Team Medicine: Coaching Your Team to Success with Native American Wisdom

Discover what Buffalo, Eagle, Coyote, and Bear can teach you about team-building.

Team Medicine is the first team-building book to draw upon the wisdom of the Native American tradition for a philosophy and tools for strengthening teams. The book will help you understand the life force of a team and how to nurture it.

Team Medicine is for leaders who work in organizations that value collaborative teams. It focuses on how teams progress through the stages of the Medicine Wheel (similar to forming, storming, norming, and performing) and the key concepts of working together in a Sacred Circle.

• Teams’ cycle through distinct stages of growth that align with the four directions of the Medicine Wheel. You'll discover how to use the Wheel for team-building – a powerful tool for transforming organizations.
• The Native American concept of leadership in a Sacred Circle is similar to servant leadership. The book will show you how to create a Sacred Circle and offers an assessment tool to assist you in identifying areas to focus on in strengthening your teams.
• You'll learn about the Sacred Contract that each team member has with the team to create safety, contribute creatively, ensure accountability, and act respectfully.

Team Medicine will not only help you build strong teams but also help you create a powerful team culture in your organization. It’s ideal for team members to read together and discuss as part of their team meetings. Each chapter starts with a fable that illustrates team concepts and ends with exercises and a team story.

Written in an engaging style, the book offers inspirational stories and practical exercises to help you develop a team into a healthy, high-performing, self-directed circle, where members are honored for what they bring to the whole. Team Medicine is the first team-building book that uses a coaching approach to help team leaders and team members change their organization's culture so that their teams can succeed.

Michelle Epiphany Prosser is Director of Talent Development for the Virginia Housing Development Authority and President of Energy Focus Coaching & Consulting. Previously Prosser served as Assistant Vice President, Learning Manager for Union Bank and Director of Employee Development & Engagement for Lumos Networks. She is a trained corporate coach and has an MA in communication studies from the University of Virginia. Prosser has worked extensively with executives and teams.