Transforming Teams: Tips for Improving Collaboration and Building Trust

Human resources and management consultants are frequently asked to help their clients address fundamental breakdowns within their organizations. More often than not, these breakdowns occur between conflicting functional areas, such as sales and customer service, sales and operations, or creative and operations management. This book explains why these breakdowns occur and details what you can do to correct them. A motivational management tale, Transforming Teams: Tips for Improving Collaboration and Building Trust is based on the author’s real-world experience as a consultant helping companies resolve breakdowns in collaboration and trust at the workplace. Using a narrative style to illustrate problem-solving in action, the book follows the challenges faced by a company CEO and her team as they address three central precepts: that all relationships are reparable, that the use of direct language is fundamental, and that members of a team can fix only one thing, themselves. As the story unfolds, readers follow along and learn the three communication minefields that can derail and disrupt effective teamwork: breaking promises, avoiding conflict, and not holding each other accountable. Readers gain important insights as the characters end up improving their collaboration by recognizing the interrelated components of trust and understanding their own behavioral style and the styles of others. Although there’s no silver bullet for solving team conflict, there are a number of proven tools and strategies that can help teams improve collaboration and productivity. This book presents these tools in a manner that any front-line manager can immediately deploy to help team members identify challenges objectively and take responsibility for improving the team dynamic.

Table of Contents:
Introduction. Eliza’s Bad Monday at HDS Tech. Golden Nuggets. Bedtime with Badger and Coyote. Quiet Kirby. The Stories We Tell. Dear Old School Days. The Communication Preferences of Homo sapiens. The Language of DISC. Sales vs. Customer Service. The Only One You Can Change Is You. Dave’s Critical Conversations. Feedback for Claire. Lunch with Karen. It’s All about Trust. Making Promises. Managing Promises. Unpacking Baggage and Restoring Trust. Actions vs. Intentions. Components of Collaboration. What Eliza Knows—Resources for Managers: Components of Collaboration. Resources for Managers from Affinity HR Group, LLC.

About the Author :
Claudia St. John is an HR professional with more than 20 years’ experience in human resources, employee benefits, management consulting, and communications. She specializes in employee engagement, organizational development, strategic planning, recruitment, and executive career management. She is the president of Affinity HR Group, LLC, a national human resources consulting firm. She manages a team of 12 consultants across the country. In addition to managing the operations of Affinity HR Group, Claudia is a frequent public speaker, is quoted often in national and industry press, and is a regular contributor to numerous print and electronic publications on the topic of human resources. Her professional passion is in teaching teams about behavioral styles, conflict resolution, and collaboration. She has successfully presented the concepts developed in this book to many audiences in the United States and worldwide and to countless clients over the years. Claudia holds a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) certification and is a member of the Society for Human Resource Management. She also holds the following behavioral science certifications: Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst (CPBA); Certified Professional Values Analyst (CPVA); Certified Professional EQ Analyst (CPEQA), and Certified Professional TriMetrix Analyst (CPTA).

Review :
"This book is definitely a go-to resource for anyone who manages people. It is a breeze to read and the tools it offers to improve collaboration and trust are applicable to any workplace. A ‘must-read’ for first-time and experienced managers alike." —Anne Renaud, VP for Human Resources, Fulton Industries, LLC "We have implemented the concepts presented in this book and it has truly transformed our organization. Thanks to this simple yet powerful book, everyone from our senior managers to our entry-level billers now have a solid understanding of how to build trust, interpret behavioral style and what it all means to be a more productive and effective operation. Having seen the results, I recommend it to all managers who are looking for ways to invigorate teamwork and collaboration." —David Barletta, CEO, Practice Resources LLC "Claudia St. John has taken the fundamentals of the Universal Language of DISC and built a framework and process that anyone can use to develop leaders and improve teamwork. I recommend it to anyone who is on the front-line of trying to improve performance and productivity." —Bill Bonnestetter, Chairman, Target Training International, Ltd.; and Co-Author of The Universal Language DISC "I can attest to the fact that the tools Claudia St. John presents in this breezy, accessible book truly can ‘transform their teams.’ They worked for us. The concepts she presents are easy to understand and the results are dramatic, powerful, and lasting. This should be the next book you read." —Thomas Kujawski, Owner, M7 Business Systems "This is a smart book telling an important story that can help any business executive who is looking to take his or her organization to the next level. Success is not just about having great people—it’s about having great people working together in a collaborative, trusting team. St. John provides a wealth of ideas and examples that managers and leaders can run with right out of the box." —Eric Herrenkohl, author of How to Hire A-Players "This book presents powerful concepts in an easy-to-digest format so that truly anyone can improve their working relationships and management skills. This is a must-read for all of our managers and leaders." —Rob Whitman, President & CEO, Innovative Print & Media Group, Inc.