This workshop teaches participants to understand how they feel when the team is working well together and when they are at their best. For example: I am relaxed and happy when we are working well together. I feel supported and listened to and I listen to others. Team members can offer me suggestions without my feeling criticized.

With this foundation of past successes, participants then explore how they feel during the times when things are not working well. Participants next investigate strategies that allow the positive attitudes and feelings of the successful times to support creative problem-solving during times in which difficulties arise. There is ample time for participants to practice strategies for dealing productively with difficult situations.

Format: This workshop consists of didactic presentations, experiential activities, and discussions/ processing. The specific structure of the workshop will reflect the expressed needs of the workshop organizers and/ or be generated by the participants as an integral part of the training process. The workshop includes opportunities to generate and practice new approaches to problem-solving.

Participants: This workshop is appropriate for any business or organization (staff, management, and/or members of Boards of Directors) that is experiencing obstacles to smooth and effective functioning. The more specifically these obstacles can be named, the more specific the focus of the workshop.

Outcomes – Participants will be able to:

• list systemic difficulties and obstacles to smoother functioning without shaming or blaming others;
• identify the elements at play when things work smoothly within the organization or business;
• generate creative ideas for working through and resolving present and future problems; and,
• articulate individual goals and objectives.

Logistics: This training can be offered as a half-day workshop (3-4 hours), or a full-day workshop with 6-7 hours of workshop time that includes a lunch break. Start and end times are negotiable. Space needs include a room that is large enough to accommodate the people involved that has movable chairs with tables off to the side. We also need a blackboard or whiteboard and appropriate chalk/ markers. Art materials may be incorporated into the activities (optional but not essential).