Teamwork Training Theme and Leadership

Organizations have varying teams and work groups. These groups hardly achieve peak performance levels, and only a handful bear team attributes such as teamwork. This paper explores team training themes and provides a holistic perspective of Team Development and Teamwork solutions. The tools and programs proposed in this paper seek to help leaders and their teams to overcome common challenges in team operations, even as they discover solutions for success. The areas discussed in this paper span how to improve communication, maximizing resources, utilizing the creativity resource among team members, enhancing team alignment, embracing change positively and how to handle and overcome resistance. A well bonded team is a resilient, tough and productive machine. The list of the practices highlighted below are meant to help intact teams, mixed groups and cross-functional teams and individuals achieve high performance in the organization I work for.

The aim is to attain synergy and high performance while providing interaction based on solutions between members of a team. It also focuses on orienteering and the growth and development of a team.

The development of a training theme will focus on dealing with the objective shown below for the separate teams. Each team’s obligations are also highlighted.

Orienteering: this is an intensive and effective simulation for team development. It is intended to manifest instant effect on the working approaches of a team by probing their weaknesses and vulnerable areas via an experimental and creative strategy (Dyer et al., 2013). The business simulation approach exposes team members from varying team types to challenges they would face at their place of on daily basis, but in an outdoor setting in this case. Orienteering involves scenarios such as outdoor terrain and the tactics needed for navigation and identification of mapped out points. Team members are then required to reach these designated points on foot. They are subsequently required to figure out how to assemble the needed resources to complete the simulation, and go back to the starting point. Once the members have completed the simulation exercise, they will have learned the necessary skills, and acquired the knowledge needed to become a team with high performance. They will also have identified the areas that they need to improve on.

The team has been tasked to develop a simulation meant to achieve:
· To develop a cohesive and strong team that has capacity to make the best business choices
· Learn about the modus operandi of the team and pick out opportunities for improvement within the team
· Redirect the energy of the team and explore the issues that affect the team, in an honest dialogue interaction
· Develop a free and friendly platform for discussing issues that affect the team and make it easy for all members to make their contributions uninhibited by fear
· Develop and polish membership skills of a team and consider the best corporate practices
· Resolve team conflicts and issues constructively
· Identify opportunities for the improvement of the team
· Enjoy the experience and use it to bond the team members tightly as one community
· Craft actions and strategies that can be used by participants in their separate experiences at their work places (Heck & Anderson, 2008).

High Performance: A lot of organizations derive their results and complete critical tasks, strategies and projects through work groups and teams. Functioning at peak levels is another equation altogether for these groups. I know that an effective team is not easy to build. A workshop designed for high performance provides team leaders and their teams the necessary skills to overcome common team issues (Dyer et al., 2013).

The team is required to develop a program for orientation focused on the following:
· Inform the participants about the needed skills to develop an effective team
· Identify the weaknesses and strengths of their team and develop solutions for the same
· Consider the tools and strategies that will improve their team’s effectiveness
· Review their personal roles as leaders and team members and evaluate their contribution towards the success of the team
· Strengthen their commitment to practices of an effective team(Heck & Anderson, 2008)

Solution-focused teams

Team leaders and, sometimes members are requested to provide solutions to teams, to direct their energy and consolidate team efforts so as to achieve a common end (Dyer et al., 2013). To succeed in delivering the above assignments, one needs a unique set of skills. Unfortunately, many team leaders have had no chance of developing such skills formally.

This team is expected to develop a simulation for achieving the following:
· Noting how group discussion facilitation is different from making a presentation
· Enhance communication between members of the group and make the best of contributions from the members
· Provide and manage an improved structure for team members
· Provide ways of enhancing in all team sessions
· Examine dialogue and identify sources of problems
· Discourage others from assumptions and jumping to conclusions
· Explore collaboration in solving problems
· Analyze and think of available innovative options
· Compare options and determine the best ones
· Review the threats and risks involved when making choices
· Offer direction and chart the way forward with the best solution determined
· Build trusting and collaborative relationships with others (CMOE, 2017).

