Search Video Library for: Teamwork
TrainingBytes® I'm The Only One...™
Great teamwork starts with people feeling they are important… and that their experience, skills and ideas matter! However, when someone is an “Only One" it can be harder for them to feel like they are part of the group... feel like they are included! Are you an ‘only one’ on your team?
Seek Transformation - A Quick Conversation
For weeks after birth, a caterpillar eats continuously; growing nearly 100 times its initial size before it spins itself into a chrysalis. Within the chrysalis, the caterpillar’s robust body completely breaks down into a DNA soup, where it takes several more weeks to reform into a beautiful, adult butterfly. Like the foraging caterpillar, a team spends time nourishing their group culture in order to prosper. However, in order to evolve even further, there comes a time when even the strongest teams need to break down and transform their fundamental team roles, structure, processes, goals, and vision in order to grow.
Accurate Communication - A Quick Conversation
In New York, taxi means a “black and yellow,” in India a “rickshaw,” in Thailand a “tuk tuk,” and in Haiti a “tap tap.” Travelers in foreign countries can be very surprised by another culture’s definition of taxi. Therefore, even with the most common of words, understanding the context in which that word is used is critical to understanding the significance behind what is being said, whether communicating across the world or across the hall.
Acknowledge Vulnerabilities - A Quick Conversation
Hermit Crabs live in empty seashells. As they grow they have to find larger shells to move into. In the search for a new shell, the crab is particularly vulnerable to predators. When organizations undergo growth and change, such as becoming more diverse, it often challenges employees to grow in new ways. Just as the crab feels vulnerable when it changes shells, employees in this time of transition may feel particularly susceptible.
Adapt to Encourage Growth - A Quick Conversation
Whales possess the ability to adapt what they hear and then make it their own. Adaptive communication is a skill that is also critical to organizational growth. Keeping something the same just “because this is the way we have always done it” hinders an organization from innovating and progressing.
Adversity Creates Inspiration - A Quick Conversation
When diverse teams come together, there can be conflict if there is a lack of understanding and trust among team members. When there is a lack of trust, the team is fighting its differences instead of embracing them. When teams embrace the challenges that come with differences, the differences can be leveraged for inspiration and growth.
Build a Foundation for Growth - A Quick Conversation
Navel oranges are neither native to Florida nor a natural tree. Navels are a graft of two citrus trees, the root stock and the bud wood. Both these parts contribute different, but essential resources that are necessary in order to produce sweet oranges. Oftentimes, behind the scenes tasks are overlooked as being nonessential; however, they are a vital component to the health and productivity of the team.
Build an Army of Many - A Quick Conversation
When teams are working together, there are many roles that are vital to the success of the team, and yet, they are not visible to most people. When building effective, inclusive teams, create the opportunities to utilize the contributions of all team members in accomplishing team goals. Take time to stop and acknowledge the work done behind the scenes to accomplish team goals.
Build On The Collective Effort - A Quick Conversation
The survival of a hive of honeybees is dependent upon the collaborative and collective efforts of every bee. The work of the hive is divided into specific tasks, each with designated worker bees. Only when every bee is doing its work can the hive stockpile the honey needed to survive the cold winter. A company is like a beehive that depends upon the collective effort of all of its employees. It is critical that each employee understands their role and how it contributes to the success and of the company.
Challenge What Needs To Be Changed - A Quick Conversation
There are times when faced with the choice of following the rules or fighting for a principal such as equality, that a fight against the rules is the right action to take. When working in a diverse environment, pay attention for opportunities to fight for the principal of inclusion instead of following the unspoken rule of “that is the way it has always been done.”
Craft Your Message With Purpose - A Quick Conversation
An enduring whimsical tradition that many people are familiar with is the act of placing a written message in a bottle and tossing it into the sea. The composer of the message has no idea who is going to receive the message or when they might get it -or if anyone will at all. Not knowing the end recipient of the message limits the ability to communicate with intention. Communication across differences is often done in a similar fashion.
Create Structure to Help Bridge Barriers - A Quick Conversation
Foosball is a tabletop soccer game featuring players that are fixed in position, meaning that each player can only cover a predetermined area. Flexibility, adapting, or helping out are all out of the question. This lack of flexibility is similar in some ways to teams that are spread out over multiple locations or across borders, as their interactions are also limited in a predetermined way. The lack of face-to-face interaction can reduce the team’s ability to adjust and adapt as quickly as a team that is located all at one site.
