The Agility Tennis team building program uses tennis facilities, tennis equipment and tennis-based games to carry out activities that help build team synergy, build trust and make a team more cohesive.
How it works
The Tennis Team Building Program comprises of activities that use tennis balls as the focus. The activities encourage teamwork and problem solving to efficiently achieve a goal.
Our excellent tennis ball games require no special skill or equipment and can be enjoyed by everyone on your team whilst teaching them to work together, problem solve and improve processes.
Tennis Games
The games are played with any number of people divided into equal groups and the teams compete against each other.
Tennis Ball Exercises
We have numerous fun games that make use of tennis balls. From transferring balls from one container to another, to relay games, to live ball, to using rackets to move balls from one location to another, the games are endless. These activities can be timed to see which teams finish fastest and the activities can be repeated to see if teams can do better after every try. This encourages the group to work together to solve the problem of how to improve “workflow” and reduce execution time.
Our team building program is modelled around the Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team model which are Trust, Conflict, Commitment, Accountability, and Results.
This is a two to three-day TEAM BUILDING program that will touch on:
- Trust as a foundation element in a team.
- Building of conflict and conflict resolution in the team.
- Commitment: How to create clarity and get buy-in from all persons involved.
- Accountability: How to improve on Peer to Peer Accountability.
- Results: How the team can focus on collective results.
Our team building program provides solutions that:
- Help team members better understand themselves and the personalities on their team.
- Empower individuals to make lasting change in their company culture.
- Build high-performing teams that are motivated to show up as their best selves.
- Are fun, engaging, practical, measurable and customized as per your needs.
HOW IT WORKS
STEP 1: BUILDING TRUST IN TEAMS
Trust is the foundation of teamwork. When it comes to cohesive teams, trust is all about vulnerability. Team members who trust one another learn to get comfortable being open to one another, unafraid to honestly say things like “I was wrong” and “I made a mistake” and “I need help” and “I’m not sure” and “you’re better than I am at that” and yes, even “I’m sorry.”
For a team to establish real trust, team members, beginning with the leader, must be willing to take risks without a guarantee of success. They will have to be vulnerable without knowing whether that vulnerability will be respected and reciprocated.
The key ingredient to building trust is not time. It is courage. This is essential because when team members are genuinely transparent and honest with one another, it forms a safe environment that creates and builds vulnerability-based trust. Having vulnerability-based trust helps unlock team cohesion and takes your team to the next level.
How will our program equip your team to Build Trust?
Members of the team will:
- Discover the journey of trusting one another on a fundamental emotional level through trust building exercises.
- Have opportunities to learn and understand more about practicing vulnerability-based trust and its impact on teams.
- Learn to be comfortable being vulnerable with each other about their weaknesses, mistakes, fears, and behaviors over time, without fear of attribution.
- Learn how to get to a point where they can be completely open with one another, without filters.
STEP 2: MASTERING CONFLICT IN TEAMS
When we talk about conflict on a team, we’re talking about productive, ideological conflict: passionate, unfiltered debate around issues of importance to the team.
Teams that trust one another are not afraid to engage in passionate dialogue around issues and decisions that are key to the organization’s success. They do not hesitate to disagree with, challenge, and question one another, all in the spirit of finding the best answers, discovering the truth, and making great decisions.
This is important because with trust, team members are able to engage in unfiltered, constructive debate of ideas. They are able to engage in conflict around ideas.
How will our program equip your team to Master Conflict?
The team will learn how to:
- Explore how they currently engage in conflict.
- Spot the difference between having artificial harmony and being mean spirited.
- Agree on behaviors that need to change in order to have productive conflict.
- Develop their own norms for acceptable behavior during conflict.
STEP 3: ACHIEVING COMMITMENT IN TEAMS
Commitment is not consensus. Waiting for everyone on a team to agree intellectually on a decision is a good recipe for mediocrity, delay, and frustration.” Patrick Lencioni
Commitment is a function of two things:
- Clarity (the removal of assumptions and ambiguity from a situation) and
- Buy-in (the achievement of honest emotional support).
Teams that engage in unfiltered conflict are able to achieve genuine buy-in around important decisions, even when various members of the team initially disagree. That’s because they ensure that all opinions and ideas are put on the table and considered, giving confidence to team members that no stone has been left unturned.
This is critical because when team members are able to offer opinions and debate ideas, they feel heard and respected, and will be more likely commit to decisions.
How will our program equip the team to Achieve Commitment?
The team will learn how to:
- Establish clarity around the team’s priorities.
- Review what prevents/helps the team from buying in and committing to the team’s decisions.
- Avoid holding back in their responses.
- Avoid assumptions and ambiguity, and end discussions with a clear understanding about what they’ve decided upon.
- Get committed to doing the specific things that will help reach the team’s goal within the specified time.
STEP 4: EMBRACING ACCOUNTABILITY IN TEAMS
When it comes to teamwork, accountability is the willingness of team members to remind one another when they are not living up to the performance standards of the group.
