Team.01
Team work and team building essentials
Team building skills are critical for your effectiveness as a manager or entrepreneur. And even if you are not in a management or leadership role yet, better understanding of team work can make you a more effective employee and give you an extra edge in your corporate office.
A team building success is when your team can accomplish something much bigger and work more effectively than a group of the same individuals working on their own. You have a strong synergy of individual contributions. But there are two critical factors in building a high performance team.
The first factor in team effectiveness is the diversity of skills and personalities. When people use their strengths in full, but can compensate for each other's weaknesses. When different personality types balance and complement each other.
The other critical element of team work success is that all the team efforts are directed towards the same clear goals, the team goals. This relies heavily on good communication in the team and the harmony in member relationships.
In real life, team work success rarely happens by itself, without focused team building efforts and activities. There is simply too much space for problems. For example, different personalities, instead of complementing and balancing each other, may build up conflicts. Or even worse, some people with similar personalities may start fighting for authority and dominance in certain areas of expertise. Even if the team goals are clear and accepted by everyone, there may be no team commitment to the group goals or no consensus on the means of achieving those goals: individuals in the team just follow their personal opinions and move in conflicting directions. There may be a lack of trust and openness that blocks the critical communication and leads to loss of coordination in the individual efforts. And on and on. This is why every team needs a good leader who is able to deal with all such team work issues.
Here are some additional team building ideas, techniques, and tips you can try when managing teams in your situation.
Make sure that the team goals are totally clear and completely understood and accepted by each team member.
Make sure there is complete clarity in who is responsible for what and avoid overlapping authority. For example, if there is a risk that two team members will be competing for control in certain area, try to divide that area into two distinct parts and give each more complete control in one of those parts, according to those individual's strengths and personal inclinations.
Build trust with your team members by spending one-on-one time in an atmosphere of honesty and openness. Be loyal to your employees, if you expect the same.
Allow your office team members build trust and openness between each other in team building activities and events. Give them some opportunities of extra social time with each other in an atmosphere that encourages open communication. For example in a group lunch on Friday. Though be careful with those corporate team building activities or events in which socializing competes too much with someone's family time.
For issues that rely heavily on the team consensus and commitment, try to involve the whole team in the decision making process. For example, via group goal setting or group sessions with collective discussions of possible decision options or solution ideas. What you want to achieve here is that each team member feels his or her ownership in the final decision, solution, or idea. And the more he or she feels this way, the more likely he or she is to agree with and commit to the decided line of action, the more you build team commitment to the goals and decisions.
When managing teams, make sure there are no blocked lines of communications and you and your people are kept fully informed.
Even when your team is spread over different locations, you can still maintain effective team communication. Just do your meetings online and slash your travel costs. Click here for a free test drive.
Be careful with interpersonal issues. Recognize them early and deal with them in full.
Don't miss opportunities to empower your employees. Say thank you or show appreciation of an individual team player's work.
Don't limit yourself to negative feedback. Be fare. Whenever there is an opportunity, give positive feedback as well.
Finally, though team work and team building can offer many challenges, the pay off from a high performance team is well worth it.
Twelve Cs 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 self-diagnosing checklist may tell you why. 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?
Six more tips for team building. Three final tips for team building.
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?
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. Your team members will love you, your business will soar, and empowered people will "own" and be responsible for their work processes. Can your work life get any better than this?
Team.2Man is a social being thus he needs to interact with people. Almost every individual has experienced, in one way or another, how it is to work in a group – from his childhood games to wherever he is now earning his living. Unfortunately, not every group succeeds in its objectives or goals. Failure is a possible consequence whenever we get into a challenge. However, we can always avoid this much dreaded “failure” if every member of a group would not fail to use or exercise TEAMWORK. Yes, every group of people must not only work as a GROUP where every individual works for his own advantage, but instead, every one should work as part of a TEAM – where he is working towards a common goal. When these “small contributions” build up, success is hardly
unforeseeable.
How can a person work as part of a TEAM? It’s actually so easy: just remember the word TEAMWORK as a guideline. Also remember that all these should work together – should be there hand in hand from the conception of the team to the achievement of the final goal. No one of these can be enough and can work in isolation to be able to come up with a successful team.
T is for Talent
By talent, I mean a person’s knowledge or capabilities. It is of course quite necessary for a member of a team to be knowledgeable about the work that his team is going to do. Where can these knowledge be gained? Knowledge can explicitly be learned from some useful handbooks on whatever you are working on. However, implicit knowledge – that which is acquired through experience and practice, is found to be much more useful.
