Teams play a pivotal role in both team dynamics and the broader organizational culture, actively shaping a collaborative environment that fosters success. Teams, and the individuals within them, are not simply passive recipients of organizational culture.
Here are 5 components of emotional intelligence to help assess your current capacity for resilience, empathy, stress and self management.
Learn from Scott Kress about the significance of team building in 2025. Create a healthy workplace environment and foster a culture of collaboration and team spirit.
Take charge of your life by focusing on what matters and letting go of what you can’t change with the Circle of Influence model.
Enhance teamwork with key team dynamics activities. Discover exercises & workshops for better collaboration and productivity.
Resiliency is a mindset: the capacity and confidence to be able to work through negative thoughts or emotions and be able to bounce back, work around and find effective ways to cope with difficulty or challenges.
In a world where success and productivity are highly prized, the quest for personal and professional effectiveness is more relevant than ever. Stephen R. Covey�s seminal work, �The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People�,� stands as a beacon of insight in this pursuit.
Conflicts, while inevitable, don�t have to be detrimental. With the right workplace conflict management strategies and practices, teams can navigate conflicts effectively, transforming potential roadblocks into opportunities for growth and understanding.
In the realm of team dynamics, understanding the nuances of conflict types is paramount. Two of the most prevalent conflict types in the workplace that teams encounter are affective and cognitive conflicts.
In today�s fast-paced, interconnected world, teams have evolved into diverse melting pots of cultures, backgrounds, and perspectives. This diversity, while a strength, also brings with it the potential for conflict between coworkers.
One of the prevalent team dynamics challenges is communication breakdowns. They refer to the failure in the exchange or flow of information within a team. In team settings, it’s not uncommon for messages to be misunderstood, misinterpreted, or even missed entirely.
In the world of business, it’s often said that “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. This sentiment, made famous by management […]
Every successful team is fundamentally built on effective team dynamics and communication. These elements play a critical role in achieving […]
Explore the role of the Myers & Briggs Test in creating high-performing teams. Learn about the test’s fundamentals, key attributes of successful teams, and how the test enhances these attributes. Discover how Summit’s comprehensive MBTI workshop can help your team reach its full potential.
Insights, ideas and advice on how to build a high performing team from Scott Kress and his team at Summit Team Building.
Discover engaging team building work activities that not only boost productivity but also foster a fun and collaborative environment. From creative brainstorming sessions to adventurous high ropes challenges.
Is team building possible, especially today with more teams working remotely? The answer is yes but there are keys to doing this properly.
Here are 6�key factors to consider when selecting the best team building company for your organization including experience, value & cost.
Will AI tools like ChatGPT replace HR tasks and eventually replace team assessment tools like the Strength Deployment Inventor (SDI�)?
Here are 16 reasons why team building activities are a good idea. How does the team or company benefit from them and what’s the impact?
The SDI is a powerful tool that can help individuals and teams understand their motivational value systems, as well as identify strengths and weaknesses in team dynamics.
What is the Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI) and how can it be used to manage employee conflict? It can be an effective navigational tool.
Professionally led outdoor team building activities to help you meaningfully connect with your team, boost morale & improve mental wellbeing.
A quick impact story for those looking for corporate social responsibility initiatives with examples from our Step Up team building activity.
Return to office event ideas to help jumpstart your team, rebuild and create new bridges and use in-person work gatherings to your advantage.
Being faced with a return to office mandate or enforcing one is a key focus area for companies in 2023. Controversary or opportunity?
Motivation. Just to be transparent with you from the get-go � this is a hard topic to write about. Motivating your team is a key part of every team leader’s job description, yet � if we�re honest � every single one of us struggles with this (unless you�ve been blessed with an amazing team, in which case, you�re probably not here reading this).
There are a myriad of books, articles and resources floating around about motivation. Really, there�s so much that it�s often hard to know exactly where to start and which strategies actually work. If you�re looking for a quick and simple 10-step plan to fix your team�s motivation problem, I�m sorry to say you might be out of luck.
Is that � ironically � demotivating? I�m so sorry � I promise that if you keep reading on, I have an idea that might make a difference.
�Put Your Chef Hat On!� is a great energizer to compliment and take a break from your team�s meetings. As a competitive challenge, teams compete and complete various challenges to earn resources to create a culinary masterpiece. Creativity and teamwork are required and team marketing presentations on why their dish is the best provide lots of laughs.
