BUILDING EXTRAORDINARY, HIGH-PERFORMING TEAMS THAT ACHIEVE LASTING SUCCESS
with Dr. Iris Firstenberg
August 14, 2025, 11 AM - 2 PM Eastern Time
10 AM - 1 PM Central Time
8 AM - 11 AM Pacific Time
$395 (US) per person
VIRTUAL SESSION (3-HOUR)

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Book by Dr. Iris Firstenberg
Book by Dr. Iris Firstenberg

BUILDING EXTRAORDINARY, HIGH-PERFORMING TEAMS THAT ACHIEVE LASTING SUCCESS

 

In 2004, the USA Men's Olympic Basketball team, despite having an abundance of top-tier talent, experienced a shocking loss and barely secured a bronze medal. This failure revealed a critical issue faced by many organizations: success is not guaranteed by talent alone. Instead, a lack of team alignment and accountability often leads to underperformance. Four years later, under the guidance of Coach Mike Krzyzewski, the team transformed and won the gold in 2008 by implementing a robust framework for success.

In this interactive program led by UCLA's Professor Iris Firstenberg, you will explore the key elements of this framework, using the remarkable story of the basketball team's turnaround as a guide. Through practical discussions and breakout sessions, participants will learn how to build extraordinary teams that navigate challenges, foster resilience, and achieve sustainable success. Attendees will leave with actionable insights on how to apply these principles to their own teams, ensuring alignment, accountability, and high performance.

DR. IRIS FIRSTENBERG

 

Dr. Iris Firstenberg is an Adjunct Professor of Psychology, UCLA and Adjunct Professor of Management at UCLA Anderson. She specializes in strategies for creative problem solving and innovative thinking. She also conducts programs on creativity and innovation for a wide cross-section of Fortune 500 organizations, including companies in aerospace, software, automotive, healthcare, entertainment, defense, telecommunications, energy, financial services, retail, and pharmaceuticals, as well as government agencies such as NASA.

Her latest book, Extraordinary Outcomes: Shaping an Otherwise Unpredictable Future (John Wiley & Sons, 2014), provides a practical framework to help organizations navigate in a world of uncertainty. Dr. Firstenberg is the recipient of the 2002 UCLA Department of Psychology Faculty Distinguished Teaching Award and the 2011 UCLA Extension Distinguished Teaching Award.


WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

 
  • Learn how to establish a team identity based on shared standards and values, and how to ensure these values guide everyday actions
  • Discover strategies for celebrating achievements that reinforce team standards and encourage continuous improvement
  • Explore techniques to build psychological safety, enabling team members to acknowledge mistakes, ask for help, and recover quickly from setbacks
  • Build frameworks that create long-term accountability and alignment, ensuring your team remains resilient and enthusiastic in the face of challenges


TOPICS COVERED

 

Articulating Purpose

  • In the first hour, we will discuss why hiring the best talent is not enough to guarantee the success of projects in an organization We will discuss attributes of extraordinary teams, and how the framework can help leaders inculcate these attributes in their teams We will discuss Part I of the framework.

Collaborate and Celebrate

  • In the second hour we will discuss the components of the framework that create a system for success. With these components, we create the mind of the team, aligning team members in their behaviors and motivating accountability for outcomes.

Acknowledge and Correct

  • Part of a robust system is to acknowledge when failures occur and have a protocol to quickly learn from and recover from them. To ensure that people feel safe to admit a weakness or ask for help, we will discuss strategies for ensuring psychological safety on our teams.

Program Level: Beginner/Intermediate
Delivery Method: Group Internet Based (Zoom platform)
Prerequisites: None
Advanced Preparation: None
Participants will earn 3 CPE credits or 3 PDC credits
Field of Study: Personal Development
 
PLEASE NOTE: All virtual programs are held using the Zoom web application. If you do not have Zoom, or if it is not approved for use in your organization, you can log in using your personal device (tablet or phone). If you would like to test Zoom to be sure it is working on your computer or portable device, you can do so by going to: https://zoom.us/test.
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