At Challenge-U we create highly proactive and self managed teams that are inspired to work together to achieve extraordinary results.  We believe that extraordinary teams share the following critical characteristics:

• Are able to confront difficult issues
• Are driven to achieve extraordinary results
• See possibilities where others do not
• Work within a system of accountability
• Celebrate successes openly and out loud

Teams struggle most when the task of the team has become more important than the process…and the most vocal individuals rule the day.  Innovative teams excel.  They create a forum for all voices and are not afraid of making mistakes in the process of learning. 

The Extraordinary Team is a journey to discover the key elements of teams, where they most commonly make mistakes and how to help them rise to extraordinary performance.  Participants move through a series of initiatives and challenges designed to diagnose and expose their team’s process weaknesses.  As the team struggles, it is offered the assistance and helped to recognize new skills and tools.  Careful attention is given to development of a commons & shared understanding of team process. 


The Extraordinary Team Content

Create a Safe Place for Growth

• Develop boundaries and permission for participant experience
• Assist participants to develop a comfort zone before exposure to risk
• Create an atmosphere for choice in risk taking

Developing the Human Element:

• Create an environment where each team member’s voice and ideas are heard and valued
• Recognize the behaviors and obstacles that block creativity
• Increase awareness of the dynamics that stop teams short of their true potential

Communicating Clearly:

• Learn the necessity of and methods for creating shared mental models
• Experience the effect of misunderstandings and disagreements
• Discover the failures of “language” in effective communication
• Develop precision language skills needed to get on the same page
• Build fast, effective consensus-based decision making skills and create successful group discussion
• Transform “knowers” into “learners” by creating a thirst for information, capitalizing on the knowledge gained from mistakes while developing the patience to avoid the quick fix
• Develop the resilience of the team and its members to sustain them through the long haul
• Create goal setting strategies that create maximum buy-in and the highest performance
• Understand the relationship between and effective balance of task vs. process
• Create a process and sequence for innovative problem solving

How Did We Get Here?

• Where did all of our energy go?
• 4 F’s of team conflict and function
• develop accurate assessment skills and tools for “in the moment” facilitation
• demonstrate the dangers of acting on mistaken assessments and devlop a simple, effective process for inquiry that will end a majority of mis-assessments.

Searching for Knowledge:

• “data is good!”
• failure is the BEST teacher
• foster experimentation and risk taking…encourage lots of little failures in the development phase to ensure large successes in the implementation phase