Team atmosphere
Featured in the Developing an Emotionally Intelligent Team training manual
By Mike Bagshaw
Category: Emotional Intelligence
Credit price: 3 download credits (Single user)
Many teams suffer from an emotional virus. It can be caused by insensitive new management, anxiety and uncertainty about change, loss of trust, or self-interested politicking. An emotional virus can result in ‘us verses them’, blame, antagonism, and damage to the process of sharing learning and knowledge. This results in cynicism and bitterness, and can have health consequences. Productivity plummets as an emotional virus spreads. It’s a lose-lose situation. The emotional virus breeds, especially in the gap between what is said and what is done. Like a physical virus, the emotional virus in the workplace is highly infectious, especially when resistance is low, and it’s easily spread.
You start the training activity by asking for the participants’ views on what makes good and bad team atmospheres. You go on to explain the concept of the ‘emotional virus’. The participants then work in small groups to complete a case study exercise. You review their results and present the key points for creating a positive and productive team atmosphere. Finally, you ask each participant for one thing they intend to work on to create a positive team atmosphere back in the workplace. You then draw these themes together to summarise the training activity.
Who is it for: This training resource is intended for use by trainers to enable participants to examine what makes good and bad group atmospheres, to develop an understanding of the causes and consequences of the emotional virus, and how to combat it.
| Resource Type: | Activity |
| Min Group Size: | 4 |
| Max Group Size: | 12 |
| Typical Duration: | 02:35:00 |
| No of Pages: | 17 |
Resources: View standard resources for Fenman training activities
Purpose: This training resource is intended for use by trainers, as a first-level skills activity for building good EQ communication skills in the team, on leadership, personal development, team building, and team development programmes.
Download the training activity, Team atmosphere as featured in the Fenman training manual; Developing an Emotionally Intelligent Team