Communications training suggestions?

[dbhost]

Okay, my work team is lousy at communicating. I mean plain old bad at it, and it is getting to the point SOMETHING has to be done...

Has anyone here had any experiences, good, or bad, with team building, and communications training firms? Please post up on this issue. We have GOT to do something here!

[Thalermade]

Here is a website to start looking. A bit pricey, but a good place to start.
http://www.crmlearning.com/topics

Team Building - an oldie but goodie
http://www.crmlearning.com/were-on-t...-team-remember

Productive meetings
http://www.rctm.com/Products/celebri...leese/5618.htm


Hope this helps
Russ

[atgcpaul]

Okay, my work team is lousy at communicating. I mean plain old bad at it, and it is getting to the point SOMETHING has to be done...

Has anyone here had any experiences, good, or bad, with team building, and communications training firms? Please post up on this issue. We have GOT to do something here!

We had a company retreat (~35 people) about 4 months after I started at
this place. Being brand new, I was surprised all the crap that was happening
around me but that I was completely oblivious to. It was mostly happening
in another dept and after the retreat, a lot of those people "left" one way or
another.

A few weeks before the retreat, the company running the event sent us all
Meyers-Briggs test. We also filled out "anonymous" questionaires prepared by
the higher-ups in our company and by the retreat organizer. At the retreat
we broke up into 4 or 5 teams and competed in team building exercises. The
life coach guy was on one of the teams and I thought he was there to
observe our interactions. That didn't happen. I think we could have learned
a lot from a thorough analysis of what happened out there. How different
people interacted with others. How some people treated other people, etc.
Nothing. That was a big, lost opportunity.

After the morning session, we all sat in a conference room and had endless
round table sessions to discuss things we wanted changed--especially the
questionaire. Basically a big b*tch session. The next day we went over our
Meyers-Briggs test. I do feel I got more insight into myself and about my
coworkers from that session. Then there were some more b*tch and moan
sessions and we were done. In the short term we all understood we could all
use some change. Our directors definitely took many of the responses in the
questionaire to heart and have changed the way they interact with us. In the
long term we have all slipped back into our usual patterns. Our center has seen
some turnaround and new hires (50 people now), too, so another retreat is
scheduled October. It's been 2 years since the last one. Can't wait! The
same guy will be running it. I have some suggestions for him.

Basically, it's like hypnotism. You have to be open to it or it's not going to
work. People realize you don't have retreats because everything is hunky
dory. They also don't want to be brutally honest to be polite (my problem),
but that's the only way you stir things up and get things out in the open.
The moderator you hire is the most important factor. He needs to be
impartial, energetic, and show optimism. That is a tall order when everyone
has got something to say about someone else.

Good luck!

Paul

[RayintheUK]

A second "Good Luck!" from me too. I've been involved in some of this and the biggest problem of all to overcome is to get those participating to agree that there IS a problem in the first place.

We did all that "off-site team-building and workshops" stuff, prior to which I conducted a really in-depth survey, from which I produced an accurate anlysis, showing where the log-jams were. 90+% were communication-based.

Two years later, the exercise was repeated, although some other poor soul got to do the survey and analysis. They "discovered" that 90+% of the problem was communication-based. What they didn't reckon on was me producing the survey and analysis from two years previously and asking what good it had been! We left early that time.

Ray.

[dbhost]

Without divulging too much info here, there is a blatant lack of communication on issues that directly impact others, and a lot of important information is left unsaid because this or that person would look bad about it. There is some palpable division, almost a high school cliquishness developing in the organization. And I am getting very close to ready to push the enough button...

I don't believe there is any intentional, personal vindictiveness going on, but there are certainly smaller groups within the team that have stronger friendships, so this friend group talks to itself, and that friend group talks to itself and so on, but even though members from group a and group b need information on project C in order to complete the assigned tasks, group a is the only one to have that information, because members from group a are simply not thinking about information others might need to do the job right.

On the way home, I am going to go to Lowes, pick up a few, as straight as possible 2x4s (6 to be exact), and plane them down to 1" thickness for a project I am working on... My project, my information, nobody else to be involved. No worries... I love tinkering in my little workshop!

[MikeMcCoy]

Sometimes, you have to do as you said and "push the enough" button. It was said above but these kind of problems can be hard to fix since not enough people realize that there IS a problem. I'm lucky since we only hire retired military and it's easier to have those "FRANK" discussions.

[JR]

On the way home, I am going to go to Lowes, pick up a few, as straight as possible 2x4s (6 to be exact), and plane them down to 1" thickness for a project I am working on... My project, my information, nobody else to be involved. No worries... I love tinkering in my little workshop!

Oh, don't I know that feeling!

I've been through several million of these issues in my career. At least it seems like several million! I'm glad to hear there is no maliciousness involved, as it is not uncommon that some manager thinks that manipulating information to suit his career goals is the appropriate way to do things.

You should have the communications session. There are many outfits specializing in this kind of activity, and I've got to believe there are some servicing the North Central Expressway crowd who could do the job. It's a great way to get people to admit to what the stumbling blocks are. But as Ray implied it's the outcome that's important.

It sounds to me like you have a process problem. Properly articulated processes leave no room for cliques. The process defines who should communicate what to whom. The best processes are defined by the people affected - the cliques. Once again, outside consultancies can help with this. Lean six sigma oriented methods are a good way to go. Also ISO 9000. In either case, though, management must agree that you'll do what the consultants suggest, and reinforce it through their active participation and/or monintoring of the process development methodology.

I've done Briggs-Meyers, and I think it's great, but may not be right for this problem. I've found it to be good in ongoing training, in which the variety of personality types can be understood, and how you deal with them can be developed over time. If used as a troubleshooting tool it is likely the results will be limited to the symptom, the communication problem, and not the disease, the process problem.

My 2c.

JR