Team building events: The development and growth of a team comes at a price. Outdoor team building programs that are effective provide teams with a chance to experience discomforts in a safe learning set up. Such an environment enhances team learning (CMOE, 2017). Participants in the past have referred to the experiences as challenges that stretch their limits. The bottom-line is that the growth of a team can only be achieved if the members are prepared to operate outside their comfort zones.

Through making use of time tested experiences, business simulations and sites across the globe, the team will develop outdoor events for Team Building. These events will present the teams with long lasting results and experiences that they will remember. The experiences can be developed with a range of outdoor environments. Some choices include:
· Events on the lake
· Orienteering tasks
· Cave events
· River rafting activities
· Coastal activities
· High and low ropes courses
· High desert events (CMOE, 2017)
2 ways the proposed teamwork would affect organization performance
The theme generated is expected to exhibit stronger cohesion and higher synergy among team members. The two basic outcomes expected are:
1. Higher levels of productivity drawn from a cohesive, well coordinated and solution-focused team
2. Higher motivation levels, team efficiency and effective communication skills that will help to reduce wastage, improve revenue and promote greater human resource productivity (Dyer et al., 2013).
Recommend where the company should set limits on spending and on using company assets for socially responsible projects
Corporate social responsibility is important for companies because
· It promotes better public image
· Enhances employee engagement
· Retains and attracts investors
· Promotes coverage by media

Critics have pointed out that most organizations embrace CSR for publicity, rather than helping society to treat its social maladies. Either way, some companies are involved in CSR half heartedly. Others decline to pursue the CSR agenda altogether (Chandler & Werther, 2013). However, on my part, my organization must pursue real CSR projects with meaningful impact on the community. I suggest that the organization I work for should desist from spending on routine activities and focus more on issues such as conservation of the environment, community based initiatives and education for the community. Our focus should shift from projects under the mandate of the federal government to those that are less funded or not even funded at all, but have a far reaching impact on the community; in other words, we should focus on the activities that enhance our competitive advantage; as Ramachandran (2011) would say.

Predict the main effect that socially responsible projects could have on the company’s overall bottom line.
1. CSR projects boost a company’s customer base. Therefore, CSR projects have the potential to boost company profits (Heal, 2008). Customers are cognizant of the sources of the products they use.
2. CSR promotes an environment of happier employees, hence they become more productive. According to Devin Thorpe of Forbes, 86% of companies engaging in CSR projects believe that their employees are happier that way, while 76 % say that it makes their employees better (Heal, 2008).
3. It maintains business. Honoring the triple bottom-line attains a win for all, even though it requires careful planning and foresight (Heal, 2008).
Approaches for introduction of the topic of ethics or ethical behavior in the Teamwork Training Project
1. Use a system of awareness. Employees that observe the roles acquired from teamwork training should be rewarded and recognized so as to motivate them and encourage others to follow suit and observe the prescribed ethical code.
Examine two (2) aspects of teamwork training that change a person into a transformational leader. Justify your response
1. Teamwork training enables a person to blend in a better way with other members of staff. It also helps one to identify their weaknesses and strengths, and those of other members of staff.
2. Teamwork training boosts one’s potential. With high , one becomes a transformational leader by helping others to hit their peak performance through behavior and attitude change. Such a leader gives room for contribution from the subordinates. Teamwork is a proven vehicle to success.
Predict your possible reaction to a team member’s suggestion of another theme that does not relate in any way to the theme that you have proposed. Provide a rationale for your response.

One of the highlights of a transformational team leader is to be willing to integrate varying ideas from team members. The intention is to come up with an outcome that is favorable. A transformational leader understands that neither they nor anybody else has a monopoly of ideas (Bass & Riggio, 2014). Indeed, it is possible for a team member to develop a better team training theme than mine. My best take would be to allow the team member to demonstrate their theme and give room to others to critique it. If most members of the team think that the theme is better; from a rational perspective, we are bound to use it; because we seek the best. The best strategy for a leader is to work with the subordinates and not to impose on them.