What is team learning?

Teams have proven themselves to be more than just the latest "buzz word" in organization development. Teams can accomplish more work and produce better results because of the vast amount of information available and the speed of change in the organizational environment. No one person can keep up with the explosion of information and constant change and still be productive.

Teams do not just happen. It takes time and effort to develop into high performing teams where individual members trust each other and produce synergistic results. The process of team development is called team learning when the team consciously focuses on lessons learned over time. Facilitated reflection on team interactions and feedback on interpersonal behaviors and impact speed the process of team development.

How does team learning work?

An author's book signing for Light Bulbs for Leaders

The outline for team learning is included in the CEO-READ business best seller, Light Bulbs for Leaders, co-authored by Barbara Pate Glacel. Light Bulbs for Leaders was ranked by CEO-READ as the tenth-highest-selling business book of the decade of the 1990s. The concepts that propelled teams to success continue to be the tools for success. While they are common sense, they simply are not common practice. Teams need a guide to assist them through the focused learning process.

Team learning workshops are offered by Glacel Group to intact teams within organizations. Workshops jump-start the team learning process by including experiential exercises, team development instruction, and assessment of team performance. This two-day workshop is followed by real-time team coaching to continue the process of team learning over time.

Train-the-trainer

The Light Bulbs for Leaders® family of products are available for purchase from Glacel Group. All products are accompanied by extensive leader guides and transparency masters for exercises and classroom material.

Light Bulbs for Leaders® Family of Products

Light Bulbs for Leaders: A Guide Book for Team Learning is part novel, part workbook. Brimming with insights, ideas, tools and step-by-step guidelines, this guide book helps teams master the skills needed to overcome impasses in the team learning process and then achieve ever higher levels of team performance and productivity. Described by Jim Kouzes, best-selling author of The Leadership Challenge: "Light Bulbs for Leaders is two books in one - a compelling story of the lessons we can learn from organizational life and a leadership handbook on how to guide teams along the path to performance. It's a delightful read about a subject made boring by far too many. Plug into this tale of teams and leaders and your light bulbs are sure to gleam."

Available from Amazon.com.

The Light Bulbs for Leaders® Team Learning Workshop takes participants on a two-day journey into uncovering solutions to such commonplace problems as turf battles, hidden agendas, withholding information, and conflicting priorities. Experiential activities followed by team discussion allow team learning to occur as participants reflect on their own experience in the work place.

The Light Bulbs for Leaders® Team Assessment Survey gather information from intact team members on how they use their time together, how differences are expressed and conflicts resolved, what norms for participation are established, and how results are achieved. This specific information provides the backdrop for team members to share feedback with one another and plan for improved team learning and results.

The Light Bulbs for Leaders® Team Learning Experience exercise provides participants an opportunity to succeed at working together in small groups. Using the well-known four-stage model of team development, participants link theory and practice as they analyze team processes. In reflecting on their team experience, they gain insight into how individual behavior impacts team performance.

The Light Bulbs for Leaders Video presentation brings to life the fictional learning team that must turn around its company's performance. Seeing this team in action allows viewers to identify with their own team learning behaviors and progress. The video is distributed by The Training Edge at 1-800-292-4375