telecom_company_creates_strong_cross_team_building
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8/7/2019 Telecom_Company_Creates_Strong_Cross_team_building
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Telecom Company Creates StrongCross-Functional Links
The Need
This company had a relatively new group of managers on their leadership
team – many of whom were recently promoted into their positions.
Although the group was having some great successes and had survived and
thrived through a major change effort, a “silo mentality” existed between
market channels and departments. The leader of this team knew that he
needed to do something to eliminate the myopic “my department only”
thinking and build a true team of leaders to enable the organization to
succeed in their highly competitive market. He wanted to create an
opportunity for his team members to gain a better understanding of each
person’s role on the team and to identify what linkages between
departments needed improving. He also wanted to strengthen the personal
relationships on the team.
The Adventure Associates Process
After interviews with both the leader of the team and several other team
members, AAI partnered with the planning group to design a two-and-a-
half day program with evening sessions. Participants were assigned some
pre-work prior to the session to enable the group to hit the ground running
when they arrived.
The program began with an Myers Briggs Type Indicator session to help
participants learn more about their own work styles as well as the work
styles of each team member. Team members appreciated learning more
about what made their colleagues tick and strategies to better speak the
language of team members with different preferences. True to the
Adventure Associates’ Way, outdoor team challenges were integrated
throughout the session to give the group opportunities to practice effective
teaming, taking into consideration people’s different personalitypreferences.
Each team member came prepared with handouts detailing his or her key
priorities, challenges and support needs from other teams. Presentations
were scattered throughout the multi-day session and helped to create a
sense of greater interdependence.
The first evening program gave participants an opportunity to share a little
bit about their personal life. Each person brought 5 – 10 items that were
symbolic of what was truly important to that individual. Many peoplereported that in a two-hour period, they had learned more about one
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another than they had in years of working together. The second evening
program gave everyone an opportunity to appreciate each person’s
contribution to the team.
The other major component to the program was a "start / stop" activity to
prioritize key strategic improvement efforts for the team. Each participant
brought three things that the leadership should start doing and three things
that it should stop doing that would contribute to improving the
organization’s effectiveness, productivity and morale. The group shared and
prioritized their ideas and then broke into sub-teams to create action plans
for implementation back in the work place.
The Results
The team immediately implemented several ideas including sending out
weekly information blasts over voicemail that highlight company newsupdates and wins. Each person on the team is taking ownership for the
different improvement strategies and the work is moving forward.
Team members reported that there were a lot more conversations going on
between departments after the meeting. People are making a greater effort
to keep each other in the loop and they are asking for help from one
another. The silo mentality is breaking down. The focus is switching from
competition to collaboration. As one team member reported, we came to
the session as a group of individuals and we walked out of it as a team.
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