When you bring together a group of people or create a team, there can be challenges and concerns (I wrote about some of them here.). But those problems and concerns shouldn’t dissuade us from creating peer groups. Recognizing the power of the peer group can create magic. Here are six specific powers that a peer

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Teams. Teamwork. Collaboration. Working successfully as peers. These are important qualities – things worth investing in and improving. We may not always associate those words with the phrase “peer group,” but it is a valid description. And make no mistake, there can be problems with peer groups, regardless of the ages of the members. To build better

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Where do people on your team go when they need an answer in a hurry? This simple question is the biggest barrier to team collaboration. It doesn’t matter if your team is co-located, fully remote, or hybrid. Work slows if people can’t get access to critical information. We often ask learners, “What’s the biggest reason for

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Team negativity is a real problem – it doesn’t “just” make working less enjoyable, but it has real impacts on culture, productivity, and team success. There will always be negative comments made, frustration when things don’t go as planned, and issues between team members. Consider those like seeds that can plant negativity. Here are six

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Unboss your meeting. I learned that phrase from my recent conversation with Gary Bolles during our recent Virtual LeaderCon. To unboss your meeting means to take the rank and positional power out of the room enough to create high participation meetings. If you ever find that people (or you) are afraid to talk in meetings

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Many feared that collaboration and teamwork would take a hit during the pandemic lockdowns. And on some teams, that was true. Our observation was twofold. Teams that were doing pretty well before the pandemic, fared well (if not better) during the lockdowns. But cross-departmental collaboration suffered, even if collaboration and relationships on the nuclear work

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Getting new hires acclimated to their role and productive quickly has never been without its challenges. In today’s world of remote and hybrid teams, remote on-boarding can be more difficult than when we were all co-located. But is it actually easier with a co-located team or simply a more familiar process?  For years, we onboarded

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Why do some people work from home and others prefer (or have no choice but) to work in the office? The business press will tell you it boils down to personal preference (yours or your manager’s.) New studies show that there are a number of factors involved. A recent study on Working From Home Around the

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Have you ever tried to reach someone on Microsoft Teams and seen a red status message that says they’re busy? That’s fine, but will they be available later today? Are they out of the office? Here is a simple tip that you can use to make those notifications more useful. Let’s say you’re working at home

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How do you keep employees engaged when they aren’t interacting with their teammates and leader every day? The answer is to make sure we’re mindful about including them when we have the opportunity. Positive team inclusion makes for stronger emotional connections, both with fellow teammates and our work. We become more invested in our work, and

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