”Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” Henry Ford (American Industrialist 1863-1947)
It is really a wonderful feeling being part of a winning team, however every good thing comes to an end. Teams change over time, the task or project comes to an end, people leave the team or other teams become stronger.
Whatever the situation, team building should be a continuing process and not a one-off event.
It may involve specific training in a start-up period, before a specific event or if performance is deteriorating, but ongoing effort is needed to ensure team members work together in the best possible way.
Generally people go about their day-to-day tasks without thinking they are members of the team.
This is left up to the team leader, usually for periods when a new challenge occurs or goals aren’t being achieved.
There are two ways to look at the same situation:
1) “it ain’t broken so don’t try fixing it” (don’t change a winning team);
2) “there is always room for improvement”.
Even a winning team can have problems, egos get inflated, a member who sees himself as the star of the team or that thinks that the others aren’t pulling their weight and either success isn’t as sweet as it was all we cease to perform well.
I follow soccer and last year the team I support sold their top goal scorer, a player who was described as ‘being able to start an argument in an empty room’.
After he left the team rose to the occasion and scored more goals as a whole. Basic team building focuses on improving communication and getting to know and trust the other team members so that work is more efficient. It also focuses on each member’s values and goals and how they are aligned with those of the team.
Any coaching on interpersonal skills, leadership and motivation that a team member gets will benefit that person and then filter through into the rest of the team. This shows the impact it can have and that a team is much more than the ‘sum’ of its members.
Team coaching is also important – sports is a great example – but wouldn’t it be great if we had more top performers and winning teams in business and in family lives?
A periodic review of both how the team and individuals are performing can identify existing and potential difficulties that can be resolved before they become serious problems.
Multiple teams can be a tricky problem especially where there are goals that don’t fit together well all (or are even conflicting). Take the situation of the CFO (financial director) of a company, who should be the team leader of the finance department. His team may have deadlines for reporting and for accounts receivable. Logistics have goals for inventory that require shipment to customers as soon as possible, so they tend to rush goods out on the last day of the months hence adding ‘one month to the results of their fellow workers in collections. On the other hand the salesmen have goals on sales volume so a credit hold complicates their achieving their objectives.
The key here, as for all things, is to keep in mind the big picture and the best interest of the company as a whole instead of just their department.
Good team leaders are goal-oriented, promote a safe environment where members can openly discuss issues and build trust among them, set manageable goals and priorities, provide feedback and recognize and reward excellent performance.
Team building focuses in bringing out the best in a team to ensure self-development, positive communication, and excellent results.