Teams that commit to decisions and standards of performance do not hesitate to hold one another accountable for adhering to those decisions and standards. What is more, they don’t rely on the team leader as the primary source of accountability, they go directly to their peers. These matters because once everyone is committed to a clear plan of action, they will be more willing to hold one another accountable.
How can we help your team Embrace Accountability?
The team will learn how to:
- Give constructive feedback and understand its power and value.
- Develop a culture of peer to peer accountability and demonstrate a willingness to confront difficult issues.
- Identify behaviors that will increase the likelihood of team members holding one another accountable.
STEP 5: FOCUSING ON RESULTS IN TEAMS
We have a strong and natural tendency to look out for ourselves before others, even when those others are part of our teams and once that tendency kicks in on a team, it can spread like a disease, quickly eroding the roots of teamwork until eventually trust will be destroyed.
A team, however, is a different kind of institution. The key to success for a team is that its members go beyond distractions such as (ego, individual career advancement, financial needs, interests of your own department) and compromise to embrace a collective pursuit of the best interests of the whole. Like a family, they make sacrifices for one another with the only expectation of repayment being greater team success.
How can our program equip your team to Focus on Results?
Members of the team will:
- Understand the difference between collective results and individual results.
- Determine key distractions that prevent team members from achieving team results.
- Learn how to prioritize the results of the team over their individual or departmental needs.
- Learn how to stay focused and publicly clarify their desired results and keep them visible.
STEP 6: ACTION PLANNING
The purpose of this last step is to summarize key insights learned throughout the team building program and highlight key commitments that were discussed.
The program concludes by:
- Having each team member reflect on what s/he can do to help the team improve.
- Reflect on one thing that the entire team needs to do to improve on.
- Appointing the teams five behavior champions of Trust, Conflict, Commitment, Accountability & Results to keep the learnings sustainable in the long term.
- A follow up by the facilitator on the progress of the team, 3 months from the time the teambuilding program was conducted.
YOUR ROI FOR YOUR TEAM
By the end of this program the teams will be empowered with the necessary tools to:
- Collaborate in a synergistic way, become more innovative, better problem solvers and deliver far better outcomes.
- Connect, communicate, problem solve and conflict effectively.
- Change the culture of how the team works together and create a culturally healthy organization.
- Understand the dynamics of their team and create action plans for areas of improvement.
- Appreciate their diversity and differences.
- Learn to capitalize on diversity of thought, innovate and optimize team cohesiveness to be their best.
- Be confident enough to challenge the existing team status quo especially those that may be counter to producing desired results.
- Leverage skills of a cohesive team that will be life changing for the organization’s culture and in their personal lives.
- Last but not least, play some tennis! 🙂
We have partnered with one of the top-most Emotional Intelligence & Leadership Coaches in Africa, Coach Vicky Mukiri, to deliver a world class team building program that is modelled around the Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team model; which are Trust, Conflict, Commitment, Accountability, and Results.
This two to three-day TEAM BUILDING program will touch on:
- Trust as a foundation element in a team.
- Building of conflict and conflict resolution in the team.
- Commitment: How to create clarity and get buy-in from all persons involved.
- Accountability: How to improve on Peer to Peer Accountability.
- Results: How the team can focus on collective results.
Our team building program provides solutions that:
- Help team members better understand themselves and the personalities on their team.
- Empower individuals to make lasting change in their company culture.
- Build high-performing teams that are motivated to show up as their best selves.
- Are fun, engaging, practical, measurable and customized as per your needs.
HOW IT WORKS
STEP 1: BUILDING TRUST IN TEAMS
Trust is the foundation of teamwork. When it comes to cohesive teams, trust is all about vulnerability. Team members who trust one another learn to get comfortable being open to one another, unafraid to honestly say things like “I was wrong” and “I made a mistake” and “I need help” and “I’m not sure” and “you’re better than I am at that” and yes, even “I’m sorry.”
For a team to establish real trust, team members, beginning with the leader, must be willing to take risks without a guarantee of success. They will have to be vulnerable without knowing whether that vulnerability will be respected and reciprocated.
The key ingredient to building trust is not time. It is courage. This is essential because when team members are genuinely transparent and honest with one another, it forms a safe environment that creates and builds vulnerability-based trust. Having vulnerability-based trust helps unlock team cohesion and takes your team to the next level.
How will our program equip your team to Build Trust?
Members of the team will:
- Discover the journey of trusting one another on a fundamental emotional level through trust building exercises.
- Have opportunities to learn and understand more about practicing vulnerability-based trust and its impact on teams.
- Learn to be comfortable being vulnerable with each other about their weaknesses, mistakes, fears, and behaviors over time, without fear of attribution.
- Learn how to get to a point where they can be completely open with one another, without filters.
STEP 2: MASTERING CONFLICT IN TEAMS
When we talk about conflict on a team, we’re talking about productive, ideological conflict: passionate, unfiltered debate around issues of importance to the team.
