Extraordinary Team Tips

If you're bringing together multinational teams, there are several measures you can take to ensure teamwork as they come to gather.

High-stakes meeting facilitator Kristin Arnold shares a guest blog on leaving a lasting leadership legacy of kindness from Michael Kerr.

What would you do if you knew that communication with your teammates was going to fail?  After all, you inherently know that there will be a communication mishit, but we just don't know when or where it is going to be!  Whether it is during a face-to-face meeting, a virtual meeting , email, text message or shared document, here are some ideas to improve team communication. To improve team communic...

Volunteer organizations usually have a plethora of boards, committees, task forces, and other types of teams to help achieve the organization's mission . Many of these team members are busy professionals, inspired by the organization's good work.  However, when push comes to shove, higher priorities prevail. Follow these tips to keep your boards from being "bored."

I had an interesting conversation with one of my clients about her people working with teams vs. leading teams.  This might appear to be a subtle nuance at first blush, but let's dig a little further to discern the difference.

High-stakes meeting facilitator Kristin Arnold shares how team leaders can set up their teams for success with "the team launch."

Team goals provide the team with needed focus and direction.  An all-encompassing  vision  or simple, well-defined goal statements provide the team with a unified sense of what is important.  To set clear team goals try these strategies.

One clue: No agenda, no attenda! Follow these five strategies and you'll see your meetings be much more productive.

High-stakes meeting facilitator Kristin Arnold shares techniques for active listening in order to enhance teamwork.

The next time you go to your team meeting, take a few moments to observe the team functions and roles.  At any particular moment, someone is leading, taking notes, keeping on track and on time, as well as participating in the meeting.  Watch closely who is performing each function.   The team leader may be working very hard at all of these functions — not only leading the meeting, but keeping note...

Of all things about strategic planning, it drives me crazy when the plan has a number of strategic objectives. How many are too many?

High-stakes meeting facilitator Kristin Arnold shares fun and creative tips for how to start a meeting.

All teams need a team leader to focus their efforts, set guidelines, and deliver results.  How you go about selecting your team leader depends largely on the mission , management, organizational culture , and development of your team.

When you watch a high-performing team in action, you realize that they have some habits, rituals, and ceremonies that support the team's work.  Here are some examples that I have seen effective teams establish to create a certain purpose and put them in a different mindset.

Measure your teams effectiveness on an ongoing basis with these metrics. 

There are myriad formal and informal team assessment tools that you can purchase "off the shelf."  In the event you decide to use one of these instruments, follow these steps to maximize the experience.

High-stakes meeting facilitator Kristin Arnold shares how to avoid tedious Board presentations using a Board presentation packet.

I often work with clients to facilitate an " after-action review " at the end of a project to discover pitfalls and opportunities for improvement for the next project.  So I was thinking....why not do this with your team at the start of this new year?  Discover key learnings about the year so you can prepare for the year ahead!

I am often asked to facilitate an after-action review (AAR) upon the completion of a project.  It's a bit more formal than a standard debriefing and allows the participants to truly understand what happened and create some preventive and mitigating strategies for the next project. AAR typically occurs when the project went south...but can also be applied to glorious projects that we wish we could...

Want your teams to stay focused?  Capture and post key information for all to see – on a whiteboard, on  flipchart  paper, or on the screen.  By writing down what has been said, team members will stay focused and on track as well as remember and act on the information well after the meeting.

If your team is like most, it relies on two or three strategies to make decisions: consensus, team input with the team leader making the final decision, or the loudest voice wins. Effective teams use MANY different decision-making strategies, such as these.

If you are serious about moving your organization from a traditional, hierarchical organization into flexible, nimble teams, think through the benefits and costs—as well as the many cultural changes that you, your employees, and your customers will have to face.  For some, the changes are just too great, and teams may not be the best solution.  For many, the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages...

A client of mine was frustrated that nothing was happening after a team meeting.  He said, "It's a great conversation, but then everyone goes back to 'work,' and nothing happens!" It's a common complaint as most teams identify potential tasks throughout the course of their meetings and then walk away thinking that everyone knows what they need to do. Au contraire!  Unless you have a process to ens...

Most North American companies and organizations reward individual performance.  We celebrate our individuality and want to be compensated and rewarded for our efforts.  However, if you want your people to perform as a team, you must reward them as a team.

People choose their seats for all kinds of reasons.  Some sit wherever there is an empty seat.  Others want to sit where they always do.  Some want to sit next to a particular person.  Others want to be close to the coffee pot.  But how do you choose where to sit to help you achieve your objective? Try these tips.