Team Development

What We Do

High Performing Teams

Now that virtual teams and a multi-generational workforce are the new reality, leaders and managers must appreciate and understand how that impacts their team dynamic. These days, things change quickly and often. As teams grow and shift, individuals may feel unsure about their role on the team, the purpose of the team or which processes they should focus on.

In any industry, achieving the highest level of performance as a team requires the contribution of multiple skills and experiences. It is a by-product of effective team leadership and individual team member commitment. Team building and motivational skills are crucial to the effective day-to-day functioning of not only a given team, but to the success of the organization. Strong teams are creative, prioritize, adapt quickly and, most importantly, get things done.

PMA offers Contributing to High-Performance Teams, a full or half-day program that utilizes a unique simulation that rapidly replicates team dynamics. After the simulation, participants reflect on their interactions and look for places where they might improve their opportunities to contribute to the team. We’ll help you learn the process of effective team building, develop quality-driven project teams, and practice the art of being a valued member of virtual teams.

By the end of this program, participants will obtain the skills necessary to:

Assess the effectiveness of the team.
Collaborate to increase team productivity.
Improve team’s overall “IQ”.
Clarify roles and learn the value of their contributions.
Implement action plans to elevate team participation.
Align the team around specific goals.
Establish clear lines of accountability and responsibility for team members.
Build effective working relationships through effective communication skills.
Identify common mistakes and solutions to challenges in teams.

Who should attend?
This program is for team members (at all experience levels) who want to help their leaders build effective teams and achieve synergy. It is especially recommended for those who are facing the challenges of being a valued member high-performance teams in a global environment.

WorkingSm@rt + Teams

The ability for teams to work together productively is perhaps the most important function in any business, and it’s the central focus of the Microsoft Teams application. Teams is the hub for Teamwork in Office 365. It integrates the people, content, and other tools that your team needs to be effective. But, since its release, many people are finding Teams can quickly spiral out into a productivity nightmare. So, how do you harness the productivity power of this tool and use it to create a more collaborative workplace?

It’s not enough to simply install Teams on every computer in the organization. Rolling out Teams across an organization and learning its functionality represents 80% of the effort of a Teams launch but, to maximize its usefulness, the other 20% needs to focus on how your organization agrees to use Teams. It’s important to align your group’s purpose with the appropriate Team structure and to organize Teams in a way that minimizes overwhelm and maximizes efficiency. Teams customizations need to be discussed, agreed upon and universally understood and applied to avoid significant complications.

PMA Philadelphia offers WorkingSm@rt + Teams, a half-day program designed to synchronize the use of Teams as an enterprise-wide collaboration tool. Our process teaches you how to change behaviors and optimize the use of technology so you can enhance your productivity, teamwork, and results. Learn to use this powerful tool to manage persistent and consistent communication and to group information for quick reference and retrieval. Teams can simplify work by focusing all the tools, resources and communications associated with a subject, meeting, or project into a single location. Further, our process will teach the best methods for using Teams to collaborate in real-time or asynchronously.

By the end of WorkingSm@rt + Teams, participants will obtain the skills necessary to:

Minimize user hesitancy about Teams and reduce adoption lag time.
Analyze who needs to be on the Team when it is formulated, including external resources.
Adopt processes that allow workgroups to work asynchronously.
Simultaneously contribute to and edit Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents and enhance collaboration.
Create transparency with colleagues and facilitate internal service delivery.
Introduce a new organizational framework and help people transition from their previously established routines.
Understand the Best Practices for communicating while using Teams.

Who should attend?
Workgroups and teams including those who work in a Microsoft Teams environment.

Project Planning Breakthroughs

Project management is often a challenge, even for the most experienced professionals. Despite having a good understanding of project management basics, many organizations struggle with proper planning and often find themselves running behind schedule as a result. Organizations may find it difficult to identify and manage risks effectively, leading to project delays or failures. Poor communication between project teams and stakeholders can lead to misunderstandings and missed deadlines. There are, quite simply, too many moving pieces to keep track of.

Project management is complex subject with many approaches, methodologies and tools. The field has evolved over time, and today, there are a wide variety of project management methodologies available, each with its own strengths and limitations. A successful project management plan requires a combination of skills, including leadership, communication, planning, risk management, and teamwork. Effective project managers must be able to balance these skills to lead projects to successful completion and meet the goals and objectives of the project and the organization.

