Management Team Building

Alignment. That is the key to successful teams. Like the pistons in a perfectly timed engine, the members of successful teams operating in alignment with each other are capable of generating tremendous power.

We are expert in bringing groups of executives and managers into alignment. We work with senior teams in all conditions from those newly formed that haven’t yet worked out the basics to long-established teams experiencing debilitating misunderstandings, crossed political agendas and dysfunction.

Our success is based in three key abilities:

  • To make ourselves credible, safe and objective with all members of a team, no matter how disparate their positions are from each other
  • An understanding of how to get people into agreement about the essential components of a functional team: certainty of purpose, unambiguous responsibilities and accountabilities, commonly shared values and clear processes
  • To get people to put on the table and honestly discuss with each other underlying points of disagreement and resolve them once and for all; and to bring people to true consensus around relevant points enabling them to move forward in meaningful ways

Building the team starts with the individual. We have private one-on-one meetings with each member of the team to hear and understand their aspirations and expectations, their take on the dynamics among the members and “elephants in the room.” We listen and connect.

In the team building sessions we mix empathy, encouragement, pragmatism and frankness and help participants to work together at that same high standard. Sessions will take anywhere from ½ to 2 full days.

The team walks away with its charter and operating agreements, which include what they will do if a team member is not upholding those agreements, with new standards of candor and, above all, with alignment.