Creative Team Building For Succesful Team

=== Creative TEAM BUILDING for succesful team ===

Creative

TEAM BUILDING for successful teams

SUMMARY

Introduction

About the team

The teamwork

Teamwork skills

Team roles

Examples of Great Teamwork

How to Improve Teamwork

The team building

Overview

Goal and Aim

Key Benefits

Work as a process

The team building blocks

Exercises and activities deployed

Teambuilding

TEAM BUILDINGS IDEEAS

Rhythm Orchestra

Rhythm Orchestra Break out

Team acting

Camp fire

Other team building activities

Tips For Team Building: How To Build Successful Work Teams

INTRODUCTION

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The term 'team building' generally refers to the selection and motivation of result oriented teams, or more specifically to group self-assessment in the theory and practice of organizational development.

When a team in an organizational development context embarks upon a process of self-assessment in order to determine its own effectiveness and thereby improve performance, it can be argued that it is engaging in team building, although this may be considered a narrow definition.

The process of team building includes clarifying the goal and building ownership across the team and identifying the inhibitors to teamwork and removing or overcoming them, or if they cannot be removed, justifying their negative effect on the team.

To assess itself, a team seeks feedback to find out both: its current strengths as a team and its current weaknesses.

To improve its current performance, a team uses the feedback from the team assessment in order to identify any gap between the desired state and the actual state.

You are likely to find yourself working on at least one team during your career; serving on a team can be an enormously rewarding experience, allowing you to more fully develop your potential. It can also be enormously frustrating, if the team is dysfunctional or doesn't have a clearly defined purpose, for example. Despite their potential pitfalls, more and more, organizations are utilizing teams to tackle the issues and problems facing them.

Understanding what makes a team effective and being a good team player makes one a more valuable employee as well as increases ones chances for enjoyment and satisfaction in his or her career.

Our lives abound with examples of teams – from basketball to study groups to accident investigation boards. In the engineering world, teams are formed to handle projects, processes, and designs, and may be ongoing or temporary.

ABOUT THE TEAM

A team is a group of people coming together to collaborate on a task for which they are mutually accountable; it is not just a collection of people grouped together for administrative convenience. To become a team, a group must have:

A useful team outperforms a group and outperforms all reasonable expectations of its individual members. That is, a team produces synergy, where one plus one equals a lot more than two! Good team members are deeply committed to each other's personal growth and success, as well as that of the team.

Team members not only cooperate in all aspects of their mutual tasks and goals; they share in what are traditionally thought of as management functions, such as planning, organizing, setting performance goals, assessing the team's performance, developing their own strategies to manage change, and securing their own resources. An ideal team offers three major benefits to an organization:

You might wonder what makes a team so successful when its members are the same people who already work for the organization. Experts who have studied teams say the benefits to the individual – less stress because of shared responsibilities, and feelings of involvement and accomplishment – result in increased productivity, increased quality of work, increased employee morale, reduced cost, reduced losses and, ultimately, increased profits.

2.1 The teamwork

Teamwork is the concept of people working together cooperatively, as in a sports team.

Projects often require that people work together to accomplish a common goal; therefore, teamwork is an important factor in most organizations. Effective collaborative skills are necessary to work well in a team environment. Many businesses attempt to enhance their employees' collaborative efforts through workshops and cross-training to help people effectively work together and accomplish shared goals.

“The old structures are being reformed. As organizations seek to become more flexible in the face of rapid environmental change and more responsive to the needs of customers, they are experimenting with new, team-based structures” (Jackson & Ruderman, 1996).

A 2003 representative survey, HOW-FAIR, revealed that Americans think that 'being a team player' was the most important factor in getting ahead in the workplace. This was ranked higher than several factors, including 'merit and performance', leadership, skills', 'intelligence', 'making money for the organization' and 'long hours'.

2.2 Teamwork skills

Aside from any required technical proficiency, a wide variety of social skills are desirable for successful teamwork, including:

Listening – it is important to listen to other people's ideas. When people are allowed to freely express their ideas, these initial ideas will produce other ideas.

