The relationship between competiton and productivity

We all try harder when there’s a prize at stake, no matter how small.  The desire to win is in all of us to a greater or lesser extent, and even those who wouldn’t be described as ‘competitive’ still enjoy playing. Here, we look at the potential benefits of adding a bit of friendly competition within your team.

How can competition improve productivity?

By adding an element of productivity, like giving a prize to the person who has performed the best on a certain task, or praising people who have achieved a particular outcome, you might be helping create a motivated workforce. Having an element of competition can:

• Boost motivation
• Provide clear milestones
• Encourage communication between peers to reach a certain goal
• Break down set barriers in an organisation
• Prompt creativity

Example 1: Sales

In business, sales teams have included competitive measurement and reward to drive productivity for generations with such great effect that very few sales roles exist that don’t have some form of prize built into the remuneration package.  So it’s strange that other departments haven’t created their own ways to combine play with productive working….

What is the difference between Team Building and Team Development?

What is team building?

The phrase team building has risen in prominence in recent years as employers realised the value of a happy workforce where, despite their differences, team members are able to get along.  For many, team building is simply about getting away from the office for a celebratory meal, drink or day out and there is some value in this.  It creates a social context and allows colleagues space to become friends.

What is team development?

In the same way that a builder differs from a developer in the property world, team development is similar but distinctly different.  Builders will turn up and build a wall, whereas a developer sees the potential for that wall to become a terrace of houses.  Team development is a process in which a team takes time to explore its potential – how it can become greater than it’s been before….

Does “team building” work?

This is a common question people ask, and some are sceptical of the positive impacts of team building days and events. The impacts of a team day will depend very much on what the activity is, and it is important to remember that team building isn’t just about getting the team together.

Examples of bad team building scenarios

Paintballing

For example, sales executive Paul Garvey claimed that the most insightful team-building exercise he ever participated in involved paintball, which in no way helped to resolve the relationship issues back at the office. Speaking of his former company, he said that colleagues would poach each other’s deals while their manager played favourites. Someone decided a paintball exercise would help. It didn’t, and merely reinforced the divisions and favouritism already present.

Role playing

Another instance of completely inappropriate team building involved the team from a contractor on an Apollo space project. They were asked by their HR department to participate in a role-playing exercise where they had to return safely from the North Pole. Their day-to-day job involved helping astronauts return safely from space. What additional insights into teamwork did HR think this role play could teach them?…

Five tips for giving better feedback

Employee engagement is undoubtedly one of the key management phrases of the moment, with home working becoming more frequent it is important that employees are feeling engaged and motivated during their working hours.

Recent research has found that 65% of employees want more feedback from their employers, the research also found that 4 out of 10 employees that receive no feedback are actively disengaged from their work. Disengaged employees can cause a whole host of problems for employers including performance based and also financial. So how can you ensure that you are effectively providing feedback?

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10 Ways To Beat Email Overload

Most of us don’t just rely on email, we are shackled to it.

Email overload has been a growing problem in recent years and has only been made worse by remote working. Instead of colleagues popping over to your desk to ask a quick question, they are now having to send emails. For the more experienced and knowledgeable employees within an organisation, this can cause a huge new influx of daily emails that they never had before and lead to email overload.

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5 Steps to Better Meetings

 
Do you find that some meetings sap your energy, achieve little and leave you feeling frustrated? It shouldn’t be this way. It is estimated that up to 25% of all working time is wasted in unnecessary meetings, so how can you make sure that your meetings are oozing productivity?

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10 Tactics to Create Captivating Conferences

Are you struggling with with your post-event survey scores? Are your events lacking in engagement and value adding features? Then it is time to give your event a new itinerary, individuals attend conferences to gain learn new skills, network with new people and share professional experiences, so what can you do to encapsulate all of these whilst keeping it fun and entertaining?

Contrary to what speaker bureau would have us believe, it is possible to put on an outstanding staff conference without paying a premium for a celebrity to ‘motivate’ the crowd through the graveyard shift.

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If You Read One Management Book in 2017…

30 years ago I came across The One Minute Manager in a college library. An hour later I’d read it, understood it and was ready to implement the three core principles:…

Leicester City’s Secret

Leicester City’s astounding win of the football Premiership could be down to the fact that the team was made up of underdogs, previously rejected by other teams. Or, it could be the fact that Leicester played for fun, not the vast sums of money that their competitors had available.
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The Pace of Change is about to Accelerate

Hear about it, discuss the implications and feel it for yourself in a Tesla Model S.

Wearable technology, electric cars and the internet of things is expected to reach a tipping point in 2016. This presents numerous opportunities for your businesses to gain first mover advantage.
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