Taking our own advice

Posted on Jul 15, 2014 | Tags: | 5 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, we recommended that teams with too much on their plates take a step back and ask: What can we afford not to do? And then a funny thing happened: We decided to take our own advice. As our loyal customers know, the Teamworks team is a small one. The same person who […]

Clear your brains — and your path — by saying no

Posted on Jul 1, 2014 | Tags: , | No Comments

Most teams don’t lack for ideas about what to do. More often, the problem is that they have too many ideas kicking around. And all that possibility leaves the team distracted and overwhelmed. Sometimes you just need to ask: What can we afford not to do? Giving yourself permission to ask this can help you take an unsentimental look […]

Making meetings more effective

Posted on Jun 26, 2014 | Tags: , | No Comments

Meetings are an immutable fact of team life. When you collaborate with other people, you can’t not meet. But you can meet more effectively. Most of us attend 5-10 meetings a week (sometimes more), and many of these meetings suck the life out of us because they run too long or weren’t properly planned. Raise your hand if any […]

Minding the gap when a team member leaves

Posted on Jun 24, 2014 | No Comments

When team members leave, it almost always causes a temporary disruption to the team’s state of flow. But even when a new normal sets in, there can be gaps the team doesn’t always see or recognize — places where old team members were especially strong or unique qualities they seemed to have. If your team has seen more than […]

When you’re not seeing eye-to-eye, change the lens

Posted on Jun 19, 2014 | Tags: , | No Comments

Reframing — getting creative in how you see and solve problems — is one of our nine habits of a great team. But being able to change the lens is a useful skill for individuals too, especially if you find yourself in a tense moment with a colleague. When you’re in a heated conversation, reframing can remove some of […]

How to disagree and keep your duos going strong

Posted on Jun 18, 2014 | Tags: , | No Comments

Wherever there are passionate, dedicated people working together on a team — with their own strengths and working styles and nerve-working buttons — there are bound to be disagreements. But that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Conflict is healthy for a team as long as it gets addressed, and as long as team members approach […]

Imagining life after the problem is solved

Posted on Jun 17, 2014 | Tags: | No Comments

When a team is stuck, it’s natural to start interrogating the situation: What’s happening? What caused the problem? Is it part of a pattern we’ve seen before? These are great questions, but sometimes they can lead the team to root causes that feel big and daunting. If you find yourself paralyzed after you’ve analyzed a problem, try asking a […]