Navigating Workplace Relationships
. . . Getting Everyone to Play Nice in the Sandbox
Overview
Question: What is the common thread between the following?
¨ Bubonic Plague
¨ Category 4-5 hurricane
¨ Teamwork
Answer: They all have a dramatic impact on a large number of people in an incredibly short period of time. While teamwork may not have a dramatic and direct deadly impact, it does have an enormous affect both on the inside and outside of every organization.
Synopsis
Navigating Workplace Relationships is a powerful interactive two-day program focuses on the differences between work groups and work teams, as well as the impact each member has on the overall team performance and productivity.
Program Overview
After completing the Navigating Workplace Relationships program, attendees:
¨ Have more focus, cooperation, productivity and impact on the workplace relationships
¨ Learn how to clarify the specific roles of each team member as well as the role of the leaders
¨ Learn the strategy for establishing leadership prerequisites
¨ Know how to facilitate buy-in
¨ Know how to resolve conflict management
Program Outline
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Building Team Player Thinking
Eisenhower defined leadership as "getting someone to do what you want them to do because they want to do it." This definition equally applies to team members who work together effectively. The first step is getting members to understand their roles and responsibilities and their accountability to everyone on the team. This segment focuses on recognizing differences and establishing a foundation that enhances interpersonal skills.
o Getting attendees out of their comfort zones
o Identifying the community spirit and why it is crucial
o Defining a team versus a work group
o Understanding that workplace relationships exist
o Clarifying how the team formulates and matriculates through a systematic process
o Learning how to empower employees and why empowerment thinking is critical to the team
o Analyzing how to adapt behavior through the DiSC® behavioral assessment
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Building Support and Cooperation from Other Members
The common thread that connects effective team players is the ability to segment problems. Individually, we face problems daily. Some are repetitive to certain situations while others are repetitive to certain people. Conflict may cause problems to escalate, which is an inherent condition in organizations where high volumes of work and stress are present. Understanding a person's tendencies toward conflict situations ultimately allows individuals to avoid the conflict prior to its inception.
o Assessing individuals on conflict style
o Developing strategies for choosing the appropriate responses
o Blending and mirroring peer interactions
o Working through team tensions
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Working Through Team Tensions
Today in many cases, we are forced to cope with increasing demands and decreasing resources. This constant change builds a greater degree of tension than many have seen in their lives. Recognizing the presence of tension is vital to formulating team cohesiveness and enhancing workplace relationships. Tensions can occur from a multitude of causes including personality differences, cultural differences, and geographical differences. In this segment attendees learn how to solve problems in groups as opposed to individually.
o Recognizing and assessing team problems
o Coping with work environment conflict
o Communicating with varying styles of behavior
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Dealing with the difficult team member situation
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Melding Individual Talent into a Team Formation
There's an old adage that says, "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." This applies even today. In this segment Gregg begins to ties earlier segments together. Participants will understand teams are made of individuals, and individuals are all different. In order to improve workplace relationships, we must first understand the other team players before we attempt to make them understand us. This becomes to core essential of the entire two-day program.
o Building the trust cycle
o Using the critical skills that high performing teams utilize
o Experiencing team involvement
o Recognizing and overcoming barriers to enhance team performance
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Realizing that individuals can be in "silos" and understanding that now, with practice, they will eliminate this negative effect.
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Using the GPS (Gregg Performance System)
The Navigating Workplace Relationships program concludes with attendees acknowledging that they must continue the learning process. Participants learn how to chart their own courses so they can track their successes. Once learning moves from the program, workplace relationships improve at a steady pace and those employees will continually grow.