10 Best Ways to Help Your Team Refocus After a Long Summer

As fall approaches, it’s time to gear your team up for a heavier work load.

Question: What is one surefire tip for helping your team refocus after a long summer?

Set Goals

"I set up aggressive September and fall revenue-driving goals that heavily reward the staff both in financial bonuses and fun team outings to ensure they come back to work super focused."


Challenge Them

"Challenge your team to do something great or innovate something new. Offer up a really cool prize or award and get their creative juices and competitive nature going. Everyone loves a little friendly competition."


Have a Field Trip

"When we need to infuse the team with energy, we get out of the office and into a novel learning environment. Whether it's visiting one of our client's campuses in order to better understand their needs or checking out a cool new exhibit at a local museum, the change of perspective and new information helps to generate fresh ideas and enthusiasm for our work once we get back to the office."


Spend Time With Each Other

"Have a company vacation, dinner or night out. This helps everyone in the office remember what it’s like to socialize with one another and begins to put them back in the working mindset. At the beginning of the event I like to say something about the coming year to focus our team, but then usually just have fun without mentioning work again until the end of the night."


Project Sprints

"If you can (metaphorically) lock your team in a room and give them one concrete project to work on, you can get them on track fast. You need something that they can finish within a relatively short period of time -- a week works well -- and the ability to minimize meetings and other demands on their time."


Get Refreshed With a Few Days Off

"Take a few days that are 100% off. That means no business email, no phone. Stepping away will leave you refreshed and excited to return."


Change Up the Status Quo

"Let your team enjoy uniform-free Friday, institute a new-team building event after work, or offer telecommuting for some of your staff. These are all surefire ways to help get them refocused."


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10 Best Ways to Help Your Team Refocus After a Long Summer

As fall approaches, it’s time to gear your team up for a heavier work load.

Question: What is one surefire tip for helping your team refocus after a long summer?

Set Goals

"I set up aggressive September and fall revenue-driving goals that heavily reward the staff both in financial bonuses and fun team outings to ensure they come back to work super focused."


Challenge Them

"Challenge your team to do something great or innovate something new. Offer up a really cool prize or award and get their creative juices and competitive nature going. Everyone loves a little friendly competition."


Have a Field Trip

"When we need to infuse the team with energy, we get out of the office and into a novel learning environment. Whether it's visiting one of our client's campuses in order to better understand their needs or checking out a cool new exhibit at a local museum, the change of perspective and new information helps to generate fresh ideas and enthusiasm for our work once we get back to the office."


Spend Time With Each Other

"Have a company vacation, dinner or night out. This helps everyone in the office remember what it’s like to socialize with one another and begins to put them back in the working mindset. At the beginning of the event I like to say something about the coming year to focus our team, but then usually just have fun without mentioning work again until the end of the night."


Project Sprints

"If you can (metaphorically) lock your team in a room and give them one concrete project to work on, you can get them on track fast. You need something that they can finish within a relatively short period of time -- a week works well -- and the ability to minimize meetings and other demands on their time."


Get Refreshed With a Few Days Off

"Take a few days that are 100% off. That means no business email, no phone. Stepping away will leave you refreshed and excited to return."


Change Up the Status Quo

"Let your team enjoy uniform-free Friday, institute a new-team building event after work, or offer telecommuting for some of your staff. These are all surefire ways to help get them refocused."


See Also: Rethinking the Way We Frame Big Data in Marketing

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