Change is a great opportunity for growth.
We believe that a company is as good as the team who runs it. There are many case studies, which prove the failure and success of a company come down only to one key element: the humans behind it. We know that everyone in the team has their best intention when communicating, however, we must learn to find a common way to approach work and cooperation.
When we talk about cooperation, we talk about efficient communication. And when we say efficient communication: we mean understanding one’s culture, point of view and the individual language that each and every one of us has.
Sounds like a lot of work? Maybe it is. Yet if you think in long term, it’s an investment worth making. This is the mindset of the companies who are in for a marathon and not a sprint, as well as those, who would like to have strong roots while growing.
Many perceive communication, cooperation, and mindset as something abstract. For us, it is something tangible, and measurable and in order to optimize it, we know how to recommend the necessary steps. This all takes time and energy. Like gardening, needs a bit of patience, commitment and time. However, the effects are almost immediately perceivable.
We primarily use the perspective-oriented mindset and state management as the essence of our services. We believe that if one is conscious of one’s perception, process, assessment and action, one can become actively aware of one’s habits and behavioural patterns. Once this has been accomplished, implementing change (if it is a meaningful one) is considerably easier.
One of the things that help us navigate in communication & cooperation is the character strengths of a person. We differ in many ways, but we all have our strengths to rely on. Using the VIA character strengths* survey, the team can do a reality check who’s which strengths are more practical to put to use in a group context.
In the case of individuals the dominating strengths are there to navigate the person in their lives in a practical manner: riding the wave of their strengths, rather than spending valuable time, energy, and money by trying to compensate for their weaknesses.
Our main tool for unfolding how a team communicates with each other and how they are cooperating in “normal” times, as well as in times of distress, pressure and friction, we use the Scale of Cooperation*.
The Scale of Cooperation is an international renown and acknowledged model designed in the Netherlands, that we like to perceive as a roadmap to see where the team stands on the cooperation scale and what is the status quo in the team.
The model has been in development for almost 20 years and it is based on the feedback of thousands of participants, clients and facilitators as well. The scale is used successfully in fusion with other models & methodologies (we also like to combine it), however, it is a highly efficient tool for checking the status of the team during team meetings, monthly check-in or in other circumstances as well. We create our programs around this roadmap, because it is concrete, measurable and scalable and because it also shows how change (team members leave, new team members, arrive, the team is under high pressure, and the Corona context creates stress) affects any team, including yours.
When we work with people, either in a group format or individually, we prefer to ask questions. One type of question we like to ask is a moving question*.
Asking questions may appear to be an easy task to do, yet it takes some skills to ask the optimal questions. We are aware that nobody, including us, knows better the environment of our participants than our participants themselves.
A moving question takes into consideration the systemic dynamics of a person’s or group’s social environment and the systemic laws that are in place in that specific environment. We like to make these laws visible by inviting in a certain mental shift in the reality-perception of our participants.
With our programs our intention is to work on communication, acknowledging reality and creating a frame where the common core element is the shared goal and cooperation. These programs are all investments in the education of the team that we shouldn’t take for granted (yet we often do): sustainability in group communication. Some outlines for potential programs are enlisted below.
*The logos of VIA – Institute on Character, the Scale of Cooperation and the Moving Questions belong to the owners of the aforementioned brands & services. We, the Connect 2 Change company have no claims whatsoever regarding them.
Feedback
- Time: 5-8 h
- Indoors / Outdoors
- Facilitated team-building activities
- Focus: sustainable feedback
- Dissemination on the spot
Success starts with cooperation. The bases of good cooperation are efficient feedback. How do we reach that? By unravelling the structure of optimal feedback through a meaningful team-building experience!
This program is optimal for introducing a team to training experience through experiential education in a non-formal and informal context.
Ways of Communication
- Time: 4-8 h
- Indoors / Outdoors
- Facilitated team-building activities
- Focus: conscious communication & feedback
- Practical communication style questionnaire
- Dissemination on the spot
Speaking the same language doesn’t guarantee that we also understand each other. This program is there to unravel why this happens and how can we stay conscious about it.
This program is optimal for introducing a team to the underlying layers of sustainable communication and giving a cooperation boost to the team.
Connect 2 Grow Program
- Time: 8-10 h
- Indoors / Outdoors
- Facilitated team-building activities
- Focus: team-flow & cooperation
- Individual survey prior program
- Practical communication style questionnaire
- Dissemination on the spot
- Long-term impact survey (3 weeks)
In order to reach top performance, the teams need to cooperate even under pressure. But what does cooperation really means and what are the ways of creating a thriving cooperation culture even under pressure? This is what we will discover together with the team members. While being actively involved in the program, they will
This program is optimal for transcending the team to a new group level, with awareness of sustainable communication and for creating a practical experience-based learning impact for the team.
Would you like to have a tailor-made program for your team?
Let’s talk: contact us!
connect2change.eu 