Effective Team Development
For RDA and our clients, "team development" or "team building" is a carefully designed process that provides meaningful individual and group experiences connected to identified business and professional issues.
Our typical process:
- Needs assessments* design/planning meetings
- Select appropriate learning environments, models and tools
- Debrief activities to reinforce relevance to work environment
- Consult between sessions, facilitating development of action plans
- Follow-through on action plans
We incorporate a carefully sequenced series of programs, activities and transfer-to-work discussions to meet specific organizational objectives, for example:
- Building esprit de corps
- Designing innovative approaches for adapting to change
- Redefining roles, responsibilities and accountability
- Developing and enhancing communications skills
- Realizing commitment to common vision and goals
- Building trust and confidence
- Supporting organization culture change
- Developing strategies for resolving conflict
We create a productive, comfortable setting in which groups can examine their problem-solving styles, identify their strengths and opportunities for development as well as create realistic, tangible goals. Some of the tools we use:
- Guided/themed story-telling
- Team exercises for successful problem-solving (indoor and outdoor), involving cognitive, social, emotional and sometimes (low impact) physical challenges
- Team Cuisine! Team building, roles/responsibilities, communication, leadership, learning new skills, appreciation for diversity, etc.
- VECTOR: a community service approach to individual, team and organization development
- Challenger Learning Center: a sophisticated computerized simulation of a mission to colonize the moon.
*As part of a RDA Needs Assessment, we may use the Team Effectiveness Scorecard™ (TES), a comprehensive, on-line survey instrument that helps teams and their leaders gather a snapshot of their team’s strengths and weaknesses in 11 different areas. Read more…
When appropriate, RDA will also work with teams to assess and develop the team’s emotional intelligence. Emotion is at the core of good decision-making, employee motivation, visionary leadership, effective problem resolution, successful change management, and many of the other processes and practices used in day-to-day functioning. Emotional competencies are as important as technical competence. Read more…