Questioning – it is important to ask questions, interact, and discuss the objectives of the team.

Persuading – individuals are encouraged to exchange, defend, and then to ultimately rethink their ideas.

Respecting – it is important to treat others with respect and to support their ideas.

Helping – it is crucial to help one's coworkers, which is the general theme of teamwork.

Sharing – it is important to share with the team to create an environment of teamwork.

Participating – all members of the team are encouraged to participate in the team.

Communication – For a team to work effectively it is essential team members acquire communication skills and use effective communication channels between one another e.g. using email, viral communication, group meetings and so on. This will enable team members of the group to work together and achieve the team's purpose and goals.

The forming-storming-norming-performing model takes the team through four stages of team development and maps quite well on to many project management life cycle models, such as initiation – definition – planning – realisation.

As teams grow larger, the skills and methods that people require grow as more ideas are expressed freely. Managers must use these to create or maintain a spirit of teamwork change. The intimacy of a small group is lost, and the opportunity for misinformation and disruptive rumors grows. Managers find that communication methods that once worked well are impractical with so many people to lead. Specifically, leaders might encounter difficulties based on Daglow's Law of Team Dynamics: "Small teams are informed. Big teams infer."

The Forming – Storming – Norming – Performing model of group development was first proposed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965, who maintained that these phases are all necessary and inevitable in order for the team to grow, to face up to challenges, to tackle problems, to find solutions, to plan work, and to deliver results. This model has become the basis for subsequent models of group development and team dynamics and a management theory frequently used to describe the behavior of existing teams. It has also taken a firm hold in the field of experiential education since in many outdoor education centers team building and leadership development are key goals.

Forming

In the first stages of team building, the forming of the team takes place. The team meets and learns about the opportunity and challenges, and then agrees on goals and begins to tackle the tasks. Team members tend to behave quite independently. They may be motivated but are usually relatively uninformed of the issues and objectives of the team. Team members are usually on their best behavior but very focused on themselves. Mature team members begin to model appropriate behavior even at this early phase. Sharing the knowledge of the concept of "Teams – Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing" is extremely helpful to the team.

Supervisors of the team tend to need to be directive during this phase.

The forming stage of any team is important because in this stage the members of the team get to know one another and make new friends. This is also a good opportunity to see how each member of the team works as an individual and how they respond to pressure.

Storming

Every group will then enter the storming stage in which different ideas compete for consideration. The team addresses issues such as what problems they are really supposed to solve, how they will function independently and together and what leadership model they will accept. Team members open up to each other and confront each other's ideas and perspectives.

In some cases storming can be resolved quickly. In others, the team never leaves this stage. The maturity of some team members usually determines whether the team will ever move out of this stage. Immature team members will begin acting out to demonstrate how much they know and convince others that their ideas are correct. Some team members will focus on small details to evade real issues.

The storming stage is necessary to the growth of the team. It can be argumentative, unpleasant and even painful to members of the team who are averse to conflict. Tolerance of each team member and their differences needs to be emphasized. Without tolerance and patience the team will fail. This phase can become destructive to the team and will lower motivation if allowed to get out of control.

Supervisors of the team during this phase may be more accessible but tend to still need to be directive in their guidance of decision-making and professional behavior.

Norming

At some point, the team may enter the norming stage. Team members adjust their behavior to each other as they develop work habits that make teamwork seem more natural and fluid. Team members often work through this stage by agreeing on rules, values, professional behavior, shared methods, working tools and even taboos. During this phase, team members begin to trust each other. Motivation increases as the team gets more acquainted with the project.

Teams in this phase may lose their creativity if the norming behaviors become too strong and begin to suffocate healthy dissent and the team begins to exhibit groupthink.

Supervisors of the team during this phase tend to be participative more than in the earlier stages. The team members can be expected to take more responsibility for making decisions and for their professional behavior.

Performing

Some teams will reach the performing stage. These high-performing teams are able to function as a unit as they find ways to get the job done smoothly and effectively without inappropriate conflict or the need for external supervision. Team members have become interdependent. By this time they are motivated and knowledgeable. The team members are now competent, autonomous and able to handle the decision-making process without supervision. Dissent is expected and allowed as long as it is channelled through means acceptable to the team.

