by Linda and Harriet Diamond, Sourcebooks, 2007.
Teambuilding is always a hot topic because most of us work in teams at some point in our day. A team can be just two people or a large group of people assigned to complete a specific task. Teambuilding addresses the ways you can increase your effectiveness when you are operating as a team or when you are coordinating a team to accomplish the needed work. This book is filled with assessment tests and activities designed to create and enhance any teams you need to work with. It is extremely useful as a reference tool as well because of the use of quick tips, alerts, assessments and activities set off by blue boxes. It is easy to locate and use the given nuggets of information to increase the skills and teamwork necessary to have everyone buy in to the tasks that need to get done and to share in the accolades when everything comes together and you achieve more than you thought you could.
Topics covered include: team development, team processes, communication, feedback, culture mix, change, the virtual team, periodic inventory and expanding your internal team. Warnings against trying to grow it alone are also included as well as ways to reflect and compare your teams before you started the process of development to where you are today. The many varied activities will appeal to many who use different styles to communicate and relate to others.
by Linda Seger, Inner Ocean, 2002.
There are many ways to look at things today. Linda addresses linear, circle and spiral thinking and walks us through the ways each way of thinking is beneficial to us in today’s world.
Most business relationships were originally set up as linear thinking, one straight path to accomplish a specific goal. There was usually no deviation from this. Circular thinking was the next step and looked at the various spheres of influence around us and how they rippled out from us and allowed us to look at a fuller picture. Spiral thinking is the most complex and allows us to see the web connections around us. We see some straight-line relationships, some circular and some spiral. We can cross from a linear connection to other connections within our sphere of influence.
Linda gives many stories that show us how to develop the right connections to allow us to use the relationships we have to provide the most benefits to us and others. Some relationships are between just two people, but many relationships we use contain multiple people. Some of these relationships are stagnant, while others are constantly changing members. Learning how to look at these relationships to see their impact on us and what changes may be needed is what is addressed in Web Thinking. Once you realize the impact of looking at a broader picture and how quickly you can build the right relationships with connecting instead of competing with others you will find that you get more of what you are looking for.
by Anne Baber and Lynne Waymon, AMACOM, 2007.
Many people think of networking as attending a business meeting such as Business After Hours, however networking is a lot more. To be truly good at networking and able to use these skills to help or advance your career you must be networking at all times and in all locations that make up your life. When developing and using the skills that make up networking become a normal part of all of your interactions you will be amazed at the opportunities that open up for you in all aspects of your life.
Anne Babar and Lynne Waymon share with us a step-by-step process to create, cultivate and make the most of all of your contacts. They include short tests to help you evaluate where you are and where you want to go, but most importantly they guide you through the process of how to get there.
They cover such topics as “netiquette,” avoiding the top twenty turn-offs and what topics to talk about. Opening and maintaining a conversation is what stops many of us from “networking” and since we don’t feel adept at conversations we choose not to network and lose many opportunities. Chapters address everything from topics to cover and avoid, maintaining the flow and closing the conversations to move on to the next opportunity. Reading and implementing the steps covered will make all of us stronger networkers and have us looking for new opportunities to apply what we now know.
