Updates & Resources
Our industry is always buzzing with news and updates, and as part of my services I’m pleased to share some of the most relevant articles and posts. Stay tuned for more and contact me with any questions or remarks.
9 Strategies for Effective Team Building
NOVEMBER 9, 2017
Your company is only as good as the teams that do the work day in and day out. Without a unified body of gifted, passionate individuals who can also work well together, your success will be severely limited. If you want a team that can masterfully execute your company vision, consider implementing these nine strategies.
Selective Hiring
Hiring is obviously the first stage of team building, so it should be marked by intentionality. If you know your company vision, and the kind of team you want to create, you should only hire individuals who will further these goals. A person’s qualifications or work experience matter, but they should also share your passion and vision. The best teams are those unified around a singular purpose, pursued with a shared zeal. Consider allowing the team who will actually be working with a new hire take part in the interviewing process of applicants. This will not only help the team determine if there is a good fit, but will help break down any barriers that might exist when bringing someone new onboard.
Encouragement
A good team is a confident team; a group in good spirits. Management must take care to encourage their team, keeping a watchful eye on group morale. If an employee’s stress level is too high, a good manager will notice and take action so that the emotion doesn’t sweep over the team like a virus. In the same respect, a manager’s duty is to acknowledge contributions each individual makes to the team. Recognition, especially in a group context, can be an immensely helpful means of encouragement, but a kind word or encouraging email work, too.
Evolution
No good team stays stagnant. Change is not an enemy; quite the opposite. An effective team will evolve to meet the needs they encounter, adapting to fit their context. They will grow in whatever ways will make them most effective in the ever-changing technological and business climates. Management must watch for changing trends in their field, evolving alongside these trends to better serve their clientele. Because teams are made up of different individuals with unique skills and characteristics managers can help evolve the team by looking for opportunities for individuals to expand on what they already do well and their natural strengths.
Listening
A good team values each individual contributor, and in doing so will recognize the importance of listening. Every member of your team is capable of unique ideas and input, but they won’t contribute if they don’t think anyone will listen. You won’t have a true, comprehensive team if some members have next to no involvement, or if your group is made up entirely of yes-men. If everyone listens to each other, however, you’ll have more ideas, increased collective respect, and better morale overall. Some new ideas, creative solutions, etc. can ultimately come from listening while other team members will share without the fear of criticism.
Course-correction
The most successful people—and teams—know when they’ve made a mistake, and aren’t ashamed to correct it. You may make a decision that turns out to be a bad one, but that doesn’t mean you must stubbornly stick with it. Sometimes the very best changes occur as a direct result of a plan that didn’t work. The best teams recognize that course-correction is not something to be avoided, but rather an important part of success.
Conflict Management
Conflict can get a bad rap, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Conflict is often the means by which strategies are developed and ideas perfected. Disagreements need not get out of hand, however, allowing the team to exercise different ideas can challenge thinking and see different perspectives. The best teams respect each other, working through their disagreements rather than letting their differences divide them. If managed well, conflict can be a fire that refines rather than destroys.
Creativity
Teams that thrive do so because their environment fosters creativity. Thinking outside the box is a good thing, and the best workplaces encourage it. At the same time, sometimes getting out of the office is the best way to foster creativity. Spending some time in a new environment can unlock new ideas and produce a more relaxed context for brainstorming and planning. Travel to a new location or experiencing something new or different in a new culture is one way to help teams bond based upon a shared experience.
Self-Awareness
Building a great team requires a knowledge of what each member brings to the table. Every individual should be in a role that plays to their strengths, placed in that role by management that knows the particular gifts of each team member. But that management should also know themselves and be aware of when to step up or step back. How do their employees view them? How can they better earn respect? Good management—and good teams—are aware of their strengths and weaknesses, utilizing their gifts and improving their weaker aspects.
Relationship-building
It’s okay if your team doesn’t end up being best friends outside of work, but it’s still helpful for everyone to get to know each other. People are more than their careers, after all. One of the benefits of spending time together outside of the office is that people can relax a little bit by being free of deadlines, productivity expectations, etc. Learning about each other away from the office helps develop trust, build respect, and create a better environment when you return to your office.
Conclusion
A brilliant corporate vision may see some success, but without a solid team it will never achieve its full potential. A better team makes for a better company.
To download this as an infographic click here.
Planning a corporate retreat? Contact Gavel International for more information about team building and executive retreat planning.
CAPP projects $6B jump in investment in Canadian oil and natural gas in 2022
JANUARY 20, 2022
The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers says rapid growth in global demand for natural gas and oil will see the trend of significant investment in the sector continue for the second straight year.
CAPP projects $32.8 billion in investment in 2022, a nearly $6 billion increase over the $26.9 billion invested in 2021, as producers look to make hay as commodity prices are strong.
The organization says investment increases are expected this year in both capital investment, forecasted at $21.2 billion compared to $18.1 billion in 2021, as well as oilsands investment where a 33 per cent increase over 2021 is anticipated ($11.6 billion compared to $8.7 billion).
Alberta is expected to be the province to experience the largest investment gains percentage-wise. CAPP projects a 24 per cent increase to $24.5 billion.
Increased investment is also projected for B.C., Saskatchewan and offshore production.
Despite the rosy outlook for 2022, CAPP says Canada continues to lose global market share to other jurisdictions.