Supervisors of the team during this phase are almost always participative. The team will make most of the necessary decisions. Even the most high-performing teams will revert to earlier stages in certain circumstances. Many long-standing teams will go through these cycles many times as they react to changing circumstances. For example, a change in leadership may cause the team to revert to storming as the new people challenge the existing norms and dynamics of the team.

Adjourning and Transforming

Tuckman later added a fifth phase, adjourning, that involves completing the task and breaking up the team. Others call it the phase for mourning.

A team that lasts may transcend to a transforming phase of achievement. Transformational management can produce major changes in performance through synergy and is considered to be more far-reaching than transactional management.

2.3 Team roles

Meredith Belbin (1993) basing on his research proposed ten roles that successful teams should have:

Coordinator

This person will have a clear view of the team objectives and will be skilled at inviting the contribution of team members in achieving these, rather than just pushing his or her own view. The coordinator (or chairperson) is self disciplined and applies this discipline to the team. They are confident and mature, and will summarize the view of the group and will be prepared to take a decision on the basis of this.

Shaper

The shaper is full of drive to make things happen and get things going. In doing this they are quite happy to push their own views forward, do not mind being challenged and are always ready to challenge others. The shaper looks for the pattern in discussions and tries to pull things together into something feasible, which the team can then get to work on.

Plant

This member is the one who is most likely to come out with original ideas and challenge the traditional way of thinking about things. Sometimes they become so imaginative and creative that the team cannot see the relevance of what they are saying. However, without the plant to scatter the seeds of new ideas the team will often find it difficult to make any headway. The plant’s strength is in providing major new insights and ideas for changes in direction and not in contributing to the detail of what needs to be done.

Resource investigator

The resource investigator is the group member with the strongest contacts and networks, and is excellent at bringing in information and support from the outside. This member can be very enthusiastic in pursuit of the team’s goals, but cannot always sustain this enthusiasm.

Implementer

The individual who is a company worker is well organized and effective at turning big ideas into manageable tasks and plans that can be achieved. Such individuals are both logical and disciplined in their approach. They are hardworking and methodical but may have some difficulty in being flexible.

Team worker

The team worker is the one who is most aware of the others in the team, their needs and their concerns. They are sensitive and supportive of other people’s efforts, and try to promote harmony and reduce conflict. Team workers are particularly important when the team is experiencing a stressful or difficult period.

Completer

As the title suggests, the completer is the one who drives the deadlines and makes sure they are achieved. The completer usually communicates a sense of urgency, which galvanizes other team members into action. They are conscientious and effective at checking the details, which is a vital contribution, but sometimes get ‘bogged down’ in them.

Monitor evaluator

The monitor evaluator is good at seeing all the options. They have a strategic perspective and can judge situations accurately. The monitor evaluator can be overcritical and is not usually good at inspiring and encouraging others.

Specialist

This person provides specialist skills and knowledge and has a dedicated and single-minded approach. They can adopt a very narrow perspective and sometimes fail to see the whole picture.

Finisher

The finisher is a person who sticks to deadline and likes to get on with things. They will probably be irritated by the more relaxed members of the team.

2.4 Examples of Great Teamwork

These are just a few examples of how in our society; we tend to value individual accomplishments. Fortunately, we are slowly beginning to recognize the importance of teamwork in sports, business, and school.

Sports offer some of the finest examples of teamwork. Great athletes always acknowledge that great teams win championships, not great individuals. As Babe Ruth said, “The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime.”

Sports are full of clichés like, “There is no I in team.” While this has often been commonly acknowledged wisdom, only recently has it been scientifically established. In 2006, two statistics professors at Brigham Young University concluded after a long-term study of NBA basketball games that teamwork truly was the most important factor in winning.

While individual skill and effort in sports is important, teamwork is paramount.

