BUT without the Goal you will have failure, or if the work does get done it’s late, over budget, below quality standards, and people are angry and demotivated.

I recently led this Team Development activity with a company of Environmental Consultants and it created a great discussion about the knowledge and lack of knowledge about the goals of the Organization and the people who work there.

What’s The Goal?

Objective

• Complete quality work on time, within standards
• Create a discussion about the companies overall goal
• Clarity of why the company is in business
• Enable employees to make decisions that are aligned with the Organizational goals
• Employees to discover how their work, is aligned with the goals of the company

Materials

• Flip chart paper
• Markers

Group Size

• Works best with teams of 6 or less

Preparation

• Take some time and research the company see if you can determine what their goal is. Generally you can find some version of this on their website and materials.
• Make sure you have flip chart paper and plenty of markers
• If you want to get fancy, you can have the questions written before hand or on a power point slide

Instructions

Break people into teams of 6 or less there are a variety of ways to do this.

I suggest you try to mix people who don’t normally work together, that will create a richer discussion.

This is a 2 part activity, in their groups they are going to answer the following two questions. Then create a shared visual / metric / representation of all your responses as a team. The shared information must be visual with no words or letters.

The questions.

What is the Goal of the company?

• The larger organizational goal, why we are in business.

How does your role within the company contribute to this goal?

• Create a shared visual / metric / representation of all your responses as a team.

Allow for ~15 – 20 minutes of discussion and drawing. Walk around answer any questions and listen to the discussions going on.

After the 20 minutes ask the teams to take turns sharing their responses to the 2 questions. Facilitate any question and answer time – then tape the flip charts to the wall so everyone can see the responses.

Connections and Concepts

Goals drive everything a a company. Many manages and C-level executives believe that people ‘should just know’ what the goal is, and they themselves may not be too sure of the goal! Having a discussion and hearing from the employees what they see as the goal and how they think their work contributes to this goal will strengthen the work that everyone does.

Keeping it visual will also keep it simple. The goals should not be too complicated the visual representation will keep people engaged in the discussions.

The power of this activity is in the discussions that happen, keep them talking and gather the information for people to use later.

Processing and Reflection

Now that everyone has shared and you have the images hanging on the wall, it’s time to see what we can do with this information. Here are some discussion questions.

• In your small teams how did you reach agreement on the goal of the company?
• In your small teams how did you reach agreement on how your work contributes to the company goal?
• Looking at these representations, what commonalties did we discover?
• If we all knew, with certainty what the Company Goal is – how would these images be different?
• How would your contribution to the goal be different?
• What about this activity was useful to you?
• What about this activity was useful to the company?
• What is one step that the management can take to make the goals clearer?
• What is one step that you can take to understand the goals better?
• How will we know that this has happened?
• When can we go-and-see?
• Once those steps are accomplished, what will be better about your work?
• Once those steps are accomplished, what will be better about the company?
• What is already happening that shows up progress is being made?

Variations

Instead of company ask about the Department you work in, the project you are working on, the people you work with, etc…

Hire Mike

Need experiential and hands-on ways to create lasting memories and content in your programs / workshops / and lessons.

Mike is your answer. He will create and develop customized activities and simulations for what you need. Contact Mike (mike@create-learning.com)

Mike will come to you to facilitate the action learning and processing, or can just send you a document with videos and photos of how to do everything you need.

Mike will make you a success and your next meeting and training program better than ever.

Working + Managing Across Generations:

From Traditionalist to Generation Y & Beyond…An Interactive Workshop

“I am finding it challenging aligning and getting the best out of my staff. My senior staff complains about these young kids not wanting to do anything, and the younger staff complains about how none on the senior staff want to hear their ideas.” 

Sound familiar? You are not alone, this is a direct quote from a CEO.
This workshop has been designed to STOP the nonsense and get people working.

Outcomes:

This session engages participants to:

• Enhance workplace productivity
• Develop Managerial Action plans to increase the Trust, Team-Work, Effectiveness and Productivity of Multi-Generational Work Teams
• Learn to recognize patterns that influence workplace attitudes and expectations
• Gain insight to understand and resolve generational misunderstandings in the workplace and avoid unnecessary conflict
• Explore generational diversity in the workplace today
• Identify and exchange perspectives and expectations informed by their generational identities
• To read more click here

Can be facilitated Anywhere;

• Face to Face with an audience of 5 – 5000
• Through a Webinar Format
• 1 on 1 in a Managerial-Coaching Process
• On Your Own – I send you the materials, power-point and Do-It-Yourself Activity + Facilitation Guide
• Contact Mike to discuss your team and options. 1-716-629-3678

CONTACT…

• mike@create-learning.com  1.716.629.3678

To have your team learn and apply the necessary skills and talents to

Work and Manage Across Generations: From Traditionalist to Generation Y and Beyond…

My job is to support you.
Please email me ( mike@create-learning.com ) share your ideas, questions and feedback.

