Building a Cohesive Team Workshop

Firstly, let me emphasise that we believe that in an ever more challenging business environment, effective teamwork is an increasingly important source of sustainable competitive advantage. The good news is that it is simple to do; but just not easy!

We have used, and still do use, several really insightful models of team development. However, we are fortunate that Adrian Newbery, one of our team of fantastic facilitators, is a certified trainer of Patrick Lencioni’s “5 Behaviours of a Cohesive Team” process. We believe that this process is a very practical way to train and develop strong teamwork in organisations today.

Corporate training comes in many forms and works at many different levels in an organisation. We work with our clients at all levels in their organisations; from junior and front line managers right up to boards of directors. Each level has its own distinct challenges, which makes the work we do really interesting and requires us to be flexible in our approach.

Most of our work is face-to-face with groups of leaders and managers from our client organisations on integrated, multi-modular development programmes. This type of training allows for free-flowing discussion, debate and challenge between the delegates and facilitators.

Our coaching work is sometimes done on a face-to-face basis, but can also be conducted over the phone or, increasingly, by online methods such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Google Hangouts. These work just as well and negate the need to travel! It is also possible to deliver group training and action learning sets in this more technical way.

We use many different ‘tools’ or methodologies in the work we do. They include group discussions and breakouts, online and offline questionnaires and assessments, video/dvd, scenarios and case studies. The important thing for us is that whatever methodology we use, it has to be relevant and interesting to the individuals and groups we are working with. Also, by using a variety of styles in this way we are appealing to the different learning styles and preferences that exist in any group. Finally, we are always keen to ensure that we challenge the people that we work with, but at the same time offer them the highest levels of support.

Firstly, there has to be a benefit to corporate training. Unfortunately, over the years training has often not been seen as the investment that it should be. I can remember being a manager (many years ago) and sending my team on training courses in order to tick a box on their appraisal form! The problem was that they returned and nothing changed in their workplace behaviour. So, I had wasted money.

The benefits of corporate training obviously include increasing peoples’ competence in their job. But there’s more to it than that. Training should also enhance their confidence in their ability to use their new found skills and have them believe they can actually use them in their workplace. Without that, nothing will change and the training will have been wasted.

When designed and delivered effectively, corporate training addresses the strengths and weaknesses of team members, leaders and managers and team members. Employees who have received sufficient training see improved skills, greater competency and increased confidence in their abilities. These employees are therefore able to perform better in their job and produce a higher standard of work.

Also, when an organisation invests in its people in this way, they feel valued and are likely to demonstrate more of their discretionary effort, which will have a positive effect on their performance and productivity. In addition, an organisation with a reputation for developing people will find it easier to recruit the best people.

Aside of increasing delegates’ competence and confidence, for us here at Eagle Training, the key objective is that corporate training of any kind, at any level should produce sustainable positive change in peoples’ workplace behaviours. In this way, the training should pay for itself at the very least. We like to go one stage further to ensure that a client’s investment in training produces, through the application of learning, a positive return on that investment.

This is why on most of our leadership and management development programmes we encourage clients to have their delegates undertake a project that demonstrates the following:

What did the delegates learn?
How did they apply their learning back in the workplace?
What benefit did they, their team and the organisation get as a result?