Teamwork has also become increasingly acknowledged as an essential skill for employees in companies both small and large. Today’s increasingly global economy places a premium on teamwork in the workplace. For companies that often produce goods on one continent and then over a matter of a few days must transport, store and deliver them to customers on another continent, teamwork is not just important, it is essential. Teamwork has become so valued that many large corporations have developed specific tests to measure potential employees’ teamwork abilities. Many companies are even acknowledging this in their job titles by changing the designation of supervisors or managers to “team leader.” While CEOs make the headlines, modern corporations could not function without teamwork.

Students that succeed in group efforts understand that they must make them team projects rather than group projects. There are subtle but very important differences between group and team projects. A team project is when members of the teamwork work interdependently towards the same goal. It is also a team project, when every member in the group feels a sense of ownership of their role. In a group project, members work independently and are often not working towards the same goal. The members in the group also focus a lot on themselves because they are not involved in the planning of their goals. It is not hard to explain why team projects always surpass group projects.

2.5 How to Improve Teamwork

The foundation of good teamwork is having a shared commitment to common objectives. Without this, all other forms of team building will have a limited impact. Therefore, before using any team building exercises and activities, or looking at relationships in the team, or embarking on other forms of team building, you need to put this foundation of shared commitment in place by:

Clarifying the team goals

Building ownership and commitment to those goals across the team

Identifying any issues which inhibit the team from reaching their goals

Addressing those issues, removing the inhibitors and thereby enabling the goals to be achieved

Team Building is therefore not just a single event (though events can play a part), nor is it something that can be done by someone outside the team (though outside consultants can help). It is a task primarily for the team manager and the team members themselves

TEAM BUILDING

SENSE + SIMPLICITY + RELEVANCE = RESULTS

Successful team building will have far reaching ramifications in your organization. Improve the way team members interact and you improve their ability to solve problems. Better problem–solving means better efficiency in general. Increased efficiency tends to boost morale and productivity. It also helps to decrease stress, turnover and operating costs. And all of these improvements boost the organizations public image. Once established an effective team becomes self perpetuating.

3.1 Overview

From direct experiences in many diverse workplaces there is a vast pool of intelligent, largely untapped talent. Correctly trained, developed and orientated they can and will contribute.

Team members leave a workshop with a perspective on:

Their roles

The need to see their work as part of a process

The need to be constantly improving the organisation's processes

The need to develop core skills that contribute to improvement

The ability to identify problems to work on

The ability to be able to analyse problems and determine causes

The ability to generate well-crafted solutions

Well supported back in their workplaces, delegates can, will and do make great contributions to performance improvement.

3.2 Goal and Aim

The goal is to achieve improvement in the way staff view and do their jobs. This brings about the productivity improvement benefit that all organizations desire.

The aim is to inspire action that improves the way the organization operates and the way staff interact.

3.3 Key Benefits

Demonstrably better, more relevant and practical team building methodology that is easy to organize and deliver

Content is relevant, interesting, challenging and rewarding, it taps into real world workplace experiences of employees, no contrived irrelevant team building exercises, activities and simulations.

Universal relevance to any organization. Anyone in any organization can contribute, the more diverse the backgrounds the better potential for true team building.

Makes use of the people with the experience at all levels and utilizes this diversity of interests and experiences to shape solutions and improvements.

Valuable information, based on the experiences of all involved will flow out of a workshop.

Often produces solutions to previously insoluble problems.

No irrelevant and ineffective gimmicks.

Adaptable to needs and vocabularies of any group of employees.

Easy to target key result areas, where performance is below what is required.

Old technology, old procedures, old policies, old methods, or

New technologies, new procedures, new policies, new methods

3.4 Work as a process

It is important for employees at all levels to understand work as a process, that must be constantly improved. It is of no use to any stakeholder to have one group or (powerfull) individual look at work in an organisation, counter to this viewpoint.

Part of a workshop uses the talent, experience, wisdom, logic and existing thought patterns of the delegates to forge an improved conceptual model of the organization, from that which exists at the start of the team building process.

A custom team building workshop can be used either to tackle:

Existing challenges

Perceived future challenges

Or in a ‘blue skies’ mode to think about ways of improving how the organization operates.

