Free Tips for Appreciative Inquiry based Team Building Events
Appreciative Teambuilding Activities To Transform Office Teamwork
REAL Appreciative team building is the new rage for smart business. Gone are the company fun days filled with silly games, people used to call “team building activities”. Smart companies are now looking for sustainable results, beyond team motivational talks, that they know don’t last.
Here are some tips to transform your team working from average to great.
Appreciative Inquiry in Team Building
Our Appreciative Inquiry based approach to teamwork supports the trend towards a more positive focus on strengths and what-is-working – rather than the old style problem solving approach. Incorporate into this the new Science of Happiness@ work (SOHAW) to manage mind sets.
RESILIENCE is also becoming a major need in companies today as competition increases globally. REAL leadership is required to guide, empower and inspire teams to greater performance in a sustainable and optimised way.
But, in the past, most leaders and managers have had no simple way of getting these effectively into their organisations. From our past Appreciative team building experiences, we have distilled our wisdom gained… into a few simple steps you can include in your next event.
Make sure you incorporate these steps into your next team building retreat and provide a positive focus in your next teamwork activities facilitations.
Cheat Sheet for Smarter Team Building Events.
1. Make sure that the entire group is involved, from all levels, and make it clear that negativity will not be entertained.
2. Make it clear to everyone upfront that the focus and discussions will aim to build on strengths, past positive experience, what is ALREADY working, in the team, and what else can be done to enhance this positive state.
3. Make it safe for participation by everyone. Set ground agreements of what attitudes, comments and inputs will be allowed in the team building process – avoid naming, blaming and shaming!
4. Set up a trust-level scale on the wall and invite people to mark their present team trust scores on the wall and move them during the day. Talk about what impacts and influences trust levels, and what can be done to improve them.
5. Set up talking-circles and get people to talk about positive past experiences around leadership, team building, and what they want more of at work.
6. Get groups to agree and document what they will agree to STOP, START and CONTINUE back in the team workplace.
7. Make the learning fun, experiential and encourage participation and input from every person.
8. Teach teams about RESILIENCE or AQ (Adversity Intelligence) and how they can individually and as a team enhance their self talk and resilience levels.
9. To remove titles, position labels, and seniority advantages, each person takes on a new Identity /name of their ideal role model.
10. Incorporate the new Science of happiness principles into your culture to begin an attitude shift across your entire organisation
11. Document and display stop start continues and regularly discuss how you are maintaining the agreements.
12. If a consensus arises about what needs to be done to improve some area….take visible action to rectify and improve it ASAP and keep on providing feedback. Regular and clear communication is important.
Often the biggest challenge with motivating or inspiring staff and holding effective team buildings workshops is there is a lot of “TALK” from leadership and management, but very little “WALK”. It is a grave mistake to set up values and rules and then not live up to them, or ask for input and not act on it.
It doesn’t take long for people to see that you don’t value their input, or you don’t have any credibility… and soon thereafter they just disengage. Trust is Bust….again!
Too many leaders think happy staff are more productive – this is not always true. Resilient, challenged, engaged and happy staff… deliver exceptional results in a sustainable and optimised manner. They need to understand and incorporate the new principles of the Science of Happiness @ work.
By bringing the positive, focus on more of what is working, approach of Appreciative Inquiry Team Building ideas, and the self-awareness and conscious attitude of gratitude of SOHAW, leaders can transform their culture from a destructive, politically hostile environment to a great place to work with increases in performance, productivity and staff satisfaction levels.
But remember it takes time to rebuild trust. It takes time for the people to see that you are really walking your talk. It takes time to change old habits and entrenched cultures. It takes time to shift perspectives, attitudes and beliefs…
Through regular Ai and SOHAW based teamwork building activities you can begin to create a CultureShift from negative to more positive environment. This brings more available energy into your teams and the workplace.
Through Appreciative Inquiry’s positive approach to building teamwork, you can transform your results…faster than any old way of doing team building games and motivational talks in a more sustainable manner.
So next time you are looking for team building ideas choose appreciative team building with the Science of Happiness at work to create a sustainable, positive working culture and happier more productive staff.
Remember core employee engagement is controlled by leadership and management – So get smart and get appreciative teamworking fast!
To secure your free employee engagement & Team Building report email RTR@coachfree.com
Namaste’
Tony Dovale
Corporoate team Building Facilitator