| | | | | | Does Team building smell? | | Here are some thoughts on team building from one of South Africa’s leading high performance coaches. Let me come out and say it. Most of what passes for team building today does not build teams but rather entrenches the current behaviors and thinking in the team environment leading to teams that are worse off after the team building. So why do South African companies spend millions of rands annually with ineffective team building , riding quad bikes, painting, cooking etc with no thought given to the teambuilding results and the sustainability thereof. Three reasons: While it's generally recognized that a great team will beat a mediocre team 99 times out of 100, little hard thinking goes on at most companies about how effective teams are actually built. Employees usually don't complain about silly teambuilding efforts, whether out of apathy or for fear of being labeled "anti-team” and the responsibility of arranging team building are often left to some well meaning personal assistant that is only interested in what they like. So if conventional teambuilding activities are largely off the mark, how does one build a great team? | Here are some thoughts on team building from one of South Africa’s leading high performance coaches.
Let me come out and say it. Most of what passes for team building today does not build teams but rather entrenches the current behaviors and thinking in the team environment leading to teams that are worse off after the team building.
So why do South African companies spend millions of rands annually with ineffective team building , riding quad bikes, painting, cooking etc with no thought given to the teambuilding results and the sustainability thereof.
Three reasons: While it's generally recognized that a great team will beat a mediocre team 99 times out of 100, little hard thinking goes on at most companies about how effective teams are actually built. Employees usually don't complain about silly teambuilding efforts, whether out of apathy or for fear of being labeled "anti-team” and the responsibility of arranging team building are often left to some well meaning personal assistant that is only interested in what they like.
So if conventional teambuilding activities are largely off the mark, how does one build a great team?
ESSENTIAL ASPECTS
I have been researching and studying teams for the last ten years and have consistently found the following to be true.
Nearly 10 years later, what I learned about the essence of teamwork remains one of the most important lessons of my life. Great teams -- whether composed of athletes, businesspeople, fire fighters, military commandos, or what have you -- have five essential characteristics:
1. The first of these characteristics is absolute certainty. The greatest differentiating factor between top teams and the rest is that top teams have clarity of what is expected of them as a team. Top teams share a common vision that is easily communicated to both internal and external role players. They share what I call an elevator pitch in that all team members can clearly articulate what they are about. This may sound simple; however in excess of ninety percent of all teams polled no common articulation of vision or certainty was present.
2. With certainty and clarity of vision come the identification of key performance areas and an intense, shared passion to achieve specific goals that will deliver on the outcomes required from those key performance areas. Top teams commit to challenges knowing that they are directly contributing to the overall strategy and vision of the company.
Far too often, a company thinks it has a teambuilding problem when what it really has is a key performance area and goal problem. If you want to build a great team, make sure its members share a determined passion to accomplish something. How do you get that kind of commitment? By involving everyone in the development of the vision and identification of the relevant key performance areas.. Without it, all the trips and Kumbaya singing sessions in the world aren't going to make a bit of difference to team performance.
3. A shared strategy to achieving the goal. It's not enough to get a bunch of people together who care deeply about reaching a goal. They need to have a strategy for attaining it as well as the accompanying actions and replicable habits. The replication of good habits, improves the culture of winning and belonging to the team.
4. Task focus. What I have learned is that if you want to increase teamwork and the resulting benefits of achieving objectives, don't focus on the team, and focus the team on the task. Without exception all the teams that I have had the pleasure of working with, where issues of trust, commitment, conflict and cultural diversity etc were identified as areas of concern, did not share a common certainty with accompanying goals and objectives. As soon as certainty and common vision was achieved with the resulting required strategy all other issues faded away. Certainty allows teams to focus on the tasks required for delivery.
5. A great coach. There's no getting around it, great teams usually have great coaches.
The advice I would give to anyone seeking to build a great team: Learn how to be or find yourself a great coach. Tiger Woods, arguably the best golfer in the world has seven coaches. All great athletes have awesome coaches. Top rugby teams have great coaches. How much more focus should then be on having great coaches in our business worlds where the stakes are as high if not higher.
Dr Charles Lubbe, is the CEO of Kubunye with clients ranging throughout the government and corporate environment. His book “The Kubunye Effect” Top teams in unity - will be available soon.
| | | | | | Date Posted:2010/05/25 | | Number of Views:206 | | | Return |
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