COLLABORATION & COHESION
The foundation that fosters joy and the social bonds that come from effective teamwork is Collaboration and Cohesion — key elements like meeting effectiveness, how to engage in challenging conversations, essential skills for effective communication, and fostering resilience are a few of many crucial areas for sustained success.
Toolkit for the Key Dimension of Team Effectiveness
COLLABORATION & COHESION
The Corentus Team Wheel focuses on four key dimensions of team effectiveness, each with its own toolkit. These toolkits contain tools, methods, processes, and techniques, honed over time.
If you're considering focusing on 'Collaboration & Cohesion' for your leadership team(s), Contact Us for a discussion. Our accelerated development programs are designed to integrate learning directly into real work scenarios.
COMMON PURPOSE & SHARED GOALS | ROLES & COMPETENCIES | COLLABORATION & COHESION | MUTUAL ACCOUNTABILITY
COLLABORATION & COHESION
Effective collaboration and team cohesion are essential for sustained success. Corentus provides a suite of five main team tools under the Collaboration and Cohesion focus area, offering practical strategies to enhance meeting effectiveness, communication, teamwork foundations, challenging conversations, and resilience.
Main Corentus Team Tools
O-P-O METHOD
How do you structure work sessions that facilitate efficient discussions and generate clear outcomes?
MEETING AND WORK SESSION ACCOUNTABILITY
How do you structure work sessions that facilitate efficient discussions and generate clear outcomes?
AGENDA DESIGN
How do you design effective meeting agendas?
FACILITATION FUNCTIONS
What’s the role of an effective facilitator?
WORK SESSION ROLES
What are the key roles to be considered for productive work sessions?
FACTS VERSUS OPINIONS
How do you practice communication that is impactful, mindful, and persuasive?
3 TYPES OF NOISE
How do you minimize communication “interference” in conversations?
COMMUNICATION ESSENTIALS
Every aspect of collaborative teamwork relies on good communication. Most of the time, in conversations, people focus much more on what they’re saying (their ideas) than on how they say it (the specific communication behaviors they use to convey their ideas). This tool explains that the How of communication often has an even greater impact on our relationships than the What. This tool identifies several common behavior patterns that make achieving mutual understanding and agreement difficult. You’ll learn to recognize each pattern, assess its impact on your work and professional relationships, and implement targeted strategies to shift communication in a more productive direction.
MicroTools from the Corentus Team Tool - Communication Essentials
MicroTools from the Corentus Team Tool - Meeting Mastery
The O-P-O Method is a Corentus tool designed to structure effective work sessions that produce concrete results. Use this practical 3-step structure to create clarity and alignment, up front, about your meeting objectives, the outcomes you're trying to achieve, and the process you'll engage to get there. With the O-P-O Method, your teams will spend less time in meetings and more time delivering results.
The Meeting and Work Session Accountability micro tool focuses on the critical role of meeting ownership and accountability for the planning and managing of successful meetings. Take ownership of the design, in-session management, and follow-up for successful meetings using this micro tool. Clear and active meeting ownership is a crucial ingredient of productive meetings.
MEETING MASTERY
Think about all the hours you and your team spend in meetings each week. Are you making the most of everyone's valuable time? This tool will provide you with a suite of practical, easy-to-implement techniques for planning and running team meetings to maximize accountability, effectiveness, efficiency, and follow-through. We cover a comprehensive range of topics, from meeting structure and meeting roles to managing time, focusing people’s attention, and gathering feedback for continuous improvement.
“I” STATEMENT FEEDBACK
How do you provide feedback that leads to mutual understanding and a commitment to positive change?
SPNS FRAMEWORK
How do you transform tense, uncomfortable, and protracted discussions into productive, solution-focused engagements?
FUNCTIONAL SUBGROUPING
How do you effectively engage others to find shared solutions from competing ideas?
CHALLENGING CONVERSATIONS
Effective communication is especially important when times get tough—when breakdowns occur, tensions rise, and tempers start to flare. For these conversations, teams with effective tools and methods at their disposal fare much better than those that simply “wing it.” This tool presents powerful, time-tested methods for managing difficult conversations: “I” Statement Feedback, the S-P-N-S Framework, and Functional Subgrouping. Each of these tools can be used effectively in the context of a full team or in subgroups or one-on-one interactions.
MicroTools from the Corentus Team Tool - Challenging Conversations
FOUNDATIONS OF TEAM COHESION - i4
For a team to function as more than the sum of its individual members, it must first recognize, address, and integrate the unique needs and characteristics of those members. In particular, each person must develop clarity on four factors (i4): identity, integration, influence, and individual goals. Effectively managing these factors helps the team not only to clarify team roles and ways of working, but also to build trust and psychological safety. This tool explores the i4 categories in detail, including a variety of tools and methods to help teams address each one.
BUILDING RESILIENCE
The ability to effectively manage stress has a profound impact on our effectiveness as leaders, as well as on our own well-being. Resilience in the face of stress translates to better, more sustainable performance for both individuals and teams. This tool provides scientifically grounded strategies to reduce the negative effects of stress—on you and on all those who depend on you. It covers the physiology of acute and chronic stress; short- and long-term stress management techniques; and a proven approach to build resilience through physiological coherence.
Agenda Design lays out all the meeting components to be considered for effective meeting orientation and agenda timing while highlighting three common agenda issues for consideration. Plan successful meetings using this micro tool to ensure participants are fully oriented and prepared for active engagement. Active agenda design is a critical but often overlooked ingredient of productive and efficient meetings.
The Work Sessions Roles micro tool provides clarity on the four key roles, beyond the expected facilitator role, that meeting owners need to consider during meeting planning. Deploy this tool to provide clarity on the ownership of meeting management responsibilities and to ensure full participation, good time management, and proper documentation. Everyone has a role in making work sessions effective!
The Five Functions of Facilitation micro tool dives deeper into an exploration of conversation needs that promote participant focus, increase meaningful participation, and minimize derailers. Take up your full role of facilitator and go beyond managing meeting flow and participant contributions. Explore and practice these four facilitator functions, positively impacting agenda completion and overall session effectiveness.
The Facts versus Opinions micro tool provides an in-depth look at the distinctions of these two foundational language concepts and their impact on understanding and improving communication. Apply these distinctions in coaching and everyday conversations to increase clarity, expand understanding, speed up decision-making, and promote collaboration. The practical guidance and insights provided by this micro tool will enhance your meaning-making and support engagement in more purposeful and solutions-focused conversations.
The 3 Types of Noise micro tool provides guidance to help you recognize, understand, and counteract factors that interfere with effective communication. Take responsibility for your part and apply new communication techniques that support the effective transfer of information. Embrace these habits of healthy communication patterns for more direct, clear, and impactful interactions.
The Functional Subgrouping strategy offers three simple rules to move conversations forward when presented with competing options. Practice using this micro tool in one-on-one conversations, in groups, or on your own to increase the likelihood of reaching solutions. Instead of being lost in back-and-forth debates, this strategy will move everyone forward together.
“I” Statement Feedback is a practical structure and guide for sharing feedback productively. Engage in effective communications when giving feedback using this micro tool as it guides you through a four-part ‘I’ statement. It is a way to have an exploratory conversation that leads to mutual understanding and commitment to positive change.
The S-P-N-S Framework will help you gain clarity, facilitate the exchange of different perspectives, and create a path to mutually agreeable solutions. Develop your capacity to engage in constructive conversations. This four-step communication strategy offers a simple format for redirecting conversations with greater effectiveness toward shared outcomes.