Archive for 'Team Development' Category

Resilience - avoiding the “last straw”

Posted by Sharon 18 November 2009

Here’s an activity to get your team thinking about resilience and supporting others before they reach the “last straw”.

Start by asking whether people have heard the story of the Arab camel owner who was rushing to market and because he wanted to sell as much straw as he could, he loaded the camel’s hump higher […]

Team Lessons from Le Tour

Posted by Sharon 24 July 2009

A recent client request had me reviewing research on high performing teams and I found that Steve Denning’s recent research confirms the work of Katzenbach and Smith (The Wisdom of Teams) and is nicely triangulated by the events of the current Tour de France.
Here are five team lessons that the Tour confirms:

A great team will […]

Wellbeing and Resilence are replacing Engagement

Posted by Sharon 3 December 2008

According to a recent HR breakfast presentation by  Roger Collins, Professor Emeritus, UNSW, managers and HR representatives can best help their employees by focusing on Wellbeing programs rather than Engagement programs.  Professor Collins argument is based on the evidence-based view that engagement provides a one-way benefit to the organisation, whereas wellbeing and resilence provide two-way […]

Sustainable Leadership - searching for elegant means

Posted by Sharon 20 August 2008

I’m currently participating in a research project in conjunction with MGSM’s fledgling Institute for Sustainable Leadership and grappling with the multiple meanings of the word “sustainable” in the organisational context.
Tonight, as I read an article by consultant Dan Holden, I am struck by his use of the phrase “elegant means” - […]

Teams and Diversity - how to benefit

Posted by Sharon 30 July 2008

More new research on teams and how teams deal best with diversity, direct from INSEAD.

“Klein’s research focuses on leadership of groups which consist of people with diverse core, fundamental values – groups where conflict is likely and it is difficult for the team to focus on a common goal. Klein specifically studied teams […]

A star team can beat individual stars

Posted by Sharon 25 July 2008

Each year when we watch the Tour de France, the team dynamics fascinate us and remind us of the basic essentials of a high performing team:
1. A clear common purpose. Both Cadel’s team Silence Lotto (S-L) and CSC have a clear common purpose - get the yellow jersey.
2. Skilled people in complementary roles. […]

Trust in teams - encourage team reasoning

Posted by Sharon 29 May 2008

Thanks to Kevin Hogan for alerting me to new research which continues to chip away at the bedrock belief - in economics and management - that we are all selfish.
Researchers, Andrew Colman, Briony Pulford and Jo Rose from the University of Leicester, conducted experiments that show evidence of collective preferences and team reasoning. […]

The right thing vs the easy thing

Posted by Sharon 19 April 2008

Today I was talking with my father, who is an avid garage sale attendee. Dad told me about a small chest of drawers he’d bought last week from a pensioner. It cost him $30 (which is a big amount for my dad, who prides himself on going to garage sales with only gold coins […]