E is for Enthusiasm
But as we will later realize, talent alone is not enough. A knowledgeable team member must also be enthusiastic. He must seek responsibility, he must find ways to make the talents he has useful. He must always have the energy and the drive to work. Eventually, this enthusiasm will naturally come out of him and he will realize that his example becomes so inspiring and motivating enough for his other teammates to work – without him asking them any demands.
A is for Accountability
Every member is accountable not only to his team but to all his other work mates. We are not responsible only of ourselves. It is everyone’s responsibility to keep others informed. Whenever someone keeps on forgetting what he needs to do, it is our responsibility to keep him reminded. What he failed to do is a reflection of what we were also not able to do ourselves.
M is for Management
Every member must know his specialization relative to what his other teammates can do best. A good organization is really needed in proper distribution of work. The best member of any group is he who demands work based on what he can do. When we are assigned to do or work on something, we must also know where to go for help (just in case we couldn’t work out on something), and when those help must be asked. Ultimately, it is every group member’s responsibility to ensure that everyone has a work to do and that every one is always the best man for his job.
W is for Work-able
When a person has all the talents and the enthusiasm in the world and yet he doesn’t
have free time to work, it all turns out useless. Availability of every member is very much needed to work as a team. If no one’s there, who do you expect to pursue the team’s goals? This work-ability is not all about free-time, however, it also entails a large amount of adaptability. Every member must be able to expect different possibilities and must know how to react on them should they arise in the course of events.
O is for Openness
Understanding among team members is a necessity in every team for every member to be able to work in the best of his abilities. Everyone must be open to new ideas and suggestions. Everyone must have the capability to understand people. It is in keeping the communication lines open that the team can more efficiently achieve its goals.
R is for Respect
Every team member must be able to practice respect so that he can expect to be respected in return. A team could discuss things and every member could voice out his own opinion in whatever matter they are discussing without degrading his teammate or his teammate’s suggestions no matter how irrational they are. It is one thing to listen and be able to humbly object and it is another thing to just avoid to listen. Whenever a team is brainstorming, everyone must be able to raise his opinions without having any hard feelings.
K is for Keenness
Keenness is the final key in working as a part of a team. It is more than enthusiasm. Enthusiasm comes before doing the actual work. This keenness – this intensity, is manifested while going through the work itself. It is what pushes us to move on and keep on working until we are finally done.
Keeping A Good Team Together
Effective development methods, the right technology, efficient processes, available money and well-invested time are all important aspects, but none can substitute for the importance of an exceptional team if you want to establish an exceptional organization.
Keeping a team of talented individuals who work together well is one of the top challenges for executives these days - ranking right up there with hiring successfully and then firing.
Keeping your team together as your company's core foundation stone is key to each individual's success—and most importantly, and obviously, to your company's success.
Now, having talented people on your team is essential, but building a close knit and productive team is even more so. Obviously, each organization is different, so there is no 'one size fits all' solution for how to do this, however, keeping your team together, focused, and motivated is probably the single most important activity you as leader can devote your time to. Take a look at the following ideas for building an exceptional and productive team:
1. Hire right in the first place. Don't hire someone if they don't meet your company needs or the bar you've set for your team. When you have trouble finding good people who fit your organization, it is extremely tempting to lower the bar and compromise your standards; however it's essential to remember that adding the wrong person to your team could actually lower productivity and morale. You need to hire people who a) want to be part of a team, b) don't need to be in the lime light all the time themselves, c) are interested in the greater good of the organization - sometimes that means above and beyond their own needs and d) have not only the requisite skills to do their job well but the desire to learn from others and see how their piece can become a profitable part of the whole.
2. Clearly define the goals and objectives, for the individuals, the company and the team. Often company leaders have goals for the organization itself, and for the individuals in the company, but miss an important mark by not having team goals. This strategy tends to stress the value of individuals players working on their own individual objectives, rather than encouraging a team approach to resolving challenges and finding innovative solutions. You need to have collaborative goals for your team. Team goals can be developed by the team or by the leadership, but the team needs to buy into them and agree to them. Share the goals and objectives with all team members, often.
