Category Archives: Team Building

Reduce Team Conflict

Posted by on October 23, 2011 Comments Off
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Tiffany Dahlbergby Tiffany Dahlberg

One of my favorite tools that I use when I teach college students or train Project Management, Business Analysis, or Leadership for organizations is the Team Contract.

The team contract is a document outlining agreements about how the team will work together. Team contracts contain topics such as “Commitments,” “Participation,” “Communication,” “Problem Solving,” “Decision-Making,” “Conflict Management,” “Use of Technology,” and “Meeting Guidelines.”

Looking at the group dynamics of Forming, Norming, Storming, Performing, and Adjourning, the team contract speeds up the Norming phase and helps prevent/mitigate the Storming phase, so the team can get to the Performing phase faster–making your team more efficient. Read more »

Zoe Presenter Spotlight: Christina Haxton

Posted by on August 8, 2011 Comments Off
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Christina Haxtonby Zoe Training staff

Would you believe part of the Zoe cadre is a team of horses? According to Christina Haxton, who occasionally integrates them into her training sessions, horses are ideal teachers: they are responsive beings with acute awareness of and sensitivity to their surroundings. Like people, horses have individual personalities as well as physical abilities and limitations. And horses very accurately sense a person’s level of trust, confidence, awareness, and interpersonal skills.

In one of her team-building courses called “Lessons from the Herd,” participants have an opportunity to get in an arena with two to three horses – without having to ride them – to learn team-building skills directly from the animals. With more than 20 years of experience owning, training, and showing her own horses, Christina incorporates her management experience and expertise as a marriage and family therapist with knowledge of equine behavior to offer a unique perspective to businesses and organizations.

Following are Christina’s responses to our interview questions.

What are your most popular presentation topics?

“How to Avoid ‘Lizard Brain’ and Turn Conflict into Opportunity” and “Lessons from the Horse: The Art & Science of Building Trust with Your Herd.” Read more »

Zoe Presenter Spotlight: Paul Unks

Posted by on May 9, 2011 Comments Off
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Paul Unksby Zoe Training staff

With the employment situation in flux in recent years, Paul Unks’ career management expertise has come in handy for many people who need to regain their footing by either clarifying their career objectives or identifying new career options. And because career ups and downs can be the source of so much stress, Paul is also there to help individuals understand how stress impacts our daily lives and what we can do about it to alleviate the potential negative effects. In this interview, Paul talks about the joys of teaching his favorite topics and the mutual benefits that are gained by working together with participants.

What’s your favorite topic(s) to present on? Why?

1) Career Life Transition and Development, 2)Managing Stress and Wellness (“The Joy of Stress”) and 3) Communications and Team Building

I love teaching and facilitating workshops on these three topics.

I get a great deal of satisfaction from helping people to identify and then achieve the career position where they will be: fulfilled, very productive and successful, and in the right environment.  Career Life Development knowledge and skills are increasingly important and needed in our world today. Whether someone has been laid off through no fault of their own, if they are seeking a clearer direction and path to a more rewarding career, or if they want to further advance their career proactively in their current organization, they can benefit greatly from three key areas: Read more »

Zoe Presenter Spotlight: Sarah Michel

Posted by on April 25, 2011 Comments Off
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Sarah Michelby Zoe Training staff

Perfecting Connecting© – what Sarah Michel calls her networking strategies to promote personal and professional success – aptly describes her expertise on the art of intentional connecting. And Sarah should know the power of networking: as a cancer survivor, Sarah’s network helped save her life. And now as a speaker, she shares the lessons she learned from her inspirational journey to motivate her audiences to connect not just for the moment, but for life.

What’s your favorite topic(s) to present on? Why?

NetWORTHing™, which is the new way to network if you want to build social capital in today’s reciprocal business climate.  I teach people how to communicate their value proposition to their network to grow their networth.  I’m all about connecting so my topics are focused on ways to improve your connection to your customers, coworkers (team building), and colleagues.  I’m a certified practitioner with Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and help people discover the power in personality differences to encourage innovation, networking, creativity, and problem solving. Read more »

Trust Means EVERYTHING To Your Business

Posted by on January 10, 2011 Comments Off
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by Tara Powers

Tara Powers“Trust each other again and again. When the trust level gets high enough, people transcend apparent limits, discovering new and awesome abilities for which they were previously unaware.” – David Armistead

“Trust is the denominator of efficiency.” I heard this quote from a company leader that I am working with as we discussed the impact of trust on manager-employee relationships, relationships with customers, and efficiency between teams. This quote hits the nail on the head when talking about any type of business improvement. Nothing is going to improve long-term if trust does not exist. Read more »

Life, Laughs, and Laser Tag

Posted by on June 21, 2009 Comments Off
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boy with laser tag gunby Ashley Andrus

I recently took 7 little boys to play laser tag for my son’s 8th birthday.  As I was headed out the door my friend and team expert Nora Burns (who very politely declined an invitation to come along) said, “I suspect there will be some life lessons learned with this adventure…”  She was totally right.

It’s not so much that there are brand-new lessons to be learned, but the experience was a good, solid reminder of what you can accomplish with sheer, unstoppable energy and a “you’re goin’ DOWN, Mary!” attitude.  You don’t need a college degree.  You don’t need to have read all the latest business best-sellers.  You don’t even need a driver’s license.

Here are the 3.5 reminders I walked away with:

1. DON’T QUIT.

You’re going to get tagged.  So?  5 seconds penalty then you’re right back in it.  Your parents told you not to quit.  Your high school counselor.  Your coach. Your teachers. Your best manager.  They were right.  Never-say-die doesn’t solve all problems, but it’s a pretty effective strategy for lots of real world endeavors. Read more »

Incorporating “Fun and Games” Into Your Meetings and Workshops

Posted by on May 4, 2009 Comments Off
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ropes courseby Ashley Andrus

“Tell me and I may forget. Show me and I’ll remember. Involve me and I’ll understand.”—Confucius

You can learn sitting in a classroom. You can learn listening to somebody talk to you. You can learn watching a webinar or listening to a teleconference or sitting around a conference room table or reading a manual. But it’s not the only way you can learn.

Why not invite some “fun and games” into your meetings and workshops and daily office routine? Incorporating some get-up-and-walk activities with your sit-and-talk sessions can be an effective catalyst in taking the team and the discussion to the next level.

You don’t have to take your team to a ropes course, white-water rafting, skydiving, or high-speed driving to benefit from experiential activities. Those experiences are exciting and can be very effective, but if your budget or timeframe doesn’t allow for that possibility, consider some alternatives that can be done closer to home.

INSTRUCTOR-LED OPTIONS include program like: Read more »

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