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WorkShop’s Monthly Newsletter

January 2010

Send your suggestions by email at:

http://www.creativeworkplace.com/Contact_Us.htm

The winner will be featured in our February 2010

Newsletter and will receive a complimentary full day meeting

at WorkShop for up to 10 people, including breakfast!

Do you have

productive meetings? Find the things you need for

your next meeting.

Breaks agenda evites

objectives ontime fun

consensus effective

motivate minutes leader

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Strategic Planning 2

Pics of the Month 3

Blog 4

Team building Tip 4

Coupon 4

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Watt’s My Name?

Our new little light bulb character needs a name. Think about ideas, creativity, what we do here at WorkShop and how to market that concept. He needs a name that represents us. Come on you can do it. Send us your idea, give it a shot.

B R E A K S A C E E M L

R L A D E T A V I T O M

E E G S U S N E S N O C

M A E E S E T U N I M O

I D N G R I D C O W N M

T E D A V S N O A Y U L

N R A E V I T C E F F E

O B J E C T I V E S G A

Accelerating Corporate Transformations (Don’t Lose Your Nerve!)

By Stephanie Ringer

January 2010

I was reading a message from Robert H. Miles. He noted that if you ask any CEO who has overseen a

corporate transformation, what should have been handled differently, you are likely to get this answer: “We

should have—and could have—moved faster.”

Such executives have a long list of regrets: They wish they had unified the leadership team right away. They

wish they had engaged employees sooner and quickly drummed up support for the new vision. They wish

they hadn’t waited so long to test their assumptions and refine their key initiatives. And they wish they had

generated some visible returns early on, to accelerate the commitments and reinforce the expectations of em-

ployees, customers, suppliers, and investors. Any corporate transformation—launching the next major phase

in an organization, executing a new corporate strategy to achieve breakthrough performance, enabling a new

executive leader to take charge, or integrating an acquisition—is fraught with challenges. (Harvard Business

Review)

I can’t help but think that the teams who come to WorkShop for their strategic planning sessions are getting

support for their new visions because of the way they encourage team member input. By getting ideas and

and commitments from participants, they are actually creating a shared vision and accountability within the

team.

Keeping with the practice of setting small attainable goals helps the teams measure their successes. The

teams that actually meet quarterly to discuss their strategies and where they measure up are actually more

successful than those who never change course. Now I know we really don’t want to change horses in the

middle of the stream, but we do have to do a progress check. If progress is impeded, we need to evaluate the

cause and make adjustments

accordingly. This renews commitment

from the team, revises the small

obtainable goals, encourages focus

and comradre.

I think an important part of strategic

planning is to give your leadership

team some form of team building

activity in early Summer. This gives

them a renewed sense of urgency and

focus. Keeping their eyes on the ball

together is a bonding experience that

will help overcome the “Spring Fever”

that we all get after a cold winter.

Act now, don’t wait, get your leaders

offsite to plan your next move.

January 2010

Teambuilding Fun at December

thank you to :

The Peregrine Group Evergreen Real Estate

Anchorage Police Dept Presbyterian Church

Anchorage Fire Dept Maryhurst

Marcum’s KFC

Anchorage City Hall The Salon at Anchorage

January 2010

http://workshoplouisville.wordpress.com/

As Human Resource professionals, trainers, meeting

planners, executive assistants, how often are you asked

about team building? How often are you approached with

“do you have any ideas about what we can do in the com-

munity”? Let me share with you what corporate teams did

in 2009 to answer those questions.

Build on what you know, discover what you don’t!

Full day Meeting Space Please present coupon for dis-count. One coupon per visit. Valid http://workshoplouisville.wordpress.com/2009/12/29/help-your-

teams-help-your-community/

Goal Setting and sharing

your vision. Take a piece

of flip chart paper and

some markers. Ask your

team to make a front

page of a newspaper dated

12/31/2010. What is the

feature story? What is the

year in review? What are

the current events? Don’t

forget the weather and

sports. Now you have a

good visual to keep your

team on track.