits and results.

To discover ways to increase retention of talent, decrease completion time of projects and tasks, and improve satisfaction with work and life, thereby making your organization, team, and you better and more profitable.

You will learn how to hone, utilize, and develop interpersonal and political skills that are needed for more than successful completion of projects and goals, leading to an increase in your value to the team and organization.

Outcomes:

You will walk away from with;

• How to develop and lead high performance teams; With a prescriptive model that can be applied and utilized. 
• Facilitative leadership of teams.
• Effective prevention and intervention methods of maladaptive team member behaviors.
• Steps to create “buy in” for the team projects from people who are outside the team.

Learn how your firm can benefit from Create-Learning’s Corporate Team Building Programs. Feel free to email or call us at 1-716-629-3678.

Specific Content + Application Areas…

• Below is a sample of specific Team Building and Leadership areas that can be focused on for improved team performance. The list is not comprehensive and Mike works with your team and you to determine what is best suited for your team and leadership.

Roles and Responsibilities of Quality Teams

• Pitfalls common to all teams
• High Performance Teams Model and its application
• Define Roles & Responsibilities of team members and people who are not directly on the team BUT whose input in needed for success.
• Task Initiated Role Responsibilities (TIRR) – are cross-functional relationships in which A is authorized to initiate B’s doing something but where it is B’s manager and not A who is held accountable for whether or not B does it and for B’s output. TIRR define who can do what to whom. These are generally lateral or horizontal relationships.

Team Leader

• Facilitative leadership
• Exploration of content vs. method and ways of providing evaluations and feedback on both
• Establishment of team ground rules
• Agendas for agreement
• Decision Making Methods
• Dealing with project de-railing behaviors of team members
• Team prevention and intervention strategies
• Managing Individual and Problem Complexity within teams.

Managing Team Projects

• Getting buy-in from people outside of project team
• Defining and showing relevance to project stakeholders
• Influence Strategies
• Communication with people outside the team who’s help is needed
• Pitfalls of emails to projects and how to avoid them
• What to do when you are not getting cooperation

Learn how your firm can benefit from Create-Learning’s Corporate Team Building Programs.  Feel free to email or call us at 1-716-629-3678.  We will be happy to answer your questions and schedule a meeting to discuss how we can address your company’s specific corporate team building needs.

Results

"I had attended a few retreats and participated in several team building exercises over the years. Quite frankly, I did not expect much prior to this retreat. I am still amazed at how Mike’s fun and engaging personality, his strength based approach to working with individuals and teams, and his careful choice of exercises that have relevance to the context of the meeting turned me into a believer. We started as 5 individuals and we left the retreat a TEAM. Great job, Mike."

- Unity Health Systems

"Our goal for team building was met, without question.”

- US Consumer and Business Insights, McDonald’s USA

“Michael managed to get newly formed teams started up and equipped with the tools we will need to establish a successful group process. Michael manages to combine real content with a light note and most importantly some brief but very insightful exercises to apply the newly acquired wisdom and – importantly – illustrate where things can go wrong. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend Michael Cardus’ Create-Learning to anybody seeking to build successful teams.”

- Global Category Director – Cardiopulmonary, Welch Allyn, Inc.

“We utilized Michael’s services for team building and executive coaching. Our entire management team found Michael to be energizing, engaging and extremely astute. He helped our team to formulate realistic project plans to enhance our bottom line. Michael is very bright and brings out the best in people. His services were invaluable to our Agency.”

- Consumer Credit Counseling Counseling Service of Buffalo inc.

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Contact Create-Learning Team Building

Learn how your firm can benefit from Create-Learning’s Corporate Team Building Programs. Feel free to email or call us at 1-716-629-3678. We will be happy to answer your questions and schedule a meeting to discuss how we can address your company’s specific corporate team building needs.