{"id":1129,"date":"2016-08-30T08:00:01","date_gmt":"2016-08-30T16:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.checkworks.com\/blog\/?p=1129"},"modified":"2016-08-29T13:36:05","modified_gmt":"2016-08-29T21:36:05","slug":"how-to-regain-your-teams-mojo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.checkworks.com\/index.php\/how-to-regain-your-teams-mojo\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Regain Your Team&#8217;s Mojo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.checkworks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/bigstock-Successful-team-of-business-pe-71285170.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1130 \" src=\"https:\/\/www.checkworks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/bigstock-Successful-team-of-business-pe-71285170-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Successful team of business people giving high five in the office\" width=\"604\" height=\"403\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.checkworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/bigstock-Successful-team-of-business-pe-71285170-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blog.checkworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/bigstock-Successful-team-of-business-pe-71285170-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.checkworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/bigstock-Successful-team-of-business-pe-71285170-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.checkworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/bigstock-Successful-team-of-business-pe-71285170-624x416.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 604px) 100vw, 604px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>By MJ Plaster<\/p>\n<p>Remember the pizzazz your team had when it first began to come together and click? It was electrifying, like Fourth of July fireworks set to the 1812 Overture. Well, maybe that\u2019s an exaggeration, but just like all relationships, teams go through stages. What started out with a bang is bound to go stale unless you reinvigorate it from time to time. Team players who lose their mojo are detrimental to your business, so let\u2019s look at symptoms of complacency followed by prescriptions for regaining the spark.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>How to Tell When Your Employees Need to Regain Their Mojo<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\nYour team needs a kick in the pants if\u2026<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Team members seem inflexible\u2014as if battle lines are drawn<\/li>\n<li>Meetings spawn more complaints than solutions<\/li>\n<li>You sense a feeling of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu when working with the team\u2014as if we\u2019ve been down this road 100 times<\/li>\n<li>Team members play the blame game<\/li>\n<li>Smiles have turned into frowns<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Tips for Regaining Your Team\u2019s Mojo<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\nWhen you\u2019ve tried all the usual team-building exercises, all you need to do is add a twist to breathe new life into the experience. We\u2019ll look at eight ways to shake up team-building experiences.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>1. The Company Picnic<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\nInstead of ordering the same old, same old from the neighborhood deli, why not hold a company cook-off? Chili and barbecue cook-offs are not only great fun, but they give the team a way to shine outside of the office setting. Ask everyone to print his or her secret recipe to share. Place a bowl in front of each station, and give everyone one marble to drop in the bowl in front of the dish they consider the winner. The person with the most marbles in his or her bowl wins a prize.<\/p>\n<p>You might just discover the team wallflower excels at whipping up some chili or barbecue. The accolades received from team members can light a fire under the person to perform better at work and participate as a full-fledged member of the team.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>2. Monthly Coffees<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\nHire a company to come in once a month with a barista and fancy equipment. Hold the monthly coffees before brainstorming sessions.<\/p>\n<p>3. Working Late on a Special Project?<br \/>\nIs the whole team working late with little notice? Bring in dinner for them. Tired plus hungry never produces stellar results from employees, especially when they\u2019ve had to make last-minute arrangements for their families. Let them grumble together over dinner and get it out of their systems before knuckling down to the hard work ahead.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>4. A Job Well Done<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\nWhen a team comes in under budget, ahead of schedule and produces excellent results, it\u2019s time to reward them. No doubt they\u2019ve spent more than eight hours a day to make it all happen, so reward them with an unexpected day off. No one can keep a frenzied pace without experiencing burnout, so it pays to acknowledge and incentivize hard work when a large project reaches a successful conclusion.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>5. Take Me Out to the Ballgame<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\nOnce a year, treat the entire team to a minor league or college sports event. Most everyone roots for the home team, so the experience should spark some solidarity.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">6. Shake Up Your Brainstorming Sessions<\/span><\/strong><br \/>\nStart with the end in mind and work backward. When someone says, \u201cThis can\u2019t be done,\u201d reply with, \u201cIf it could be done, how would you do it?\u201d Keep saying it because the more you say it, the more people will dig deeper to come up with novel solutions. Once the solutions begin to flow, team members will attempt to outdo each other.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">7. Break Down the Silos<\/span><\/strong><br \/>\nToo often a company starts out as a cohesive unit, but as it grows, people tend to stick with their own\u2014socialize as well as work with employees in their own department. When there\u2019s a conflict within departments, they want their department to prevail. One way to break down the silos is to encourage cross-pollination among departments. Everyone works for the same company, and the mission and goals apply to everyone. You need to remind people in a large organization, \u201cWe\u2019re all in this together.\u201d Sometimes you need to force people together before they appreciate what people outside of their department have to offer and contribute to the company.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>8. Charity Starts at Home<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\nWith all the natural disasters occurring around the world, if you haven\u2019t experienced one in your area, just wait\u2014it\u2019s not a matter of \u201cif,\u201d but \u201cwhen.\u201d Notice how the \u201cCajun Navy\u201d was instrumental in rescuing people in Louisiana after the recent flood. We had an epic flood in Nashville six years ago, and employees from many local companies helped those of us in need.<\/p>\n<p>Anyone can help clear debris from a flooded home. Consider putting together a first-response team of volunteers at your company to help in the event of a local disaster. What you lose in productivity for the day, you\u2019ll gain tenfold in great public relations. Your employees will function at their best when they\u2019re helping those who have been struck by disaster, and they\u2019ll bring some of that spirit back to work with them.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The Cost of Maintaining a Stellar Team<\/span><\/strong><br \/>\nYou\u2019ll notice that some of the team-building experiences above cost money. Consider it a cost of doing business. When you weigh the outlay against losing burned-out employees and having to build a new team from scratch, you\u2019ll probably agree that it\u2019s money well spent. More important, the state of mind of your team members affects your bottom line. If you spend time creating a pleasant work environment by encouraging cooperation, the bottom line will reflect your efforts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By MJ Plaster Remember the pizzazz your team had when it first began to come together and click? It was electrifying, like Fourth of July fireworks set to the 1812 Overture. Well, maybe that\u2019s an exaggeration, but just like all relationships, teams go through stages. What started out with a bang is bound to go [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,31],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.checkworks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.checkworks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.checkworks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.checkworks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.checkworks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1129"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.checkworks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1131,"href":"https:\/\/blog.checkworks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129\/revisions\/1131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.checkworks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.checkworks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.checkworks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}