Create Your Own Opportunities - A Quick Conversation
When working on diverse teams, sometimes you have to create your own opportunities by putting forth new ideas, proposing collaborations, and building networks that will help accomplish your goals.
Cultural Quick Tips - A Quick Conversation
Work forces around the world are diversifying daily. Understanding the implications of a diversified workplace or marketplace is critical for any organization. A company that lacks the ability to attract and retain diverse employees risks dulling its competitive edge. Being proactive about assessing and understanding demographic trends allows an employer to prepare for change rather than react to a trend after the fact.
Differences Create Insights - A Quick Conversation
When working on teams, having a different point of view can provide powerful insight, if people feel respected enough to share that idea. If the team lacks respect for individuals then great ideas won’t be shared. Being respectful of others’ points of view is the first step to developing powerful teams.
Encourage Greatness - A Quick Conversation
Ziauddin Yousafzai is a Pakistani educator who broke tradition when his daughter was born, by adding his daughter’s name to the family tree – the first girl in 300 years. The impact of Ziauddin’s choice to break tradition and educate girls had a global impact many years later when his daughter became the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Like the rearing of a world famous daughter, creating powerful teams with high impact does not happen in a single day.
Explore Unchartered Territories - A Quick Conversation
America’s best-known Colorado River explorer was John Powell, who lost his right arm in the Civil War at the Battle of Shiloh. In 1869, he started with 10 men to explore the length of the Colorado River. Three months later, six would complete their journey after some harrowing experiences. Powell returned in 1871, to map the river and to conduct geological studies. Powell inspired courage and belief in the men that he led and he never put any limitations on his abilities. While not battling white water rapids, working on diverse teams with divergent points of view, creates opportunities for a different kind of courage.
Find the Missing Ingredient - A Quick Conversation
On the surface, a desert appears sparse and desolate. The harsh conditions do not seem conducive to growth. Yet, on the rare occasions that rain soaks the desert, it becomes a plethora of color and life - often overnight. Sometimes team projects seem like a desert, as if all of the efforts are providing little visible signs of growth. And yet, when the right ingredient arrives, the program flourishes and ‘flowers’ on cue.
Focus on Communication - A Quick Conversation
A referee’s job requires them to be an impartial expert on the game, clear headed, and capable of fairly applying the rules. During games, it would be impossible for coaches, players, and fans to make unbiased calls without a referee. Similarly, in high-pressure work environments, differences between colleagues may lead to disputes that make it impossible for them to see past their biases, resulting in a conflict or stalemate.
Gauge Opportunities - A Quick Conversation
Like the surfer selecting the right wave, people encounter endless opportunities for growth and must decide whether the opportunity is worth the inherent risks involved. Some opportunities may involve moving to a new country, working with colleagues with different backgrounds, or taking on a new role.
Identifying Opportunities - A Quick Conversation
On teams, it is important to be willing to invest time into the lives of other team members. We do this by learning about what they need and what obstacles they face and by then offering our assistance. This investment pays off in greater team cohesion, inclusion, and trust, as well as the removal of obstacles that stand in the way. Invest in your relationships with other team members by getting to know them on a personal level.
Invest Your Time for Others - A Quick Conversation
On teams, it is important to be willing to invest time into the lives of other team members. We do this by learning about what they need and what obstacles they face and by then offering our assistance. This investment pays off in greater team cohesion, inclusion, and trust, as well as the removal of obstacles that stand in the way.
Link Different Points of View - A Quick Conversation
The U.S. railroad was started in 1862 during the Civil War. President Lincoln and Congress understood both the symbolism of connecting the country and also the need to think long term, even while the country fought within itself. The railroad removed geographic barriers, spread ideas, and introduced a new way of life – a fresh start that was badly needed. Building a railroad symbolically within a team can mean bridging together two divergent points of view, bringing new insight into a situation.
Move From Conflict to Growth - A Quick Conversation
Unlike other pine trees that shed their pine cones and seeds annually, the pine cones of the jack pine will hold on to their seeds indefinitely until exposed to intense heat. In the charred wake of a forest fire, jack pine seedlings take root and begin the forest’s rebirth. Like a fire, a conflict between colleagues with different work styles and backgrounds can cause short pain and intense emotions.
