Online Instructor-Led Training Courses Online Instructor-Led Training Courses

UNDERSTANDING BEHAVIOURAL STYLES –
ONLINE DiSC COURSE

The demands placed on Managers and team members in the modern business environment increase daily. Managing an expanding client base and workforce requires exceptional interpersonal skills and strong leadership abilities. Understanding yourself is the key to understanding and interacting with your team members and stakeholders. This is the premise of the DiSC Personality Profiling seminar. An innovative approach to behavioural insight, DiSC not only uncovers the unique personality traits of those profiled, but also gives Managers practical solutions for interacting more effectively with different behavioural styles.

Using a behavioural assessment improves team communication by allowing individuals to “read” the behavioural cues of their team members, customers, and stakeholders. Understanding and responding to these behavioural cues can assist you in improving and opening up communication, as well as enhancing overall team dynamics. This ultimately increases productivity levels. In this two-hour session, you will learn to increase awareness of the relationship between individual behaviour styles and the team performance.

At the end of the session, the participants will be able to:

  • Identify individual behavioural tendencies and how they affect other team members
  • Identify how to communicate with other DiSC dimensions to work more effectively
  • Develop strategies for identifying others' styles with only virtual clues
  • Identify 4 ways to adapt your behaviour to internal and external stakeholders

MAKING NORMS THE NORM:
HOW TO CREATE A TEAM OPERATING AGREEMENT (TOA)

Depending on the individual, the expectations of others are frequently informal, unwritten, and different. Each person brings his or her own expectations of what the workplace should be like.  Differences in expectations can result in tensions and conflicts.

In a virtual team setting, it is critical to create guidelines for how your team will work. These guidelines are called a “Team Operating Agreement”.  A Team Operating Agreement defines the set of behavioral norms that the team commits to and agrees to abide by. It guides the team’s actions and interactions.  The creation of the Team Operating Agreement involves a process of discussing and agreeing upon a clear code of conduct to reduce misunderstandings and improve relationships.

In this session, we use an inclusive, seven-stage, team-focused process to create a Team Operating Agreement.

Team Operating Agreement (TOA) Process

Step 1: Brainstorm + List
Have each team member list what they would like to see become part of the TOA

Step 2: Clarify
Ensure team members understand each statement

Step 3: Prioritize
Choose the top 5-8 items from your list

Step 4: Discuss
Modify, remove, or live with each statement

Step 5: Adopt
Establish the “official” TOA

Step 6: Adapt
Review and adapt as required

Step 7: Evaluate
Assess the effectiveness of the TOA

At the end of the session, the participants will be able to:

  • Describe the role that expectations play and how to manage them
  • Analyze how a TOA can help build a cohesive virtual team
  • Define the components of a Team Operating Agreement
  • List a seven step process to creating a Team Operating Agreement
  • Develop the guidelines by which your team will operate

The Seven Elements of Building an Effective Team

Optional Post Training: Making Norms the Norm - Online TOA Survey

Two months after the creation of the Team Operation Agreement, a survey will be conducted to assess the extent to which the items of the TOA have been complied.

If portions of the TOA have not been adhered to, a meeting will be scheduled to help the team renegotiate the TOA and secure a version that everyone can agree to.

Team Operating Agreement

HOW TO OPTIMIZE VIRTUAL TEAM MEETINGS

Virtual meetings are the lifeblood of the remote team, yet we hear the same challenges over and over again: late starts, later finishes, private agendas, loss of control by the meeting facilitator, and multitasking by disengaged attendees.

These common problems cost your organization lost productivity, missed deadlines, and potentially thousands of dollars for a poorly run one-hour meeting. In order to be effective, these meetings must be well organized, efficient, and structured.

This 2-hour online session details techniques that will optimize any virtual meeting.

At the end of the session, the participants will be able to:

  • Identify the skills needed to effectively facilitate a virtual team meeting
  • Identify 8 techniques to improve your virtual meetings
  • Discuss challenges to effective virtual meeting and develop solutions to those challenges
  • Evaluate meeting best practices

Meeting Agenda

The Future of Virtual Meeting

Communication and Non-Verbal Cues

VIRTUAL REALITY:
HOW TO BE A LEADER IN THE VIRTUAL WORLD

As a team leader, you are faced with an additional challenge: how to manage teams that aren’t only separated by a wall, but by time zones and cultural differences.

This 1.5-hour facilitation session focuses on applying your skills as a leader to the virtual world. We will provide you with dedicated one-on-one time with a seasoned virtual leadership coach. Together, you will spend time focusing on the specific problems that you encounter in your environment and on the steps required to bring about change and increase team effectiveness. You will also receive guidance in exploring and overcoming your own personal obstacles to success.

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS AT A DISTANCE

Trust is a crucial element for successful virtual teams. However, since technology facilitates most communication between virtual team members, building trust and cohesiveness is one of the most challenging tasks faced by corporate leaders and managers.

This 2-hour session will enable your corporate leaders and managers to build a strong team foundation using virtual team exercises.

At the end of the session, the participants will be able to:

  • Define a virtual team
  • Determine why building relationships is critical for the success of your virtual team
  • Clarify how much team building is necessary for your team
  • Experience 5 techniques to improve team cohesion

MAKING YOUR ONLINE LEARNING STICK

All too often, a webinar leads to a one-way event with the speaker addressing the audience with limited audience interaction. But it doesn’t have to be this way. A webinar can be just as interactive as a face-to-face session; you just have to know how to carry it out.

Conducting webinars requires a different set of skills than classroom training. Webinars can be a highly interactive session where participants interact with each other using a web-conferencing tool and a phone. This session will take you through an approach that will help you be as brilliant online as you are in class.

At the end of the session, the participants will be able to:

  • Determine how to bring interactivity into your design
  • Create an interactive exercise for whiteboard, chat and polling
  • Discuss how to debrief activities
  • Review the role of the producer

Participant Feedback

"Thank-you for presenting the workshop titled 'Building Highly Effective Virtual Teams' to our group. This topic is continuously increasing in relevance across government departments and was very well received. "

“Totally applicable to our current work environment“

"The advance preparation was evident and your presentation of the topic was well rounded, including academic research and practical tools that participants can use to manage more effectively in a virtual environment.

“The facilitator was very energetic and well suited to deliver a presentation via webcast.”

"Your ability to distribute your attention between both the on-site and webcast participants was very much appreciated; as indicated by the number of correspondence sent in from the webcast participants.  The service provider, who does this all of the time, indicated that this was the second highest volume of emails received during a webcast that he has provided the portal for."

“This was an excellent webcast, very well executed.  The facilitator did an excellent job in keeping both the virtual and local participants engaged.”

"This learning event was considered by all to be a success; Thank-you once again."

Regional Coordinator, National Managers’ Community