• 12/27/11 – Photos of Teams
• 12/28/11 – Images used in presentations & Articles
• 12/29/11 – Team Building & Leadership activity (simulation)
• 12/30/11 – Blog article
• 12/31/11 – NEW YEARS!

Favorite Team Building & Leadership Activities + Simulations 2011

• In no particular order.

Some of these were posted here. Some were leaked super secret like to the Create-Learning Letter a mostly-monthly e-newsletter that has TeamBuilding, Leadership & experiential theory + activities CLICK HERE to sign-up.

Planning Path

• Planning Path forces the teams to clarify accountabilities of the plan and necessary time-frames coordinating the effort of all the individuals into one system

Communicate This & Stick it here!

• Complex simulation illustrating communication by people listening and sharing  information in a manner that other people can understand the message being received as well as sent.

Processing the Experience Using Mouse Traps

• Utilizing an active reviewing method (as opposed to a passive method which is question & answer) aids people in creating brain based connection from the team building activity to their work, lives, community, etc…

Sky Bottle Commander

• Real-Time planning at the location of the problem to be solved.

Cycle Time Puzzle Variation: Puzzle Connection

• Puzzle Connection focuses on collaboration and decision making. Teams practice problem solving and communication skills, and increase their understanding of the need for constant communication between existing teams.

New Door to One Word

• Here is an opening activity that I use in DiSC Workshops. The purpose is to open the understanding of perceptual awareness and that we all have beliefs about ourselves, others, and our organization.

D–Quick Choice

• For participants to experience a D – Dominance type culture. In this activity all people are asked to use their Dominance to accomplish a task that has a tight time frame and a decision must be made.

DTC Operator

• Dimension Time Cost Operator (DTC) – is a tool for for seeing problems differently exploring ideas of extremes in size and cost. The DTC Operator can work to release Psychological Inertia.

Nine Windows

• Using nine windows serves us in discovering solutions by understanding the problem in the context of the past, present and future along with exploring the problem in the Super-System, current System, and Sub-System.

Plan:Do:Check:Act

• Individuals on teams when involved in challenges are really close to the problem and taking a Plan:Do:Check:ACT (PDCA) break will create clarity and teach a model of action steps and solutions finding in real-time examples.

everyone BUT YOU knows the best choice

• In what ways, besides just telling you which rope was the correct choice, could the people and teams support, guide, serve your team in making the right choice?

How To Process + De-Brief Team Building Activities

• Team Building Facilitators lead activities that add value to the organization, team and person. This is established and created through purposeful processing and de-briefing of the activities. Allowing for functional tie-backs and applications

Now Your Turn;

In the comments share your favorite team building & leadership activity or simulation.

What an amazing year 2011 was! Looking forward to meeting and working with your team and leaders in 2012.

michael cardus is create-learning

DiSC Team Building & Leadership simulations and activities can add application and understanding to your existing programs. There are many variations from conversational models to highly active models. Contact Mike… to discuss how to increase the learning and utilization of your DiSC training program.

Below is one example of a DiSC Team Development activity other development options;

• Using DiSC to create a shared language of team performance
• Creation of 360 feedback using DiSC
• Development of coaching & feedback using DiSC
• Flexing and developing all your DiSC Behaviors
• DiSC to increase empathy
• Experiential DiSC: a series of hands-on activities used to understand DiSC in a team setting
• and more…Contact Create-Learning to discuss how to make your DiSC team building and leadership program effective.

__________________________________________________________________

D – Quick Choice

Click here for a pdf of D-Quick Choice

DiSC Team Building Activity; Used to flex the D-Dominance Preference.

Objective:

For participants to experience a D – Dominance type culture. In this activity all people are asked to use their Dominance to accomplish a task that has a tight time frame and a decision must be made.

• Requiring quick action and decisiveness
• Driving quick action
• Moving the team forward

Materials:

• DiSC profile
• People have knowledge of the Dominance area of DiSC
• 4; 3 to 5 foot lengths of ropes or string of different colors

Group Size:

• 4 to 6 people per/team
• If you have more than 6 people then make more teams of no more than 6 people
• Questions Contact Mike

Preparation:

Prior to beginning this activity an explanation of the D-Dominance behavior of DiSC and a discussion of the pros and cons of using each person’s dominance should take place.

