In the afternoon, 10 teams of people competed in an Adventure Race to outwit, outlast and outdo each other in a series of team building challenges.

Here’s a short video that on the fun they had:

If you have any needs in the areas of Adventure Races and Team Building, please contact us.

Hawthorne Workers (picture from ansanelli.com)

In 1924-1932, a series of experiments were conducted to examine how fatigue, monotony and supervision on an assembly line affected productivity. However at the end of the experiment, researchers were amazed to find out many other correlations that affected employee productivity and morale. Many of their insights and observations are still used by today’s management. What they have discovered decades ago will be to increase productivity of your team today.

The name of this experiment is called ….

The Hawthorne Experiment

This experiment was carried out at Hawthorne Works, a factory that produced electrical components and equipment. It was one of the state-of-the-art factory of its time where over 40,000 people worked there. Hawthorne Works also pioneered many quality control practices and principles.

In all the experiments, an observer sat and watched a particular control group. In some of the experiments, changes to the illumination of the room were made. In another, conditions of the work environment constantly changed. In fact, it was changed 23 times. Changes included introduction of 2 five minute breaks, more breaks being subsequently added, breaks were lengthened to 10 minutes, food was given during breaks and staff were being dismissed half an hour earlier and then 1 hour earlier. In most cases, output generally increased.

What was interesting was even when conditions were worse off at some time, production generally increased. The amazing thing was that when these privileges were taken away and workers resumed their normal working conditions, output was increased by 25%. What was more interesting was that the team had no supervisor and they assumed personal responsibility for their work and output.

Here are some of the findings of the Hawthorne Experiment:

1.    The simple fact that the participants were asked to be part of an important experiment, created better attitude within them. They considered themselves to be an important group because their views were constantly sought after by the company.

2.    There is an eager desire within each person for cooperative activity…. and can be utilised by intelligent and straight-forward management.

3.    Consultation between management and employees gave a sense of belonging to the company. This helps people to take ownership of what they do.

4.    When employees form a social atmosphere in the work environment (which also included the observer), they tend to be more motivated.

Implications to the work environment and how you can use the Hawthorne effect in your work place:

1.    Giving your staff specialised training or verbal appreciation will help them work harder and increase their motivation.

2.    Getting people to work in small teams helps to improve performance if the team is harmonious and dedicated.

3.    Giving a sense of freedom to staff without a need for micro-management will tend to yield ownership in their work. Frequent interaction between management and staff is also a crucial contributing factor.

4.    Creating an environment where there is a social factor is also important to staff motivation. There is a need to change some management’s thinking that fun or social relationships should not take place in work environments. It does add to your bottom line when you have employees who feel a sense of belonging to the company.

PS: I would love to hear your comments. Do let me know what you think! If you have other reasons, do share them in the comment link above this article.

Impolding Structure from www.washington.edu

You have always suspected that members of your team are not happy and yet when you ask what happened, you don’t get any good answers. You’re sure that there’s something wrong, but you just can’t confirm it. How can you tell if your team is at risk? 

1.    Some members of the group feel frustrated and sometimes avoid bringing out certain issues when it is important. 

2.    There’s unresolved conflict in the group. They might even avoid meetings to keep away from meeting the person they are unhappy with. 

3.    Team members start to complain about each other and say “Just between you and me, I believe that Jack is …..” 

4.    Members start to point fingers and lay blame at each other. 

5.    You start seeing small cliques within the group; each trying to support their friends in discussions. 

6.    Worst of all, anything you say, seems to be the best idea and you are constantly reminded that your ideas will make a huge difference in their lives. 

What can you do? 

1.    Remember that when people come together, conflict is inevitable. Rather than call it conflict, we should call them reasonable engagements. It is reasonable to engage your team members in a conversation. Conflict resolution skills should be developed to handle different opinions, rather than avoiding conflicts. 

2.    People do not need you to necessary agree with them on everything but they need you to hear them out. Once team members have spoken, they tend not to harbor resentment. 

3.    Be sure to remind your team that they are challenging ideas and not each other. 

4.    Check if team members share the same objectives, it is simply impossible to solve issues if they do not have that common ground. 

5.    Help members understand that the group’s interest takes precedence over self interest. 

6.    Educate team members about the different working styles and personalities of each member. Tools such as DISC personality profiling assessments have been used by over 50 million people, many of them in the Fortune 500 companies. 

To prevent a group from disintegrating, a leader must be sharp to detect the symptoms and then apply the necessary ways to address them. I have personally learn from my mistakes that whenever team problems arise, I must address them quickly. Failing so will lead to a lot more problems in the future.

Want to know ways to increase your team work and by helping your managers work on their team management abilities? Contact Kenneth now.

Related Articles: 

Here Are The Limitations Of Most Teambuilding Programs 

How Teamwork Helps You Achieve More With Less 

Getting People to Consistently Trust You In All You have to say 

10 Ways to Inspire Team Members to Consistently Give Their Best

“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” It’s called synergy and what it means in simpler words is that teamwork helps you achieve more with less.

