Attention Developers, Project Managers, Scrum Masters, and Agile Coaches....
How would you like to build
any team any time?
That would be cool wouldn't it ?
Are you interested in a short course on practical teambuilding? I don't mean offsite games and fun. I mean while-at-work-getting-work-done how to build your team.
Share your thoughts about that and I'll send you a valuable thank you gift.
Would it be worth a few hundred dollars and perhaps 10 hours of your time over 2 months to learn a repeatable and proven framework for building any team any time (charisma not required)?
I would love to call it: How to Build Any Team Any Time (Or Know When to Quit Trying). But that seems a bit arrogant. So let's call it:
Practical Teambuilding: A Proven Framework
for No-Nonsense Developers
Does that convey the most important elements you would expect in a course dedicated to teambuilding? Let me know in the comment box below.
The content will include the most successful mindsets, strategies, plans, tools, processes, and principles I've collected and tested over the last 20 years.
You will learn
- what to think
- what to say
- how to say it
- when to say it
- what results to expect, and
- how to adapt for best results (since humans are interpretive beings and not everyone responds the same way)
Much of the basic framework you will learn is in my book Teamwork Is An Individual Skill: Getting Your Work Done When Sharing Responsibility (when you complete the feedback form here, I'll send you a download link for a PDF of the first chapter). I'll recommend reading the book before the course.
Who should attend?
Anyone who has challenges working in teams and would like to understand how to more effectively think about and overcome those challenges whether as a peer, leader, follower, manager or partner. That could include
- Team Leads
- Scrum Masters
- Product Owners
- Team Members
- Coders
- Testers
- Business Analysts
- Project Managers
- Supervisors
- Managers and Directors who assign developers to teams and oversee the work (you need to understand how to support both the individual and the team for success)
- PMO
- Coaches
Here are the questions I think we should answer...
- Why should I care about team-building? Is the benefit worth the investment?
- Who should be responsible for team-building?
- How do you know when a team is built?
- What empirical findings are relevant to team-building?
- Are there common myths and misconceptions about teambuilding?
- Are there any unalterable truths about teambuilding?
- What if I'm not a big "people-person"? Can I apply the framework successfully?
- Can I combine activities, i.e., accomplish team-building while meeting with teammates for other reasons?
- What empirical findings are relevant to team-building?
- Are there different kinds of teams?
- Or is a built team a built team regardless of the teams composition and mission?
- Is there a better definition of "team" than a group of people working together toward a common goal?
- What are the similarities between teambuilding and good project management?
- What cross-cultural issues are worth thinking about?
- How does peer motivation work in terms of getting buy-in and commitment?
- Do you have to take time away from work for team-building?
- Does the same teambuilding framework apply to co-located teams as well as distributed teams? What about teams where members are not full-time?
- What are the most high-leverage things I can do if my time is limited?
- How do you build and manage trust?
- What do you do about difficult people?
- How do you know when it is time to give up?
Details
What do you think of 4 content modules, about 90 minutes each, spaced 2 weeks apart? That way if you are working in 2-week sprints, you'll just have to fit in 1 module each sprint.
And what about 4 Q&A sessions of 60 minutes each during alternate weeks? These Q&A sessions will be directed totally by your questions.
Oh, and all sessions will be recorded and provided to you as high quality MP3s and transcripts -- in case you can't attend a session live, and so you can study further at your own pace.
Would you like to start in late January or early February (2010) and conclude by late March or early April?
Suggested tuition: $197 per person; $397 per team of 2-6. Does that sound reasonable?
Comments please by email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