The set up requires you to prepare the following before the activity begins.

Take the 4 ropes of different colors and tie one of them into a large loop. For example you have a red, yellow, white and green rope. Tie the green rope into a large loop, by tying an overhand knot connecting the loose ends together. Now take the remaining ropes and thread them, one at a time through the green rope. Once you thread a rope through the already tied loop, tie the rope into a loop itself, do that all the remaining ropes; until you have something like the image below.

Ensure that one of the ropes Connects through all the other ropes like a key ring, so when you hold the main rope the others are all connected, like a key ring to that central rope; like the image below.

Bundle each ‘D-Quick Choice’ separate from the others. Once people arrive DON’T let them see which rope is the connector – keep them in a bundle.

*If you are preparing for multiple teams you can choose to use the same color that is the connector for all the teams, or use a different color. Either choice will lead to an interesting discussion and processing at the end.

Instructions and Facilitator Script:

*Keep this moving fast and high pressure – you want teams and people to experience using the D in their behavior. This requires quick decisions and action.

Once the teams are created say something along of the lines of the following:

“Now that we have explored the Dominance in our behaviors it is important to build and utilize that part. In a moment you will be placed into a simulation that requires quick thinking, insufficient knowledge and resources to choose and from. At times in each of your roles at work you must make a choice, a choice that as a team you feel is best. Due to time-constraints and the increasing complexity of your work the need to make a choice fast and then be able to learn from that choice is necessary.”

Place a ‘D-Quick Choice’ bundle on each table that the teams are sitting at; One per/team of 4 to 6 people. Ask them to NOT TOUCH IT.

“Now that each team has a ‘D-Quick Choice’ rope bundle don’t touch it please. In a moment your team is going to solve the following challenge.

As a team you must reach a rapid decision, without touching or moving the ropes. You will have 90 seconds to choose the rope that connects all the other ropes together. Like a key ring through several keys.” Show an example.

“If you choose the correct rope it will connect all the ropes to that single rope, if you choose the wrong rope the ropes will hang like a chain that is wrong.

READY GO! 90 seconds starts.”

Walk around and ensure that the teams follow directions, at the end of 90 seconds yell STOP! Or blow a whistle to get their attention.

Once the focus in on you again, go into the processing and reflection see below.

Connections and Concepts

Sometimes the idea of Dominance can be seen as a bad or negative trait amongst teams, this activity is meant to highlight that we all need to have a certain amount at the proper times. I explain this to teams as finding the necessary Normative Value of each behavior. If we exceed the normative value it then becomes a negative impact on getting our work done.

In exploring DiSC with teams I share that understanding each person has all 4 behaviors and they are used in different capacities. We need people to be Dominant and make decisions quickly BUT not so much that they neglect to be Conscientious. Plus we need people to be Conscientious BUT not so much that they fall into paralysis-analysis and cannot make a choice, flexing their dominance.

D-Quick Choice allows teams and individuals to use that ‘Dominance’ part and explore when and how to best use it.

Take time with the group and find examples of when a choice has to be made quick and when taking too long may be damaging to their work. This connection to team-work and making choices will prove powerful.

DiSC Behaviors You’ll Notice

Being that we are asking EVERYONE to flex their Dominance and we have purposely increased the pressure with a short time-frame, ambiguous options and a high need for control.

The Dominance behaviors will be high;

• Dominance D’s High need for control – Low need for affiliation; Rush into action very little to no planning needed. The planning you will notice will take place in a flurry of individual activity. Quick to move and share their opinions slow to listen and discuss ideas. Will measure progress by the results they achieve. Become easily frustrated once they fail to see results on an individual basis. They are accepting of objections and conflict they just move on to try another variation for achieving results.

For more information about the other DiSC behaviors go to your DiSC Profiles, Hire Mike or DiSC Box.

Processing and Reflection

Following the 90 seconds of choosing the rope which connects all the others, teams are always eager to see if they were right. Ask the teams;

• Which team is 100% sure they have chosen the correct rope?
• On a scale of 0 – 10 with 0-being absolutely unsure; and 10-being absolutely sure; where would you place your teams choice?
• If you were one step higher on the same scale what would be different? How would you know that you were more correct in your choice?

Taking turns, ask each team which rope they think is correct. Ask them to grab the rope and let’s see. It’s always fun to have the entire group watch and see if the other teams were correct.