More on Synergy:

Synergy is when different entities work together harmoniously to create the final result. In a business, synergy would be when two or more people form a team and produce a result that is better than if each individual was to work independently. If you are still working alone without a team, you will realise that the amount of impact you can make will be extremely limited.

Synergy is indeed miraculous and can be seen in every sphere of life. For example, when technical staff and organizational staff work together in a company, the result is something that can never be achieved on an individual basis. A football team working closely together must have their players in all positions to provide a strong offence and defense.

Teamwork and the thought process:

If you and I have a dollar each and we exchange, we still have a dollar each. But if you and I have an idea each and we exchange, we have two ideas each! This is how teamwork helps achieve more with less. Teamwork helps in synergizing each other’s thoughts and ideas to give enormous results. By exchanging thoughts with team members, each one of the members achieves mental and intellectual development.

Teamwork and inspiration:

If you are on a weight loss plan and you need to exercise, what will work better – individual efforts or teamwork? You may start off with a lot of zeal but soon lose steam due to lack of inspiration. While if you pair up with a weight loss buddy, most definitely the both of you will lose a lot more weight and maintain your weight over a longer period of time. That’s inspiration from teamwork!

Conclusion:

Teamwork is the ultimate advantage that helps you achieve more with lesser efforts. If you want a better work life, greater productivity, more profit, and better results at work, then form a team!

Want to know ways to increase your team work and by helping your managers work on their team management abilities? Contact Kenneth now.

Trust is one of the biggest issues that faces any team and everyone says that you need it but how many of them actually teach you how to establish trust step by step?

This article will teach you how you can consistently get people to trust your every word.

You can download this article.

Let’s start with a little analogy of teamwork. Have you observed how a flock of geese fly? They usually fly in V formation and those at the back will usually honk at the one in front. This is to encourage the lead geese who puts in most of the work to overcome wind resistance. Once the leader tires, he moves to the back and another geese moves in to take his place. This form of support helps the entire flock of geese to fly about 71% further than if each geese were to fly on its own. In addition, if a geese were sick or got injured, two of them will slow down to help or protect him.

Isn’t it a wonder how birds know the essentials of teamwork? We humans can do far better with the brain that we’ve got. Explained below are the 10 ways how leaders can inspire team members to consistently give their best for the entire team.

1. Develop trust

Trust is the principle by which the team functions. If the leaders and members have the trust of every person in a team, everyone will be motivated to give their best without inhibitions or fear of being exploited.

2. Involve everybody

When the leaders share information with team members and ask for opinions, a feeling of camaraderie is created and members feel motivated to perform better. Important note: People want their opinions to be heard and know that it considered and acted upon if reasonable.

3. Be a good leader

As a leader, you must be 100 percent clear and confident of what you are doing and what you are getting done from the team. Faith in the leader boosts motivation among the team members. I have been consulted many times by leaders on how to improve their teams and the first place I always look at is the leader. Great Leadership = Great Teams.

4. Give feedback

Everybody needs a feedback on his or her work. Everyone needs to know how they have performed and what they need to do better. Nothing can be more motivating than a constructive feedback. Be sure to start with the positives though.

5. Active Listening

Actively listen to the team members. Listen to their ideas, complaints, grudges, suggestions… anything they may want to share. Just listening to them will give them will help them know that you care and support them.

6. Perform periodic assessments

Periodically assess the progress of the team as a whole and each individual in particular. If any team member is complacent, he or she will wake up and start performing to the best of his or her abilities.

7. Allow team members to give feedback to you

Let the team members give feedback to the leader at regular intervals. This builds mutual respect, mutual trust and confidence. Give them an avenue to tell you what needs to be changed.

8. Hold a weekly interactive session

Let each member of the team have his or her chance to address the team from the front. As a leader, it is always good to show how well the team has performed. If you consistently concentrate on the positives, you will tend to see a more positive behavior in the group.

9. Hold one-on-one meetings

With one-on-one meetings the leaders get a chance to know about personal difficulties of each member. Those who need extra help or extra training should be given so most gladly. Think of the goodwill it will generate.

10. Celebrate success of the team

If you constantly celebrate the successes of your team, both great and small wins, you will find that people will constantly want to share their successes and win even more! Success always breeds more success, and you need to keep the momentum up and running.

Conclusion:
If you want to multiply your efforts and receive exponential results, you definitely need a great team. For every successful person, there is always a successful team behind him/her.

PS: If you have other ideas that you want to share, please leave it down. Click on the “Leave your comment” on the top right hand of this post.

Winning an argument is tempting for most people working in a team. Who does not wish to be right? Who does not want to have the last say and feel victorious? But if your focus is on the team’s progress and not on personal whims, sometimes it is better in the first place not to get into an argument. The best way to get your message across to people is to win them over instead of winning an argument with them.