Overcome Obstacles - A Quick Conversation
Tree limbs grow so that the leaves can absorb sunlight, the energy needed to sustain and create growth. Obstacles never stop a tree from finding the sunshine. Limbs bend around buildings, grow over street signs, and through abandoned structures. In the same way that trees need to be flexible and persistent in their quest to find sunlight, diversity projects need to grow under, through, or around any obstacles that block their path moving forward.
Pay Attention To Nonverbal Communication - A Quick Conversation
While your colleagues in the workplace communicate both verbally and non-verbally, understanding how to interpret their nonverbal communication can be a great advantage. Keep in mind that the meaning behind body language and facial expressions may vary from culture to culture, so it is always good to check for understanding.
See Potential Contributions, Not Limitations - A Quick Conversation
When working on teams, it is important not to look at limitations but instead at the potential contribution that each person can make – regardless of what kind of package that contribution comes in. This will allow you to maximize the skills and abilities of all team members.
Teamwork Through Innovation - A Quick Conversation
In the sport of barrel racing, when a horse and rider are working well together, the horse will intuitively move under the rider if it feels the rider start to fall. This automatic response is only possible due to the bond and unspoken communication that develops between a horse and a rider through the many hours of practicing together. When you devote time and effort to communicating with a colleague, especially one from a background different than your own, you can improve the fluency of your communication and eventually be able to detect minute changes in these communications.
Tell Stories to Build a Strong Community - A Quick Conversation
Across the globe, cave drawings thousands of years old have preserved the remnants of ancient civilizations. While the drawings may be scattered over great distances and originate from different cultures, they all have one aspect in common: they tell stories. The drawings recount stories about successes, hunts, trials, and daily life. Storytelling is at the heart of what makes us human and is a universal tool used by groups of people to explain who they are and the experiences that shaped their history. While we might not use cave drawings anymore, we still use storytelling to capture collective histories and lessons learned.
Understand How To Use Your Skills - A Quick Conversation
A guitar in the hands of a novice is simply an object to hold. In the hands of a master, that same guitar becomes an instrument that makes beautiful music. The guitar itself does not change; it just requires well-developed skills to unlock its musical potential. With effective instructions, open communication, and management support, employees are able to unlock and cultivate their natural talents and interests into skills that add to the strength of their team.
Understand Preconceived Notions - A Quick Conversation
Hear the word flour and what comes to mind is probably baking, bread, and pizza crust. The preconceived notion that flour is only found in baked goods can lead to surprise when it is discovered that it can also be an ingredient in: pasta sauce, hot dogs, salad dressing, soup, taco sauce, and even dog food. Having preconceived notions about other people is like assuming that you know all of the ingredients of an item of food just by looking at it.
Understand Your Significance - A Quick Conversation
Both captains and lighthouse keepers have roles that, although different, are important to the navigation of ships. Likewise, each position within a company plays an important role in helping the company to navigate the global marketplace. When employees understand how their role contributes to team success, they are able to take pride in doing their job well and in contributing to the overall progress of the company.
Understanding Context - A Quick Conversation
When a rubber band is stretched taut it has potential energy. This potential energy is only important if the rubber band is released and the band moves towards a target. A diverse team can also have incredible intrinsic potential. However, if team members do not feel comfortable contributing their unique ideas, they will not release their great potential energy towards the target of innovation.
Understanding From Experience - A Quick Conversation
A documentary about life in the sea will provide knowledge about ocean life. However, that knowledge is enhanced when it is combined with the experience of scuba diving. The combined knowledge and experience deepens your understanding of the sea exponentially. Scuba diving augments book knowledge with a visceral experience. The act of learning about people with different cultural backgrounds can be viewed in a similar way. Learning about a culture by reading a book or talking to people from that culture gives you a base of knowledge.
Understanding Hidden Beauty - A Quick Conversation
The majority of the time, a male peacock looks ordinary and small. However, when given an opportunity to showcase himself, he becomes a world-renown beauty. While he has the beauty every day, it is only when he feels duty-bound to be his best, that it is displayed and appreciated. People can be like peacocks. When they are not given opportunities to shine, they don’t let their true beauty show.