3. Heed the simple solution of open and frequent communication. Very often, the cause of teamwork breakdown is communication - people not sharing how they feel, not being forthright about their challenges or problems with other team members. People tend to talk to everyone about an issue except the person with whom they are experiencing a challenge. One thing I often recommend to my clients is to open their team meetings with time for each person to vent, express their unhappiness, express their happiness, congratulate other team members or make whatever comment they wish - but simple make clear time and opportunity for discussion. What isn't openly addressed ends up buried, but it's important to note that suppressed issues don't go away. They come back to haunt you and your company over and over again.
4. Team members (rather than leadership) hold other team members accountable. Peer pressure is a strong force. Take, for example, a situation where the CFO says they will provide information to HR on the cost of benefits. The HR person needs to ask by when, and the rest of the team needs to hold the CFO accountable for delivering that information in the time frame agreed upon. This may mean that at the next meeting the HR person is asked if they received the requested information, and if the CFO did not provide the data as promised, the rest of the team needs to ask why and get a time commitment for when the information will be available. If each member is accountable to
other members (rather than management) they are more likely to become and stay close knit.
5. Create a culture that appreciates and bonds your team. Little things do matter. Take the team to lunch or dinner. Encourage them to have a friendly competition amongst themselves (could be work related or something fun like a contest for who makes the most delicious dessert), have them create a name for themselves (the team) - silly yes, but you'd be surprised how often silliness works to bond a team. There are countless ideas, but the bottom line is that you want them to do things together, and see themselves as a unit rather than individual contributors who come together periodically. By creating a culture that appreciates the team as a whole, each member wins when the team wins - and so does your company.
No matter how hard they try, there is no guarantee that talented individuals will make an exceptional team until they have become a collaborative group with common goals and expectations, so it works in the best interests of your organization to develop the best team possible. There is no doubt that team dynamics are integral to a team's success, so be sure to make effective communication a top priority. The ideas above will serve you well as you build your team, and remember, the quality of the team (or teams) that you build determines the success of your company. Keep a good team together.
Teamwork in the Workplace: A Definition
From our observation and studies on teamwork in the workplace, we have found three primary conditions that have to be met in order to attain higher levels of team performance and member satisfaction.
Resources and Commitment Ownership and Heart Learning
These three conditions are the heart and soul of teamwork. These conditions are not a blueprint. Each group is unique, and the specifics and details of teamwork have to be worked out separately. Let's look closer at number one - Resources and Commitment.
Resources and Commitment
A strong personal commitment and leap of faith are needed to start up and sustain tight knit teams. Genuine energy and resources are required during the early stages. For example, important non-task time is needed for teams to meet and establish identity, expectations, spirit, bonds, and patience is required for learning, coaching and behavior change that is consistent with team principles. Investment in teamwork is very intangible. You can't measure it like most corporate assets that can be sold off for a profit if you have a couple of bad quarters.
Teamwork in the workplace requires a lot of care, sensitivity, and patience for it to pay off in the long run. This is not exactly the formula that most organizations run on these days. Typically we see organizations pre occupied with putting out fires and handling crises. Most organizations have a very short-term focus and many leaders are not enlightened enough to invest in fire prevention and not get caught by the excitement of the task or by the activity trap that is so common today.
It doesn't take much to bring a group of individuals together to do a job especially if you are depending on just a compensation package to get them to produce. On the other hand, teamwork in the workplace does take a deep personal commitment and belief in team synergy and collaboration. Some managers harbor the belief that work only gets done when there is a singular powerful, expert, authoritative figure running the work group.
When you look closely at it, you are likely to find that a disturbingly large number of organizations are built around rugged individualism and that people want to build their own empires and work independently. So many of us have been taught in life to commit to win-lose competition for academic grades and sports scores. We learn to "go for the jugular" very early on in life, and we put our faith and commitment into this mode of thinking. Competition can be fun and rewarding if we can get this powerful drive aimed and the right target.
The problem we see in a lot of situations is that teamwork in the workplace is being killed by "friendly fire." In other words, we are directing our competitive energies at looking better than another person or looking better than another team in the organization.
All too often we compete for personal rewards at the expense of others. We act as though our department is in a race with other departments, and we take our eye off the real competition. The fact of the matter is that we have found few organizations that are committed enough to base some of the reward system on teamwork and make it a priority. It seems that in earlier generations it wasn't a big problem and teamwork was naturally rewarding. People on the farms and ranches had to cooperate to survive. Successful crops and survival of the livestock depended on joining the efforts of many. Barns and homes were constructed as a result of teamwork, only we called it being neighborly.
