Team Building

Introduction:
An organization is composed of a group of individuals that have come together out of mutual interest. Each person brings to the group his or her special talents, history, skills, unique set of experiences and a set of norms or values. Team building shiftsthe focus of the group to its members rather than the organizational tasks, thus allowingthe members to feel important and cared for. It is the group process that uses activities requiring members to work together to discover shared interests and lays the groundwork for new and deeper friendships. When done effectively, team building highlights each person's differences in values, personality and skills while simultaneously building the membership into a cohesive, trusting and mutually supportive group. Building strong interpersonal ties increases member satisfaction and group productivity. Team building should not be used in an attempt to make everyone the same. There are many different methods of team building, each designed to produce differing results. In order to find the appropriate exercise for your organization, please read through the entire list at the end of this handout, paying close attention to the expected results. If this is the first time your organization will be participating in a teambuilding process, you might find it better to pick one of the less risky exercises. You can always choose a riskier exercise after you have been working together for a while and are more comfortable as a group.

Team Building - 7 Steps to Success

"We are going to build a team". Replace the word "team" with the word "house" - or any other noun that can be built and will take more than just a few minutes - and most sensible people will want to adopt a structured approach. Plans will be drawn up and approved. People will receive copies of the plan and efforts will be made to ensure everyone understands it. Progress will be monitored against the plan. Lessons will be learned along the way that will be used to improve the next phase. Anything less will lead at best to mediocrity and underachievement.

So why is team building so often treated in an ad hoc manner? You wouldn't take bricks and mortar out, show them a good time and expect them to rearrange themselves into something better just because they had a nice break. So why expect a group of people to do any better? The only answer to that question with any merit is that bricks can't think and people can. Which sounds like management by abdication. Or perhaps management by trusting to luck. It certainly doesn't sound like a structured approach. So if taking people off for some fun is not team building - what is it? Traditional away day options are team bonding exercises - and that is different. Take a group quad-biking, paint-balling etc and it will help bond the participants through a shared experience. You can even justify its use of some of the training budget if you like by claiming it has helped them develop as a team. Just don't believe it - or you'll be disappointed to discover that while the group is closer it is no more effective. No - if you want to build a team rather than just bond the individuals closer, you need a structured process. You need to decide before you start what improvements you want and can realistically expect the team to achieve. Next you can decide how long it will take to achieve those results. Often, fun remains a key objective for such a session. If it is the only one or is only combined with a desire to get the team to become closer - organising a team bonding session is an ideal solution. If, however, your expectations are set higher than that - then you need something more structured. So what are the key characteristics of a genuine team building session? I suggest the following 7 steps will lead to success: 1) Have definite session and longer-term goals and know how the session goals lead to the longer term ones. 2) Use an engaging and varied base activity that involves each participant in something that he or she enjoys doing.

3) Use an activity that achieves that engagement while having genuine parallels to the workplace and has relevance with the session goals. 4) Select an activity that requires the same kind of skill sets and team approaches that are needed at work - albeit one that is removed from the work itself. 5) Consider using an independent (internal or external) facilitator - to allow all levels to join in as equals and to avoid it feeling like a "sermon from above". 6) Debrief using a predefined process that highlights the workplace parallels and allows the participants to extract their own learning rather than be preached to. 7) Use a proven mechanism to transfer the learning back to the workplace, ideally integrated within the debriefing process itself.

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. Discussing - it is important to discuss your ideas with your teammates until you agree. 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. (usually consist of three or more people) Communicating - 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."

Team roles
The approach to Team Role analysis was first introduced by Meredith Belbin in 1981[2] to inform management consulting practices and for training[3]. (Belbin Team Roles are not designed for high stake employment decisions.) Belbin proposed nine team roles required for successful teams: 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. Planter 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 planter'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 teams 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 peoples 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 Finisher The Completer Finisher is a perfectionist and will often go the extra mile to make sure everything is "just right," and the things he or she delivers can be trusted to have been double-checked and then checked again. The Completer Finisher has a strong inward sense of the need for accuracy, rarely needing any encouragement from others because that individual's

own high standards are what he or she tries to live up to. They may frustrate their teammates by worrying excessively about minor details and refusing to delegate tasks that they do not trust anyone else to perform. 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. (Note: the specialist is not considered a team role)

Benefits of Team Building

The term "team building" has become a buzzword in recent years, and has many connotations. In terms of corporate development, team-building exercises are important not for the immediate experience of the activities performed by the team, but also for the group skills, communication and bonding that result. The activitybe it an obstacle course or the Chocolate Challengeis merely the means to the end: a high-impact learning experience. Team-building programmes provide realistic experiences that empower individuals to contribute to common goals. The success of most organisations depends on the ability of individuals to build effective teams The main goals of team-building are to improve productivity and motivation. Taking employees out of the office helps groups break down political and personal barriers, eliminate distractions, and have fun. The benefits of teambuilding programs are so significant that many corporations have incorporated teambuilding strategies into their standard training curriculum. Some of these benefits include: Improves morale and leadership skills. Finds the barriers that thwart creativity. Clearly defines objectives and goals. Improves processes and procedures.

Improves organizational productivity. Identifies a teams strengths and weaknesses. Improves the ability to problem solve.

Disadvantages of team work:

Some of the disadvantages of team work: Loneliness and isolation. If not properly managed people may have a tendency to feel forgotten and even deserted by the organisations they work for. Some people have a high level of need for social interaction to stay engaged and motivated. Dangers of overwork leading to burn out. New entrants to virtual working often have a sense that they are not doing enough. This leads to attempts to work longer hours to justify still being valued by the company. Loss of opportunity to network and transfer knowledge informally. We all transfer and absorb knowledge differently. Many companies are unaware of the importance of informal learning until the opportunity for it is removed. Actions get overlooked because team members assume someone else is responsible. Managing people youve never met can be challenging.

Twelve 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. If your team improvement efforts are not living up to your expectations, this selfdiagnosing checklist may tell you why. Successful team building, that creates effective, focused work teams, requires attention to each of the following.

Clear Expectations Context Commitment Competence Charter Control Collaboration Communication Creative Innovation Consequences Coordination Cultural Change

Critiques of teamworking
There is a range of debates concerned with the negative features of teamworking. The move to teamwork in industry and services has led to a greater amount of peer pressure, performance management, and stress. Management control is seen by critics to be reinvigorated by transferring the disciplinary dimension of management to employees and team members themselves. There are studies showing how team members pressure each other into working harder. The literature goes into questions of bullying and of surveillance. (See Phil Garrahan and Paul Stewart The Nissan Enigma Chapter 4 published by Mansell in London - 1992). This had led to a debate on the regulation of teamworking and the need to establish rules and procedures regarding its development and boundaries.

Examples of Great Teamwork

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. For example a football running back and quarterbacks ability are totally dependent on the strength of their offensive line. A basketball centers ability in

scoring is mainly dependent on his teams willingness to pass. Even a NASCAR drivers finish depends on the speed and skill of his pit crew.