BE – DO – HAVE

I don't know if anybody has ever read the "Rich Dad Poor Dad" series of books (which are very good by the way) but in one of them the author states that in order to be successful at any given endeavor you must first understand the BE-DO-HAVE theory.

The theory states that in order to benefit from any given activity you must not only do - you must BE. For example, just because you jump off a diving board does not make you a diver. A diver must also be able to train using weights, understand the science behind the sport, eat properly, etc.

The person must have the mindset of being a diver and constantly live with the notion that he as a person and he as a diver are one in the same. You have to be before you can do, and you have to do before you can have. If you don't, nothing you ever get will be enough. And if you do, whatever you have will be plenty. With this in mind, find some time today to fit a little "being" time into your "to-do" list. It may just turn out to be the best time investment you could ever make.

Coaching for Team Performance

Teams are the force that drives most organizations. Whether it's a functional team, a team of managers, or a project team, people get most done when they work together effectively. So when members of a team don't work well together, performance and productivity can suffer. That's not good for anyone.

Have you seen hostility, conflicting goals, and unclear expectations within your teams? These are symptoms of an unhealthy team. To avoid these harmful effects, you need be proactive about improving team performance. And even when a team is meeting its objectives, there's often room for improvement. So how can you help your team improve? With good team building (you can take your team to the next level. It's a valuable activity, and it's an essential management and leadership tool.

Team building helps people understand how to work better with others. It's an effective method for showing teams how to reduce conflict and improve their working relationships. The team can then focus on its real work, and achieve its objectives.

Understand Team Dynamics

A great place to start team coaching is by understanding the dynamics of the team. This is the process of figuring out how team members relate to one another. We all have different styles of working and communicating, and when we encounter a person with a style that's different from our own, we can often get frustrated with that person, and fail to recognize his or her unique strengths.

Some people can be "pushier" than others. A pushy person may think everything is going great – however, her teammates might have a different perspective. If one person walks away from conflict, and another speaks his mind and doesn't back down from an argument, this can lead to poor decision-making and unproductive work.

Personality and behavior assessments are great tools for improving a team's understanding of its own dynamics, and they give team members a better understanding of why they react to their colleagues in certain ways. This new understanding helps them think about how they can relate to one another more effectively, at the same time that it breeds tolerance by helping people understand that different approaches may be valid in different situations.

With a greater level of understanding, team members begin to see one another differently. This allows them to adjust their own behavior for better results, and they're able to interpret others' behavior with more insight and empathy.

Creative Problem Solving in Team Environment

One of a company’s most valuable sources of improvement ideas is its employees. Forming a team is an effective way to harness the creative potential of employees for problem solving. Some advantages of teamwork are:

Innovative thinking

The team provides the common ground needed for a supportive atmosphere.

Diverse perspectives

Suspending the corporate hierarchy in a team gives members a low pressure forum for communication. New viewpoints can supplement or challenge traditional assumptions.

Keys to future solutions

By using teams for problem solving, companies are better prepared to solve future problems. Team members learn how to implement future changes and how to work with other departments.

Task oriented

Teams simplify managing the problem solving process. Once the goal of the team is known, employees prioritize and work on different aspects of a problem, instead of facing the whole project alone.

Team Composition

Five to seven members make teams manageable and effective. A team should try to represent every level of personnel from all areas affected by its activity. As the team works on various problems the members should actively consult additional personnel. Keep the central group intact, but invite others to participate when needed.

Team Evolution

Before reaching its potential, a team grows through certain stages. After forming, a team’s initial energy can dissolve into a time of stress and tension. Members must adjust to working together and take advantage of the team’s collective strengths. As the team adjusts it will start to perform. Some teams take months to get on track, while others develop within a meeting.

Celebrate and reward success. Real success is worth celebrating and recognizing success allows team members to enjoy their accomplishments.

Different Thinking Hats in Achieving Team Performance

Heard of the Six Thinking Hats ™ ? Developed by Edward de Bono, the 'Six Thinking Hats' technique, encourages full-spectrum thinking and separates ego from performance. Each metaphorical hat is a different colour and represents a different kind of thinking - data, intuition, logic, judgement, etc. Using the hats, members of the team can introduce different ways of thinking to the group as they are required.

This requires creativity and when working with a team, we find that there are so many ideas being thrown about that it’s easy to loose focus or tempers and maybe even both. Roger von Oech is an author, inventor and creator of the 'Creative Whack Pack', - this is a creativity tool comprising of a pack of cards, each featuring a different strategy for finding, developing or implementing your idea. People have used the pack in problem-solving and creativity workshops with some amazing results.

If you want to change the way your team uses its creative abilities, the first thing I would suggest is that you take them out of the office – hence team building. And this doesn’t have to mean toughing it out in the jungles. Find somewhere you are unconstrained by tables, walls or equipment. Talk to your team and see what works for them – what a great way to begin positive communication and start of creative ideas from many “hats.”

What Makes a Successful Team

Do you have successful team right now? Team building isn’t very different from running a company (pun not intended). And just like with most companies, the organizational structure of a team is important. Who does what, how one job relates to another, the lines of reporting and communication – all affect effectiveness. This is something to continually re-assess.


Here are some things you might like to consider if you’re on the verge of setting up a winning team:

• Make sure that the structure you develop fits the tasks to be done
• Implement any changes on a considered basis
• Explain changes positively (they may be seen with suspicion).
• Keep the organization under review to ensure you retain a good fit between it and what
it must do (external as well as internal changes or pressures can affect this).
• Fine-tune as necessary with an eye on tasks, individuals and the team as a whole.

Do not change for change’s sake, but do not expect things to remain as they are forever without needing change.

Characteristics of An Effective Team Event

We’ve done enough teambuilding events to know what works and what doesn’t. Having said that, teambuilding events must always evolve and the question that must be asked is, “What makes an effective team event?”
You may host four team building events a year or it may only be one but what you want to ensure is that each and every event is effective and that the session is seen to be worth while.

So how do you do this? How can you be sure that the activity you choose is going to be the right one for your group and that it is actually going to be well received by your team? It all boils down to research, find out what your team needs, what they enjoy doing and what team building events are on offer and then make an informed decision.

It is true to say that you can't please all the people all of the time, there are going to be those in your group that always find something that they would like to highlight as not being quite right but it's also true to say that a good event will include, motivate and build all of your team and by choosing the right event for both your business needs and for rewarding your team, you should be able to make it extremely difficult for anyone to find fault.

So what should the driving forces be behind choosing your team building events? Deciding what your objectives are is an excellent place to start, for example is the focus on communication, working with people that you wouldn't normally work with or is it change management? Once you have a clear idea of what it actually is that you want to illustrate, then you are well on your way to finding the right event for your team.

While it is important to think about everyone within your team, it's equally important to not get hung up on individuals likes and dislikes. Keep the bigger picture in mind, not the personalities and remember that a good events company will be able to include and motivate everyone.

Yandaro Al Amien