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KEYZINE: An E-zine for LEADERS
ABOUT THE PEOPLE PART OF
BUSINESS
Vol. 111, June 10, 2011
Publisher: Key Associates,
2011
ISSN #
1545-8873
http://www.mkkey.com/
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TEAM DEVELOPMENT: Life is a Team Sport
"Life
is a team sport and we all get to play."
- Church Marquis in Nashville
No
one has ever made it totally on their own in this world.
All of us depended on others to be where we are today.
How pleasant when the groups of people that helped us
were teams!
Teambuilding is a deliberate
process for helping
teams to build effective working relationships
among members. Communication is the
core
to successful teamwork and the starting point
for good team development. Some
first
steps are
to acquaint team members with each other,
to increase comfort with working together,
and to build effective working relationships.
The focus of teambuilding can be (a) interpersonal,
(b) goal-related, (c) team roles/responsibilities and/or
(d) team processes, such as decision-making and handling conflict.
Some suggested exercises are to:
Develop a common AIM: shared vision, values and purpose.
Encourage new norms. Make AGREEMENTS about how to treat each other.
Design ways to increase INVOLVEMENT and participation. Hear, value, acknowledge each persons contribution.
Open up COMMUNICATION. Make it two-way DIALOGUE, encouraging self-disclosure and feedback.
Learn methods for dealing with CONFLICT. Value differences and use them creatively.
Address GROUP PROCESS along with TASK dimensions. Use a facilitator to help here.
Look at TRUST and the dimensions of trustworthiness. Audit actions of the group that may destroy trust.
Attack symptoms of FEAR, such as Discussing the Undiscussables.
Promote COLLABORATION. Seek integrative solutions, where the fate of all matters.
ENGAGE all members. Distribute leadership and decision-making.
To
build exceptional teams, read about the Team Needs Model
in Geoffrey M. Bellman and Kathy D. Ryan's
Extraordinary
Groups: How Ordinary Teams Achieve Amazing Results .
Jossey-Bass, 2009.
PRACTICE
POINT: Utilize
one ice-breaker, energizer, or opener at each gathering,
to allow people to discover each other as WHOLE people, not ROLE people.
Make it
relevant to the task at hand, or use it to teach something everyone can use.