Don’t worry. This is not a self-promoting post about why you should hire me as a team building supplier, (although I wouldn’t mind!) This is about the importance of making sure every link in your event planning chain is solid, dependable and ideally stupendous. Last week I provided a keynote session for over seven hundred people. I know from experience that audio-visual can make or break my presentations and performances…
The Importance of Fun and Building Teams
Fun, it’s not just for weekends anymore. And concurrently, work isn’t just for weekdays anymore. We’re always plugged in, online, catching up or working ahead. I know very few people who go more than 24 hours without checking email or Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Since the lines between work time and play time have blurred, fun has to be an integral part of your organization’s culture in order to sustain…
Team Building, Tuning and Discord
I don’t know about you, but for me opposites really do attract. My wife and I have different skill sets, different strengths and different weaknesses. I don’t think I could live with someone who has the same type of compulsions as I do. I can hardly live with myself, so living with another me would not be fun! Of course the differences between my wife and myself sometimes lead to…
Finding the ROI of Team Building
When I mention I’m passionate about team building, the eyes roll or look away. The conversation shifts and the comments usually go something like this: “That was so yesterday, so pre-recession. Talk to me about something with ROI. My boss won’t go for a team building program now. ”But being an undeterred optimist, I take this response as an invitation to enlighten people about why I am passionate about team…
Honesty Is The Best Team Building Activity
I just read an email from a friend of mine, who while recovering from one kind of cancer found out she had a mass on her kidney and had to undergo additional surgery, fear and pain. The email contained the good news that the kidney mass was benign. But my friend’s description of the anxiety, doubt and physical pain associated with the ordeal was honest, deep and dark. It caught…
Solo Entrepreneur Survival Tips
Don’t Go It Alone Being a solo entrepreneur doesn’t mean you’re all alone. Although lately it’s been feeling like that to me. My own fault really; I have a tribe, a group of professional friends who are always glad to consult, confer and commiserate. But I still have a tendency to get lost in the vortex of too much to do in too many different areas. All I really want…
Married To Your Business
I was coming off some very good years: several hit songs, touring with famous folks and making money through music. Julie and I were at a coffee shop and I was talking about my plan to go independent and start my own publishing company. Julie quickly volunteered that she’d like to be my song-plugger and work in the publishing biz with me. Without hesitation, I said yes and away we…
Team Building, Injustice and Superheroes
I don’t claim to be a superhero, fighting injustice wherever I see it. In fact, most often I’m too slow to react. And then I’m filled with regret for what I might have done, had I only had the wherewithal to step right in and fix things. However, I care deeply about systems, fairness and invitation. By ‘invitation’ I mean, inviting new people into teams, tribes, groups and helping them…
Team Building Goals
“I don’t know where I’m going, I’m not sure how to get there, but I know I want to be there.” Not exactly a model for a strategic plan, but a good summary of a creative life plan. When I teach about creative process and provide tools to help people become more creative I do stress that being in the process and not being goal oriented is important. This is…
Create A Culture of Listening
As part of my continuing series of DIY team building ideas, here’s something you can do yourself. Try it at your next meeting.
Building Team Trust
The optimal push-pull of trust and limits is an age old challenge and an important subject for leaders to understand and utilize wisely.