As we step into the final few months of 2022, we at Summit are finding it difficult to believe that […]
A Note from Summit President Scott Kress Team Building is in Demand As we emerge from our virtual worlds and […]
How exactly do we identify �extra milers�? Particularly because these extra milers are often motivated by the culture and camaraderie around them, leaders need to be extremely mindful of team composition. We need to intentionally bring on these extra milers and � unfortunately � reject those who don�t fit in with a culture of going above and beyond (i.e., the coasters).
Motivating people in the workplace is hard.
Especially in a year where we�re quickly moving from navigating widespread turnover and �The Big Quit� to dealing with the economic downturn and subsequent layoffs, we want you to know that you�re not the only one wanting to pull their hair out.
Unfortunately, the social contagion effect � which we described briefly in our previous post as a source of motivation � also has a downside. When one member of the team leaves, it increases the chances that others will do the same. The firing of one team member can also damage the morale and motivation of the entire team.
Trying to motivate a team in this climate can�t be easy. We hear you, and we see you.
At this point, we suspect that to say that so much has changed in the way we work would be stating the obvious. Still, we�re going to say it, because it�s too true � so much of our working lives are radically different than it was three years ago.
If you want your virtual event to have a sense of energy and excitement consider hiring a virtual. The right speaker can add motivation, inspiration, and energy to your virtual event but it’s important to choose well as not all great live speakers make great virtual presenters.
The following are six tips to help you make a great choice on an engaging virtual motivational speaker.
If I were to ask you to think of anyone � real or fictional � that you consider to be a great leader and describe 3 qualities that make that leader great, what would you say?
Over the 20+ years that Summit has been leading team building and leadership development workshops, we�ve asked this question to many teams we�ve worked with, and the answers people have provided us over the years have always been consistent.
Most of the qualities that people describe in great leadership do not fall under the technical skills or intellectual smarts categories. Great leadership qualities mostly fall under the Emotional Intelligence characteristics category.
The people on our teams and our organizations have experienced rapid and ongoing changes over the last few years. It is a good idea to pause and reflect from time to time to gain clarity on what the long-term health of our teams and organizations looks like.
There are different kinds of health and wellbeing to be considered. Economic, productivity, team and personal wellbeing. All of these aspects of health contribute to overall wellbeing of our organizations and systems. We have the opportunity to choose to focus on some aspects of wellbeing more than others. This this interesting article is an example of prioritizing human wellbeing. You will have to decide what type of wellbeing is most important for your organization.
Those with effectively functioning emotional intelligence are:
These are all skills that are critically important in all our workplaces. Developing Emotional Intelligence or EI in our teams is a great way in which we can become self and team aware and develop these important soft skills that we need more than ever in our workplaces.
Employee wellbeing can�t be overlooked in 2022. Numerous organizations have seen their people costs rise as employees leave and new hires are brought on. Many have reached burnout and/or are re-prioritizing their lives since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Typically, over their decades of research, Gallup has found that when employee engagement is stronger, wellbeing follows. However, since the global pandemic, employee engagement and wellbeing are going their separate ways and are not as closely tied together as they have been. The �Wellbeing-Engagement Paradox� as described by Gallup presents key information and is a critical trend for employers to pay attention to. The Gallup polling indicates that �working from home during COVID-19 is associated with intensified levels of both stable engagement and negative emotions, like stress or worry. In other words, since the pandemic, engagement has generally stayed at a steady or increased level while wellbeing has gone down. It appears that low employee wellbeing equals what many have called the �great resignation�.
Since 2020 virtual meetings have become, a normal part of many people�s work life. Have you experienced online meetings that are dull and unenergetic, with video screens off? Staying focused and engaged can be difficult. This is where Zoom icebreakers can help get your meetings off to a good start with your team! Even if you�re not using Zoom, try these out regardless of the meeting platform you�re using.
At Summit, we have spent the past two decades designing innovative activities and programs that energize and engage our clients, and we have a reputation for delivering team experiences that break the mold. Now that virtual meetings are reality for most teams at least sometimes if not most often, we put our heads together to discover and create, new zoom icebreakers that work well in virtual team environments. These icebreakers are energizers that can be used to boost your online team meetings if you use Zoom or not.
