Building Better Teams: 70 Tools and Techniques for Strengthening Performance Within and Across Teams

Based on a teambuilding model that puts the focus on collaboration, trust building, and seeking common ground, Building Better Teams gives human resources, training, and organizational development professionals, the proven techniques they need to foster employee engagement, build alignment within temporary project teams, and forge alliances within hybrid work groups. The book is designed to help team leaders and team members identify key opportunities and goals, select the appropriate collaboration tools and techniques, frame language to keep the team on track, plan the facilitation process, and perform progress checks to evaluate success. This important resource also contains a matrix that links the 70 collaboration tools to the most common team challenges. The matrix can help determine how to select tools that are most appropriate to fit an individual facilitation requirement. Praise for Building Better Teams "Anyone responsible for helping a team improve its functioning needs this book as a guide. Robert and Charlotte Barner have summarized their extensive experience into a practical up-to-date positive approach to global teams with a comprehensive overview of all the best team development tools available. You'll no longer have to use your one 'go-to' model, now you can customize your approach to the team's actual need, using frameworks that take into account different cultures."—Robert M. Burnside, partner, chief learning officer, Ketchum Inc. "In an economy desperate for innovation, Building Better Teams shows why hierarchal management structures falter when teams succeed. Packed with concrete team building tools and examples, this book can help anyone unleash the collective power of employees in any organization." —Mitch Wasden, Ed.D., CEO, Ochsner, Baton Rouge, Louisiana "This book is loaded with lessons and tools on how to get the best performance out of teams and is applicable to anyone from front line employees to the CEO." —Mike Britton, president, North America, LAUNCH

List of Tools vii List of Figures and Tables xi Acknowledgments xiii About the Authors xv About the Contributors xix Introduction xxvii SECTION ONE A Systematic Approach to Team Building 1 Chapter 1 Getting Started 3 Chapter 2 Planning the Team–Building Session 11 Chapter 3 Implementation, Action Planning, and Follow–Up 25 Chapter 4 Selecting the Right Team–Building Tools 39 SECTION TWO Managing Team–Building Challenges 47 Chapter 5 Clarifying Future Direction 49 Chapter 6 Fostering Team Innovation 63 Chapter 7 Establishing Mutual Trust and Collaboration 79 Chapter 8 Managing Change 107 Chapter 9 Building Commitment 131 Chapter 10 Managing Organizational Boundaries 151 Chapter 11 Working Virtually 171 Chapter 12 Overcoming Setbacks 199 Chapter 13 Managing Across Cultures 217 SECTION THREE Tools and Techniques for Team Building 241 Chapter 14 The Tool Kit 243 Index 449

Robert W. Barner, Ph.D., is the associate director of executive education and a faculty member within the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development at Southern Methodist University. He is also the owner of Plano Executive Advisory Services. Charlotte P. Barner, Ed.D., is an executive consultant and adjunct professor and student advisor for the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development at Southern Methodist University.