How to Facilitate a Great Team Refresh Workshop

What is a Team Refresh Workshop? In short, it is an opportunity to take time out together, to check in with how everyone is doing, to look at what is working well and what needs to change. It is about engagement and communication.

Why now? The window of opportunity is short if teams want things to be different in the future. Unless they take time out to pause and reflect, things will return quickly to the way they were and the moment for change will have passed. With the right approach, team refresh sessions can be engaging, positive, and massively valuable – helping team members to share their thoughts openly, to identify potential opportunities, and to align around change.

Who is it for? Really anyone that is working in a team that has been affected by what has been happening in the last few months. It is for anyone who cares about how the future looks and wants to open up the conversation with their team, identify changes that need to be made and get things done.

What will look we be looking at?

This will be a proper, practical “how to” session. We will be covering:

  • why having a facilitator is a good idea
  • how to design a session that flows well
  • encouraging openness and creativity
  • building engagement
  • making decisions and reaching alignment

Plus, everyone that attends will receive a specially created “How to run a great team refresh workshop guide”

When is it and how do I join?

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEvdu-ppjIvE9FViZd9HPFbKf8ZC5ZsVXwM

12th August at 4.00pm. You can find the registration link above or in this video. We look forward to seeing you there.

Virtually time to think differently

Tough times call for tough decisions, but business success is about more than just what is right for the short term.

Success comes from thinking differently, seeing opportunities further down the line and building strategies for the future. Most importantly, it is about making sure that your people are up for the challenge, motivated and always looking for the next opportunity to improve performance.  Wild Thinking works with all sorts of companies to help them to :

  • Develop team performance
  • Make sure that people are working to their strengths
  • Improve leadership
  • Boost workforce engagement
  • Decide on winning strategies

 

We don’t come with the answers. It’s your business and nobody knows it better than you.

What we can do is to help you to look at challenges with fresh eyes and bring some powerful coaching and facilitation tools to help you to think big and work smarter.

Wild Thinking Facilitators offer virtual workshops that could help you and your team get back on track.

Thinking Differently – Join our online workshop

 

What good are lots of ideas unless you move to action? Simon Coker takes a locked-down look at how you can focus on finding the right ideas to put into action.

Join us for an online workshop looking at “Thinking Differently” on Thursday at 1.00 pm.

Click here to register https://lnkd.in/eed_DT4

Thinking Differently – Join our online workshop

 

Generating creative ideas in business is not difficult. We can all do it if we follow three simple steps – understand the status quo, challenge the rules, and get into open mode.

Register for our workshop on Thinking Differently on Thursday 30th at 1.00 pm.

https://lnkd.in/gCQ9cNk

Thinking Differently

 

The call to “think differently” doesn’t always land well. People might want to avoid looking daft. Maybe they simply don’t see themselves as being creative or maybe they think they are already doing their best. Surely this is a time when we need to innovate more than ever and the good news is that anyone can think differently.

All we need is a clear sense of “Why”, a bit of structure, and an appetite for change.

Simon Coker shares his thoughts on how you can frame the need for change and start to engage the full talents present in your team. We are running a free online workshop on Thursday 30th at 1.00 pm. It would be great to have you there.  You can register here: https://lnkd.in/gCQ9cNk

Thinking Differently

Being able to think differently is a huge asset right now. As we look for answers to what our business will look like in the future, we need to make sure that we are fully tapping into peoples’ creativity and that they feel supported to experiment and try new things. We are holding a virtual workshop on thinking differently – Thursday 30th April at 1.00 pm. We would love to have you there. Please share and click on the link below to register.

https://lnkd.in/eed_DT4

Commitment by Simon Coker

 

Following on from a team having the necessary trust in each other and embracing constructive conflict as a positive behaviour of a healthy group, commitment is moving from difference of opinion to everyone involved being behind the decision that has been made.

 

Two things that help that happen are firstly it being clear what decision has been made and secondly everyone to be supportive of that decision – whether or not it was their initial first choice.

 

When we start to think about this behaviour the value of trust and conflict become apparent.  People need to trust each other to feel psychologically safe enough to disagree.  Without this safety and the robust conversation that it facilitates, people don’t get to express honest opinion and feel that they have been heard.  To get real commitment to decisions we need to feel things are being done with us rather than to us.  So, make sure everyone is involved in the virtual conversations you are having.

 

When working at a distance, partly due to the constraints of the tech, conversations can more easily get muddled.  Being clear on what is being discussed (and what is not!) in which meeting, and having distinct meetings for different topics (strategy, tactics, commercial etc.) will help avoid that confusion of “What are we here to discuss?”, and the resulting disengagement.  Clearly articulating what has been decided and why (having listened to everyone’s input!) as well as confirming key outcomes in writing post-meeting will add clarity – better to look back and say we probably over communicated a bit than under communicated.

 

The complexity and ambiguity we are experiencing in Covid 19 times can easily stall commitment.  When there is so much uncertainty flying about it can be easy to shy away from committing to decisions and fall into paralysis by analysis.  Actually, it’s unrealistic to be 100% certain on what is the right course of action just now (if it ever is), so waiting around for that certainty is counterproductive.  Performing teams and leaders can notice and avoid that scenario by recognising when it is better to make and commit to a decision with the information we currently have, than to flounder in the hope that certainty will somehow arrive.  It is always possible to commit to a different course of action in the future if necessary.

 

Commitment to the team decision, build on trust and constructive conflict, keeps the team aligned and builds the sense of in it together.

Trust by Simon Coker

 

Humans are social creatures; our strength is in our connections with other people.  The trust in those connections is the glue that holds teams together.  As such “social distancing” is at odds with something at the very core of who we are as people and unchecked will jeopardise the ability of teams to perform.

 

With people at home surrounded by the uncertainty of what is going on around them and disconnected and isolated from their networks, our feelings of vulnerability are likely to be dialled up a notch or two.  And when we feel vulnerable what do we do?  We go defensive and protective and we feel scared, and in that storm it’s hard to trust.  We need to really know that people have got our backs, we need to really trust that they are there for us.

 

Without the physical presence we are accustomed to, it is easy for gaps to open up in the trust team members have with each other and that is the start of a slippery slope.  On the other hand, have each other’s back through the difficult times and you’ll emerge stronger than ever.

 

When we talk about trust we are talk about vulnerability-based trust.  i.e. deciding that something I hold to be of value is safe with this person in this situation.  In this current climate leaders need to be stepping up their effort to trust and be trustworthy, give and hold those things of value.  Connect with people to recognise and acknowledge the challenges and difficulties.  Accept and communicate the uncertainty (no-one has all the answers at the moment, and everyone knows it) but let people know we are in this together and will work through it together.

 

As we settle into the foreseeable, to build trust, reframe your role from working around social distancing to building social connection while physically distanced.

Thriving in a Crisis – Commitment

In the third film in our mini-series on how teams can thrive in a crisis, Simon Coker looks at what leaders can do to make sure that their teams really buy into decisions. At a time when clarity and commitment are vital ingredients, this is a great skill to work on.

We are holding a free virtual workshop looking at “How teams can thrive in a crisis” on Tuesday 14th at 1.00 pm. We would love to have you there. You can register using this link: https://lnkd.in/dRkGjrn

 

Thriving in a Crisis – Conflict

“Conflict”- the second in our mini-series on how teams can thrive in a crisis. David Robertson looks at how leaders can encourage quality debate and drive engagement. Join us for our virtual workshop on April the 14th at 1.00 pm.

Click this link to register: https://lnkd.in/dRkGjrn