Understanding Impact - A Quick Conversation
A single drop of water splashing against a rock may not seem to have an erosive impact. However, there is power in water drops, for over time water has the strength to wear down stone. The Colorado River, which began millions of years ago as a drop of water, carved the Grand Canyon. Positive every day actions are like water drops. While each act may not seem to have much impact, over time, the cumulative impact of many drops of water can wear down fear, negativity, and resistance to help forge a new path ahead.
Understanding Passion - A Quick Conversation
The energy of a “match on the pitch” comes from a group of people sharing in their common passion. Being in the midst of your passion is an energizing experience. It is obvious when people are in their passion: their eyes light up, excitement fills their voice, and they are “in the zone.” Inquiring about a co-worker’s passion is a great way to gain insight into a person that you work with. Demonstrating a desire to understand a co-worker’s passion enables you to build connections and begin to create common ground.
Understanding Perceived Value - A Quick Conversation
During the Revolutionary War, lobster was considered such inferior food that it was used to feed the British prisoners, and even they revolted against it. With the advent of railroads, trains brought lobster to the Midwesterners, who had no cultural bias, and found it to be a delicacy. Gradually, New Englanders came to the same conclusion. Often it takes an outside perspective to realize the inherent value that is already on your team and within your company.
Understanding the Fear - A Quick Conversation
Jumping out of an airplane might seem insane to some people, while to others it is an exhilarating and often repeated experience. What makes one person deeply afraid may not be at all scary to another person. Much of what causes people to react with fear to a situation are perceptions and assumptions about what that situation will be like. After facing their fears, people often realize that the perception of the experience created more fear than the experience itself.
Discussion Card: Working on Diverse Teams
These easy-to-use, straight-to-the-point cards provide a simple model (R.E.S.P.E.C.T.) and questions to address common team issues and areas for improvement. These cards are great for a quick training reminder or conversation starter.
Everyday Leadership™ It's a Respect Thing
Relationships between different departments in an organization can sometimes be difficult. In fact, issues between departments may be detrimental to the organization as a whole if not resolved quickly and respectfully. Every department must be able to work together efficiently and effectively in order for the business to be successful.
Your Path to Success™ Empowering Teamwork
Even the most talented teams don’t start out as high performing. To begin with, there are steps you can take to set your team up for success and create a work environment that values teamwork and collaboration. Set a vision and shared goals based on trust… explaining how the work of the team fits with the mission and goals of the organization.
A Real Team Player. Not!
When someone on the team is a hold out, their LACK of involvement stands out like a bad actor in a good movie. Everybody sees it. It affects the whole team's attitude. That isn’t good.
A Real Team Player. Not! (Healthcare)
Teams are great. Unless... you have somebody on the team who just doesn't get it. Or worse - they get it, they just don't care.
Accentuate the Positive
How encouraging and reinforcing positive behavior will improve performance and build positive relationships.
Build Trust
Building positive relationships by building trust.
It Takes a Team!
Working with others to achieve results; making meetings effective
Redirect
Redirecting focus when mistakes are made is a key strategy to building positive relationships.
Redirection and the Five Steps Explained
Explains how to refocus attention and energy on desirable behavior.
Redirection With a Coworker
How using positive redirection with a coworker improves relationships and performance.
Redirection With a Team Member
How using positive redirection with a team member improves relationships and productivity.
Redirection With an Employee
How a supervisor uses positive redirection to correct a mistake and meet customer needs.
Shamu Special
Review of the power of positive relationships.
Whale Done! Response and the Four Steps Defined
Introduces the importance of 'catching' people doing things right as a way of building positive relationships and motivating employees.
Whale Done! To a Manager
How using specific language to describe a job well done encourages management performance.
Whale Done! To a Work Team
Explains the positive impact a Whale Done! approach has on a work team.
Whale Done! To an Individual
Using the Whale Done! approach to encourage an employee to take initiative with a new process.
Team Spark: Proverb - If You Don't Communicate, You'll Get Burned
Spark team communication on what we can do to better communicate with people inside and outside of the team.
Team Spark: Proverb - Many Things Require People To Work Together to Achieve a Goal
Spark team communication on the consequences if we try to complete a big project without excellent teamwork.
