Stop, Look & Listen

When I choose my team, experience and qualifications are important. More importantly however are team qualities and communication skills.

A team without team work; I often imagine as a football team who's members run at break-neck speed towards their opponent's goal, sometimes breaking through the opposition to score, due to their own strengths and individual skills; but many times failing and wasting opportunities.

Take those same members and inspire them to support and encourage each other, communicate with each other and pass the ball between each other. Take each player's individual strengths and skills; blend them and focus them, not on scoring goals, but on performing as a highly tuned team and the results will follow.

This year I think businesses and companies battened down their hatches, payed their bills and dealt with daily work. I can identify with that myself, even though this year has been our busiest year over the past four.

2010 will be a tougher year, with less money in our pockets, according to some. Others say the worst is over. Who knows?

What I do know is that for a company or team to develop and thrive 2010 will be a year when everyone needs to Stop, Look and Listen.

Team Work and Clear Communication are going to be two of the keys to a company, not only surviving, but also thriving. This applies to every organisation from an I.T. company of two hundred to a contractor with three part-time staff.

Stop your ceaseless hard work, phone calls, emails and meetings for a day.

Look outside your organisation, at the opportunities that are available and the chances that should be taken. To some extent look at what your industry leaders are doing, but better still look at what you can do to become your industry leader.

Look inside your organisation and ask yourself the following:
What do we want to achieve?
How are we going to achieve it?
What are we doing well?
What needs improving?
How can we improve it?
What are we doing badly?
What's no longer worth doing?
Are the best people in the best roles in the best teams?
How can we empower people within teams to perform at their best?
How can we empower teams to perform at their best?

Listen to your customers and team.
My best ideas come from my customers. My best plans are made with my team. Team Work and Communication are such vital and powerful building blocks that with a good team around me I feel anything is possible!

Team Building programmes come in many different forms, from a one-day course to a five-day course, designed around each specific team's objectives. They're geared for all abilities and set in an outdoor environment, involving projects designed to raise learning points, bring simmering conflicts and issues to the surface or empower a team to perform to their maximum.
Regular open discussions and debriefs happen in an informal way, with the team very much bringing up their own learning points and issues.

Some of the learning points usually raised are:
Encourage Opinions within Team
Planning & Preparation
Understanding Tasks
Time Management
Cooperation & Inclusion
Commitment by all Team Members
Dependability & Trust
Goals & Objectives
Enjoy Problem Solving
More Face To Face Interaction
Listening
Identify Team Strengths & Weaknesses
Understand Everyone's Role

For me, the enjoyment of running team building courses, comes from working with a group of people who's priority is working as a team. We focus on working as a team, we become a team, we produce results, our customers are happy.

It's hard to explain the satisfaction and enjoyment of working within a team for a greater objective...

Nathan Kingerlee

IMPACT Team Building

The IMPACT Team Building Process

I - Initial Consultation

The first step towards building an effective team. We at IMPACT firmly believe in collaboration. We will listen to your requirements, your views on the issues facing your team, and your vision for where you would like your team to be. We will openly discuss our approach, to ascertain how IMPACT Team Building can improve your team's performance and morale.

M - Meeting

Our experts will meet with you and, if appropriate, with your team. This will provide an independent assessment of the team's dynamics and issues. We will listen and collect as much information as possible, allowing us to offer you the most effective solutions. We will also discuss programme options, logistics and budgets.

P - Programme

Our team will design a tailored programme to suit your requirements. The depth and scope of the programme, as well as location, activities and projects, will all be adapted to the targeted needs of your group. All programmes will be underpinned by our commitment to the highest standards of practice, respect for all, and our combined experience and expertise. IMPACT Team Building programmes can take place in several stunning locations throughout Ireland.

A - Action

To do is to learn and to understand. The programme will be centred on experiential learning, aimed at allowing your team to realise why they may not be working to their full capacity, and to discover their own solutions. Our expert facilitators will create the environment for issues to be raised and addressed. Regular debriefing sessions will get to the core of the matter and consolidate discoveries.

C - Coaching

While discoveries, realisations and changes can be profound during a team building programme, there is no guarantee that solutions will be implemented effectively in the workplace. People tend to revert to their comfort zone, unless there are structures in place to carry out agreed actions. Follow-up coaching with management, and individual or group coaching for the team if required, will help to maintain progress.Coaching will provide support, guidance and outside expertise during transition, or if further issues should arise.

T - Team

Your team will be motivated, clear and focused on their goals, and more productive as a unit. Our team will be happy with another good job!