Who Do You Think I Am? OR It's All About the Team-Building

Module 1:
In an online environment, comfort appears key. Students need to be comfortable reaching out to their instructor (facilitator) and to each other. This is especially important when all, or at least most, of the interaction comes through the written word. How do you team-build over e-mail?

Career Management International, Inc. developed a model, and a fun online quiz, that suggests organizations are organizations are organizations. According to their website: "The Kingdomality series was based on the business book, Kingdomality: An Ingenious New Way to Triumph in Management, written by the owners of CMI and Sheldon Bowles, with an introduction by Ken Blanchard. Kingdomality, designed by CMI to be more than simply a training event, provides a process for better team communication and continuous self-improvement which will last long after the education has been completed. The very nature of Kingdomality and the positive imagery of its "characters" leads to more direct and successful communication and enables teams to move forward more effectively.

The Kingdomality series is popular with teams from all industries.

The Kingdomality Series:

• Explores the individual styles, interests, abilities and strengths of each of the participants
• Creates an understanding of how different communication styles affect others
• Provides a baseline knowledge of the combined strengths of the team
• Leverages participant strengths and skills for organizational effectiveness
• Involves team members in engaging, non-threatening exercises to reinforce the knowledge acquired
• Serves the needs of key leadership teams
• Equally addresses the requirements of any natural work team within the organization
• Identifies the needs of any project team
• Teaches a common, tactile, positive "language" which will be used throughout the organization

Kingdomality is a four part training and team building series which enables organizations to productively attain short term advancement and create a long term process for successful communications and growth. Many organizations provide the first workshop of the Kingdomality series as a regular part of their corporate retreats or annual meetings."

Each student in EDUC 6201 took the Kingdomality Quiz to discover what medieval job they might have had. I got the White Knight.

Reflection: The moral of the story: Team-Building is just as much about thinking about your own role in the group as asking others to behave cooperatively. More to come ...