Building Team Spirit: Activities for Inspiring and Energizing Teams

Enhance the cohesiveness, enthusiasm, and trust of any team using the 50 proven activities contained in this comprehensive team-building resource. The activities help you develop teams in any of the six phases of the "Team Spirit Spiral:" Initiating...Visioning...Claiming...Celebrating...Letting Go...and Service. Pick and choose just the activities your team needs to improve its weak spots or follow step-by-step the complete Team Spirit Spiral program. Developed from studies of what creates "team spirit" on performing teams and successfully field-tested at AT&T, NCR, LEXIS/NEXIS, and other major companies, the unique Team Spirit program will be an invaluable resource for inspiring peak performance in work groups in any type of organization. The activities in Building Team Spirit are for facilitators who want to: Build team morale by fostering interconnectedness; Resolve conflict through forthright communication; Provide constructive feedback; Clarify team roles and goals; Develop new thinking and plan for the future; Encourage festivity and fun. And to help you achieve maximum effectiveness with your teams, each activity comes with learning goals, necessary preparations, and facilitator guidelines plus reproducible forms and graphic materials for presentations or handouts.

About the Author

Barry Heermann, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of the Expanded Learning Institute in Dayton, Ohio. Barry is an organizational consultant and a core faculty member of the Graduate School of the Union Institute. He has served as a faculty member, department head, dean, and vice president in public and private institutions, and he is the author of two books and three New Directions' editions published by Jossey-Bass on adult and experiential learning themes. Barry's reflection on team development, "Spirit in Team," appears in the book, The New Bottom Line: Bringing Heart and Soul to Business, (New Leaders Press/Sterling and Stone, 1996).