Team Building and Taking Ownership

“We own it!” Isn’t that another way of saying we’re engaged, we care, we’re all in. When a team feels like they own the work they’re doing, the power of positivity boosts creativity, efficiency and results. I experienced the value of feeling ‘ownership’ myself last night at a team building program I led for Cummins, Inc. This was a small group and before the team building activity this leadership team…

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…

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…

Every Day Team Building

I’m resistant to change and I don’t like to be told what to do. I don’t think I’m unusual in this way. And so when my wife, Julie, told me I “needed” to move my clothes from bins in our bedroom to a dresser in another room, I resisted and quietly did nothing! About a week later, as I was complaining about not being able to reach my clothes without…

Hard Rock Hotel and Musical Team Building

It was an aha moment, and I thought to myself, ‘duh’. Why didn’t I think of that? Dianne, the event manager at a recent program I facilitated, introduced me as follows: “When we decided to hold our conference at the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego, we realized we had to try and find a musical team building program to go with our Hard Rock musical motif. So we thought…

Team Building and Hierarchy

I often tell prospective clients one of the benefits of our team building program is that it breaks down established hierarchy and enables co-workers, employees at different levels, and participants from the C-suite to interact on equal footing, without inhibition. I often see a CEO getting a gentle ribbing as a group crafts a lyric about policy or behavior and I often see real results as the interaction enables everyone…

Recent Team Building Through Song

NORANDA ALUMINUM shared one hundred of their top management with us, including their CFO & CEO. My cheeks hurt after laughing for about an hour straight. Along the way everyone learned more about their colleagues, their company and themselves. LEADERSHIP RUTHERFORD County kicked off their year long leadership training with Team Building Through Song. Thanks for trusting us to break the ice! WE’RE IN THE NEWS and we’re so happy….

Alternative Days

An entire team or even an entire company can be sick, or chronically fatigued and be running on empty without really being aware of it, because this condition has become a part of their culture. There’s real ROI in taking sick days, or really ‘alternative days’, for a team or organization.