Team Building

The spirit of team building in any organization is very important and this is because without this determined people work well when they are motivated. Team buildings also avoid a number of other deeds that are not healthy in the office environment. An example of these deeds that should be discouraged include interrupting, backstabbing, whining, bad communication, disorganization, lack of trust, lack of progress, redundancy of efforts, leaking of confidential information as well as many others that may be applicable to different organizations. In order to be able to iron out all these deeds it is important to have a team building to address each of them and any other that may be experienced in your office.

When planning a team building it will also be important to consider the services of a consultant because most managers may not know the real issues in their teams are. Apart from all the issues that an organization may have they also go to team buildings events to have fun to take a break from the daily routine and this makes participants loosen up and become more productive. The main objectives for this will include specific organization cultures as well as weak leadership. Another common reasons organizations organize events is to get everyone together.

This is mostly common with organizations that have many branches and most of the employees do not know each other. This can include things like rock climbing, picnics, dinner cruises. This helps in anchoring the idea of unity in a group. Organizations that have just achieved something might also organize team events to celebrate. This event is meant to acknowledge that everyone in the organization has had an input in the achievements. It also gives recognition to those who deserve it. Team buildings can also be organized for presenting workers with some benefits for example a luxurious trip.

In cases like the common objective for organizations is not only team building but also train their employees and can also be used to unveil an organizations goals for the next financial year. Many employees are also known not to interact with senior management as well as key customers and this is another reason for holding a team building event. This solidifies the relationships between the company employees as well as with its customers. This can include activities such as a shared rope course. Team events can also be organized to make two different groups collaborate and this can be departments like sales and production.

When two organizations merge the dynamics of the organization change and this is also the case when an organization is bought out. With this type of situation it is also important for the organization to organize a team building event so that the employees will know how the changes will affect them. This can also apply to the organizations that new management team. When the top management decides on a new strategy or a new direction for the organization to take it is important to organize a team building event in order to motivate the employees. Employees are supposed to be given a sense of pulling together through times like this. Because different organizations have different issues to deal with it is important to plan the team building activities with a customized approach.

In business, work is done by teams - either functional teams or project teams - or by individuals. Organizing and building effective teams is a core competency of business management; and where projects are concerned, it is a core competency of successful project management as well. In my opinion, project managers understand this critical successful factor much more clearly than most other business managers.

In this article, I want to look at high performing teams and the role of empowerment... Only a few times in my career have I been involved with truly empowered teams, and it is amazing what they can accomplish. High performance teams - teams that perform at very high levels - almost always have three critical characteristics (among others):

• The team is empowered to accomplish the goals of the project;
• The team is truly committed to accomplishing the goals of the project; and
• The team is the right team with the right skills for the project.

The problem in most cases, at least in my experience, is that the culture and values are not in place in the organization to support the reality of high performance teams. The organization may talk about empowerment, but does not make it so - usually because command and control structures or attitudes are still too embedded in the organization or the management team. Or the project manager or executives may ask for (or worse demand) commitment, but they do not enable team members to be fully committed to the business goals or the project at hand.

Currently, I am very happy to say, I am with a company (DaVita Inc.) that truly "gets" and enables empowerment, and therefore, teammates can truly get committed to a project if given what they need - which is clarity about the goals, lots of information and communication, and cohesiveness in direction. (DaVita has a unique culture that fosters teamwork, mission, values, and purpose, and it emphasizes those things by frequently teaching and reinforcing the DaVita way. As a result of this empowering culture, DaVita has gone from startup to Fortune 500 in less than nine years! I can only hope other organizations begin to see the wisdom in this approach and adopt it.)

Teams that are seen and treated as a loose collection of skills will never be high performance. Teams that are seen and treated as unique but equal individuals, who are capable of contributing outstanding work and who are brought together to create unity and synergy around the common goals of a project, are much more likely to achieve a high level of performance.

What can a project manager or business manager do to improve team performance?

• Seek to build the right team with not only the right skill sets but also the right chemistry and team spirit.
• Work with management to truly empower the team. Insist that the team not have to go up the ladder to get approval for everything. Every time the team has to go "up the ladder," it slows the team down and creates frustration within the team.
• Promote empowerment within the team - that means not being the bottleneck for every single decision. Lay out guidelines for issues and decisions that should be brought to the PM and those that shouldn't.
• Involve the team in the whole project process. Don't go off and develop "the project plan" without them, but instead fully involve them in the planning process. They will benefit greatly in the process and add lots of value. They will point out dependencies and issues that you would miss. They will suggest solutions or approaches that you would never think of. And then, ask them to commit as individuals and a team to the plan they came up with.

Now, the project manager must also be the coordinator and facilitator to keep the team and the project on track in the following ways:

• Focus, and help the team focus, on the most important things for that day and that week.
• Remind the team often of the project goals and provide clarity about the goals.
• Provide lots of information about the schedule, due dates, deliverables, dependencies, and other factors that, if missed, can negatively impact the project.
• Enable the team to communicate directly with the customers or business sponsors.
• Continuously promote teamwork and information sharing.
• Empower everyone on the team to resolve issues and roadblocks.
• Maintain the project organization, visibility to management, and consistency of direction.

The company culture may be a barrier, but by the very seeking to build a project team that is both empowered and committed, the probability of project success will go up enormously.