If you like humour, just go straight to the video and watch it. Click here. See if you can do the exercise as well.
If you didn't look at the Medieval helpdesk in the last Newsletter, then you should now. Even if you did look at it, I guarantee that you will laugh again when you see it again! Click here to see it.
We are still testing our interactive Online learning system until the end of September.
Right now it is looking good and we have had some very encouraging feedback. More in a week or two!
Enjoy the read and welcome to Monday!
Tips
Teams: 8 things that can go wrong.
Nº 3. Inter team rivalry
Inter-team rivalry only becomes a problem when it starts to damage other elements of the organisation around it or the organisation itself. Rivalry can obviously be a benefit when competing sales teams drive overall sales up and up, or when competing 'improvement groups' implement successive intiatives that produce incremental cost reductions or efficiency improvements.
Here are some symptoms that you are sure to recognise when the rivalry is counter-productive:
- work isn't done; one team blames the other.
- information flow is slow or erratic, even when it concerns important information.
- when one team asks for help from another, the answer is a variation of "That's your problem".
- tasks that require cooperation between teams run into regular and serious difficulties.
- People do not like to move from one team to another.
Ther are two types of initiative to take which can help to overcome the problem. The first set of initiatives brings people together in sub-groups or as teams:
- social events.
- teambuilding activities where real work teams are mixed up.
- inviting members of the other teams toyour meetings.
- identifying problems common to you and other teams, and setting up a mixed-team task groups to fix specific issues.
The second set of initiatives is to introduce ways to measure team effectiveness that look at how well each team provides service to other teams:
- ask other teams what your team does that is helpful and how it could function differently in a way that would help more.
- send a 'customer satisfaction' questionnaire on your team to members of other teams that you work with.
- have a senior person in the company discuss with your team his or her perceptions of how well it supports other teams.
We will look at the remaining 5 problems in future newsletters. This
information and advice is focused on team working, but is also of much
wider application in our day-to-day lives.
Humour
This month we can learn about the adventures of an intrepid climber... Thomas.
The video about a Medieval Helpdesk was enormously successful in July's Newsletter.
If you find the accent very strong, it is. They are speaking Norwegian. But remember, some humour is universal! I looked
at the video and read the subtitles 5 or 6 times and still found it
very funny. Click here to see it.
Programs
You can improve your English with us
Here we are, September is with us again. For many people it is the moment to take up our self-improvement resolutions and start some kind of training or learning program.
For many of you, that program is an English learning program.
Wouldn't it be nice to know that this time:
- you will get concrete results
- time and scheduling will not be a problem
- it will be fun, interesting and pertinent to you
- others will be able to notice your improvement
Two of the major problems people face are
- No time.
- Too far from a training centre.
Santiago, Nuria and Maria Rosa can't take much time away from their
desk. They are busy people. What do they do? A twenty minute PhonePill
session between 4 and 8 times a week.
In fact, Nuria has been doing this for a year now, with truly remarkable results.
What about you? Call us to have a chat about your particular needs and goals.
Call Albert or Diego on 93 238 71 40.
Welcome back to work and I look forward to hearing from you sometime.
Kind regards,
Albert |
