IT Management Slideshow: Team Building Without Tears

Activity:The Endless Question Skills developed:

Quick thinking; asking good questions

Activity:The Endless Question Skills developed: - Page 2

How it worksIn pairs, have employees answer a question with another question, and then another, etc. (As in: "How can we gain support for this systems upgrade?" "We should seek buy-in from key managers, but which ones?")

Activity:The Umbrage Not Taken Skills developed:

Conflict resolution; constructive feedback

How it works

In pairs, have one worker make a critical statement in constructive manner to the other. ("You need to be more of a team player.") The other worker is challenged to respond in a non-confrontational way.

Activity: Organizational Oxymorons Skills developed:

Seeking clarity; making sense of contradictory viewpoints

How it works

Present team members with oxymoron-styled phrases - like "lose to win" - and ask them to make sense of their meanings. Then require teams to come up with and explain their own oxymorons.

Activity:Particular Virtues Skills developed:

Efficient thinking; ability to affect organizational change

How it works

In teams, ask workers to lists of policies, procedures, etc. that have been "done the same way for a long time." Then, ask them to come up with ways to overhaul these traditions by opposing, adding, subtracting, altering, combining or eliminating them.

Activity: Perspicacious Perspectives Skills developed:

Empathy; ability to appreciate diversity

How it works

Present an issue on a whiteboard that concerns your teams ("time management," "work ethic," etc.) Ask participants to literally walk in the shoes of a randomly selected co-worker, and present that person's point of view on the issue rather than their own.

Activity: Crisis Critiques Skills developed:

Dealing with unexpected adversity; cool-under-pressure thinking

How it works

Come up with "crisis" scenarios for teams, for example a false Internet rumor that the company's top-selling commercial application carries malware, and dispatch them to come up with appropriate responses.