Team Facilitation Skills
It's long been said that teams working together can be far greater than the sum of their parts. But unless each person gives his or her all, team performance can have a negative net effect on the team, individual team members, and the organization itself.
All teams must work their way through a minefield of predictable challenges to be effective as a group:
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Some people dominate while others remain quiet and uninvolved
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Precious time is wasted when people get (and sometimes stay) off track in meetings
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The team solves superficial problems rather than identifying and addressing the core issues
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Inevitable conflicts erode team relationships and prevent quick action
Without the skills to address and surpass these obstacles, teams get bogged down. Their power is so diluted by inefficiency, apathy, and frustration that they become a liability rather than an asset.
Team Facilitation Skills helps team leaders and members harness the power of their teams. It gives people on teams the communication skills to keep meetings on track, to solve problems quickly, and to create and shape team synergy. Team Facilitation Skills is not explicitly a meeting-management nor a team-building workshop, yet it does help leaders and members manage meetings more effectively and build the team. More than that, team facilitation skills are the everyday practices that lead to better team dynamics, debate, and decision making-helping teams meet their goals and their deadlines.
In Team Facilitation Skills, team leaders and team members will learn a palette of skills they can use to:
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Begin team meetings with power and focus
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Get meetings off tangents and back on track
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Drill down to the core issues of any problem
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Get the full mindshare of the team when exploring and committing to solutions
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Encourage active, passionate involvement of all team members
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Harvest important insights and perspectives during conflict
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Invigorate team participation and communication
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Minimize negative dynamics and use them as an opportunity to improve the team's working relationships
Copyright 2008 Ridge Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved.