Being in this industry of training teams and even organising teambuilding programs, I will be sharing with you some insights on why I think alot of teambuilding programs in Singapore will not work at all! This is after much observation of a lot of teambuilding companies.

In most cases, companies hire teambuilding companies for the fun they provide and games where everyone is engaged in some activity. Companies ask for outdoor activities as much as possible, thinking that they will be more fun. Games sometimes involve doing things faster, better or even a clearer way of communication. However, after such programs, people resume their own set of behaviour after they go back to work the following day. This is because issues are not addressed and mindset is not changed.

Here are a few things that can give you a low Return On Investment (ROI) for your teambuilding programs:

1.  Not being clear on the specific outcome you want
Instead of saying things like “Better cohesiveness, have fun or bonding”, it is better to ask whether you can address certain issues like

“I want my staff to be able to take responsibility for their work and not constantly lay blame.”
“I want them to be pro-active in their work and life.”
“I want to be able to consciously think of how they can add value to their team members.”

The more specific your outcome you want, the better your ROI for the teambuilding program.

2.  Trainer possesses poor facilitation skills

I had my fair share of seeing facilitators who are NOT able to bring out a lesson that really makes a Deep Impact on their clients. They just keep talking about the same things that you and I know. In proper facilitation, you actually want the participants to discover the lesson as much as possible, so that learning becomes extremely personal and impactful. Poor trainers tell people what the lesson is, Great Trainers help people find the lesson behind the activities.

3.  Most programs do not address mindset or give great guiding principles
We all know that we should work together in teams, but the question is “why do we not do that all the time?” My experience in building teams is that people usually have their own belief systems regarding teams and not everyone believes in WIN-WIN. A good teambuilding program must be able to address such mindsets and give great guiding principles to replace the old beliefs.

4.  Lack of follow up after the teambuilding program
Most teambuilding programs are just one day but how can you create a team within a day? Creating great teams require a process but most companies end it within a day. One important element is to have a time where there is sufficient follow-up for participants to review the lessons learnt. Constant emphasis and application of the same message has a better chance of helping your staff to internalise what they have learnt.

The next time you choose your service provider, do ensure that they will make a Deep Impact in having fun that is meaningful and objective. If you need a teambuilding provider, email us and we will get back to you:

coach(a)deepimpactonline(dot)com    

Here are some photos of our programs:

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Trust is one of the most important things in the world that all of us need before we can ever start any relationship or build any team. However, most people fail in this area. Allow me to ask you a few questions to see how trustworthy you are:

1.    For the past month, have you ever promised to do things and not fulfil it?

2.    Do you come late for meetings/appointments (yes, even 1 minute late is still considered late!)

3.    Does your family member or spouse doubt your words?

4.    Are there times when you have behaved inconsistently in your life?

If you have answered “YES” to any of the above statements, you really need to work on your trust level. I know that it has very high standards, but hey, people do judge you by what you say or do. Sometimes they will also judge you by what you DO NOT say or DON’T DO.

To ever build trust in the team or with people you love, it boils down to just this word.

Before any teams can actually reach their peak potential, they must first be consistent in how they approach each other and do things. This means that if I were to tell you that we will meet at 3pm, let’s start the meeting at 3pm. If we ever start late and it happens quite a few times, you will start to doubt my words. A few more times, you will start to doubt the entire team in just doing one small thing. When you cannot even have faith in the small things, how can we ever talk about the bigger things?

Therefore, to build Trust in the team, we have to be always mindful of making small agreements and keeping to them. Be faithful in the little things, before we can do the bigger things. I strongly feel that we need to work on our characters and ALWAYS say what we mean and mean what we say! This creates consistency and people know that they can always trust us to be consistent with what we say or do (or don’t do as well).

This is very important especially when we have made promises, eg. rewarding the team when they achieve their targets, letting people go home early because we said they can when they have worked hard or even sending a quotation to a client on time, just because you said so!

So… in conclusion, can I trust you?

If you like this article, please subscribe to our blog by getting the Free Report on “7 Transformational Secrets to creating a Dynamic and Cohesive Team”. If you have comments, I would love to hear them. Please write your comments on the top right of this post.

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Often times we need to create a team to get a certain task accomplished. If you are still working alone thinking that things get done quicker by doing it yourself; you have not seen what it means to divide the work and double the effectiveness through a dedicated team. Your income and productivity is really tied to your ability to create and work in a high performance team. Ignore this law at your peril!