Teams that trust one another are not afraid to engage in passionate dialogue around issues and decisions that are key to the organization’s success. They do not hesitate to disagree with, challenge, and question one another, all in the spirit of finding the best answers, discovering the truth, and making great decisions.
This is important because with trust, team members are able to engage in unfiltered, constructive debate of ideas. They are able to engage in conflict around ideas.
How will our program equip your team to Master Conflict?
The team will learn how to:
- Explore how they currently engage in conflict.
- Spot the difference between having artificial harmony and being mean spirited.
- Agree on behaviors that need to change in order to have productive conflict.
- Develop their own norms for acceptable behavior during conflict.
STEP 3: ACHIEVING COMMITMENT IN TEAMS
Commitment is not consensus. Waiting for everyone on a team to agree intellectually on a decision is a good recipe for mediocrity, delay, and frustration.” Patrick Lencioni
Commitment is a function of two things:
- Clarity (the removal of assumptions and ambiguity from a situation) and
- Buy-in (the achievement of honest emotional support).
Teams that engage in unfiltered conflict are able to achieve genuine buy-in around important decisions, even when various members of the team initially disagree. That’s because they ensure that all opinions and ideas are put on the table and considered, giving confidence to team members that no stone has been left unturned.
This is critical because when team members are able to offer opinions and debate ideas, they feel heard and respected, and will be more likely commit to decisions.
How will our program equip the team to Achieve Commitment?
The team will learn how to:
- Establish clarity around the team’s priorities.
- Review what prevents/helps the team from buying in and committing to the team’s decisions.
- Avoid holding back in their responses.
- Avoid assumptions and ambiguity, and end discussions with a clear understanding about what they’ve decided upon.
- Get committed to doing the specific things that will help reach the team’s goal within the specified time.
STEP 4: EMBRACING ACCOUNTABILITY IN TEAMS
When it comes to teamwork, accountability is the willingness of team members to remind one another when they are not living up to the performance standards of the group.
Teams that commit to decisions and standards of performance do not hesitate to hold one another accountable for adhering to those decisions and standards. What is more, they don’t rely on the team leader as the primary source of accountability, they go directly to their peers. These matters because once everyone is committed to a clear plan of action, they will be more willing to hold one another accountable.
How can we help your team Embrace Accountability?
The team will learn how to:
- Give constructive feedback and understand its power and value.
- Develop a culture of peer to peer accountability and demonstrate a willingness to confront difficult issues.
- Identify behaviors that will increase the likelihood of team members holding one another accountable.
STEP 5: FOCUSING ON RESULTS IN TEAMS
We have a strong and natural tendency to look out for ourselves before others, even when those others are part of our teams and once that tendency kicks in on a team, it can spread like a disease, quickly eroding the roots of teamwork until eventually trust will be destroyed.
A team, however, is a different kind of institution. The key to success for a team is that its members go beyond distractions such as (ego, individual career advancement, financial needs, interests of your own department) and compromise to embrace a collective pursuit of the best interests of the whole. Like a family, they make sacrifices for one another with the only expectation of repayment being greater team success.
How can our program equip your team to Focus on Results?
Members of the team will:
- Understand the difference between collective results and individual results.
- Determine key distractions that prevent team members from achieving team results.
- Learn how to prioritize the results of the team over their individual or departmental needs.
- Learn how to stay focused and publicly clarify their desired results and keep them visible.
STEP 6: ACTION PLANNING
The purpose of this last step is to summarize key insights learned throughout the team building program and highlight key commitments that were discussed.
The program concludes by:
- Having each team member reflect on what s/he can do to help the team improve.
- Reflect on one thing that the entire team needs to do to improve on.
- Appointing the teams five behavior champions of Trust, Conflict, Commitment, Accountability & Results to keep the learnings sustainable in the long term.
- A follow up by the facilitator on the progress of the team, 3 months from the time the teambuilding program was conducted.
WHAT IS THE ROI FOR YOUR TEAM/COMPANY/ORGANISATION?
By the end of this program the teams will be empowered with the necessary tools to:
- Collaborate in a synergistic way, become more innovative, better problem solvers and deliver far better outcomes.
- Connect, communicate, problem solve and conflict effectively.
- Change the culture of how the team works together and create a culturally healthy organization.
- Understand the dynamics of their team and create action plans for areas of improvement.
- Appreciate their diversity and differences.
- Learn to capitalize on diversity of thought, innovate and optimize team cohesiveness to be their best.
- Be confident enough to challenge the existing team status quo especially those that may be counter to producing desired results.
- Leverage skills of a cohesive team that will be life changing for the organization’s culture and in their personal lives.
- Last but not least, play some tennis! 🙂
Signing up for the Tennis Team Building
If you have a team and would like to improve working relationships, synergy and eventually productivity, call us on +254705082903 or email us on info@agilitytennis.com to discuss further.