Following all the teams reveal of the rope they chose here are some discussion questions;

• What was your initial reaction to this challenge?
• Those of you who are higher on the D-scale, did you feel any added pressure?
• Those of you who are higher on the C-scale, what was this activity like for you?
• Can you describe how choices were made?
• Supply the group with an example of a good choice, during that activity?
• How was success measured?
• Reflecting upon your own DiSC preference, did you notice and feel some of your Dominance shining through?
• How was this activity like your work?
• In your role at work how are choices made?
• In what ways are you mindful of your preferred behaviors at work when making these choices?
• Describe what it would be like if you were absolutely comfortable and sure that the choice you made at work was the Best choice?
• Has that ever happened? Even a little bit?
• Thinking about DiSC and Dominance; in what ways might you use this activity to improve your team decision making? What else? What else?
• If you do one of these ideas, how will you know it was successful?
• How will others know it was successful?

Allow for group discussion then conclude with a wrap up of the learning and action plans for the future or move on to what you have planned next.

Variations

• Give more time
• Give less time
• Use all the same color rope
• Have more rounds and make new teams each round
• Instead of having the people flex their ‘D’ ask them to use a different DiSC preference
• Lead the activity as a simulation is decision making
• Have the team decide the color of the connector rope WITHOUT  ever seeing the ‘D-Quick Choice’ rope bundles
• After initial 90 seconds have one person stay and all the other team members find new teams to join, then repeat the process again
• Use longer / shorter / thinner / fatter ropes
• be creative let me know what you come up with!

Train-the-Trainer

Mike can lead a train-the-trainer workshop for your team, click here to learn more.

• Here is another DiSC Team Building Activity called DiSC-Box

Hire Mike

Need experiential and hands-on ways to create lasting memories and content in your programs / workshops / and lessons.

Mike is your answer. He will create and develop customized activities and simulations for what you need. Contact Mike (mike@create-learning.com)

Mike will come to you to facilitate the action learning and processing, or can just send you a document with videos and photos of how to do everything you need.

Mike will make you a success and your next meeting and training program better than ever.

One area of focus was decision making and how this group can support you in making choices and learning from the choices made. I decided to use an activity I call

‘Choosing Choice to Choose Connection’

• Overview: Teams of 3-6 are supplied with 4 ropes tied in loops, 1 rope connects all the ropes like a key ring. The teams have to choose which rope connects them all together.
• Outcomes: The ability to practice making decisions that have no clear answer, all that can be done is choose which one looks like the best answer. This becomes complicated when in work teams. Practice in creation of a decision making systems for agreement as well as listening + speaking for collaboration is necessary.

While processing the activity with the teams I asked;

I am going to ask you a weird question, Pretend that we all go on break and during this break your team does what it normally does on break…But unknown to the members of your team everyone else was shown which rope is the correct rope to choose. BUT your team did not know this because you all were on a break. In what ways, besides just telling you which rope was the correct choice, could the people and teams support, guide, serve your team in making the right choice?

Each team them had ~8-10 minutes to create lists and discuss the question.

WOW! the responses were awesome and really tied SO WELL into creating a community of support for the students and faculty.

Now Your Turn;

• Think about the question above; How would you respond? Your team respond? Your boss respond? Your subordinate respond?
• In what ways could you alter this question to be appropriate with your team?
• If everyone BUT you knew the correct choice – How would you go about asking them questions to find the answer? How would you treat them the same or differently?

Share your usages and ideas.

michael cardus is create-learning

Working with a team of 5 Executive Directors from a company that employs ~2000 people we identified a gap in the Managerial Leadership Training, Mentoring and coaching of employees prior to being promoted to a Manager Level within the company.

This gap was identified as leading to the following concerns;

• High turnover rates amongst front-line employees, the direct subordinates of the managers – ~28% which was higher than average for this company.
• Increased customer complaints about service and interactions.
• On-Time completion of work decreased by 20% in 3 years.
• Overtime increased by 30% in 3 years.
• Stress, Illness leading to increased number of sick days and health problems for Mangers and front-line staff.
• General Managers, the direct managers of the Manager, NOT achieving their work on time and in quality expectations.
• plus many more I am not going to bore you with the entire list BUT you get the picture.

The Executive Directors had a valid concern that this trend will continue as they retire and their positions are filled, leading to serious challenges for the company.

One Solution Step was to create an internal Managerial Leadership Process, starting with the Managers and eventually being used in every level of the company. Many, many problems stemmed from this what sounds like an ‘simple’ step-BUT ‘Simple ain’t always easy.’

Below is ONE Quality Tool commonly used in TRIZ that we used to begin in framing the context of our solution.