Creating an effective team can sometimes be a difficult task. This is due to the fact that people are very dynamic in character and getting that many differences to work together for a common goal is in itself challenging.

Below are three steps to creating a successful team that will be focused, committed and achieve the desired results.

1. Define the Expectations

If a team is created without expectations, the team will inevitably fail. Expectations need to be in place and clearly defined.

My Personal Tips:

- Give a solid background on why the team was created. The team members need to know their purpose.
- Let them know the importance of their role. Team members that understand that higher management will be waiting for the outcome is always motivation to get the job done well. Even in a top company like Genetech, janitors know that they have to do a good job so that the rest of the company can focus on developing life saving drugs that will make a difference!
- Support the team. Make resources available to the team if they request them. You cannot expect a team to produce the desired results if they do not have the right tools.
- Give the team perspective: the company needs to communicate to the team how their role in the team will help the company. Show them how the outcome will directly impact and affect the company and the initiatives they have laid out. Knowing how something will fit helps in building a puzzle. Essentially, this is what you are asking your team to do.

2. Commitment and Ability

These are both important factors when building a team. Select team members that are committed in accomplishing tasks. A personality trait that goes far with a team is the willingness to accept challenges with drive. Find a good variety of distinct attributes to create a successful team.

3. Central Control

There should be one person that is distinguished as the person who “coordinates” the group. It is important to note that this person does not contribute to the group thoughts and processes all the time. This person only intervenes to keep the group on track with goals set by the team.

Utilizing these three points will be a great start to accomplishing your team goals. Always be sure to set aside time to review these points with your team. The consequences of not allowing enough time is to backtrack, which takes even more time. So… ready to create your ‘A’ Team now?

If you like this article, please subscribe to our blog by getting the Free Report on “7 Transformational Secrets to creating a Dynamic and Cohesive Team”. If you have comments, I would love to hear them. Please post them below.

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In all teams, whether you have been together in your team for many years or even just a few weeks, I noticed that building teams and relationships are somewhat related to growing Orchids. Here are the principles that will work in any team setting.

1. Developing Trust is like Watering Orchids

Growing Orchids is about consistency. I have to water the plants everyday and should do it regularly since Orchids are basically poor water retainers. A consistent spray of water at the roots is essential in Singapore’s warm weather. In developing relationships, we need to be consistent in the frequency of interaction.

More meaningful interaction means that you learn about your colleagues behaviour and friends, therefore resulting in trust. They do not need to take a lot of your time, but short consistent moments are important.

2. There is a season for flowering

When I first bought the Orchids, it was really beautiful and full of flowers. However, after a short span of 6 weeks, the flowers naturally died and the plant was back to simple green colour. It was after about 8-10 months of consistent watering and adding fertilisers, we could finally see another bloom of flowers. It started it small shoots growing and little buds started to appear. After a short time, flowers started to emerge and my family could just witness and admire the labour of our hands.

In all relationships and teambuilding, it requires a lot of time and energy. I could be doing a lot of work to make the relationship work out and sometimes the other colleagues do not respond as fast as I wished. However, when we keep sowing and cultivating the relationships, people will naturally feel loved and will start to open up to you. This to me is the flowering process.

3. Admiring Orchids helps to relieve stress and enjoy the work of our labour

When we start to see the fruits of our labour, we should always take time to enjoy and reflect on our achievements. Many organisations keep rushing from one project/assignment to another without calling for a short celebration. This helps staff to relax, know that their boss appreciates their work, gain recognition for work and also provide a positive work cycle where teams are encouraged that they are making progress. Work is meaningless if we also do not enjoy the fruits of our labour.

Ready to Cultivate your Team? You can contact me to advise on Teambuilding Activities or Creating a Cohesive and Dynamic Work Culture.

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In all great organisations, people are able to speak their minds and also share the truth with compassion. The worst organisations are those where staff consistently agrees with their bosses. If truth is not readily accepted within the organisation, discontentment will usually be the result. And when discontentment grows to hatred, no amount of team building can save the organisation.

When some of these organisations engage me to help them in their team building programs, I will usually tell them that the problem lies beneath the surface and needs them to have a heart to heart talk with their staff. Some activities just simply do not change the matters of the heart.

