Objectives

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• **Apply** foundational models of team development and dynamics (e.g., Tuckman, Lencioni) to diagnose team performance.
• **Design** and conduct a robust team assessment to identify gaps in performance, norms, and collaboration.
• **Facilitate** structured interventions to improve psychological safety and open communication within a team.
• **Implement** effective strategies for managing and resolving both functional and dysfunctional team conflict.
• **Define** clear team purpose, roles, operating norms, and decision-making processes.
• **Coach** team leaders on how to create a high-accountability, high-trust environment.
• **Adapt** team development strategies for virtual, remote, and geographically dispersed teams.
• **Measure** and track the impact of team development efforts on key business outcomes.

Target Audience

• All Managers and Team Leaders who seek to maximize their team's output.
• HR Business Partners (HRBPs) consulting on team performance and dysfunction.
• Organizational Development (OD) and Talent Development Specialists.
• Project and Program Managers leading cross-functional or virtual teams.
• Internal Coaches and Facilitators focused on group performance improvement.

Experiential team-building activities, Team assessment and feedback simulation, Role-playing conflict resolution and difficult conversations, Group exercise on designing team operating norms, Case studies on virtual team challenges, Workshop on applying the Five Dysfunctions framework.

Outline

Unit 1: The Foundations of High-Performing Teams

Team Effectiveness Models

• Defining a high-performing team and its characteristics.
• Applying Tuckman's Stages of Group Development (Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing).
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (Lencioni) as a diagnostic tool.
• The importance of shared purpose, clear roles, and measurable goals.

Diagnosing Team Effectiveness

• Designing and administering effective team diagnostic surveys and assessments.
• Techniques for observing team meetings and behavioral dynamics.
• Facilitating a structured feedback session to review team assessment results.
• Identifying the root cause of team dysfunction (e.g., role conflict, lack of trust).

Unit 2: Building Trust and Psychological Safety

The Core of Trust

• Understanding the different types of trust (e.g., vulnerability-based, reliability-based).
• Team-building interventions focused on sharing, vulnerability, and personal context.
• Techniques for repairing broken trust within a team environment.
• The leader's role in modeling vulnerability and building safety.

Psychological Safety and Conflict

• Defining psychological safety and its critical link to performance and innovation.
• Interventions for encouraging 'productive disagreement' and idea generation.
• Establishing ground rules and norms for healthy debate and conflict resolution.
• The difference between good (functional) and bad (dysfunctional) team conflict.

Unit 3: Clarity of Purpose, Roles, and Norms

Purpose and Goals Alignment

• Facilitating a team session to clarify the team's overarching mission and strategic context.
• Developing specific, measurable, aligned team goals (e.g., OKRs or KPIs).
• Creating a clear, shared understanding of success metrics and accountabilities.
• Tools for tracking and reviewing progress as a team.

Roles, Norms, and Decision-Making

• Techniques for clarifying individual roles, responsibilities, and interfaces.
• Developing and documenting explicit team operating norms and behavioral expectations.
• Designing a clear, efficient decision-making framework (e.g., consensus, delegated authority).
• Interventions for managing role ambiguity and role conflict.

Unit 4: Developing Virtual and Global Teams

Challenges of Remote Collaboration

• Identifying the unique communication and trust challenges in virtual teams.
• Strategies for creating social connection and cohesion across distance.
• Tools and protocols for effective asynchronous and synchronous virtual meetings.
• Coaching leaders on managing performance and engagement remotely.

Cross-Cultural and Global Team Dynamics

• Understanding the impact of national culture on team norms and communication.
• Interventions for bridging cultural differences and leveraging diversity of thought.
• Strategies for managing global time zone differences and equity.
• Case studies of effective global virtual team collaboration.

Unit 5: Sustaining and Evaluating Team Performance

Continuous Development and Coaching

• Designing a recurring rhythm of team development and effectiveness check-ins.
• The use of action learning and continuous improvement loops.
• Developing the team's own capacity to self-correct and reflect (retrospectives).
• Implementing a team coaching model and skillset.

Measurement and Accountability

• Key metrics for tracking team output, efficiency, and member satisfaction.
• Linking team effectiveness measures to individual performance and reward systems.
• Holding individuals and the team accountable for agreed-upon norms and goals.
• Personal action plan for developing a target team's effectiveness.