Dimension Time Cost Operator

Dimension Time Cost Operator (DTC) – is a tool for for seeing problems differently exploring ideas of extremes in size and cost. The DTC Operator can work to release Psychological Inertia.

Generally the DTC Operator is used in solving more tangible, mechanistic problems. With this team we used it to explore the challenge of Developing a Managerial Leadership Process.

The DTC Operator Algorithm

1. Define the problem: Name the system or the part of the system of interest.
2. Consider ideas created by DTC extremes:

Problem: Institute a Managerial Leadership Training Process for all Director Staff that will provide each individual involved with the requisite Skilled Knowledge to manage staff and add value to the Organization and their subordinates.

Dimensions:

If dimensions were extremely large what would success look like, how would that happen, in what way could that system be developed?

List ideas/solutions:

• If the system was really large, meaning tens of thousands of people were going through this Manager Training Process at once we would need a tracking and feedback system to show when and where each manager is in the process.
• Can we create an independent participant self-lead program, possibly using our internal intra-net. That includes on-line learning, meetings with direct Managers and feedback plus evaluations from direct subordinates and direct managers?

If dimensions were extremely small what would success look like, how would that happen, in what ways could that system be developed?

List ideas/solutions:

• If the system was really small, meaning 1 person going through this Manager Training process that person would have a great deal of pressure on them and because of all the focused attention would be able to make a large impact in the company.
• Can we develop or use the Directors immediate Manager and their Manager once removed to work with this person and keep their focus on their existing work and involvement in this process? Meaning that each person involved feels and knows that they are treated as an individual and we are working to move them to their Leadership Potential.

Time:

If time were extremely long what would success look like, how would that happen, in what ways could that system be developed? OR If speed were extremely slow what would success look like, how would that happen, in what ways could that system be developed?

List ideas/solutions:

• If time was extremely long the Directors in the Managerial Leadership Process would have more than adequate time to learn and master the concepts. Additionally the Managers evaluating the Directors performance would be able to more accurately place the Directors with teams, tasks and individuals who could benefit most.
• Can we create a long term research project from this? Determining what works…The team already has performance evaluation data from the past, what could the data from the past about the directors tell the Managers about the effectiveness of the Directors?

If time were extremely small what would success look like, how would that happen, in what ways could that system be developed? OR If speed were extremely fast what would success look like, how would that happen, in what ways could that system be developed?

List ideas/solutions:

• If the speed of the Managerial Leadership Training Process was fast the Directors would have to find ways to stay motivated and show rapid comprehension and application of the content.
• Can we find short term tasks ‘small wins’ that can happen in a time-frame of 1 day or shorter? These ‘small wins’ would keep motivation high, and learning application flexible because the fast nature would allow for success and quick fixes to mistakes.

Cost:

If costs (not just in terms of dollars but costs in terms of downsides, harmful effects, etc…) were extremely abundant what would success look like, how would that happen, in what ways could that system be developed?

List ideas/solutions:

• If there was no limit to cost – we could increase this to develop Managerial Leadership Training & succession planning for the entire company. Plus, have people onsite continuously to develop curriculum, mentor, coach, train and work in real-time with all of our staff.
• Can we hire a full time person to do this? If we can really impact the things listed in our Gap Analysis earlier, that would more that make up for a full time on-site Managerial Leadership Position.

If costs were extremely limited what would success look like, how would that happen, in what ways could that system be developed?

List ideas/solutions:

• If cost is limited to almost zero, use the people and resources we already have.
• Over the past several years we have sent many of our Managers, Directors, Front-Line staff to training and Executive Coaches. Have we ever gathered their stories, resources and what was most effective from them?
• Could we gather small focus groups of Managers, Directors, and front-line staff to take on their own initiatives for Director Training and Improvement?

As you read through responses we received with this exercise we were able to Converge and Diverge upon many ideas, processes, and solutions that we would never have thought of if we did not use this Quality Innovation Tool.

Now what?

Well what do we do with all this information once we gather it? The ideas were transferred into a spreadsheet, a feedback form was created and sent to the Executive Leadership, Managers and Front-Line staff. They were asked to evaluate the impact that each of the DTC Operator Idea/Solution would have on their work and the work of the company on a 0 – 10 scale; 0-No Impact and 10-Huge Impact. This information was used in the future planning and implementation meetings to better develop and institute the Managerial Leadership Process within the Company.

Interested in learning how to use Quality Tools to solve problems and increase the effectiveness of planning within workplaces? Could  your team benefit from discovering and planning solutions while proactively working to increase efficiencies and profit? Contact Mike… to make your team better.

michael cardus is create-learning

image by Pink Sherbet Photography