Collaborative Leadership, Alignment, and Performance Workshops

RisingTerrain offers workshops that support stronger collaboration through a focus on integrating process skills with collaborative relationship practices. The workshops are fun, engaging, and therefore effective at achieving desired results. Each workshop is tailored to achieve the goals the client wants.  

The Courageous Leadership Experience

The Courageous Leadership Experience is designed to promote greater effectiveness within leadership teams at all levels of an organization. Successful teamwork requires both an intellectual and emotional commitment to collaborating openly. The capability to be present and engage others as one team toward enthusiastic commitment for professional growth and team achievement is key for high performance. This is an immersive workshop focusing on what it means to be a courageous leader in your workplace, regardless of title and seniority. The experience is intensive, interactive work requiring full engagement throughout the workshop. The workshop is organized as two half-day sessions, beginning in the afternoon, and finishing the following morning. 

Aligning the Many Voices on Your Team as a Foundation for Great Work

This interactive workshop teaches how to create alignment within teams. There is a correlation between team alignment and the ambition to use lean, agile, and other work practices consistently. In the rush to complete work it is common to skip past the important work of aligning the team around a common vision that supports everybody’s personal and professional development goals. Work at times needs to “go slow to go fast.” This is an opportunity for you to slow down to reflect on your own purpose for your work. Then you will develop a personal meaningful impact statement that will serve as inspiration for rigorously applying lean to your work. You will learn the conversations you can take back to your projects for team alignment.

Keys to Great Work

Leadership within high performing teams requires a mindset shift among all members of a project team. This half-day workshop supports an understanding of how to cultivate that shift across an organization. The connection between practical workflow organization skills and leadership is demonstrated through a workflow production simulation and a highly interactive, playful, yet serious, facilitated leadership discussion. 

Project Team Partnering for Success

When project teams first come together, they often include people who have not previously met, let alone work with each other. It is important to quickly build trust among team members so collaborative work can move forward productively. This workshop develops that trust through a shared conversation exploring the core human strengths each person brings to the team, the development of a collective understanding of the meaningful impact team members are making with the project, and the declarations of commitments outlining how they will work with each other. 

Stepping into Courageous Leadership

This is the first part of the Courageous Leadership Experience, focusing on creating deeper empathy and connection between participants. The new awareness of the positive qualities people bring to a team prepares people to commit to the mission of the organization. This format is designed for larger groups of people than the full Experience. 

Client Comments

“This work has been invaluable in helping us construct teams that have a collaborative atmosphere where people feel safe and in which it is easy to support communication and collaboration.”  

Jonathan Modest, Senior Administrative Director, Massachusetts General Hospital
 

“The methods that RisingTerrain brought to our Mentor Hospital Leadership team were great.  It was an effective and challenging way for us to think outside of the box, be honest with one another and build strong relationships at the leadership levels.  This was then carried onto the rest of the project team making for a great working relationship throughout the project.”  

Travis Tyson, Regional Program Director, Buildings+Design, Cleveland Clinic.  

“For someone that was reluctant to attend, I was pleasantly surprised with the workshop. Once we started talking and working with the activities, letting my guard down to be open and honest was powerful. Thanks again for a fantastic workshop. I look forward to utilizing the tools that we have learned from this time.”  

Bob McGinnis, Preconstruction Director, Skanska USA. 

“Our initial partnering workshop was a huge success! Your facilitating approach and team building exercises were “spot on” for our 20+ group, given that all of us are working together for the first time. I thought the time spent on getting total team input on the “Impact Statement” was fruitful and believe this statement can serve as guide to reinforce our team partnership throughout the 3+ year, Gignoux Federal Courthouse Renovation project. We look forward to next steps and your next workshop with our team!” 

Mike Mologne, Vice President, Hill International, Inc 

“The Courageous Leadership Workshop revealed the importance of vulnerability in leadership, an understanding of my own core identifiers and how they can be paired with others to strengthen the team. After participating in the exercises to create our teams’ shared purpose, I left the workshop with a renewed energy and focus to bring the project to the finish line – together.”  

Jessica Radecki, AIA, EDAC, LEED AP, Healthcare Director, NBBJ  

“The Courageous Leadership workshop helped motivate us as a team to create a spirit of continuous improvement. It helped me understand the role when I am at my best as a leader and team member.”   

Ed Thompson, Lean Construction Manager, Cherry City Electric  

“Great session during the LCI (Lean Construction Institute) Congress this year with Tom Richert from RisingTerrain and Joanna Lee from Unconventional Works, always great facilitators that help put a few more tools in the tool belt to help support our project teams.” 

Matt Bleakley, Vice President, Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. 

“Extremely relevant and impactful workshop put on at the LCI Congress in New Orleans! Thanks Tom (RisingTerrain) and Joanna (Unconventional Works) for the wealth of knowledge shared.” 

Cameron Grant, Continuous Improvement Manager, Granite Construction 

“The Courageous Leadership workshop really challenged me to flex my creative muscles in a way I haven’t done in a while (even though I’m a designer by trade). Tom and Joanna encouraged our group to expand our ways of thinking and observing beyond what most of us were used to doing daily. We used a unique methodology to tell stories, and it was incredible to see how the stories we told about ourselves and our relationships with others evolved and grew over the course of two days together. All in all, I absolutely loved the format and hope I’ll have the chance to do it again sometime!” 

Laurel Christensen, Dyer Brown Architects