Nurturing teamwork among executives at a fast-food company

You are the Chief Operating Officer, and it is clear that riding on the coattails of your corporation's long-standing reputation no longer guarantees success. While your 11 direct reports are brilliant in many ways, they do not operate as a team, and individual fiefdoms run rampant.

DN1 designed and facilitated a series of visioning and strategic planning meetings for this group to solidify its vision, goals and roles. Then, we tackled the team-building dilemma. It's funny how climbing a telephone pole while tethered to your colleagues, or scaling a 20-foot wall blindfolded helps people understand the value of teamwork in a very literal way.

Through these team-building activities and follow-up meetings, this group not only succeeded in creating a three-year plan, but coalesced as a productive team to achieve the ambitious goals of the COO.

© 2006 Drawing Number One, Inc. (DN1)