Amazing things could be accomplished today if we could get members and leaders to trust and commit to the teamwork process of joint problem solving, consensus decision making and shared leadership and win/win conflict resolution.
About The Author:
Advantages of TeamworkThe key advantage of teamwork is a better end result. Your organisation should find your teams to be more responsive to the changing needs of the marketplace. Teams can be closer to customer's needs, more informed about advanced technology, and faster to
respond than traditional hierarchies.
More input leads to better ideas and decisions. Higher quality output. Involvement of everyone in the process. Increased ownership and buy-in by members. Higher likelihood of implementation of new ideas. Widens the circle of communication. Shared information means increased learning. Increased understanding of other peoples perspectives. Increased opportunity to draw on individual strengths. Ability to compensate for individual weaknesses. Provides a sense of security. Develops personal relationships.
"Even a watered down decision with 100 percent support is better than a perfect decision ...... with no support."
Quotes about Teamwork and Team Building
Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships. Michael Jordan
"I have seen, that in any great undertaking, it is not enough for a man to depend simply upon himself." Isna-la-wica, Teton Sioux
"Imagination is more important than knowledge." Albert Einstein
"The basic building block of good team building is for a leader to promote the feeling that every human being is unique and adds value." Unknown
"Snowflakes are one of nature's most fragile things, but just look at what they can do when they stick together." Vesta Kelly
"Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success." Henry Ford
"Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results."
Andrew Carnegie
"The nice thing about teamwork is that you always have others on your side." Margaret Carty
"Teamwork is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results." Unknown
A successful team is a group of many hands but of one mind. Bill Bethel
If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea" Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author of 'The Little Prince'
Individual commitment to a group effort -- that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work. Vince Lombardi
If you can laugh together, you can work together. Robert Orben
No member of a crew is praised for the rugged individuality of his rowing. Ralph Waldo Emerson
One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
n today's environment teams take many forms. Technology and geography lead to 'virtual teams' that might never physically meet. Projects require rapid formation of teams for a short term activity, and increasingly teamworking occurs across departments. This means that team building and team skills training are an important and recurring activity.
The amount of performance improvement that is possible from turned on teams is not small – it is enormous." Tom Peters
For many organisations, the term "team building" implies a fun activity (possibly involving mud!), in which people get out of the office and do some 'bonding'. But developing team work and team skills, and building high performing teams requires a far more comprehensive approach.
A comprehensive approach to team building
Team building for high performance requires a more comprehensive approach. Depending on where the team is, this could include learning how teams are formed,
psychometric profiling of team members, communication skills, anaylsis of team processes, and group work on vision, mission and values.
Here is a selection of some of the skills that support effective teams: -
Understanding team processes Forming, storming, norming and performing Communication Goal setting Developing a team identity Developing shared vision, mission and values Understanding team roles Discovering and interpreting personal profiles Setting well formed outcomes Negotiation Decision making Giving and receiving feedback
Outcomes should include well formed teams with shared goals and values, congruent with those of both individual members and the organisation, and individuals with new transferable skills.
Teamwork and Team Building - An Art Worth
Learning
Most of the dysfunctional organizations where we have found it practically impossible to establish the Lean Manufacturing Culture have something in common. They do not have the vital Teamwork spirit... Beginning from the Top!
Not Always a Group is a Team
It is a common mistake to believe that any group of people who go everyday to work in the same place are a team. It takes much more than that and here is where Leadership may be a great help. People working together need to be motivated and get to understand the basics of cooperation and mutual benefit. They will become more efficient and their achievements more valuable if they all have a common goal and each of their individual actions is focused into the accomplishment of that common goal. In some cases they will have to momentarily put aside their personal objectives and it is only possible if they all understand and perceive that by contributing to the success of their team they will get a personal profit or benefit.
What is Team Work or Teamwork?
It is the Synergy required to embark into the great goals, to succeed when facing the big challenges. The joint purpose to achieve certain successes that are not possible for just
one individual. It is the concerted effort to help each other to complement our strengths and defeat our weaknesses. Teams are comprised of members who share the responsibility, the effort, and the pride. The main obstacle teams face is the Ego embedded in our "Human Nature", the tendency to believe that we are the "one and only", and our firm conviction that others may need our help but we don't need others' help and support.
Indeed many people have great capabilities and achieve more than the average, still there are important tasks that no individual can succeed at by itself. That is when Teamwork comes handy.
How can we Build a Successful Team?
