Developing Great Teams

Highly effective team have a relentless commitment to quarterly planning meetings.

Getting your executive or leadership team together on a quarterly basis is the key to meeting your annual plan. We custom design our off-sites to powerfully bring teams closer together, get them on the same page, committed to the same things, sharing the same vision, passion and values. And we nail the strategic plan, visit it quarterly, and hold you accountable to the key annual initiatives and quarterly priorities you need to complete to achieve your plans.

Our most successful programs include:

a) Quarterly Strategic Planning

We use the quarterly facilitated meetings to constantly strengthen the trust on the team, and clearly articulate your annual and quarterly priorities.

We use a One Page Strategic Planning approach to ensure both the goals are crystal clear, as well as who is responsible for making the goal happen.

Click here Click here for my Top 10 on how to run effective quarterly off-sites.

b) The Five dysfunctions of a Team

Using the outstanding approach presented in Patrick Lencioni’s book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team is one of the best methods we have found to get a team clear on what is and is not working among team members.

The Five Dysfunctions are:

Absence of Trust – Does your team trust each other? Really, deeply trust?
Fear of Conflict – Is your team able to openly and vigorously debate ideas, or is there a culture of holding your tongue and artificial harmony?
Lack of Commitment – At the end of meetings, do you leave with crystal clear commitments and next steps with everyone on the same page, or are you left with a feeling of ambiguity?
Avoidance of Accountability – Can your team members successfully hold each other accountable, or do they rely on the “boss” to do it?
Inattention to Results – Does everyone have their eye on the same prize? Or are individual people, or teams, focused on their own results?

Click here to Receive an article series on the Five Dysfunctions of a team.

Randy MacEwen, President and CEO Ballard Power

“With Katie’s support, we have been able to clarify and achieve executive team alignment around our vision, culture, strategy and China plan. We have been able to advance the company to record performance, including closing major strategic initiatives that required executive buy-in. We have also been able to excite the entire Ballard organization with a clear vision, strategy and unified executive team.

For me personally, the journey with Katie has been powerful. Katie has helped me to question everything – my assumptions, my purpose, my relationships and my business. She has helped me to get very clear on the key underlying issues that I am trying to progress or resolve. She has helped me to understand what is getting in the way of success and being accountable to make the necessary changes.”

“Katie was able to help us quickly build trust. What was ironic, was despite the fact that most of these people had worked together for anywhere from 5 to 15 years at the Clients office, they never had the level of trust or open dialogue that we were able to create in a matter of months through our team workshops.”

– Adrian Vermerris PMP, Client Service Manager, Longview Systems

c) 360 Feeback

We are certified in the Booth 360 tool, great for identifying leadership qualities and what to focus your attention on.

d) DISC

We are also certified in DISC, an outstanding framework to help understand human behavior. This is a powerful trust building tool when used with teams to help them understand each other better.

Raise the bar for your team through our team coaching workshops.

Help your team members understand their impact, and make the changes necessary to take your team from good to great.

Katie Bennett has worked with Long View Systems Vancouver Branch for the past 7 years, and this helps sum up the impact of her working with leaders and teams:

Phil Edgell, Former Executive Vice President LONG VIEW SYSTEMS

“Katie Bennett has been working with our management team since August 2010, through both one-on-one coaching with our leaders, as well as facilitating team workshops. With Katie as part of our team we increased the level of trust between team members translating directly into a more open and direct work environment, increasing both accountability and effectiveness and showing tangible measurable results. There is a greater sense of team stability, which is translating into fewer crisis; the leaders are better equipped to manage through problems to resolution. Because we have now worked together for an extended period of time, she knows us, our people, our challenges and our business, so she has the insight to propose solutions and for individual and improvement team. The link between coaching of our management team and our growth of both top line and bottom line is direct and measurable.”