What happens when you try to win arguments

When you get into an argument with people, they become defensive. Both of you try to assert your point of view without bothering to listen to the other person whether or not he/she is right. This makes both of you even more fixed on your opinions. Arguments never reach a satisfactory conclusion.

You can never achieve the right thing for your team by trying to win an argument and forcing them to accept your views. You may not always be right. And even if you are right, by arguing, you only harm your working relationships.

How arguments affect working relationships with each other

When you argue, you are trying to control the other person’s thoughts, feelings and actions. Nobody likes that. When you are out to prove that you are right, it only provokes the other person. Passive aggression, frustration, and lack of distrust will follow. Some people might not show it outwardly, but they will silently think of how to settle scores.

For the sake of your team, collective goals and healthy working relationships with each other, do not get into arguments. Instead, use the following tips to converse with people and arrive at the right conclusion.

How to win people over rather than winning arguments

1. Stay calm: Maintain your composure when you talk. If you lose it, the talk will turn into an argument.

2. Be Present and Listen: Never interrupt people when they talk. Not only is this irritating to them, but you may also lose out on some useful important point that they may have. Listen intently and acknowledge what they say before putting forth your point.

3. Be logical: Spell out your thoughts in a logical sequence to make them understand your point. Use pauses to allow them to comprehend. Ask “Does this make sense?” to help you check if the other party understands what you say.

4. Find a win-win situation: Try to accommodate some of the valid points that people raise. The challenge is usually to find the things that you both agree on and work on it.In one of my trainings, we practice the 101% principle, this means that sometimes you have to find the 1% we both agree on and give it our 100%.

Ensure that everyone can WIN from the disagreement and how to arrive at the best agreement.

For example, if a team member wants a pay raise and his manager is reluctant, an argument will naturally ensue. But what if the manager agrees on the condition that the team member learns a new skill or hits certain Key Performance Indicators (KPI)? Both will benefit.

Remember, winning a person over is more important than winning arguments. This is because relationships last for a long time while problems are only temporary.

To read the entire unedited article, click on How do I Create my ‘A’ team?

Other Related Articles:

Have You Heard Of A ‘Self Made’ Person?

Lessons of Teamwork from F1 pitstops

Why Most Teambuilding Programs in Singapore will not work!

Teambuilding Lessons From Growing Orchids

When it comes to working in teams, most people often hesitate in asking for help. In fact, some leaders often think of the many reasons why their staff do not want to take up certain projects or additional work.

In my work with people, my experience tells me that unless I can share the reason for doing things with other people and delegate work out, I can never truly be transformational in what I do. The role of a leader is to create a team and galvanize them towards an objective. However, in most cases, whenever we think of the people we need to spearhead certain initiatives or even join our team, we can sometimes give a lot of reasons why he/she is not willing to take it on. We say NO for them.

Statements like the following:

“I’m sure that she will be great for this role, however she has just completed a major project and I don’t think she will take up a new role right now.”

“It will be great to have him on our team, but there’s just no way he will come in. Our remunerations will never be close to what he’s getting.”

I understand that those above are real concerns, but if we do not ask, we will have totally closed the door for that person to work with us. In fact, there are many instances when I am surprised over and over again that people do want to give more of their time, money or effort to something they believe in.

Here’s a conversation I had with whom someone I wanted on my team:

“Glad to have been able to know what you are passionate about and the marvellous skills that you possess. Right now our aim is to develop and mentor new members. Personally, they are a great bunch. However, if I have you helping out in the mentoring process, I know they will surely soar in their work scope. There’s no promise of more incentives, but I can guarantee that this will be an extremely fulfilling work because you will be able to teach and impact lives.”

Guess what? This lady with superb counselling skills joined us and played a pivotal role in building the team.

Never say NO for other people. Give them a reason, share with them your vision and they might just surprise you with a big resounding “YES, I’m willing to be involved!”

I’m curious. Have you ever heard of people who call themselves “self-made”? For example, I’m a self-made millionaire….

Honestly, I don’t believe that statement is true at all. I mean, is there such thing as that you alone made yourself famous/rich/successful/___________ (fill in the blank)? For every person that ‘made it’ there are actually tons of people around this person supporting him/her.

Let me prove to you:

People who are successful in business, usually have a team of people who are working with or for them. They don’t do everything themselves.

If you are very rich, its because someone has probably mentored you before, or shared successful principles to your very soul.

Before you ever think you are ‘self made’, I hope you consider 3 these 3 groups of people who are rooting for your success…

1. People who are infront of you (your mentors or people who have imparted wisdom to you)

2. People beside you (your spouse, partners or colleagues)

3. People who are behind you (your staff)

There’s a saying:

If you want to go fast, go alone
If you want to go far, go together

Hope you remember that self-made people don’t exist, only successful people with strong teams do. Therefore, build great teams and you will be great too!

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.