Successful Teams are uncommon and require True Leaders often called Team Builders. Some of them may not be spectacular achievers by themselves, may not be high rated experts in the subject pursued by the team, but have a valuable skill: They Know People! Henry Ford once said: "My success has been that I am smart and humble enough as to hire people who are more skilled than I am." Most politicians succeed or fail in direct proportion to their ability to build an effective team around them. The secret is to acknowledge each individual for their skills and positive features and minimize their weaknesses, since we also have some of our own.
What are the Barriers to Team Building?
Arrogance jumps in the first place here. Confucius is quoted as saying: "Every human being is superior to you at something." If we acknowledge this, it will be easier to accept the need to build a team around us when tasks are really important, if not overwhelming.
The Good News...
The good news is: We all can purposely become Good Team Builders, just as we all can learn the ropes to be good motivators. The first step in this process will be to know our people, what are their concerns and main motivators. For some it will be family issues, for others money, some more will be astray in their objectives. Something that Team Participation will provide for all is Job Security. Job Security is a Universal problem solver, so a Team Leader or Team Builder should focus on that particular accomplishment when talking to the team. For those members who really don't have a clear purpose, security itself can become the magnet to bring them together and support the team objectives.
Citing Henry Ford again:
“Coming together is a beginning.
Keeping together is Progress
Working together is Success"
It is the Mission of the Team Member to assure that each other member become aware of the common purpose and their personal benefit from contributing their effort.
Why is Effective Teamwork Important?
Effective team working is becoming more and more critical to the success of organisations. People need to be able to work together in a variety of ways, taking responsibility as individuals, working in functional groupings, and contributing to project groups for specific tasks. Cross organisational and multi-disciplinary groupings are becoming increasingly important ways of achieving results.
This means that people must develop the capability to contribute to effective group working, both as leaders and as members. Organisations need their teams to achieve high performance in a short space of time; to be self directing, responsive and motivating.
As well as being the most effective way of achieving high business performance, the well-functioning team provides social and emotional support for its members, helping them to develop skills and confidence and deal with pressure and stress.
An Effective Team Building Programme:
There is no one right way to work as a team. Every group is unique, and must find its own ways of working together productively. We therefore offer team building programmes to help accelerate this process, to match the specific needs of the organisation and the group.
Effective teamwork will occur only where the business requires it. A demanding performance challenge provides the incentive and commitment which are essential for effective teamworking. Therefore, we take as the starting point the critical issue which requires team performance, for example: customer care, quality, introduction of new methods and roles.
There are many methods for building teamwork. It’s all a matter of your preferred approach. Here are a few places to begin.
Emphasize group recognition. Example: have the housekeepers on each floor (or each wing, etc.) compete with other floors for speed. Most check-outs before noon earns an extra 10 minutes for lunch. Divide the dining room in half and award a giant sundae to the waitstaff on the team with the highest sales totals. Have the front desk staff face off on knowledge quizzes or guest feedback cards. Try to switch up teams regularly so employees get a sense that every worker is a teammate, and no one grows resentful being stuck with a “dud.”
Provide tangible rewards for excellence. Example: a daily list of “winners” or a free burger at the employee pub for those who stand out. Even just a daily shout-out during shift meetings can motivate employees to succeed.
Encourage workers to reward one another. Ask employees to nominate one another for awards and recognition based on teamwork and excellence.
Allow team members to participate in goal-setting. If they choose the goal, they have a vested interest in the outcome. Ask for worker feedback, and change the goals daily or weekly.
Everyone pitches in. Encourage department managers to pitch in with all tasks, not just supervise and dictate. If team members see superiors who aren’t afraid to pick up a mop, answer the phone, or lend a hand to other departments, they’ll be much more likely to assist fellow worker themselves.
Alleviate conflict. If workers are not getting along, this negatively affects productivity. You and their direct supervisor should mediate impartially. Help employees reach a compromise on their issue. If the issue is something outside of work, ask if they’re willing to put it aside for the sake of professionalism and their job. Careful not to force people to become friends—not everyone is meant to be best buddies. A functioning work relationship should be your goal, not everlasting friendship.
Give them the tools they need. Does the kitchen staff complain about inefficient cutlery? Are the groundskeepers often delayed by broken equipment? Are there enough fresh linens to go around? Conflict can break out over things like this (there have been countless “That’s MY bin of clean pillowcases!” wars), which breaks down teamwork as people get into an “it’s him or me” mentality.
