Teamwork Explorer
Our Teamwork Cards ... in a free iPhone/iPad app
Is your team in conflict, not effective or just not any fun? Teamwork Explorer is an interactive, informative and innovative app that allows you to custom design a solution to re-engage and re-ignite your team.
Based on the hugely successful Teamwork Playing Cards, Teamwork Explorer provides 52 proven tips (in the form of playing cards) for great team performance. Solutions for common team challenges are provided as five card "hands" which team leaders can "play" by emailing the cards to team members.
Teamwork Explorer is like having a team leadership tool box in your pocket. No matter what the challenge facing your team, there'll be cards with practical advice to help you succeed. Here's what some of our users say:
"Teamwork Explorer is a simple, powerful effective tool. I love it!"
"Teamwork Explorer is a practical tool for helping me lead my team. I access it frequently to gain perspective and insight into how my team is working."
This app is for anyone who works on a team and wants to improve the overall enjoyment and productivity on that team. You can use this app by yourself or with colleagues and friends.
Features:
- 52 practical ideas for creating a high performing team in four major "suits" - spades (task), hearts (heart), clubs (decision making) and diamonds (communication)
- Notes feature allows you to make notes and customize each team tip to your own situation
- Email feature allows you to email cards (and accompanying notes) to yourself and/or other team members
- Solutions to 13 common team challenges
- Free application is fully functioning allowing you access to all 52 tips, the notes and email features
- The paid version allows you access to solutions for 13 common team challenges
Teamwork Explorer was designed by Calliope Learning, a leadership company based in Victoria, Canada. It is based on the hugely successful Teamwork Playing Cards, a system Calliope Learning designed to help people make their teams more effective.
Teamwork Explorer is divided into four 13 card suits: clubs, spades, hearts and diamonds. The basis of this model comes from our more than 20 years of experience working with teams in a variety of settings, together with the research of many other writers. Sifting through all of the research and reflecting upon our own practical experiences, we discovered that the teams who are most successful have found the right balance among task, relationship, decision making and communication.
We chose the four playing card suits as a fun and engaging way for people to explore their strengths and challenges in each of those four areas. The spades are metaphorical for getting it done and thus, are the task cards. The hearts are metaphorical for relationships. We think that communication skills are like "diamonds in the rough" and thus our decision to use the diamond cards. Finally, the clubs represent people wielding different clubs which does capture the various decision making preferences of people.
We also chose the deck of cards as a metaphor because in our experience, no team is alike and not one solution fits all teams. In our workshops with people, we ask them to choose a "5 card winning hand" to guide their ongoing team development.
Here's how to use Teamwork Explorer:
- Go to the home menu and touch Tip of the Day. This will take you to a random team tip. There are 52 tips in total, and you can make notes on a tip and/or email it.
- Return to the home menu and touch Card Index. This takes you to a screen where a list of 52 team tips is sorted by suit - spades (task), hearts (heart), clubs (decision making), diamonds (communications). Select a suit that most applies to your team challenge and you can scan through each suit to see the list of team tips. You can make notes and/or email these tips.
- Return to the home menu and touch Solutions. You'll find a number of team problems listed. Choose a problem and you will be presented with 5 cards that have been pre-selected as the team tips most likely to address that problem. You can make notes and/or email this "winning hand."
Feedback and Questions
We'd love to hear from you. You can email us at info@calliopelearning.com or use the form below:
