Equipped with a wide variety of tools and techniques for leading groups, our facilitators will create an environment that invites participants to get focused, take risks, stay on target and generate innovative and executable solutions to whatever goals you have on your agenda.   Following your facilitated session, we will generate a report that gives feedback on the successes of the meeting, as well as any obstacles that still need to be overcome…

Facilitated Sessions get "All Hands In..."

Facilitated Sessions

Management and teams with goals to achieve have often complained that their meetings are ‘ineffective,’ a ‘waste of time,’ and even ‘counter-productive.’ Poorly run meetings and strategic planning sessions are not only commonplace, but in many organizations, they are the norm. The commonality of the ‘bad meeting’ not only undermines the processes and goals of teams and departments, but threatens the long-term success of the organization.

Our Professional Facilitators have a deep understanding of group dynamics and team development, and this depth of knowledge makes us uniquely qualified to lead your organization’s important planning sessions and meetings.

Equipped with a wide variety of tools and techniques for leading groups, our facilitators will create an environment that invites participants to get focused, take risks, stay on target and generate innovative and executable solutions to whatever goals you have on your agenda.   Following your facilitated session, we will generate a report that gives feedback on the successes of the meeting, as well as any obstacles that still need to be overcome…

Focus Groups

One of the common and useful outcomes of an effective strategic planning session is the plentiful and innovative ideas and questions that are generated.  Those ideas and questions that require further scrutiny make an excellent source of interest for a Focus Group.  Be it a small team of managers and staff dedicated to the task of improving organizational morale, or a group of project managers in charge of creating an innovative product, the benefit of a focus group is that the right people are working on a finite task, with a finite amount of time and a complete focus.

Focus groups give an opportunity for teams to mull over a question or a problem, and generate creative and useful ideas and strategies. In a focus group, a skilled facilitator uses techniques that will quickly achieve buy-in from the members of the group, then presents ‘the questions,’ and offers the techniques and the environment in which the group can generate creative answers.

360 Degree Feedback

Effective communication between the members of a group is one of the greatest challenges to a successful team or organization.  The most effective communicators are those who actively listen to the people in their circle of influence.  One tool that aids the active listener is the use of 360-degree feedback – a simple questionnaire that can be delivered online or on paper and is designed to anonymously gain feedback from friends, family or direct reports regarding their interactions with ‘the subject.

More often then not, participants in a 360-degree feedback program are made aware of discrepancies between their vision of themselves and the person they portray to others.  Armed with the knowledge that their interactions can be affected by simple suggestions gleaned from the 360-degree feedback report, many participants immediately notice a positive improvement.

Zoom! Team Coaching

Whether your team is newly formed, or you have been working together for years, there is always room for improved teamwork.  During a team coaching session, our facilitators will coach your team in techniques for improving your interpersonal communication, bringing out the inherent leadership, achieving buy-in from team members, and generating an environment that encourages innovative and well-supported answers to the challenges that the team must face in the future.  Somewhere along the way, constructive conflict will arise, and the team will utilize their new skills to recognize and act upon the unique opportunities that conflict produces.  Team Coaching introduces tools for improving performance.

Zoom! Training for Professional Team Building Facilitators

Team Development is an ongoing process and the most benefit comes from frequently returning to ‘the learning environment’ that is created during your team building session.  Hiring a professional team building provider is one way to continuously recreate the learning environment.  Another excellent way is to learn how to facilitate the team development yourself.  We encourage organizations that want to continue to develop their teamwork to take part in a ‘Train the Trainer” program.  During our Facilitator Training Program your team will deconstruct the team development process, learning tips and techniques that focus on:

• Trust (laying a foundation for openness and understanding that will allow participants to take risks)
• Conflict (gaining comfort with engaging in unfiltered discussion around important topics)
• Commitment (achieving buy-in for decisions made by the team)
• Accountability (willingness to confront one another about performance and behavioral concerns)
• Results (valuing collective outcomes more than individual recognition).

NEXTeams Team Development

The culmination of a typical recreational team building program is the foundation of trust. As we build trust, we are able to improve our communication, rely on other members of our team, and ultimately take risks that we might otherwise avoid. The NEXTeams Process seeks to accelerate the foundation of trust, and thus create an environment in which teams can optimize their performance, and achieve their outcomes.

The NEXTeams Process

• Step One — challenge participants to get to the root of their ‘organizational identity’ and learn new ways to enhance that self-conception. The goal is to get everyone on the same page about purpose – the Real Mission of the organization.

• Step Two — invite participants to explore their role within the organization – not only their job title and responsibilities, but the potential benefits that they can offer to the organization as a whole – the Personal Identities within the organization.

• Step Three — give participants a task to accomplish – exemplified through traditional ‘team building challenges.’ The goal is to show through tangible experience the interdependence of the group – the TEAM within the organization.

• Step Four — focus on transferring the lessons learned in the initial program, back to the ‘real world’ of their day-to-day organizational function. Simple steps the leadership can take to encourage cross-communication, innovation, an environment of openness in the team – the TEAM Environment within the organization.

• Step Five — Following the initial four-step process, NEXTeams will be available for follow-up consultations and recurring “FLUX Re-Energizers.” – a chance to get together in the learning environment and check-in about things that are working and things that need more attention.

Team Service Project

During a traditional team building program, your team reaps the rewards of your hard teamwork, learning to work together more effectively and benefiting from new-found trust and commitment.  One of the best ways to make this teamwork benefit others is through the implementation of a team service project.

Team Service Projects combine traditional team building activities (getting to know you, problem solving and trust activities) with a community service construction or maintenance project.

Your team will spend the first part of the program with team challenge activities that will help get them ready to work together.  The second part of the event will give your team a chance to put their new teamwork skills to work with participation in a small construction or maintenance project.

Sample Team Service Projects:

Bridge Building – construct a two-log, hand-railed creek crossing in a local park

Shed Construction – build a tool shed at a local farm

Trail Blazing – create a new trail that joins two areas together

and more…

Trapeze Leap

Participants in a ROPES Challenge Course spend the bulk of their time focusing on building a high performance team, and then top-off the experience with an additional ‘high element.’ The high element is an individual challenge (you are the only person who is relying on your decision to either participate-or not participate.), which is supported with the help of the other members of your team. An example of a typical high ropes challenge course element is:

The Trapeze Leap – or ‘Leap of Faith’

After being strapped into a full-body harness and a helmet, you are attached to a safety rope suspended from a cable 30 feet over your head. When your facilitator signals the “OK” you begin to climb up the ’staple climb’ that circles the tree, and step up onto a platform high above the ground. Now is the moment of truth – you must decide whether you will come back down with a ‘leap of faith’ or whether you will climb back down the staples you just went up.

The Minefield

Not every team building effort is the same – we try to tailor a team development program that suits the expected outcomes of each individual group, and some groups just want to have FUN!

For groups looking for the fun and challenge of experience-based team activities, minus the depth and goal-oriented focus of a traditional team development program, we have created the Team Building DIY (Do It Yourself Team Building).