Course Outcomes

This team-building program will:

  • Provide a practical overview of team dynamics.
  • Give each participant insight about his or her style and the styles of others on the team.
  • Offer solid tactics for communicating better within the team.
  • Identify trigger words and phrases.
  • Provide multiple exercises to allow for self-discovery and frank conversations.

Course Overview

Like it or not, teams are here to stay because effective teams usually produce first-rate results. High-performing teams exhibit accountability, purpose, cohesiveness, and collaboration. How do you turn a dysfunctional group into a productive team? Can you make a good team better? Find out the answers to both questions during a full schedule of active team-building training.

Program Objectives

At this program’s conclusion, participants should be able to:

  • Describe the team-building process (Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing).
  • Identify several team-building models.
  • Explain the four basic behavioral styles and how to manage each.
  • Demonstrate effective listening skills.
  • Rephrase blunt wording for better communication.
  • Identify team strengths and opportunities for improvement.

The following outline highlights some of the course’s key learning points. As part of your training program, we will modify content as needed to meet your business objectives. Upon request, we will provide you with a copy of the participant materials prior to the session(s).

Workshop Outline

Joining Forces: What Makes a Team

This training begins with a general discussion about teams: what makes a group of people a team, what great teams look like, how great teams act, problems teams often encounter, and dysfunctional behavior that can sabotage a team. After that exercise, we will explore several models that address the team-building process and review the academic research around basic group dynamics.

The Communication Jungle: Understanding Different Communication Styles

The next segment of the program focuses on people styles and understanding the team’s preferences.  Using Business Training Works’ signature diagnostic tool, The Communication Jungle, participants identify their behavioral styles and those of their teammates in order to adjust for better communication.

Listening Skills: Focusing for Better Teamwork

This course component introduces listening skills and their importance in team communication.  Working through an activity that demands strong listening skills, the group will identify different kinds of listening, roadblocks to listening, actions that can make listening easier to do.

Better Questions, Better Answers: Skills for Eliciting Communication

Many people can have an entire conversation without asking a single question. Unfortunately, they often miss the point, miss facts, or miss an opportunity to communicate that they really understand someone else. This segment focuses on how to ask open-ended and closed questions and when to use each for better team communication. 

It’s Not What You Say: Rephrasing for Better Relationships

The lesson in the saying “it’s not what you say but how you say it” is one that takes some people years to learn. In this portion of the program, participants will learn how to use language so that it will be better received in conversations and in writing. Special emphasis is placed on learning to say “no” in ways that reduce conflict and eliminate phrases such as “that’s not my job” and “I don’t know.” 

Difficult Personalities and Difficult Situations: Dealing with Dysfunction

This section looks at ways to deal effectively with difficult personalities, team dysfunction, and tough situations. From “negaholics” to backstabbers and whiners to minimal contributors, participants will discuss better ways in which to communicate and manage relationships with those whose actions make the process hard. 

Lost in the Desert: Team-Building Survival Skills

Both fun and insightful, the program’s final lesson includes a simulation game in which a team is stranded in the desert with limited water and other supplies. Together, they must determine what items to select while waiting to be rescued. During this activity, participants focus on negotiation and listening skills. Furthermore, they discover that group consensus can lead to a better conclusion than choices made by individuals.

By the end of this program, participants will learn to value the different behavioral styles of the people on their team. They will also know how to listen better and ask better questions, choose their words carefully for better communication, and deal with challenging situations.