How Do You Take the “Remoteness” out of Remote Workshops on Team Relationships?

This was the challenge facing one of our consultants.

We were part way through delivering this team development programme when social distancing and then the lockdown was introduced, and it was clear that we needed a different way to deliver our workshops.

Where We Were Pre-Lockdown

The questionnaires had been completed for the delegates to start to increase their own self-awareness and to move towards better understanding the impact that they have on others.

The next step was to feedback to the individuals, help them to understand what this information means to them individually when they are managing well and how they change when they feel in conflict.

We would also be about to start working with them as a team to understand what this means to them as a team, and how best they can work together.

The First Remote Workshop

It was really interesting bringing this team together remotely.  A team that normally work together on a food and drink manufacturing site but instead are working remotely from their own homes. Some of them in their kitchens, some in studies, some in living rooms and our trainer in her living room.

However, with the power of technology and the skills of our trainer, everyone felt very much like they were altogether in one room and they could participate, share their thoughts and be open, even on such a potentially personal and sensitive topic.

Being an Individual in a Team

Firstly, everyone worked through understanding what the information meant, appreciating that we are all individual, that we are all driven and motivated by different things, and we all have strengths that work well for us, but when overplayed, they can cause problems for us and those that we work with. 

Then, together, we started to look at the team as a whole and how the team fits together, before our trainer left everyone with some reflective work ahead of the session in a couple of weeks. 

They will be busy considering such questions as: how do we best communicate depending on the motivational values of individuals within the team? How do we fit together as a team? Where might we be very positive at as a team and what areas might hinder us?

There will also be 1 to 1 session for those who want it, to look at their own individual profiles in more detail.

Reflections

With the need to move our self-awareness and team relationship workshops to remote delivery, we have really enjoyed delivering the first of the series of three workshops, and those who participated enjoyed it too.

Although we provide a lot of online training and have done for years, and deliver remote workshops, we have to admit that we would not have planned to take these workshops online, but now that we have started down this path, we are really pleased to be doing so.

It is a tough time just now, of course, for so many, it is much tougher than for others.

Yet, it is amazing how people are learning to adjust if they possibly can and we are fortunate to work in an area we have the opportunity to adjust in a very small way what we do, and to learn from the experience.