January/February 2003

University of Connecticut Leadership Training Adds LIBERATION™  - Teambuilding, Inc.'s Gary Turner recently assisted the U. of Connecticut in adding our intensive LIBERATION™ exercise to its leadership training on team negotiation. Participants were totally engaged for the 8-hour session, using teams of negotiators to free hostages in an incredibly realistic software-driven scenario. According to participants, the session "was very interactive and engaging, a great teambuilding exercise, and sharpened negotiation skills." For more information, click here: LIBERATION™

Taking Care of Employees Pays
Who says that paying attention to employees is the "soft" side of business. According to Business Week magazine, as of August, 2002, the total market capitalization (value) of Southwest Airlines was $9.11 billion…exceeding the combined values of Delta, American, Northwest, Continental, United, US Airways, America West, JetBlue, Alaska, and Airtran combined! (August 5, 2002)

Teambuilding at Orlando's Universal Studios
A great day of experiential learning was had by 18 managers of Costa Nursery Farms, Inc. as they participated in Teambuilding, Inc.'s Building High Performance Teams plus Treasure Hunt. The team spent the morning at the Hard Rock Hotel discussing essential team leadership skills, then walked over to Universal Studios to apply what they learned to our unique treasure hunt there.

         
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The hunt was not only high-energy fun, but also simulated re-world organizational issues in the unique setting of the Universal Studios theme park.

March 2003

With over 500 of you responding to our January-February Web Poll, the results are clear---most of you (23%) voted that "Team members in conflict" is your most significant team problem.

The Poll's topic said "My team's most significant problem is…" and your answers ranked as follows:

To address the concern of team members in conflict, it is essential to look at root causes. Much of the time conflict stems from unclear or nonexistent agreements among team members. To address this, we have added a new article entitled Creating Team Agreements for Results.

Teamwork Growing at the Executive Level?
A recent issue of Business Week magazine (3/17/03) may have heralded a new era of executive teamwork (previously considered an oxymoron). The cover story, "Remaking IBM," states that the new CEO Samuel J. Palmisano has asked his board to cut his 2003 bonus and distribute the money to his best-performing top managers based on their ability to work as a team. This is unprecedented in the American business culture, and hopefully will send a needed message that teamwork isn't just for the lower echelons.

Picking Stocks is a Team Sport
"At Dodge & Cox Stock Fund, teamwork is everything," says an article in the March 24th issue of Business Week magazine. Using a team of 10 money managers and 20 analysts, the fund has had impressive results. Its five-year average return of 7.8% beats 99% of its large-cap peers. The teamwork approach to mutual fund investing is rare on Wall Street, so this approach is worth noting.

TeambuildingInc.com breaks new record!!!
The month of March saw a new milestone for our website with visitors exceeding 30,000 for the first time. The actual count was 30,783 or an average of 993 visitors per day.

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