The Pleasure And Pain of Motivating Employees
The Pleasure And Pain of Motivating Employees A short while ago, I wrote an article called “The 12 Best Ways to Motivate Your Team” in which I listed a dozen ways you can create a highly motivational environment at work. Although I stand by my argument that “As managers, we can’t really ‘motivate’ anyone […]
10 Tips for Creating a Whopping-Good Teambuilding Scavenger Hunt
10 Tips for Creating a Whopping-Good Teambuilding Scavenger Hunt Scavenger hunts have been around since the dawn of human civilization. One might argue that Homer’s Odyssey was just a big treasure hunt, as was Jason’s search for the Golden Fleece and the Arthurian Knight’s quest for the Holy Grail. (Not to […]
10 Tips for Promoting Team Mindfulness
10 Tips for Promoting Team Mindfulness It’s no secret that we’re all experiencing unprecedented levels of stress, both in our personal lives and especially in the workplace. One solution for mitigating all this agitation is to take your team out of the office (playing a teambuilding scavenger hunt, perhaps) – blowing off steam, unplugging, […]
The 12 Best Ways to Motivate Your Team
Okay, you got me! As managers, we can’t really “motivate” anyone to do anything – at least, not in the long term. Oh sure, we can briefly dangle a carrot (or wield a stick), but take away the external factors and poof –there goes the motivation. Rather than focusing on penalties and incentives, it’s far […]
10 Things You Didn’t Know About Scavenger Hunts
1) Teambuilding “scavenger hunts” and “treasure hunts” are two different animals. A scavenger hunt involves the execution of a simple list. For example, in a scavenger hunt, you receive a list of objects to find, or pictures to take — all very straightforward. By contrast, a treasure hunt involves the solving of tricky clues that […]
Is Teambuilding a Waste of Money?
Recently I came across this very interesting and challenging article in the Harvard Business Review, titled: Stop Wasting Money on Team Building by Carlos Valdes-Dapena In a nutshell, the author argues that most corporate teambuiilding is a waste of time. He refers to bowling, ropes courses, and the like, and references one company which took […]
Teamwork vs. Teaming
Did you know there is a difference between “teamwork” and “teaming”? I didn’t either until I watched a great TED talk by Amy Edmondson, which you can watch here. It’s called “How to Turn A Group of Strangers into a team”. Edmondson suggests that teamwork is what sports teams do. Teamwork is: –stable –a […]
“Incredible” Teamwork
“Incredible” Teambuilding The summer movie season is upon us, and the first big blockbuster has landed: The Incredibles 2. Although I enjoyed the new film in a lot of ways, I2 has nothing on its predecessor, The Incredibles (2004). The sequel was a perfectly swell action film, albeit a little light on character development. […]
The Four Traits of Warrior Teamwork
The Four Traits of Warrior Teamwork If you had to pick four traits for your work team to embody, what would they be? Collaboration, perhaps? Cooperation? Communication? Surprisingly, when Steve Kerr addressed his group of 14 men before a morning meeting, he omitted many of the traditional team characteristics, instead asking his group to focus on 4 unconventional behaviors: […]
Teamwork and the Golden State Warriors
Love this article about teamwork and the Golden State Warriors. My own thoughts: It’s so easy for people to lose their engagement when a member of a team. It’s up to the leader/coach to get everyone involved, and to build the sense of “ownership”. A leader’s job is *not* to do everything for the team, […]