Insights Learning and Development Vancouver

Background
The Canadian Bar Association (CBA) is the leader and voice of Canada’s legal profession. The CBA is a professional, voluntary organization representing 38,000 lawyers, judges, notaries, law teachers, and law students from across Canada, of which more than 6,700 are members of the BC Branch.  An internal survey asked members what they would like for Professional Development, and the top three results included a focus on personality style, Leadership Development and Enhancing communication skills.

 Application
On February 1^st 2012 an enthusiastic group of 22 members of the Canadian Bar Association engaged in a full day Insights Discovering Team Effectiveness session, facilitated by Insights Vancouver Senior Consultant Kim White.  These individuals support CBA members needs in areas such as membership services, professional development, rural education access, communications, sales and marketing, finance, and other key services aimed at enhancing the professional and commercial interests of its diverse membership.

Outcomes
The Executive Director happily reported that the team was engaged throughout the day and that the learning was kept alive by some creative applications of the day’s learnings, and a general appreciation of the importance of understanding  differences in perspectives and needs among workmates.  The culmination of the day’s work was as set of priorities for action being set in the four pillars of Team Functioning: Focus, Flow, Climate and Process.  Flip charts of key action steps were created and committed to for follow through by each team.

After the workshop and back in the office, the four teams engaged in a fun competition that focused on furthering staff wellness as well as progress on the action steps.  Every staff member wore a pedometer and tracked their team’s progress “walking” from Vancouver to San Francisco (where a key organization event is occurring later this year). Extra kilometers were awarded for high-energy activity, and for contributions as a team to developing a presentation to other staff members about one action priority that would be moved forward by each team. The prize for the “winners” of the race was $500 to spend together on a team activity and day out of the office.

For more information about Insights Discovering Team Effectiveness, contact Insights Vancouver.