These are just a few methods of promoting good teamwork. Good luck!
Creating Teamwork in the Workplace:
Why is there such a lack of teamwork in the workplace in the majority of most businesses?
In many situations it's taken for granted that work and fun cannot coexist. Most executives have never existed in a workplace where teamwork was the rule rather than the exception.
People are scared of moving out of their comfort zone into a cooperative workplace; building teamwork is hard.
There seems to be two major reasons for peoples' fear:
People often value security over happiness in their workplace: They're willing to sacrifice happiness and mental health for the knowledge that they'll have a job tomorrow. Security seems to be the enemy of joy and teamwork.
People dislike change, and teamwork is big change: This is the logical result of the fact that security is represented by a stable, non-changing workplace.
Teamwork in the workplace brings joy to the organization or team that can accept it, and develop a system that infuses the organization with it.
Teamwork is fundamental to human nature.
It is lectured about in business courses, preached about at church, we expect it in our sports teams. . . so why does it happen so rarely in our working life? The life we spend most of our waking hours pursuing?
Why is there such a fundamental chasm between our work and our home - between our career and our happiness?
Fact: Humans are intelligent. We've been given the ability to reason, make decisions, act upon them, and deal with the consequences. Why do you think there's such a profound lack of teamwork in the workplace?
Especially when the benefits of working together are clear, what's holding people back?
Fear Undermines Teamwork:
We have met the enemy and he is us.
Most business organizations operate in a manner that fundamentally conflicts with human nature. Sure we are all individuals, but we all shared certain important characteristics.
In business however, the conflict almost always comes when our core values conflict with our organizations bottom line.
In an organization designed like this, it's nearly always the individual who gets thrown under the bus. . . to protect the bottom line.
In many situations our vision of a teamwork in the workplace is just a pipedream.
How To Protect the Bottom Line and the Individual:
By designing a team that works well together and operates upon proven principles that protect both the endeavor and the people working toward it. A team that performs their tasks with creativity, purpose and meaning.
The same core characteristics and principles that build great organizations are integral to building teamwork in the workplace, regardless of your team's size.
People want and revel in responsibility when it is given to them with trust. The fact is, people want a say over their destiny and the outcome of their work. They want to contribute to the betterment of the team. They want to own the skills that get the job done right. Are your people learning those skills?
Many people might say: "Doesn't all that responsibility cause too much stress?" The fact is: debilitating stress only comes from a person's inability to control the outcome of a certain situation. Hopelessness is real stress.
To build an environment of workplace teamwork, you must "let go and let God" as the old saying goes. It's important to give your team the skills to cope and perform in difficult situations, and the confidence that they have your trust to succeed. . . or fail. And they will.
Failure is an Integral Part of Success:
Why?
It gives us needed feedback. It teaches people how to win.
Individuals, regardless of their position within the company, want to feel important and to be confident in their unique talents and abilities. They want to be trusted with important tasks and situations, and to be responsible for the outcome.
That is the core of building teamwork in the workplace.
Although it is possible to 'go it alone', the extent of human achievement is of necessity limited when people do not work together. One person can have brilliant ideas but may lack the brainpower, imagination or objectivity to capitalize on those ideas.
Organizations are essentially about people working together and yet so often they fail to capitalize upon the full potential of this. A team can accomplish much more than the sum of its individual members and yet frequently groups of people are seen to achieve less than could have been accomplished by the individual members working alone.
Most organizations have meetings which dampen inspiration and departments which seem to devote more energy to maintaining their own organizational position than to the common good of the organization as a whole. Teamwork is individuals working together to accomplish more than they could alone, but, more than that, it can be exciting, satisfying and enjoyable.
Why Team Building?
Teamwork is essential for competing in today's global arena, where individual perfection is not as desirable as a high level of collective performance. In knowledge based enterprises, teams are the norm rather than the exception. A critical feature of these team is that they have a significant degree of empowerment, or decision-making authority. There are many different kinds of teams: top management teams, focused task forces, self-directed teams, concurrent engineering teams, product/service development and/or launch teams, quality improvement teams, and so on.