Team Spark: Proverb - Work With What You Have
Spark team communication on being creative and getting the job done with limited resources.
Team Spark: Use Intuition to Foster Better Teamwork
When you devote time and effort to communicating with a colleague, especially one from a background different than your own, you can improve the fluency of your communication and eventually be able to detect minute changes in these communications.
Discussion Card: Collaboration
These easy-to-use cards provide a simple model (T.E.A.M. U.P.) along with thought-provoking questions on the power of collaboration and effective teamwork in the workplace. These cards are great for a quick training reminder or conversation starter.
Discussion Card: Managing Diverse Teams
These colorful, easy-to-use cards provide a leadership model (M.A.N.A.G.E.) and questions to address common team issues. These cards are great for a quick training reminder or conversation starter.
Dysfunctional Teams
Dealing with team conflict
Helping Hands
When there is disagreement on how work gets done
Teamwork
What is an "unfair advantage" when you are up for a promotion?
Working on Diverse Teams (Pocket Guide)
We've taken ten of our best-selling discussion cards and created a pack of powerful, poignant and easy-to-use triggers for getting diversity, equity and inclusion conversations started! Each of the ten cards provides a simple model along with thought-provoking questions on various topics that will drive team cohesiveness. These cards are great for a quick training reminder, reinforcement, performance management or as a conversation generator.
Me Jing Or Ma Jong? Avoiding Stereotypes
A focus on the concept of assistance within a diversity context and the importance of avoiding stereotypes (and bias - conscious or unconscious) in the workplace.
Managing Essentials™ Doesn't Interact Well With Others
You have an employee who doesn’t interact well with other people. If this is important in the person’s job, you need to address it... effectively and thoroughly. How do you do that? This video scenario provides the just-in-time information and tools needed to help a manager address the situation while maintaining a respectful workplace.
Your Path to Success™ (The Complete Series)
Wouldn't it be nice to have a personal playbook of helpful tips and tricks while plugging away at the office, shop, plant, studio, etc.? A resource that would help you tackle tough workplace situations using easy-to-implement, common sense tactics and concepts. This new series of short, thought-provoking modules is a great way to face typical workplace issues - both strategically and respectfully. There is no better time than the present to get working on your path to success.
Invest Time to Build Trust™ (Team Spark Video)
Building team confidence and trust helps to resolve communication issues that may impede team progress. A trusting team will be able to function as a cohesive unit when critical decisions have to be made.
Mix Diverse Personalities (Team Spark Video)
Creating a team comprised of diverse individuals may require a more careful balancing of components, but in the end provides the opportunity for brilliant results when done with careful thought and respect.
Team Spark: Adapt to Collaborate
In today’s work environment, finding the time to explore teamwork issues is not easy. This activity is designed to provide quick 10-15 minute team discussions the power of collaboration among projects and teams.
Team Spark: Be Open to How Work Gets Done
Being open and flexible about how work gets done, especially on diverse teams with many different perspectives, invites healthy collaboration and the collective pull of the entire team towards the end goal.
Team Spark: Cheer on Collaboration
An outside energetic and supportive cheerleader can prove essential to the success of the team by offering words of encouragement, and if needed, expertise, suggestions, or technical support.
Team Spark: Collaborate Outside Of Your Team
By collaborating with someone outside of their team, employees bring a broader view to their work. With a more diverse perspective, new insights are gained and the chances of success are increased.
Team Spark: Collaboration with Skill
Courting a business partner from a different country or cultural background may require research on their cultural views on business relationships, developing trust, negotiation, and communication styles.
Team Spark: Compromise For A Common Goal
Compromise during collaboration can create the strongest and most compelling outcomes when working on teams, projects, and organizational challenges. The best results come from everyone being willing to compromise in order to achieve the end result.
Team Spark: Cultivate a Collective Instinct
Collective effort can result in outcomes that are impossible when attempted as an individual. When working collectively with people from diverse backgrounds, we have an even greater pool of resources and expertise with which to successfully navigate times of great challenge.
Team Spark: Honor Unique Contributions
The individual brilliance of an employee is not always realized until a group comes together to collaborate. Working with other employees on diverse teams helps each team member to tap into their creativity, often producing ground breaking products and services that could only be discovered through collaboration.
