Improving Team Communication and Collaboration
Use these courses to, not only improve interpersonal communication on your team, but to help your team get to know each other better.
Learn how to understand and respect each other so that miscommunications and assumptions are avoided before they start. Eliminating miscommunications will help with work flow and collaboration for a more productive team.
Strengths-Based Teams
1 day (or two ½ day sessions)
Up to 24 people
Leverage the natural talents of your team by understanding their strengths and how they approach work. Talents and strengths have team members approach work differently. When your team members understand their own approach to work and understand how their team members approach work, your team can eliminate riffs and stalled productivity caused by differences. Instead, your team can leverage differences for problem-solving and greater productivity.
Participants in this course will:
- Learn about the 4 strength quadrants and to understand how they shape our approach to work
- Work in strength groups to discover and present strengths of approaches
- Work in strength groups to discuss and present limitations of approaches
- Understand the value of diverse work styles and learn to leverage individual strengths
Conflict Resolution for Teams
1/2 day
Up to 24 people
Teams often discover that communication is the crux of intercultural competence. As groups learn, when under stress or duress, people can fall into less respectful communication. This course helps individuals recognize and monitor their own actions in conflict, but also recognize when others are not acting at their optimum communication style. This recognition helps teams to have healthy conflict rather than destructive combat.
Because this course uses terms and concepts associated with the IDI® inventory, the IDI® Inventory and Theory for Groups should be completed as an initial training step.
Participants in this course will:
- Increase cultural self and other awareness of cultural differences in how individuals approach and resolve problems and conflicts
- Understand the four intercultural conflict styles
- Know how and when to accommodate each intercultural conflict style
- Increase positive team communication
The training also includes administration of Intercultural Conflict Style (ICS) survey.
Communication Styles
One full day (or two ½ days)
Up to 24 people
This course starts with an assessment for team members to identify their own preferred communication style. It teaches team members what those different communication styles are and how they should use them to send and receive communication. Your team will also learn that communication changes when people are under stress, so they will learn about alternate communication styles, empathy, and grace. Along the way, team members learn about each other, interact, and have fun as they learn tools they can easily learn and apply in the work environment.
Participants in this course will:
- Learn to assess the communication styles of others through observable behaviors
- Understand how to leverage communication styles to give and receive feedback
- Modify messages to communicate in times of stress and conflict
The training also includes a communication style assessment.
Change and Teams
1/2 day
Up to 24 people
Even when change is welcome, it can create stress as it often generates unwelcomed (and, therefore, unvoiced) feelings. Maybe a favorite team member is being promoted. Yeah! But, that change could bring out feelings of helplessness if the team does not see a clear transition plan. Or feelings of envy if someone else wanted the promotion. Or helplessness if the role will not be backfilled at all, or even fear in the team member being promoted is worried about failing in the new responsibilities. Communication during times of change is so important, yet the stress often causes teams to communicate the least. Understanding change can help your team communicate better to navigate challenging situations.
Participants in this course will:
- Have individuals understand their reaction to change
- Understand phases of change and diversity of how/when people process change
- Understand team-building phases
- Discuss behaviors that support team-building or stall team building
- Use tools to address behaviors that derail team-building
The training includes an assessment of change style.
Call us today at (612) 659-7230