PMA Philadelphia offers Project Planning Breakthroughs, a simulation-driven workshop focused on the challenge of providing practical improvement solutions to organizations that often already know the basics of project management. This is accomplished by two important breakthroughs: For the novice, Project Planning Breakthroughs provides a streamlined overview of the basics, while focusing on the rigorous challenges to developing the crucial element of the project Execution Plan. For the veteran, Project Planning Breakthroughs provides a brief, yet relevant overview of the basics with a strong emphasis on a vastly improved method for developing the project Execution Plan.

This course goes beyond the standards in the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), the recognized learning designation in this field and has 21 PDUs (Professional Development Units) recognized by the Project Management Institute.

By the end of this program, participants will be able to:

Develop a complete and comprehensive Objective Statement; the foundation of a successful project.
Create a detailed Execution Plan using a unique process called Objective Driven Logic, applied to a Time-Scaled Dependency Chart.
Apply a simple, yet powerful method to resolve complex resource constraints.
Calculate a detailed Budget and Cash Requirement Projection.
Integrate contingency planning through “Scenario Estimating”.
Determine where and when to best apply project management software.
Bring final closure to the project through the application of a 3-level review process.

Who should attend?
Anyone (novice or veteran) who manages, supports or initiates projects.

Conducting Effective Meetings

Professionals who spend 11 hours or more per week in meetings estimate that 25 percent of that time is wasted. Either the wrong people are in attendance, the meetings run too long or there are ineffective follow-up mechanisms in place. We are part of a culture run by virtual or in-person meetings, yet we rarely have the opportunity to learn how to effectively run, or productively attend, a meeting. Small wonder that comments like “When will this meeting end?” and “What’s the point of this discussion, anyway?” are standard fare. These disheartening questions can be answered and the problems with many meetings addressed as 70% of meeting conflict stems from flaws in the meeting process or the meeting facilitator’s approach.

The definition of facilitate is “to make easy” or “ease a process”. A great facilitator plans, guides and manages meetings and events to ensure that the objectives are met effectively and that everyone leaves with clear outcomes. Facilitators need a wide range of tools and skills to ensure that meeting and participants are engaged in the meeting. From problem solving and decision-making skills to team management and communications, a facilitator’s ability to engage a group makes all the difference. Since a well facilitated meeting can make the difference between success and failure, taking the time to hone your engagement skills is of the utmost importance.

PMA Philadelphia offers Conducting Effective Meetings, a program that covers the planning and preparation of meetings; how to recognize and handle different “meeting personalities;” and how to create a respectful, productive meeting environment. This course includes a “best practice” model for facilitating or attending meetings, and several opportunities to try out your new skills.

By the end of the program, participants will be able to:

Structure productive meetings that achieve the desired results.
Contribute their expertise in a way that is most likely to be helpful.
Build stronger relationships throughout the organization.
Create an effective meeting atmosphere.
Contribute to, and increase the productivity of, the meetings they attend or lead.
Understand behavioral styles and how they emerge in meetings.

Who should attend?
Workgroups and teams; including managers, technical and sales professionals, supervisors, administrators and project leaders who currently conduct or attend meetings.

Five Behaviors of A Cohesive Team

Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team

In these days of virtual and asynchronous work, it is harder to get teams to work together effectively and productively. The rules of teamwork must change to meet the current demands of them modern workplace. Organizations have shifted to more agile, collaborative ways of working but are finding that it comes with its own set of challenges.

The Five Behaviors Personal Development Assessment is based on best-selling author Patrick Lencioni’s ground- breaking model for developing high-performing teams through five key behaviors: Trust, Conflict, Commitment, Accountability, and Results. This powerful team model teaches the critical behaviors and interpersonal skills needed to be a team player. The result is a unique and impactful team development solution that empowers team members to shape their behaviors, increase productivity, and create a common language that completely redefines what it means to work together.

PMA Philadelphia offers Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team, a full-day program that assesses an intact team’s approach to teamwork. The program helps team members better understand themselves and the personalities on their team so they can effectively achieve their goals. When team members gain the interpersonal skills needed to understand how they and others contribute to their team’s development and how their part can make or break the team and its dynamic, they can all work and rise together.

By the end of this program, participants will:

Identify the critical behaviors and interpersonal skills needed to transform the way they work together.
Surface the ways their team is performing on each of the behaviors in The Five Behaviors model.
Establish a better understanding of their team dynamics.
Create action plans to address opportunities for improvement.
Discover their individual behavioral style and the styles of their team members.
Recognize the impact these styles have on the team’s overall success.

Who should attend?
This program is designed for small to medium sized intact teams who want to unlock the power of teamwork in your organization at all levels.

What We Do