Companies Still Substituting Extreme Activites for Real Team Building

I was sure that, in the aftermath of the economic downturn and the “AIG Effect”, we could finally say good riddance to companies using extreme activities as a substitute for real team building. Based on recent CNN report, this is not the case.

I hope that some executives will come by and share their perspective.

Effective Team Building: 8 Essential Elements for Executives

When certain elements are missing, team building is less than effective. Definitely, an effort is made to include each and every one of these elements for every team building initiative. Unfortunately, many clients are totally resistant to including some or all of these elements.

Including these elements will require a total of 40 – 60 minutes from the CEO (i.e. about 20 – 30 minutes with the CEO before the session, 10 – 15 minutes during the session and 10 – 15 minutes immediately after). Any CEO who is not prepared to invest this much time to ensure that team building is effective is simply not serious about it. When this level of commitment is missing, there is a high liklihood that team building will be ineffective.

LinkedIn Groups: International Business Team Building Network for Executives

It’s no secret that a lot of companies simply aren’t getting a lot of bang for their team building buck. To help executives have instant access to information to create effective team building, the International Business Team Building Network for Executives was formed almos 3 years ago. It’s a growing network of over 225 executives from 30 countries on just about every continent.

Corporate Politics: 10 Sure-Fire Strategies to Reduce Turf Wars and Power Struggles

In large corporations, corporate politics (with its accompanying turf wars and power struggles) seems to be inevitable. These dynamics are not limited to large profit-making corporations.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a magic bullet that will eliminate turf wars but I do have some ideas about what is behind some of the in-fighting and a few ideas for leadership practices that can reduce it. The following suggestions will help executives and senior team leaders avoid practices that foster a climate of fear, insecurity and mistrust that fuels in-fighting.