Professional Series for Teams
At The EDGE, we specialize in two things: team development and experiential learning. These specializations promote self-discovery, creative problem solving, and skill building in group processes. Through the Professional Series for Teams, we offer the potential for groups to take the next step in exploring the deeper connections within their teams. The unique feature that sets this offering apart is our deliberate focus on creating strong associations to your organization’s mission, workflow, and day-to-day norms and processes.
This deliberate connection is accomplished by our Senior Facilitators, who represent diverse fields and areas of industry and share years of experience working with teams. Facilitators connect to your organization and goals by consulting a detailed Needs Assessment form and researching your website and other pertinent resources. Such preparation helps us create tangible links between our experiential-based programming and your organizational development needs.
Facilitators may also include in their preparation one or several applicable models for your team to explore, grounded in relevant Experiential or Organizational Theory. For repeat clients, or those returning for multiple programs, this depth of connection will grow as the Facilitators become more familiar with your organization, specific goals, and outcomes.
The Professional Series can take place indoors, with engaging portable activities, or outside on our Challenge Course, which is located on 30 acres of woodland and features more than 30 pre-built activities. Many programs choose to add an aerial element to their day. This can heighten the excitement and sense of camaraderie and accomplishment for teams, and many participants mention such experiences as the highlight of their day.
For retreats, we can coordinate indoor space rental on campus, subject to availability. If bringing our program to you better meets your needs, consider our EDGE on Wheels Programming.
Recent professional clients:
Vulcan Materials
FBI
INOVA
Swanson Middle School Administrative Team
Bana Solutions
U.S. Army Historical Foundation
Mighty Oaks Veteran Recovery Program
Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Training Academy
Leadership Prince William
Fairfax County Department of Public Works LEO Program
U.S. Air Force
VCU School of Medicine
GMU Housing & Residence Life Leadership Team
Cognosante Interns
Renewal Dermatology & MedSpa
Georgetown University Counselors
U.S. Department of Labor
Themed Programs in the Professional Series for Teams
Team Rejuvenation
The focus is on rapport-building and celebrating your organization and team. Trust, interdependence, and understanding different perspectives are common themes during reflection.
Agile Teams
One of the characteristics of agile teams is they have fun while they work. Explore the tenants of agile teams and practice agile thinking to solve challenges.
Inspiring Teams
The team will explore convergent, divergent, and lateral thinking to create new ideas and solutions to organizational challenges.
Leveling Up/Leadership Presence
Our facilitators curate initiatives and reflection processes to flex your mental models about leadership and how to be more effective as leaders individually and organizationally.
The Ideal Organization (based on work by Will Schutz)
Central to strong organizations are self-aware, competent individuals with positive relationships among coworkers. Explore intra- and interpersonal relationships and how to move your organization along the spectrum to an Ideal Organization.
The Pillars of Collaborative Teams
Collaborative teams are more likely to embrace change and challenges, have higher levels of employee health, higher retention rates, and improved organizational flexibility and adaptability.
Defying Entropy
Entropy refers to disorder and uncertainty, and in complex systems such as organizations, has significant impact on trust, employee retention and the viability of the organization. According to research, there are 11 key determinants of sustainability. Our program helps your team develop the resilience to lower entropy and thrive.
Core Components of Effective Communication
The cost of poor communication has a significant financial and relational loss to organizations. As a team, practice effective communication strategies that increase positive interpersonal relationships, and deepen your team’s engagement.
Team building for Healthcare Professionals
Being part of a patient care team is complex and requires a unique set of communication skills, including active listening, understanding different perspectives, and offering and asking for support. Whether your organization operates in a clinical, outpatient or school setting, explore with us how to build those skills and systems within the framework of shared decision-making.
Professional Development for Educators
We have specialized experiential programs for educators that provide both professional development for the educators as well as activities and inspirations for their classrooms.
- Growth Mindset for Professionals
- 21st Century Learning for Professionals
- Social Emotional Learning
- The 5Cs in the Classroom
- Aspiring Leaders
Add-ons:
Program Design: $200 consulting
Up to four hours of work with and by one of our Professional Development Facilitators, which could include
- designing activities that are framed around your organization and the specific needs and desired outcomes of the program,
- discussing interpersonal or inter-division challenges that you think would be beneficial for us to know about, and/or
- crafting a 2-page document that summarizes what activities were presented, key learnings, and suggestions for applying those learnings to your organization.
Interested in programming with us? Submit an Information Request Form. If you have more questions, contact us at edge@gmu.edu or (703) 993-4313.