How do you create a work climate where truth is heard and accepted? Allow me to share a few suggestions:

1. Ask Questions And Encourage Your Staff To Do The Same

Questions should not be seen as being disobedient, intrusive or disloyal but a way of asking ourselves whether present processes work or what we do better? Great leaders use informal sessions where they ask innocent questions like: “What’s on your mind?” “Do you think it works?” “Can you help me understand?” “If you were making the decision, what would you do?” Great leaders use this to gain understanding about their staff and are not threatened when they give feedback. Once you have asked questions, encourage them to ask you back the same questions.

2. Engage Their Questions

Leaders always engage their staff when they ask questions. It is also important to acknowledge all questions as good questions. They also constantly encourage their staff by acknowledging their boldness when asking questions.

If your staff point out that things are not working out, just agree with them in humility. There is no point justifying when the end results show for themselves. Doing so will only aggravate your staff. However, it is important to all agree that once they have shared their point of view, everyone puts the matter behind them and move on.

Another useful method is to engage in a debate. Engage people in debating to and fro; allowing all to express their views. I have often been humbled by the quality of suggestions and improvements when a rigorous debate has taken place. Sometimes debates do get heated up, but it is necessary to allow them to express themselves to a certain limit. At the end of the session, all great leaders have to ensure that they have reached a solid conclusion.

3. Evaluate without pointing fingers

It is so easily to pin-point who makes the mistake. A lot of time is wasted when we start identifying which particular person made the mistake. When Philip Morris acquired 7-UP in 1978, they sold it eight years later at a loss. In one of the interviews with CEO Joe Cullman, he took personal responsibility for the loss, rather than blame his executives. In fact, he dedicated 5 pages in his book, I’m a lucky guy, to analysing how bad his decision was. It analysed the mistake, its implications and lessons. Joe went on to say that if he only listened to people who opposed his plan at that time, the disaster might have been averted. He also made sure that the media knew that it was another Joe Cullman plan that didn’t work.

He said “I will take personal responsibility for the bad decision. But we will all take responsibility for extracting the maximum learning from the tuition that they have paid.”

Conclusion

When leaders start asking questions and encouraging their staff to do the same, it is inevitable that they will start asking good questions that will steer the organisation. If we support this openness and without pointing fingers when things go wrong, we will inevitably have a group of staff that will have no fear and consistently speak the truth.

I rather surround myself with people who sharpen me and speak the truth, would you agree?

If you like this article, please subscribe to our blog by getting the Free Report on “7 Transformational Secrets to creating a Dynamic and Cohesive Team”. If you have comments, I would love to hear them. Please post them below.

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How to Slash Staff Turnover And Create Transformational

Change In Your Team Performance

Do you struggle with office politics and a dispirited work environment? Are your colleagues constantly talking about problems in the work place or new challenges they are excited to overcome? Do they become guarded when they share or do they display open trust and support whenever they talk?

What’s the difference between a Great Team and a Mediocre one? In all the organisations that I have been to, they set specific objectives for the whole year. They expect their staff to achieve higher profits, better efficiency or reduce operational costs. While this is important, my question is: “How many of them actually take time to develop and coach their Team towards better dynamics and cohesiveness?

It is the people that make the team and not just because you want better results, you will definitely get it. This is important because when the team is under pressure to perform, it will be the strong relationships between colleagues that will prevail and NOT your expectations of their performance.

There are 7 Deadly secrets that I want to share with you right now to propel your team to greater heights. Follow them and people will follow you.

1.    Purpose and Mission Driven

What drives your people to work everyday? Are they there to work for a living or are they going to a work that is purposeful. In my experience, most people start of trying to find a sense of purpose and fulfilment in their work. However, over time, they lose this sense of WHY THEY HAVE TO DO THINGS and everything starts to become just work.

It is important as a leader to always remind each person on your team WHY they are doing things, WHY they are involved in a project that is not part of their work scope, WHY they have to put in more effort and etc. This is because without the WHY, there is no ownership in their work. It is important to constantly remind and realign staff, especially when the going gets tough and the staff are under tremendous pressure to achieve results.

Every year, Fortune magazine lists out the Top 100 Companies to work for. A particular company (within the top 10) lists how they were able to share their Corporate Vision with the rest of their employees. From the Head of Departments right down to the administrative staff, all know that they have a vital role to play in creating a better quality of life for their patients who suffer from life-threatening diseases. Even in the annual staff meetings, this company invites a few of their patients to give testimony to how their drugs were able to give them a new lease of life and extend their fragile life by many more years.

If you want to read the rest of this article, just fill up your name and email address in the FREE special report above!

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