Does anyone have ideas of learning activities for a specific team that speak to the concepts of identifying within their division

what is broken,

not broken/can be enhanced,

what they are doing well

In addition, for the "Broken" items, what is in the team's control to fix and things that are not in a team's control. To take it further...what coping strategies to deal with those things out of their control positively.

The audience is a group of Managers - divisional VP's, (15-17 people) who need a bit of a pep talk - to feel like their concerns are being heard; and to get them to move to the next level of doing something about their concerns that are in their control. Their General Manager phrased it as "finding a rallying point to focus on and commit to." We need to help them shift their negative view points to the positive. This is a group that's had more downs in the last 6 or so months than up's and they are not into a lot of the "hokie" training games!

Thanks!

In my opinion, there's no need to worry about "hokie training games" because this isn't a training issue. In my experience, this seems to me a perfect opportunity to put on one's performance consultant hat and help this team or at the very least its manager to analyze what, specifically, the symptoms are and what specifically is causing them. Start with the analysis to really make sure its clear what the problem is and what's causing it.

Here's an interesting question that might get the ball rolling -- Is the whole team freaking out? It's usually just a few specific people who make everyone else tense and crazed.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: LoveLearning,

You need to have a "come to God" meeting with these managers. There must be an awful lot that is wrong - there ususlly is in cases like this. I would LISTEN intently to them as to what is broken. They can tell you precisely what is wrong. I don't think you need to delve into a deep "analysis" of this. Ultimately, it's almost always a case of "the fish stinks from the head" - the top level executives are participating in, if not causing, the problem. They will need to be included in this at some point - probably best to get them involved up front. Gather everyone in the same room and have at it. They do not want or need a pep talk or to be coddled. They need straight talking. These folks need to feel that they are in control. Clearly they feel out of control. That has to be fixed before anything else.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: KaliKo,

TrainerORCC -- my point is that it should first be clear what is wrong and what is causing it so that the solution(s) make sense. Analysis is analysis and it can go as deep or as shallow as you need it to. I don't see a need to quantify the depth. You go where you need to go to find the right solutions. Sometimes you don't need to look very far or hard, sometimes you need to dig a little deeper.

In fact, you may find that the team does need to learn how to analyze a situation so they can deal with it appropriately.