Delegates first establish existing facts, their thinking, perceptions, assumptions experiences and their attitudes; the good, the bad and the ugly. They then begin to challenge this existing base in order to develop an improved conceptual model.

From the improved conceptual model, delegates seek improvements by testing the new model using debate, exercises, activities and role playing. Improvements are likely to be come from the group in the following areas:

Performance

Systems

Methods

Materials

Basic business process plus sub-processes

Management

Leadership

Relationships

Such a workshop will enable participants to fully explore their workplaces, the organizational environment and beyond. It will realistically challenge the way they think and view their workplace, their work and their relationships thus paving the way for improved opportunities for personal development and thus improved organizational effectiveness.

Advantages

Can assemble and take advantage of a great deal of diverse experience

Designed for a high degree of participation

Allows for group–determined goals, plans, and recommendations

It will generate more ideas than any individual would produce alone, and will promote confidence in agreed–upon solutions

3.5 The team building blocks

The following team building blocks, are the essential dynamics that enable any group of people to come together in an organized fashion to deliver or produce effectively and efficiently, goods and services.

An initial diagnostic team building exercise takes the form of a comprehensive questionnaire, which individual workshop members complete.

The outcome from the exercise is a composite radar chart displaying the relative strengths and weaknesses of each of the 9 team building blocks.

This starting profile is the first step in the team building workshop process.

Team building blocks – the process start profile

To begin the exploration of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities for improvement and threats to the organization, a start profile of the team building blocks manifest in the group is summarized. The example below shows one such profile in the form of a radar chart.

By inspection, this team building processes can be seen as relevant to the needs of the organization, the group and the individuals in the group. In any given organization, there will be at least one or two of the team building blocks that can and will make a significant difference to overall performance improvement.

3.6 Exercises and activities deployed

To make the learning and the team development process more effective, during the course of the workshop a number of team building exercises and activities are used. These exercises are designed to be stimulating, informative and challenging.

Performance review and projection

Using input data from the workshop planning phase, delegates interpret key performance data, ‘where have we come from?’ ‘Where are we heading?’ ‘What caused…?’ ‘How did that…’

This contextual team building activity is powerful, much more so than monthly performance targets that take 'snapshots in time' and will often lead to a fundamental change in how performance is viewed, at all levels. In addition it can often reveal hidden problems.

Time series graphs of key performance indicators
Trends are an important or should be to organizations. They are very important to large investors, who seek confirmation of trends in earnings growth and profitability. Trends are important to national economies, we all want to see growing prosperity, growing employment opportunities and a downturn in criminal activity.

It is very easy to take a snapshot of any kind of data and ‘spin’ it as being positive in relation to some ‘growth in …’ or ‘decline in …’ in the short–term, when the medium to long term picture is otherwise. It is also easy to manipulate data to give a false picture of what is really happening.

Using time series graphs of key performance indicators and using the simplest of trending techniques participants will fundamentally change their approach to performance management. This focuses team building on the main objective, performance improvement. Events in history can be fully explored and their affects on performance evaluated.

Team Building Blocks

This exercise will give a baseline on the core dynamics of effective team building, that leads to performance improvement and individual employee growth.

Role playing

Using the open systems model of the organization, role playing is simple to setup. During the preparation stage for the team building workshop, relevant special interest groups (or SIGs) are identified. For a commercial organization these would include:

Employee

Senior management

Owners (shareholders)

Suppliers

Customers

Again using the open systems model it may be appropriate to have only internal SIGs, thus:

Sales

Marketing

Manufacturing

Administration

Output from the team building process, such as problems, challenges, opportunities, weaknesses etc. are evaluated from the differing perspectives of each SIG. The key during role playing, is role reversal, for instance rank and file employees role play senior management, then explain how they would handle situation x.

