Frequently Asked Questions
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FAQs Teambuilding with Teambooster
How long does it take to become a great team?
We would love to have the answer to this question. It depends entirely on you. Does your team have an open mindset? Are you making good progress on your goals? (Success in your work helps you become a great team!) Do you dare to be vulnerable and speak out on the soft issues? Do you have talented team members as well as leaders? Is it a stable team or do people regularly come and go in and out of the team? And many more questions affect how long it takes.
The good news is that most teams are immediately very positive about their team development after their first Team Scan (called Teamradar in the Teambooster app)!
At Teambooster, we simply want you to move forward in your team journey as quickly, effectively and enjoyably as possible. True team development takes place over time. Perfection here has everything to do with progress you make step by step. We honestly don’t believe you can become a perfectly awesome team in one session. For most teams, it’s hard work. So take it one step at a time. As described in the question “How often do I take the Team Scan survey?” we recommend taking the Team Scan every 3 months. But most likely, based on the tools in the toolbox you use, there are many more opportunities in between to work on your team development!
How does Teambooster work? What are the core elements?
Teambooster is a self-service platform for any team that would like to work better together. Have more fun as a team and be more effective in achieving your goals. Your company administrator can manage members and each member can set up and manage teams.
Teambooster consists of three core functionalities that work well together. Our 3Ts: Team Radar, Toolbox and Team Page. You can read all about them in the following questions.
These three elements are also what you keep using: Get into a rhythm so that every few months you do the Team Scan (called Teamradar in the Teambooster app). Use the results to do some exercises from the Toolbox. Record the results of your team session on the Team Page!
Can I apply this in my own team?
Certainly, you’ll learn directly applicable skills with which you can facilitate team sessions yourself. Both in your own team and for other teams within your organization.
What is the Team scan
How often should I do a Team scan?
We recommend doing it every three months. But you choose your own rhythm, and then start the Team Scan (Team Radar automatically. A good time to do the Team Radar is when you have reflection time with your team and set new goals. With new goals, you’re switching gears anyway. So add in a team session. And then also set new goals for how you develop as a team.
What is the Toolbox?
Our Toolbox recommends the right exercises for you. You can also simply browse through the entire Toolbox or filter until you find an exercise that suits you. Each tool has step-by-step instructions on how to use it as a team. Currently, our Toolbox consists of 80+ validated team exercises. You’re guaranteed to find an exercise that fits your team’s needs.
How Difficult Are the Exercises in the Toolbox?
We roughly rate difficulty on 2 components:
1) How complex are the steps or how much knowledge do you need to use a particular tool.
2) How much challenging team dynamics can you expect if you do this tool, or how much resistance there may be to the tool.
As an example:
“Easy” means that the steps are simple and that we don’t expect any adverse team dynamics.”
Average” means that you may need to familiarize yourself with a tool, maybe even practice with someone before doing it in your team. And that you should feel comfortable dealing with group dynamics. For example, you need to feel comfortable giving feedback, naming dysfunctional behavior or managing very different opinions or interests in the group.
“Difficult” means that we recommend that an experienced facilitator guide these tools. That you are familiar with the specific topic and that you are ok with resolving difficult conflicts or discussions in your team.
If you are not comfortable with a specific tool, it is great to further develop your facilitator skills! You can always ask for help from one of our coaches to prepare a tool or workshop together or for our coach to even facilitate your team workshop.
What Is the Team Page?
This helps your team improve step by step. Team development is not a one-time activity. Good teams continuously invest in the way they work together. To keep improving, the Team page helps each team to document how they collaborate. And every time you do a new Team Radar, you can update the description and record any changes. It helps to create clarity about the collaboration in the team. You can also manage your participants, view the tools from the toolbox that you have bookmarked, and manage the surveys.
How Do I Start with a Team in Teambooster?
Then there are 2 routes. If you have been working together for a while, start the Teamscan to identify what you want to improve. If you have just started working together, we have written a number of exercises to help you get started. For example this one to get to know each other or this one to set up your team.
How do I use Teambooster in Dutch via Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge?
Using Teambooster in Dutch: here’s how to set up your browser properly
Step 1: Set your Teambooster profile to Dutch
- Click on your profile picture or initials in the upper right corner
- Choose ‘Edit profile’
- Set the language to Dutch
- Then you will get the survey and report in Dutch.
Step 2: Turn on automatic translation in your browser
In Google Chrome:
- Go to Settings / Settings (via the three dots at the top right)
- Click on Languages
- Put Dutch at the top
- Turn on the ‘Ask if pages should be translated’ option
- Remove or put English at the bottom of the list
In Microsoft Edge:
- Go to Settings
- Click on Languages
- Add Dutch and set it as the preferred language
- Turn on ‘Questions to translate’
- Remove or put English at the bottom
Step 3: Translate text manually
- Select the English text
- Right-click
- Choose ‘Translate selection to Dutch’
No translation to be seen?
Probably English is set as the preferred language. Then your browser thinks you want to read English. Remove English from your preferred languages (see step 2) to fix this.
How Do I Discuss the Team Scan in My Team?
We recommend that you prepare for the team discussion. And designate one person on the team as facilitator. You can prepare by reading through the results and making your own summary.
You can also take a look at the recommended tools and choose one or more you want to do with the team. This way you will turn the discussion into a real team workshop.
Can I get support from a coach?
The simple answer: Yes, that’s possible! Get in touch and we’ll help you match with one of our great coaches. You can also always ask a question through the platform. If you want more support than just a short question, there are several ways our coaches can support you:
– Ask a coach to prepare a workshop together. Together you make a great plan, and you facilitate it yourself.
