The movement to the team concept in organizations is powerful, and holds great promise for most organizations. However, there are many reasons why teams often fail: teams aren't appropriate for all tasks; most professionals prefer to work autonomously rather than in teams; teams at the top are the harest, yet many senior managers assume they must work as a team in order to "walk the talk." We first help you figure out where a team approach makes sense, and where it doesn't. Once that is clear, then we work with you on how to support teams for improved performance.

Our Approach:

• Help the client think through why they want to move to teams, what they can learn from their past experience with teams, what kinds of work teams can do better than individuals
• Once a work unit is identified as needing and wanting to work as a true team, use an approach we call the Discovery Method, to learn when the unit has worked well as a team, and when it hasn't; this gives the members important information that helps them create a plan for developing itself as a team
• Identify the performance challenges that require a genuine team effort
• Review examples from other organizations of teams that work well, discuss lessons learned
• Help the team articulate ground rules and goals for its team efforts
• Give the team training in critical team skills and behavior: giving and receiving feedback, facilitation skills, conflict management skills, communications and active listening skills, meeting management skills
• Begin practicing these skills, using the team's ground rules, on real work that requires a team effort
• Provide consultation, coaching and feedback to the team as it makes progress and encounters problems.

Other Consulting Services We Offer:

Process Redesign

Change Management

Strategic Thinking and Acting