Team Spark: Invest Time to Build Trust
When working on diverse teams, developing trust may take longer due to background differences and different views on what trust means and how it is earned. Building confidence helps to resolve communication issues that may impede team progress. A trusting team will be able to function as a cohesive unit when critical decisions have to be made.
Team Spark: Leverage Broad Expertise
Like building a skyscraper, collaboration on large projects works best when you bring together a team with diverse areas of expertise. On-going and continuous collaboration among disciplines helps to ensure that your project achieves all of its goals when it is completed.
Team Spark: Mix Diverse Personalities
When combined haphazardly, people can clash instead of cohere, resulting in a “failed launch.” Creating a team comprised of diverse individuals may require a more careful balancing of components, but in the end provides the opportunity for brilliant results when done with careful thought and respect.
Team Spark: Proverb - When You Fight Amongst Yourselves, Others Win
Spark team communication on getting caught up among ourselves so much that we lose focus on the big picture.
Team Spark: Proverb - Working Together You Can Achieve More
Spark team communication on how we can work better as a team when we face our large projects.
Team Spark: Proverb - You Are Limited by What Ties You Down
Spark team communication on how have we faced limitations in the past and yet overcome them.
Team Spark: Understand Your Expertise
Diverse teams with members from different backgrounds will offer an even greater variety of expertise and personalities. While it may take an increased amount of respect and awareness to work in concert, the team has a greater potential for victory.
Whale Done!™ in Action
Whale Done!™ in Action teaches how the Whale Done!™ Approach is applied to real-life business situations.
Managing Your Own Productivity
Give your emerging leaders new insight into why individual responsibility and initiative are essential to personal and team success. In three, straight-to-the-point modules, leaders will experience focused learning on how to plan, organize and manage priorities while working effectively with others to achieve results.
Team Spark: Proverb - People Judge Things from Their Experience Not the Wider World
Spark team communication on how looking at something from just one perspective can impact the team.
E•Z START™ Engaging Others
Engaged employees are not just those who are excited to come to work every day – they are deeply involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their work. They understand their role and how it can impact the future of the organization. Engagement is an employees’ willingness and ability to contribute to the company’s success. This E•Z START™ is geared towards all managers/leaders within your organization. Total Discussion Time: 30-60 Minutes
Team Spark: Adapt to Encourage Growth
Adaptive communication is a skill that is also critical to organizational growth. Keeping something the same just “because this is the way we have always done it” hinders an organization from innovating and progressing. Adaptation taps into employee skill sets and allows people to utilize their diversity to improve upon old “songs”, making a new version that supports growth.
Team Spark: Check Assumptions Before Judging
When judging the “dance” of another person, especially across differences such as culture, be careful about making judgments based upon what you think is important. Focusing on their “feet” while communicating may mean you are missing the most important part of their dance.
Team Spark: Proverb - Don't Look at the Mistake
Spark team communication around root cause analysis and correcting workplace mistakes.
Understanding Difficult People
This is a great exercise to introduce the concept of the different types (in the 'difficult' range) of people we'll most often interact with in the workplace.
Motivating Factors Handout
What Motivates You to do Your Best Work? This handout allows users to quickly rank the things that motivate them.
I Wish My Manager Would Just...™
The powerful new program features employees speaking out about what their managers could do to help them be successful. It provides a fantastic look into what employees are really thinking about when it comes to their manager/supervisor relationship. It might not always easy to hear, but there's value in simply listening to what staff/associates/team members are all saying... about you!
I Can’t Take It Anymore! (from Workplace Inclusion: Navigating Through Difficult Times™)
Change! How many of us really like it? We all know it's part of life – part of the workplace. But with change comes stress and uncertainty. Many of us are feeling (or have felt) the impact of working remotely during the pandemic. We’ve been asked to social distance for months and we are all feeling the lack of real co-worker interaction.
Team Troubles? (The 'Fight' Approach to Conflict)
Some people use an aggressive approach when upset - we call this the 'fight' approach. This vignette helps you anticipate this and help you think about how you can use T.I.M.E. principles when your own emotions are triggered.
Team Spark: Assess Your Communication Style
When communicating with others, particularly people from other countries, it is important to recognize when your communication style has become outdated and when it is time to upgrade to a new technique.