– Hire a coach to facilitate your workshop. It’s always nice when you can leave that to an expert. And let all your team members participate from their role and don’t need to take on a facilitating role as well.
– Take a team journey together. Then you work together with your coach for a whole year. You set learning goals and use the Teambooster app to improve as a team with a workshop with the whole team and your coach every few months.
These are all paid support options for coaches. If you have other ideas, please let us know. We develop many customized team development trajectories.
What team building methodology does Teambooster use?
At Teambooster, we actually love not taking a stance. With our framework, we aim to list all the very diverse elements that can make a team successful. And it’s up to the team, in their context, to choose the most relevant elements. And do it in an order that fits exactly what the team needs.
Let’s introduce our TEAM framework. We use the framework to highlight the core elements of an effective team. In almost all teams, you find each of those four dimensions. And they are very different in nature.
Trust
Trust is all about the social connection in the team. About creating an environment that is inclusive and where very diverse people can thrive. An environment where you feel the safety to speak up. How we together display the behavior that builds trust in the team. How we effectively collaborate when we come together as we do in our meetings. Trust requires a lot of personality (but little ego) and vulnerability from all members.
Excellence
How we keep improving our performance, use our talents, and continue to learn. There is so much potential in teams that is not being utilized now. How we innovate and experiment and make very good decisions together. And as a team, we strive to keep getting better. Excelling requires a lot of drive.
Autonomy
How we fulfill our mandate. What responsibility we have and how we interact with others. How we divide our roles in the team. And that we have clear agreements in the team about our way of working together. Autonomy comes with a lot of clarity, transparency, and structure.
Mission
What we want to achieve and why this is meaningful. How we have aligned our goals with the mission and strategy of the organization. How we make choices and deal with uncertainty. With mission, a team creates meaningful direction. One of our clients once said “you can only be a team if you have a purpose, without purpose there is no team”.
The TEAM framework is an important structure in the Teambooster app. The TEAM framework is used in all 3 core elements:
– The Team Radar questions are structured using the 4 TEAM dimensions.
– In the Toolkit, you can filter tools by each Team Radar question and TEAM dimension.
– On the team page, you can record how you work together using the 4 TEAM dimensions.
So with this minimal use of framework, we create a coherent approach to team development. And teams can use it to have a broad view of where they can develop themselves.
Can you explain the team development phases?
Nevertheless, we use the “team development phases”. This approach is based on research by Bruce Tuckman. It’s a very well-known model and has been used worldwide by team coaches for decades. It represents a natural team development path from phase 1 to 5.
The reality might be a bit different: you can get stuck between 2 phases, it might feel like you’ve skipped step 2 or 3, or if a major change occurs, you start all over again at step 1 or 2.
Most teams can recognize that they are in one of the phases or in transition from one phase to the next. It’s not black and white. In our work as team coaches, this helps us select the tools that are suitable for a team. When you start a Teamradar, we ask you to select the phase that best fits the team. In the report, you’ll thus get recommendations for tools that best suit your team!
Here is the description we use for the 5 phases:
Forming: We are getting to know each other and our work
Storming: We would benefit from a more constructive dialogue
Norming: We are creating our norms and way of working
Performing: We are continuously improving and excelling
Adjourning: Our work and time together is coming to an end
If you want to know more about these phases, we recommend you to look at some of the tools in the toolbox for each phase or to Google “Tuckman team development phases” for the research behind it.
Can you give me some basic tips for facilitating a team workshop?
1. Activate
When you start an exercise, you first want to engage and inspire your team before asking them to do all sorts of steps. First, agree that the exercise is meaningful. You can share a (personal) story, watch a YouTube video together, or talk together about why you want to improve a topic. Sometimes it works well to start with a joke or something unexpected. Just be creative! This style requires high passionate energy, where you show perseverance and dedication.
2. Choreography
As a facilitator, you give instructions for the steps of the exercise. You should feel like the choreographer of a dance performance. Where you give the instructions and your team performs the exercise like a dance. That immediately tells you how they understood your instructions.
An exercise we call “stepping stone” works well. Instead of jumping straight into your instructions, you tell the team what you’re going to do. It might feel boring, but it creates a lot of clarity and your instructions become much easier to follow. So you explain a few “steps” before you stand on them. For example: “Hello team, we’re doing exercises in 3 parts. I’ll first explain the steps and then we’ll get started. Step one is …, 2 is … and 3 …. Are you ready to start step 1? It takes 15 minutes. Here are my instructions again…. Okay, let’s do it. You can begin”. Simple things like numbering the steps and using that in your instructions help a lot. Being a choreography can also mean designing group interaction. You can choose from many different formats, each having its effect on the team. You can do a group discussion, or just make a round, or ask for collaboration, individual reflection, write post-its, vote on items, prepare presentations, to name a few. This style requires you to speak deliberately and clearly and use clear and simple sentences. It also requires logical and structured thinking.
3. Intervene
When your group is in an exercise, as a facilitator, you also work with the dynamics in the group. You are part of the group and at the same time, you can observe the group’s dynamics. What kind of intervention do they need from you to be more effective together? When you use a specific style, you can change the dynamics in the group. Do you want them to finish the exercise with even more energy or do you want them to transition to a more relaxed energy level so there’s space to reflect, but remain as cooperative as they are. You can adopt your style that moves the group in the desired direction. Just create awareness about the style you’re applying and what the effect on the group is.
This style requires, for example, that you are attentive, bold, and compassionate. Where you dare to address behavior in the team. Team dynamics can be very challenging and even our experienced coaches ask each other for help on how to facilitate best. So don’t hesitate to call for help!