Tim McMillian, CAPP president and CEO, says more needs to be done to support "one of the most innovative energy producers in the world" and oil and natural gas produced outside Canada will likely "not match our high environmental and social standards."
"Rapid demand growth for oil and natural gas globally and strengthening commodity prices mean there is opportunity for Canada’s industry for decades to come. To ensure a true recovery takes hold in Canada, government at all levels along with the industry must work together to create an environment where the natural gas and oil industry can thrive and attract investment back to Canada."
A Wood Mackenzie forecast suggested Canada would receive roughly six per cent of worldwide investment in oil and natural gas this year. In 2014, Canada received 10 per cent of investment in the sector. The four percentage point drop equates to approximately $21 billion.
The Future Of Work In 2022 And Beyond
MARCH 9, 2022
This will sound crazy, but we actually used to go to offices to work. Like, people woke up, showered, got dressed, and fought through rush hour traffic and the challenge of finding decent parking so that they could sit at a desk in a building to do work. Now, people work from everywhere. A new report from Ivanti examines the trends of the “Everywhere Workplace” and its implications on the future of work.
Digital Transformation or Death
A lot has changed in two years. It’s hard to imagine that at this time in 2020, I had just returned from the RSA Conference in San Francisco and had plans to travel to Austin on business the following week—and then the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything. As regions implemented quarantine protocols to limit the spread of the virus, businesses had to shift overnight to a completely remote, work-from-home business model.
Most organizations initially treated it similar to natural disaster response—as if we just needed to get through a couple of weeks and then things would return to normal. That did not happen. After a couple of weeks went by and it started to sink in that we were in this for the long haul, organizations that were already engaged in digital transformation accelerated their plans, and businesses that hadn’t yet considered digital transformation found that failure to embrace it would likely be fatal.
We’re Not Going Back
The results, however, have been impressive. While the circumstances that got us here are tragic, the outcome of the shift to working from home have been almost universally positive—for the business and for the employees. With COVID-19 finally starting to seem under control to some extent, businesses are starting to consider the question, “What now?” What does “normal” look like going forward?
Those are not questions that should be answered in a vacuum. Smart businesses weigh all of the factors and consider input from employees as well. The 2022 Everywhere Workplace Report from Ivanti is a useful resource for companies looking to understand what employees prefer and how to strike the right balance moving forward. Ivanti surveyed 4,510 office workers, and 1,609 IT professionals across the United States, UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Sweden, and Australia to gain insight into the attitudes around working from everywhere and examine the pros and cons of remote work.
For businesses that hoped to just go back to the way things were, good luck. There is no way to put this genie back in the bottle. The Ivanti survey found that nearly 9 out of 10 (87%) survey respondents do not want to work from the office full-time. Nearly half (45%) would be happy to never step foot in an office again, while 42% indicated that they prefer a hybrid model that splits time between home and office. One shocking stat is that 71% stated that they would choose to be able to work from anywhere over a job promotion or compensation increase. Why do they feel that way? Responses from the survey include saving money (40%), less time commuting (48%), a more flexible schedule (43%), and better work-life balance (43%).
Challenges of the Everywhere Workplace
Organizations made the dramatic shift to an everywhere workplace model with surprising success, and—based on the survey results cited above—most workers really love the idea. That doesn’t mean there are no issues or challenges, though.
I had an opportunity to chat with Jeff Abbott, CEO of Ivanti, about the survey and what the future looks like as organizations explore their options. “CIOs and IT leaders are trying to wrestle with, you know, “What's the level of flexibility I give my workforce here? Can I let them have an Apple Watch Connect?” Well, you probably should, because this generation considers that part of their productivity stack—a part of how they stay connected.”
Abbott continued, “So you take all those conditions, and the data is clear. IT leaders are now going to have to manage this extreme flexibility and how they allow their workforce to connect and do their jobs. In fact, what I find compelling about the data is that it suggests they'll sacrifice promotions and pay and positioning for the flexibility.”
I also spoke with Ira Wolfe, a TedX speaker and author of “Recruiting in the Age of Googlization,” who has emerged as one of HR’s most visionary thinkers. Wolfe noted that even though many companies were able to make the transition to an everywhere workplace, the technology they relied on was not really built for that model. He also stressed that organizations need to consider all of the risks involved with a hybrid model where workers sometimes work from home, and sometimes come into the office.
“We're now dealing with this workplace without borders. It's not just working out in the coffee shop. The challenge is is that when you work out in the coffee shop, does that person have a VPN? Are they protected? What if they don't? What if they come back to work and they bring their laptop or they bring their phone devices and they plug in? How does that impact the company?” warned Wolfe.
The Future of Work
As with all things related to business—and especially technology—there are two major factors to consider. One is the performance and productivity, and the other is security. You need both.
Companies seem to have adapted relatively seamlessly to the everywhere workplace when it comes to performance and productivity, but the security element is more complex.
Abbott explained to me that Ivanti is working to address that challenge for customers with an automated platform to manage the full lifecycle of devices, networks, and other resources.
There is no going back. It definitely seems like the future of work will lean heavily in favor of the everywhere workplace. Organizations need to accept that so they can ensure they have the right tools in place to manage and secure it effectively. Check out the full Ivanti 2022 Everywhere Workplace Report for yourself for more insights.