Participants will use role playing as a means of stimulating discussion, that is aimed at problems solving

Provides individuals and the groups with insight into attitudes that may differ sharply from own

It gives the participants the chance to assume the personality of (to think and act like) another group; leading to better understanding

Sometimes groups are able to explain cultural / hierarchical differences more clearly

Can be used to seek out possible solutions to emotion laden problems

Gives everyone involved a bigger picture of the relationships, processes and workings of the organization

Buzz sessions

Buzz sessions can be inter spaced through out the team building process to stimulate thought, discussion and add interest. These short sessions entail a guest speaker delivering a short presentation on a relevant subject. Such speakers can be experts in their field, they can be internal employees (managers for instance) or external guests from suppliers and or customers.

The idea is to further add goal correspondence, context and relevance to the team building process.

Site visits

Site visits can be arranged and conducted prior to the workshop, during the workshop or post the workshop. They are used to develop organizational awareness to compare how the the organization perceives itself internally and how it is perceived externally by suppliers and customers.

Site visits also develop better working relationships and improved problem solving capability. It brings together the concept of 'thinking outside the box' by visiting those who 'live and work outside the box'.'

To relate theory to ‘real’ problems.

To study something that cannot be brought into a classroom.

To stimulate interest and concern.

To demonstrate a course of action ‘in the field’ or in a work environment.

To talk to other workers in their working environment.

To find out details of how things are done.

To study organizational cultures or environments.

The evaluation activities

During the team building workshop, where appropriate, a number of evaluation activities are deployed.

Problem development time–line exercise

Any organizational problem has an history. Problems in the team building workshop are evaluated historically with this activity.

Predicting the future exercise

This activity will assist in gaining agreement for the need to change. What is looked for is the negative consequences flowing from allowing a current unsatisfactory situation to ‘fester.’

Exploration of change analysis activity

Designed to explore a problem in terms of what happened and when in some detail this exercise takes real workplace events and has the groups analyze past events and the effects on SIGs.

Individual, group, organization, suppliers and customers needs analysis activity

During the team building workshop problems in one area or another, or at one level or another will come to the fore. Delegates, through the various exercises and activities will have pinpointed when things started going wrong, they will predicted what they think will happen if things continue in the current vain and they have begun to explore the problem in terms of the effect the unsatisfactory situation is having on them.

Delegates explore what they would like to build into a future solution to this current unsatisfactory situation that meets their role playing SIG needs.

These team building exercises and activities let the group get to grips with their (and your) problem. How would they solve this (or that) particular problem, taking cognizance of all the dynamics, internal and external, they have explored. These activities greatly improve the problem solving capabilities of delegates and a greater awareness of the dynamics involved in making decisions.

Workshop approaches to improvement

The essential approach to team building is process improvement. Improvement (productivity) flows from making work

easier

simpler

quicker

rewarding

safer and

fun

Changing and improving unsatisfactory situations, within the context of organizational goals, brings about rapid team development. These unsatisfactory situations are usually caused be ineffective, processes, systems, methods and or resources. They are largely easy to determine, define and correct.

Talking and listening to employees at all levels reveals wonderful opportunities, often simple, that invariably lead to improvement.

Types of Team Building

There are four types of Team Building. Once you have established the basic foundation of shared commitment, the approach you then take to team building depends on the size of the team and the types of issues that may be inhibiting good teamwork.

Individuals

In a project environment, where team composition is continually changing, the emphasis must be on selecting people who are self-starters and developing the skills in individuals to become effective team members very quickly. The 'scale' involved is 1 person, and the team building consultant or trainer is endeavouring to change the skills and abilities of the individual at operating within a team (or within multiple teams).

Small Teams

In teams where membership is static – typically in management teams – the motivational challenge is to align the drive of the disparate individuals around the same goals.

There can be many inhibitors to performance – eg: personality, dynamics, processes etc., and how the individuals within the team relate to each other can have a big bearing on team performance. So, if a member leaves, or another joins, the dynamics of the team can be changed greatly and the task of team building has to start again.

Team Islands

A larger scale operates between teams. Where the teams do not relate well, they are called 'team islands'. The motivational challenge is to overcome the problem of "in/out groups" so that people have positive attitudes towards those in other teams.

There are often many barriers between teams that inhibit team performance, but not all of them can be removed. The main task, therefore, is the bridging, or relationship, between the teams.

