FocusOn Virtual Teams

"Focus helped us meld a group of highly-talented, independent managers into a high-performing management team. The results were nothing short of phenomenal. With Focus, we learned not only the power of the team, but also the growth it affords each team member."

–R. S. Barna
former publisher CMP Media, Popular Science

"Thanks for all the great work! I found the experience renewing, inspiring, and full of hope. I felt I LEARNED a great deal."

–Gigi Antoni
CEO, Big Thought

I love hearing from a team that they've made more progress in a couple days from our work together than they had in weeks or months leading up to that point - and I've heard it many times. Why? Because most teams jump into the task at hand with limited mindsets, trust, and ability to dialogue, all of which can be playing into the very problems they're now trying to address. We help them step back, get the bigger picture, know their strengths, weaknesses, and where they need to focus to fulfill their purpose. We also help them get real, creating dialogue that creates learning, and allows the team to do bold things well. I love that part, too.

- Dr. Ginny Whitelaw

FocusON the Virtual Team

Remember when teams used to be in the
same building? Or at least on the same
continent?
- No waiting for a call-back;
- No wondering what others are
          working on;
    - No misalignment on projects;
      - No going for more than a week without
         speaking to other team members.

While teams remain the key unit of business
performance, most teams must now operate
virtually. Technology can close some of
the distance, but also creates new challenges:
- Email exchanges of escalated misunderstanding
- Conference calls that become multitasking marathons, with no one really present
    - Feelings of isolation that erode trust, truthtelling, and progress

We know these challenges well from years of helping other teams through them and, as a virtual team ourselves, learning our own way past these barriers. We know the science and practice of building high performing virtual teams, and add to it our unique technology for working with a team's energy patterns to create a climate of full engagement.

Virtual teams made virtually seamless...

through techniques that build cohesion, collaboration and trust across distance and cultures
by skillful management of paradox and conflict
by avoiding the common traps of distance communication that lead to misunderstanding
by creating a sound foundation for team performance - especially the parts virtual teams often forget on their own

We help virtual teams...

Foster the same level of collaboration, trust and effectiveness as in a face-to-face environment
Get off to a great start in defining purpose, shared goals, and clear roles and responsibilities
Manage the paradoxes of competing stakeholders and conflicting goals
Develop ways to build and test consensus, maintain engagement, and deepen their dialogue
Discover new ways of communicating that allow space for relationship building

Team Performance Accelerated

We accelerate the progress of teams by helping them build a solid foundation, develop shared awareness, and manage their energy for full engagement. Our unique approach utilizes the energy patterns as a common language, diagnostic, and framework for progress. Our FEBI assessment for team members and our Focus Climate Indicator (FoCi) for the overall team, enable the right balance and focus of the team's energy. Through our expert facilitation and coaching, adapted to either the virtual or face-to-face environment, we move teams from tolerating differences to leveraging them, from coping with conflict to transforming it, from getting by to getting great results.

Read more about how we use the FEBI with teams, including a client case study.