Yogi once said, "You can observe a lot by just watching." Look around and you will see high performing teams. Just this week, I had volunteered to be a poll watcher for this election. (East Vincent, PA - 4) At my precinct we had a record turn out, but no long lines. As part of my job, I visited other precincts in my area, and noticed that the lines were long - very long, taking some voters over

Robert McNeil

We have a number of Facilitation Books left over from some of our public workshops that will go on sale starting today. These are the ones we use in our Integral Facilitation Workshop, and our Team Training Workshop. We will be offering them at half price. They are older books but all the content is there. We will offer them till we run out. - Now it the time to add your resource library at a

Robert McNeil

Anyone out there using Twitter for teams yet? I am playing with Twitter for a few weeks now and beginning to grok it's possibilities. For one thing, it is helping me to become more concise! If you are you can connect with me here on Twitter. 

Robert McNeil

I was completing a Tune-Up with a senior team recently and we were setting up to do "Genie in the Bottle," a powerful exercise that opens feedback up across the whole group. As I was beginning to give the instructions, I noticed that the body language of the group was telling me that the exercise was engendering fear. I stopped and asked, "What's going on?" Team members described to me some

Robert McNeil

While having a smoothie at a local juice bar in Beaverton, Oregon, Erik and I had a brainstorm that we'd like to use The Hive to help create an e-book of famous quotations from our friends. Overdone? Perhaps, but we just finished reading The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki, and we thought of our own networks and how much potential knowledge we have together. So we started a short experiment

Robert McNeil

We have been using WebCouncil now for over 12 years, and are ever impressed with its array of sophisticated tools for Internet collaboration. About five years ago, we decided to brand our version of WC as "The Hive." At the time I was helping Tom French Corbett, the bee keeper at Camphill Kimberton Village. We were adding bees to the hives, and preparing new hives for the upcoming season.

Robert McNeil

I am intrigued by the life of Ben Franklin. Living in Philadelphia, I can't help being surrounded by his amazing accomplishments. In his late 40's he sold his business and decided to donate his time to making things better for his community. This idea of giving-back is so important as a path of growth. As facilitators it is also a great way to keep your skills sharpened. In your local community

Robert McNeil

Are you looking for a way to improve your audio conference calls? Isn't everyone. Wired magazine just published a short piece on "why things suck." Conference calls were right up at the top. Here's the link, it's worth a read.   One way to help is to use Skype and WebCouncil together. WebCouncil's tool box offers a great way to keep the meeting focused and to collect data from your team over time

Robert McNeil

If you are looking for a new warm-up activity with your team. Play a round of "Apples to Apples." Use it as a warm up for a team that has some history together. It's especially fun after doing a style feedback exercise like LIFO (Life Orientations). The game is very stimulating, giving everyone a chance to make assumptions about the other team members in a structured fun way. One full round is

Robert McNeil

Dr. Demming's eight point urged leaders to "Drive Out Fear" from their organizations. Fear is the enemy of trust. It invites secrecy, protectiveness, hidden agendas, and discourages team members from saying what needs to be said. Fear stifles creativity and collaboration while emphasizing command and control. When fear rules, actions become stiff, telegraphed, and slow. Grace, elegance,

Robert McNeil