Team VS.Group:Not all groups in organizations are teams, but all teams are groups. The difference between a team and a group is that a team is interdependent for overall performance. A group qualifies as a team only if its members focus on helping one another to accomplish organizational objectives. In today's quickly changing business environment, teams have emerged as a requirement for business success. Therefore you should constantly try to help groups become teams and facilitate the evolution of groups into teams... More
Richard Winfield, Founder of The Brefi Group, lists the following characteristics of a model team leader :
Know everything – keep on top of your brief and your subject – knowledge gets respect
Have clear timelines
Give positive feedback in front of others
Have a laugh
Delegate – very, very important – don't take on too much it gets no-one anywhere
Daily stand-up meetings – 2 minutes every morning so everyone knows where they are
Weekly retro meetings – feedback on what we can improve every week and make sure it is acted upon
Don't stand for any rubbish
Listen but in the end it is your head on the block so make let them know it is a good idea but that this time you opt for option...
Support them with tasks whenever they have a problem – giving them another resource or working with them
Make weak workers work with stronger ones
Don't vanish to meetings without letting others know
Try and make sure the team gets allocated tasks that they will perform well at – helps you and them i.e. fight their corner.
17 Indisputable Laws for Teamwork:
1. The Law of Significance: One Is Too Small a Number to Achieve Greatness
2. The Law of the Big Picture: The Goal is More Important Than the Role
3. The Law of the Niche: All Players Have a Place Where They Add the Most Value
4. The Law of the Great Challenge ("Mount Everest"): As the Challenge Escalates, the Need for Teamwork Elevates
5. The Law of the Chain: The Strength of the Team Is Impacted by Its Weakest Link
6. The Law of the Catalyst: Winning Teams Have Players Who Make Things Happen
7. The Law of the Vision ("Compass"): Vision Gives Team Members Direction and Confidence
8. The Law of the Bad Apple: Rotten Attitudes Ruin a Team
9. The Law of Countability: Teammates Must Be Able to Count on Each Other When It Counts
10. The Law of the Price Tag: The Team Fails to Reach Its Potential When It Fails to Pay the Price
11. The Law of the Scoreboard: The Team Can Make Adjustments When It Knows Where It Stands
12. The Law of the Bench: Great Teams Have Great Depth
13. The Law of Identity: Shared Values Define the Team
14. The Law of Communication: Interaction Fuels Action
15. The Law of the Edge: The Difference Between Two Equally Talented Teams Is Leadership
16. The Law of High Morale: When You're Winning, Nothing Hurts
17. The Law of Dividends: Investing in the Team Compounds Over Time
Buy the book T he 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork by John Maxwell
Good Team Management Tips:
The best managers know that their job is to achieve through the efforts and performance of their team. Learning how good managers work and then applying the same skills every day in the workplace will improve everyone’s management skills.
Understanding five management areas will improve team performance.
Understand Motivation: Good Managers Keep the Team Motivated
Many managers want to motivate their staff. They know that motivated people achieve more and that good management performance is achieved through great team performance.
The difficulty is that it’s not possible to motivate someone. Motivation comes from within and the best a manager can do is to provide an environment where employees motivate themselves.
Every individual person is motivated by different things at different times (whether that’s putting a roof over the family’s head, earning more money, achieving a goal, gaining promotion, or recognition of a job well done). The best managers know what is driving an individual and help to match the drive with the organisation’s needs too – tapping into the energy of motivation.
Be Efficient: Good Managers Understand and Seek Efficiency
Lucas, Friel and Hughes in their book Understanding Management explain that in management terms efficiency is about doing things right. It’s about making the best use of existing resources and producing work of the right quality, completed in the right way.
Good managers continually question how things are done and encourage teams to innovate and make best use of resources.
Be Effective: Good Managers Guarantee Effectiveness
Effectiveness is about doing the right things according to the book Understanding Management (Lucas, Friel and Hughes). If high quality work is being completed, but it’s not what is required then that’s not effective. The best managers ensure that everyone is working on the tasks that need to be completed; the tasks that will ensure organisational objectives are met.
Encouraging team members to question whether they are working on the right tasks and linking tasks to objectives is good management practice.
Improve All the Time: Good Managers Look for Change
The world is changing all the time and good managers know that change will happen, so look constantly for changes in the environment which will affect their teams. They anticipate the changes and are ready to adapt when needed. Good managers are also change initiators, looking for ways to improve and innovate and encourage their teams to do so too.
Have Self-awareness: Self-Appraisal is as Important as Team Appraisal
The best managers are self-aware and appraise themselves not just their team. They strive to improve their own managerial skills and are open to feedback from their team on how they could improve as a manager. The manager’s job is to serve the team.
Improving skills in the five management areas outlined above and applying them every day will improve managerial and team performance.
