The way we do business changes rapidly. With these ever changing needs, employee training is imperative. KnowledgeCity has recognized the need for businesses to train their employees in a manner that does not interfere with, but rather enhances productivity.

As companies rely more and more on their team’s knowledge, skills and abilities; we have to ask: How well is your training transferring to the workplace?

What does a brand do? According to Functional Marketing, “Branding is defining what you want people to think, feel, experience and believe about your company.”

Team building takes some human relation skills such as: Motivation, Leadership, and Communications; all of which boost Morale. In addition to an astute understanding of people and your team in particular; here are five tools that you can use to inspire and build your team

To have a measureable effect on productivity moving to a Business Centric model is a must.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Tips for Building Successful Teams

By 12:22 PM, , , No comments
Here are some great tips for working smoothly in teams (and getting past that pesky Storming phase!):
  • Assign roles and tasks to make sure each team member has something to do and that everyone participates in achieving the overall goal.
  • Generate a plan: Where are you today? Where do you want to be tomorrow? How are you going to get there?
  • Keep the team small: Small teams have better communication, and it's easier to make sure everyone stays on task.
  • Know the team norms: Teams will establish acceptable and unacceptable behavior. It's important for every team member to be aware of these guides and know the consequences for unacceptable behavior.
  • Emphasize common characteristics and interests to foster team unity.
  • Praise and compliment your team members for jobs well done.
  • And remember, make sure to have FUN!

Get more tips on how to build successful teams here at KnowledgeCity.com, plus enjoy three FREE video tutorials on The Art of Team Building!
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Friday, September 24, 2010

The Five Phases of Teams

By 4:52 PM, No comments

Many of us have experienced working in teams—in fact, when you consider playing games as a child, creating group presentations in school, or collaborating on the job, all of us have been a part of a team at one time or another.

When I think of the process a team goes through, I immediately think of three stages:

  1. Assembling the team
  2. Working together on the project
  3. Disbanding once the project is finished

But did you know that there are actually five phases that teams go through? That may sound like a lot, but each phase is important and moves the team forward towards becoming a strong, successful unit.

The five phases are:

  1. Forming: Where the team is created—people may be excited or anxious about the upcoming task.
  1. Storming: I’m sure many of us have experienced this stage—this is where the team deals with conflict, confrontation, defensiveness, and competition. Unfortunately, many teams never get past this phase!
  1. Norming: Where the team really develops a sense of unity and each person is able to express criticism constructively (sounds ideal, doesn’t it?).
  1. Performing: Here, the team is able to collaborate productively. Members are satisfied with the team’s progress and have the ability to work through problems. Go Team!
  1. Adjourning: Where we bid farewell to our team. Hopefully, you will have pride in your team’s success as you say goodbye.

For more insights on teams, and for an in-depth look at each of these phases, check out our exciting new course on The Art of Team Building and enjoy three FREE video tutorials to get you started towards building a successful team.

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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Welcome, Word 2010!

By 3:24 PM, , , , , , , , , No comments

After a three year wait, the newest version of Microsoft Word is finally here! Discover the new layout of Word 2010, with the return of the File tab (which you may remember from Word 2003) in place of the 2007 Office button.

With this newest version of Word, you can create professional, high quality documents, perfect for personal and business use. Word 2010 has all sorts of new and improved tools to enhance your documents, including:

  • The ability to add formatting effects like gradient fills and reflections directly to your document text (the same effects you may have previously used for pictures, charts, and SmartArt graphics)

  • New picture editing tools, including advanced color and cropping tools to perfect your document pictures

  • Customizable Office themes to ensure the look of your document is consistent—you can even add your personal or business brand to your theme, giving your documents that much more of a professional edge

  • A wide selection of SmartArt graphics, including additional layouts for charts and picture diagrams, to add an extra visual effect to your message

Word’s improved layout makes it even easier to navigate the program. You can recover draft versions of files that you closed without saving—that’s right, no more panic over losing a document!—and you can work with others on documents and projects with new co-authoring capabilities.

Get familiar with these new features and more at KnowledgeCity.com—we have training tutorials for beginning and advanced users, so you can learn all about how to use Word 2010. Coming soon are more of the new Office Suite, including PowerPoint 2010 and Access 2010.

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