Team Building is the process of improving collective performance.
A simple but effective methodology involves:
- Establishing ownership of shared goals
- Removing inhibitors/blockages to achievement of those goals
- Introducing enablers (awareness, resources, information, processes, etc.) to help achieve those goals
- Using team building processes (e.g.: health checks, performance management, 360 feedback) in the correct sequence to gradually raise performance, akin to climbing a ladder one rung at a time
Team Building is often ineffective because:
- In many cases, advanced techniques are used whilst there is a lack of buy in to the shared objectives
(commitment to team building activities is predicated on commitment to the overall direction/goals)
- Interventions are made out of sequence
(e.g.: a poorly defined structure, roles and responsibilities will undermine attempts to improve interpersonal relationships)
- Many offsite events fail to add any real, lasting value because the approach taken to team building is too generic
(any offsite event should be designed to meet specific goals and outcomes)
- There is often a lack of understanding of the difference between a group and a team
(team building with a group can be counter-productive, detracting from individual performance without any compensatory collective benefit)
- There is a lack of assessment of the team
(diagnosis is required in order to develop effective intervention strategies)
Objectives
In the Forming stage (Forming-Storming-Norming-Performing), individuals are committed, at most, to their own objectives. Members will only invest time in Storming activities if they think it is worth it - that is, if the collective objectives are seen as important as their own.
A common mistake is for individuals to think that being committed to their own objectives means they are committed to the team.
As in the age-old metaphor where a house needs to be built on rock, the foundation of all team building is commitment to the shared goal.
Techniques
If team building is viewed as a commodity, as a product to be purchased from a supplier, then it is unlikely to have any lasting value. Having an awayday, playing games or doing fun things will generally lead to lasting and improved collective performance only in the context of a good plan, where events are bespoke (designed to meet specific objectives and outcomes). In fact, having an awayday without good design is taking a gamble - it may achieve something, be a waste of time, or even damage teamwork.
The choice of intervention strategy depends not only on the current state of teamwork, but on the nature of the people. For highly motivated individuals, it can be enough to set a high level direction and then allow individuals to contribute to the detailed development of the goals. For others, whose natural motivations are more individual, there may need to be objective-based rewards that require teamwork. In some instances, where high levels of teamwork cannot be achieved, they may only be effective in the Forming stage, which is highly dependent on leadership.
Groups
A group is a set of people with individual objectives who happen to share the same boss, or the same workplace, or be part of the same organisational unit. In a group, individuals might even have the same objectives - e.g.: in a sales force, everyone might have the same sales target to meet, but they may also compete against each other rather than cooperate.
A team is a group that works towards a single, common objective. In fact, they might have different individual objectives, but those objectives contribute to the higher collective one. E.g. in a sales team, one person might make appointments, another provide technical sales support, another prepare a bid document, and another make the sale. But they are all accountable together for the sales and are not judged solely on individual objectives.
Strategies
Interventions fall into four main areas:
- Individual - e.g.: development of individual skills; establishing familiarity with shared processes
- Relational - e.g.: improvement of unconscious dynamics; engendering a sense of common purpose and commitment
- In/Out Groups - tackling the barriers between different organisational units
- Cultural - building a teamwork ethos in larger organisations
There is more information on the four types of team building in the second part of this article.