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Building Team Resiliency

How to ensure your work teams thrive in uncertain conditions — and how to recognize when they need to be broken up

In stable times and traditional organizational environments, successful work teams thrive with strong processes and adept leadership. In turbulent times and non-traditional contexts, team processes often break down and even experienced and effective leaders fall short. Under such stressful situations, trust can fray among members, a condition that is even harder to repair when people work in satellite offices.

Join team expert Dr. Shawna O’Grady as she discusses practical strategies to build resilient teams that can anticipate challenges and respond effectively when things don’t go as planned.

In this free 60-minute session, you will learn:

  • How to build and sustain teams that make smarter decisions and take effective actions in fast-changing environments.
  • How to keep teams cohesive when members are located in satellite offices.
  • How to calibrate the level of collaboration to avoid burnout or wasted energy.
  • How to repair breaches in trust among team members.
  • How to recognize a team’s “best before” date when teams outlive their usefulness.

To get in touch with Dr. O'Grady, please email shawna.ogrady@queensu.ca

Session Leader

Dr. Shawna O'Grady

Associate Professor

Dr. Shawna O’Grady is an Associate Professor of Management at Smith School of Business in Kingston. She is an authority on the strategic and cross-cultural issues involved in doing business in the United States and Mexico. Dr. O’Grady has been widely quoted in the media on the issues of cross-border retailing, and has addressed a number of industry and academic audiences around the world.

She co-authored a best selling book called Border Crossings: Doing Business in the U.S. which was a finalist for the National Business Book Award, sponsored by Coopers & Lybrand and The Financial Times. This book has received outstanding reviews in the media for five years. She has written numerous articles on cross-border retailing, which have appeared in top-level national and international journals such as the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, the Journal of International Business, and Business Quarterly.

She is also an experienced team facilitator, and serves as Director of Team Facilitation with the Queen’s Executive MBA program. Dr. O’Grady consults to a wide variety of clients in the private and public sectors in the areas of team building, human resource management, leading change, thinking and problem solving styles, and international business. She earned her B. Comm. and Master of Industrial Relations (MIR) at Queen’s University and her Ph.D. in Business at the University of Western Ontario.

Clients: Oracle, Alcatel Networks, Nortel Networks, MDS Inc., Bell Canada, House of Commons, Canada Trust, Xerox Corporation, Glaxo Wellcome, MDS Inc., Apotex Inc., Dylex, Baxter Corporation, RDS Data Group Inc., Organon Teknika Inc., The Economical Insurance Group, Acklands Grainger, Ontario General Contractor’s Association, Source Medical, MDS Sciex, Sprint Canada, Storage Tek, Consumers Gas, Interac Association, Telnet, UUNET, Battle Mountain Gold Canada Ltd., Hummingbird, GBC Canada Inc., Transcontinental Printing, Phoenix Systems, Melloul-Blamey Construction, Buttcon Limited, Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, Strategic Planning Forum, Morneau Sobeco, Firemaster Oilfield Services, Canadian Forces Base Petawawa, Ontario Power Corporation, Ontario Management Board Secretariat, Canada Post Corporation, Ontario Ministry of Labour, Ontario Ministry of Transportation, Ontario Ministry of Finance, Community Care Access Centre, The Care Delivery Network, Parks Canada, and Industry Canada.