Large Teams

The largest scale is organisational culture change. With the exception of the senior management team, any changes to personnel have limited impact on the corporate culture.

The key aim of company-wide team building is to change the behaviours and attitudes prevalent in the organisation, which are almost independent of who actually works there – new recruits who are 'different' often start behaving in accord with the existing culture.

3.8 TEAM BUILDINGS IDEEAS

The most popular sessions are:

3.8.1 Rhythm Orchestra

This is a fun drumming session in which everyone plays together at once.

3.8.2 Rhythm Orchestra Break out

We split the group into teams to learn different parts and rhythms of the orchestra, coming back together for an exciting finale. For this we would need several facilitators to run the separate sessions preferably in different break out rooms. The instrumentation would be similar to the Rhythm Orchestra option.

3.8.3 Team acting

The teams come up with different artistic activities such as dancing, short plays, interpretation of music or poetry, etc.

3.8.4 Camp fire

If the activity is taking place in a natural environment, a nocturnal camp fire can produce an astonishing effect on the participant, preparing them for the evening party that there is to come. The serving of food and beverages also brings up the atmosphere when all participants are probably tired from the day activities.

3.8.5 Other team building activities

3.9 TIPS FOR TEAM BUILDING: HOW TO BUILD SUCCESSFUL WORK TEAMS

How to Make Teams Effective

How to Build Powerfully Successful Work Teams

People in every workplace talk about building the team, working as a team, and my team, but few understand how to create the experience of team work or how to develop an effective team. Belonging to a team, in the broadest sense, is a result of feeling part of something larger than yourself. It has a lot to do with your understanding of the mission or objectives of your organization.

In a team-oriented environment, you contribute to the overall success of the organization. You work with fellow members of the organization to produce these results. Even though you have a specific job function and you belong to a specific department, you are unified with other organization members to accomplish the overall objectives.

The bigger picture drives your actions; your function exists to serve the bigger picture.

You need to differentiate this overall sense of teamwork from the task of developing an effective intact team that is formed to accomplish a specific goal. People confuse the two team building objectives. This is why so many team building seminars, meetings, retreats and activities are deemed failures by their participants. Leaders failed to define the team they wanted to build. Developing an overall sense of team work is different from building an effective, focused work team when you consider team building approaches.

Tips for Team Building

Executives, managers and organization staff members universally explore ways to improve business results and profitability. Many view team-based, horizontal, organization structures as the best design for involving all employees in creating business success.

No matter what you call your team-based improvement effort: continuous improvement, total quality, lean manufacturing or self-directed work teams, you are striving to improve results for customers. Few organizations, however, are totally pleased with the results their team improvement efforts produce. Successful team building, that creates effective, focused work teams, requires attention to each of the following.

Clear Expectations: Has executive leadership clearly communicated its expectations for the team’s performance and expected outcomes? Do team members understand why the team was created? Is the organization demonstrating constancy of purpose in supporting the team with resources of people, time and money? Does the work of the team receive sufficient emphasis as a priority in terms of the time, discussion, attention and interest directed its way by executive leaders?

Context: Do team members understand why they are participating on the team? Do they understand how the strategy of using teams will help the organization attain its communicated business goals? Can team members define their team’s importance to the accomplishment of corporate goals? Does the team understand where its work fits in the total context of the organization’s goals, principles, vision and values?

Commitment: Do team members want to participate on the team? Do team members feel the team mission is important? Are members committed to accomplishing the team mission and expected outcomes? Do team members perceive their service as valuable to the organization and to their own careers? Do team members anticipate recognition for their contributions? Do team members expect their skills to grow and develop on the team? Are team members excited and challenged by the team opportunity?

Competence: Does the team feel that it has the appropriate people participating? (As an example, in a process improvement, is each step of the process represented on the team?) Does the team feel that its members have the knowledge, skill and capability to address the issues for which the team was formed? If not, does the team have access to the help it needs? Does the team feel it has the resources, strategies and support needed to accomplish its mission?

