Teaching an Anthill to Fetch:

Developing Collaborative Intelligence @ Work

Summary: The ability of teams and organizations to ‘pull together’ has never been more important or more challenged. Effective managers and team-leads realize that getting people on board and keeping them there is the key to their success. In this session, team members at all levels will learn practical tools that will enable them to harness the collaborative intelligence of any team.

Highly successful organizations are those with the most collaborative teams - this is no accident. Effective project managers realize that efficient collaboration relies on people having the will to work together.The emergence of Blogs, MySpace, YouTube, and Facebook is more about human beings trying to find connection and less about technology. Helping team members find meaningful connection within the team is the first step towards great collaboration.

Collaborative Intelligence (or CQ) exists in all groups and is 'the harnessed intelligence and energy of networks of people'. It is the single most important ingredient of successful groups, teams and businesses. Successful people know how to gain the support and cooperation of those around them.

In this hands-on workshop participants will learn how to:

• Create a sense of meaningful participation

• Collaborate in highly effective ways

• Balance leadership and followship

• Work with top-down and bottom-up processing

Based on Stephen's best seller 'Teaching an Anthill to Fetch - Developing Collaborative Intelligence @ Work" (May 2007), this workshop will appeal to anyone working within a team setting including team-leads and all levels of management.

Creating Leadership Presence

Summary: So much of what is available about communication deals with one-on-one interactions. Creating Leadership Presence is really about becoming more effective at the group level.

A great deal of professional life involves:

1) Communicating at a group level

2) Understanding how to be successful and effective in groups

These are two of the most important professional skills that we can develop.

In group communications, we are conditioned to believe that the words we speak and hear are the crucial parts of the interaction. Yet, it is the non-verbal elements of group communications where the real dynamics are happening. Effective meeting facilitation and presentation skills involve the creation of leadership presence.

In Creating Leadership Presence participants / audiences will explore the following skills:

• Influence someone before you (or they) have even spoken a word

• Spot the three variables of Group Dynamics

• Detect and respond to potential problems before they arise

• Manage the different types of personalities within the group

• Use the voice patterns of leadership presence

• Know when ‘permission’ is high in a conversation

• Use a third place, as a way of dealing with volatile information

• Command attention when you need to

Being effective in a group is vital for personal and professional development. Highly effective meeting management and presentation skills involve the creation of leadership presence. Elegant team participation (leading or following) demands an awareness of group dynamics and how the group is forming - managing the room not the people.

The skill of communicating verbally and non-verbally is the single most important tool for creating business success. Learning how to use more advanced methods for getting your point across and managing the communication will pay huge dividends in both your personal and professional productivity.

Teams Adapting @ the Speed of Thought

Summary: Change forces us to adapt. Our adaptability defines how well we can deal with change or how resilient we are. Resilience is our ability to bounce back and recover from adverse conditions.

Our ability to adapt and respond to change plays a crucial role in the success of our teams and organizations. As the pressure increases upon individuals, teams and organizations to deal with change, resilience becomes more central to business. Tapping into individuals and teams natural resilience becomes an essential element of business survival and success.

As teams are becoming increasingly virtual; productivity increases are required; leadership skills are demanded from more and more of the team’s membership. Our capacity for resilience is tested on a daily basis.

In this session:

• Discover strategies for helping teams deal with change

• Learn the single most important reason that some teams are more able to respond effectively to obstacles

• What does the ‘team of the future’ look like? And what can we do to prepare for it?

• Ten ways to help a virtual or partially virtual team build strong collaboration

• Develop connection between team members

There are also a number of collabrative intelligence workshops, which can be customized to the needs of your group.

Break-out Sessions / Workshops

These topics can be customized to the specific needs of your team(s) and delivered in a variety of formats ranging from a 45 minute keynote to multi-day workshop sessions.

CQ Tools ™ for Teams

Building deeper levels of CQ within your team is only one highly engaging breakout session / seminar away. CQ Tools ™ are a set of engaging and practical exercises that allow participants to begin building Collaborative Intelligence within their teams. Those attending this collaborative intelligence workshop will:

* An appreciation of how we all play our part in building a healthy place to work

* Knowledge of simple principles that make a resilient workforce

* The secret of building long term collaborative relationships

* Leading edge tools for creating alignment within teams

* Balancing leadership and followship in ‘High CQ’ teams

* Tapping into the collective intelligence of teams

Teams Should be Advancing – Not Retreating

An unconventional look at how teams can move forward in rapidly changing times. Instead of attending a ‘retreat’ why not have them experience a ‘Team Advance’. Facilitated as a mini ‘get-away’ for the team we pack in as much of the fun and learning associated with conventional team strengthening events – with a twist!