We improve teams.

Learning to be an effective manager means mastering a number of critical skills (e.g., communication, delegation, goal-setting) that require some intention, focus, and practice. But, as new managers begin to work through each of these fundamental abilities, they often lack a comprehensive management framework (i.e., “this is how I manage my team”) that can be used as a guiding approach in their day-to-day interactions.

Communication is the lifeblood of all good organizations. Sharing critical information, creating clarity among team members, setting compelling vision(s) for the future, managing and leading people, and navigating interpersonal differences all require that members of your organization communicate effectively. But communication, like any skill, requires training and practice, and most organizations don’t do enough to help their people be better communicators.

Great teams are hard to build and even harder to maintain. Outside of developing a shared purpose, mutual goals, and high-frequency communication, managers also have to ensure that their teams don’t fall into the most common traps of working with others (e.g., frustration, lack of clarity and expectations). Using Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team framework, we’ll walk managers through a workshop exploring all the ways they can ensure high quality performance.

Arguments can be a powerful tool for mutually developing truth and finding optimal solutions in your organization. This workshop is designed to help participants understand, at a fundamental level, what makes a great argument, traits of common argumentation styles, the warning signs of an unhealthy argument, and strategies for cultivating and facilitating healthy arguments among their team members.

Conflict is a natural element in the workplace and can be healthy for a team when managed appropriately. However, when left unchecked, workplace conflicts can quickly override all the valuable time and energy we’ve spent developing a great team. This workshop combines foundational conflict knowledge, including the most common types of conflict at work and the most common sources of conflict at work, with a personal assessment that helps participants better understand their dominant conflict management styles and when it’s most appropriate to shift into a different style for effective outcomes.

Having tough conversations with team members is commonly considered one of the most stressful aspects of management. Whether it’s time to talk about job performance, unmet expectations, or anything else - today’s managers need to have a thorough understanding of how to facilitate these conversations and achieve a positive outcome. This workshop walks participants through a framework for having difficult conversations with peers and/or direct reports, including a template that can be used in preparation for future conversations.

We often talk about engaging employees as if there’s a simple lever to pull in order to increase or decrease engagement. But, unfortunately for managers and leaders, that’s just not the case. Rather, to really move the needle for your team members, we need to more deeply understand the primary concepts that define engagement and the organizational levers most likely to influence those elements. In this workshop, we unpack important concepts like motivation, satisfaction, and commitment, and work through key organizational systems and processes (e.g., performance reviews, nourishing community) that are likely to yield great results for your team.

Today’s managers encounter more significant gaps in generational preferences than their predecessors. As Baby Boomers leave the workforce, Millennials and Get Z-ers bring new expectations and behaviors into the workplace. Managing these generational differences presents a unique challenge to even the best managers, and understanding the critical differences among these populations is essential to success.