1. Exercises for managers to run with teams

2. Building a team charter
Exercise 1
Building a team charter

3. Example: Fiery Red commitment – ‘Speak our mind’.
Objective
To create a charter around the four colour energies that all team members can commit to.
Option 1
To add another level of detail, once the commitments have been agreed, they can agree on two-five statements that will help to operationalise the four statements.
Example: Fiery Red commitment – ‘Speak our mind’.
This means we commit to:
Working with teams
Sharing our views openly in meetings.
Being honest even when it is tough.
Speaking directly to those involved in an issue rather than discussing with others.
Overview
Using the four colour energies as a framework, the team will create four specific statements that will focus the team as they move forward.
Resources
Template PowerPoint slide that they can populate with their final charter.
Option 2
On completion, each person makes a personal commitment as to what they will do (and, if applicable, what they will not do) to support the charter.
How to run this exercise
Ask the group to focus on one particular colour energy at a time. They discuss their key issues in relation to this colour energy and decide on one commitment they will recommend that the team makes to ensure they use this colour energy effectively.
If working in smaller teams, each team then presents their views, gains agreement, and merges ideas.
This should result in a final slide clearly showing the commitments the team has made.
Option 3
The team may also choose to discuss and identify one thing they commit collectively to not doing, to ensure that each colour energy is not over-extended or used in its ‘bad day’ form.
Time guideline: minutes

5. Exercise 2
X marks the spot

6. Time Guideline: 20-30 minutes.
Objective
To give and receive feedback on colleagues’ strengths and weaknesses with a view to taking action.
They then turn the page and do the same on the ‘Possible Weaknesses’ page.
Individuals can mark the same statements as previous people if they choose.
Once each person receives their own profile, they take it in turns to make one or two observations about the feedback and then ask one or two questions to the team, based on the feedback in front of them.
To complete the exercise, they are asked to commit to taking one action to bring more of their Key Strengths to the team and one action to develop a Possible Weakness.
Time Guideline: minutes.
Resources
Discovery Personal Profile – Key Strengths and Possible Weaknesses Pages*
How to run this exercise
With the team sitting in a circle, individuals open their Discovery Personal Profiles at the ‘Key Strengths’ page of the foundation chapter and pass them from person to person.
Each person marks an ‘X’ by one or two strengths that they see most of in the person whose profile they are reviewing. .

7. Communication Dos and Don’ts
Exercise 3
Communication Dos and Don’ts

8. Time Guideline: 30 minutes. Overview
Objective
To improve and open the lines of communications through a better understanding of what individuals need and what they don’t want when being communicated with.
Each person should select one statement from the Do and one statement from the Don’t list.
On a blank piece of paper they should then write their name on the top followed by the two statements they had previously identified and hand these to the manager.
Once everyone has completed this, explain to the team that a competition will be run where the statements on each piece of paper will be read out by the manager.
The aim is to identify which team member they think the statements might belong to by writing on another piece of paper their guess or ‘Name that Colleague’ as to who they think wrote the statement that was read out.
Remind them that the clues will be in the words themselves, so get them to pay attention to the colour energies behind the statements.
Review their results. Consider getting these paper statements typed up and include a Team Wheel as a reminder of how people want to be communicated with.
Time Guideline: 30 minutes.
Overview
Using the Effective Communication pages of the Discovery Personal Profile, participants will explore and discover how best to connect with others in their network. The output of this exercise can lead to better communication and more effective teamwork.
Resources
Discovery Personal Profile – Effective Communication Pages*
How to run this exercise
Remind the group of the colour energies.
Ideally have the team sitting in a circle or horseshoe. Ask them to take a moment to review the Effective Communication pages of their Discovery Profile, looking at both the Dos and Don’ts.