Charter: Has the team taken its assigned area of responsibility and designed its own mission, vision and strategies to accomplish the mission.

Has the team defined and communicated its goals; its anticipated outcomes and contributions; its timelines; and how it will measure both the outcomes of its work and the process the team followed to accomplish their task? Does the leadership team or other coordinating group support what the team has designed?

Control: Does the team have enough freedom and empowerment to feel the ownership necessary to accomplish its charter? At the same time, do team members clearly understand their boundaries? How far may members go in pursuit of solutions? Are limitations (i.e. monetary and time resources) defined at the beginning of the project before the team experiences barriers and rework?

Is the team’s reporting relationship and accountability understood by all members of the organization? Has the organization defined the team’s authority? To make recommendations? To implement its plan? Is there a defined review process so both the team and the organization are consistently aligned in direction and purpose? Do team members hold each other accountable for project timelines, commitments and results? Does the organization have a plan to increase opportunities for self-management among organization members?

Collaboration: Does the team understand team and group process? Do members understand the stages of group development? Are team members working together effectively interpersonally? Do all team members understand the roles and responsibilities of team members? team leaders? team recorders? Can the team approach problem solving, process improvement, goal setting and measurement jointly? Do team members cooperate to accomplish the team charter? Has the team established group norms or rules of conduct in areas such as conflict resolution, consensus decision making and meeting management? Is the team using an appropriate strategy to accomplish its action plan?

Communication: Are team members clear about the priority of their tasks? Is there an established method for the teams to give feedback and receive honest performance feedback? Does the organization provide important business information regularly? Do the teams understand the complete context for their existence? Do team members communicate clearly and honestly with each other? Do team members bring diverse opinions to the table? Are necessary conflicts raised and addressed?

Creative Innovation: Is the organization really interested in change? Does it value creative thinking, unique solutions, and new ideas? Does it reward people who take reasonable risks to make improvements? Or does it reward the people who fit in and maintain the status quo? Does it provide the training, education, access to books and films, and field trips necessary to stimulate new thinking?

In the first part of this article, three tips for effective team building were presented. In the second, six tips for team building were provided. Here are three more tips for effective team building.

Consequences: Do team members feel responsible and accountable for team achievements? Are rewards and recognition supplied when teams are successful? Is reasonable risk respected and encouraged in the organization? Do team members fear reprisal? Do team members spend their time finger pointing rather than resolving problems? Is the organization designing reward systems that recognize both team and individual performance? Is the organization planning to share gains and increased profitability with team and individual contributors? Can contributors see their impact on increased organization success?

Coordination: Are teams coordinated by a central leadership team that assists the groups to obtain what they need for success? Have priorities and resource allocation been planned across departments? Do teams understand the concept of the internal customer—the next process, anyone to whom they provide a product or a service? Are cross-functional and multi-department teams common and working together effectively? Is the organization developing a customer-focused process-focused orientation and moving away from traditional departmental thinking?

Cultural Change: Does the organization recognize that the team-based, collaborative, empowering, enabling organizational culture of the future is different than the traditional, hierarchical organization it may currently be? Is the organization planning to or in the process of changing how it rewards, recognizes, appraises, hires, develops, plans with, motivates and manages the people it employs?

Does the organization plan to use failures for learning and support reasonable risk? Does the organization recognize that the more it can change its climate to support teams, the more it will receive in pay back from the work of the teams?

Spend time and attention on each of these twelve tips to ensure your work teams contribute most effectively to your business success.

BYBLIOGRAPHY

http://professionalpractice.asme.org/communications/teambuilding/index.htm

http://professionalpractice.asme.org/communications/teambuilding/index.htm

http://www.leadersinstitute.com/teambuilding/team_building_tips/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_building

http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/tt/h-articl/tb-basic.htm

http://www.worldofrhythm.com/topic/team-building?gclid=CMasrKuIzpECFQZDEgodcxq13g

http://www.teambuildinginc.com/article_incentives.htm

http://www.accel-team.com/

http://www.teambuildingportal.com/articles/team-failure/

http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/tt/h-articl/team-building-part2.htm