Team Building Stories

Looking for what stood out to attendees of Winning Workplaces' annual conference, The ROI of Great Workplaces, held in Chicago at the start of October?  Based on the attendee feedback we've received to date to the question "What did you find most valuable about this event?" I used Wordle to create the following tag cloud:

Here are some specific pieces of feedback we received that address the team building stories and employee retention tips that made up the content of this event:

• "The Keynote Speaker on Thursday afternoon was very inspring.  I enjoyed his presentation and found much information related to our technology business.  Also the Shackleton leadership experience was beautifully presented and incredibly powerful."
• "Meeting others who have either created or reported about workplaces with employee engagement best practices."
• "Witnessing the benefit of an engaged workforce in multiple disciplines."
• "The speakers, facilitators, and attendees were all the best at their business.  The caliber of all of the people involved was extremely high."
• "Interesting speakers, lots of opportunity to network with fellow attendees, and extremely well organized and executed by a caring and very professional staff.  Not a moment was wasted during this 27 hour event."

For more information on the ROI takeaways from this event, be sure to visit and bookmark http://roiofgreatworkplaces.com.  Currently this link points to our homepage, but we'll have special conference-related content posted here soon.

Click the image below to follow Winning Workplaces on Twitter, where I'll be posting periodic updates on the team building stories and human capital strategies that demonstrate the payoff of employee engagement, as they are dispensed at our ROI of Great Workplaces Conference this week in Chicago:

Also stay tuned to our blog for posts next week on the conference, including photos.

One question we frequently hear from small business leaders is, How do I solicit feedback and ideas from my employees?

I was going through the archives for our IDEAS newsletter today and came across the following exchange from my interview with Pamela Davis, a 2005 Winning Workplaces Best Boss who founded and leads California-based Nonprofits Insurance Alliance Group.

She provides a specific – and adaptable – answer to this question.  Better yet, her tip is cost efficient.  Check it out:

What measures do you have in place to encourage employees to speak up?
First, we have a program that I started called Candid Council. Anyone can join, and there is no incrimination. It meets on an informal basis – as needed or periodically.

We also have a suggestion box. Anyone can put in a suggestion; it’s confidential. It’s by the coffee station, and only I have the key.

From my experience, I have junior staff come up and ask me questions. Some junior staff thought senior staff were not making the best decisions in terms of serving the company in the long term. They came to me for clarification and found it, confidentially and without starting a rift between them and senior staff. It ended up being a good learning experience for all of us.

How candid is the Candid Council?
Examples of issues that are discussed include:

1. How the compensation system works here.
2. Promotions: What’s the process to work toward them? How are they done?
3. Improving communication in the organization. Staff wanted more information regarding the right way to disseminate information to avoid information overload.
4. We grew so big in recent years that we didn’t have a space large enough to hold all our employees. We found a solution by meeting nearby, off site every six weeks or so. The location we chose is within walking distance of our offices; on those days we close the office at 3:30 so we can all meet together.

If you don't have a mechanism like this in your workplace, there's no better time to implement it than the present.  Think of the employee engagement and team building stories that will come as a result!

Related: Our Success Story on Nonprofits Insurance Alliance Group.

If you haven't checked out Management-Issues, what are you waiting for?  Longtime readers of this blog – and our followers on Twitter for that matter – have seen me reference them often, and for good reason.  Of the entrepreneur and business sites I follow, this is one of the most consistent for team building stories and actionable employee engagement best practices.

In their most recent post, for instance, Nic Paton shares five tips for keeping virtual teams on track, based on a recent study by corporate training provider VitalSmarts.  They are:

• Talk before problems start.
• Praise early wins.
• Never raise individual concerns publicly.
• Start by clarifying what you DON'T want to say.
• Gain allies before raising problems with a group.

Along with work issues concerning Millennials, I have taken a particular interest in this topic as I will soon join the telecommuting workforce.

For other Management-Issues posts I've commented on, type "management-issues" into the Search box on the right, just above the Categories listing.