Leadership Institute

Launching a Successful Team

Learning Format: Classroom

Order No. IMEX126

Organizational structures are more dynamic than ever, requiring leaders to form new teams and work groups to keep pace. Starting a new team, taskforce, or work group, or re-starting a floundering team is the focus of this course.

Leaders learn the process of setting up a team charter, including goals, ground rules, and other important elements of a successful team. The course provides practical, actionable tools to help members stay on track, avoid the problems that plague many teams, and achieve success.

Do You Face Any of These Issues?

  • Do leaders short-cut the upfront chartering process that sets solid foundation for team performance? Have team members or team responsibilities changed and you need to re-charter?
  • Are they charged with launching a new team that requires a clear purpose and focus on accountabilities and goals?
  • Do team members lack ground rules and operating guidelines, resulting in conflict and work inefficiencies?

Performance Objectives

Helps leaders:

  • Develop a team charter using guiding questions and team member involvement to create a formal charter that will quickly lead teams to top performance.
  • Focus team efforts on high-priority actions that directly support your organization’s goals and strategies.
  • Enhance the effectiveness of your team by leading team members through the creation of ground rules that guide meetings and establish how members work together.
  • Lead a new team to high performance quickly or help an existing team that is working below its potential reach high levels of performance.

Primary Competency Developed

  • Building a Successful Team

Secondary Competency Developed

  • Gaining Commitment

Course Overview

  • Pre-Launch Concepts: Learners watch a video of a team meeting and identify that the team in the video is unclear about its goals, confused about responsibilities, has conflict about priorities, and is falling behind schedule because team members are not completing their responsibilities when promised. Participants are introduced to the stages of team development. They learn each component of a team charter and discuss how having a team charter could have helped the team in the video. The group discusses how a team founded on a strong charter supports organizational business strategy. The facilitator leads a discussion about what groups will benefit from having a charter.
  • Chartering the Team’s Direction: Facilitator reviews personal and practical needs and discusses how the interaction process skills are important when leading a team though the development of a team charter. Learners watch a video leader use Key Principles and guiding questions to help the team write a purpose statement. Learners next draft a purpose statement and accountabilities for their workplace teams and work together in table teams to refine these statements. The goals charter component and the importance of visual displays of team results are explained.
  • Putting Ground Rules in Place: Learners understand how Interaction Guidelines can help them to set ground rules as team leaders. Table teams work together to help one team leader develop draft ground rules. Working with a partner, all learners complete a draft charter to later refine with their workplace teams.
  • Application: Team success factors are related to the components of a team charter. A robust tool kit containing worksheets, examples, and tools to use with their workplace teams is discussed.

Video Segment Summary

  • A team is facing many dysfunctions that are holding it back from meeting its goals. When the team first came together, the team members were not willing or able to find the time to develop a charter.
  • The leader of a team guides the team in developing a purpose statement.

Course Details

  • Target Audience: Leaders of intact or work-group teams.
  • Course Length: 3 hours, 30 minutes (does not include breaks or optional activities)
  • Facilitator Certification: DDI-certified facilitator required.
  • Prerequisites: Essentials of Leadership.
  • Series: Suitable for all environments.
  • Group Size: 8 to 16 people.
  • Prework: Yes. 15-20 minutes.

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