Team Building

For an organization to function effectively, it must not operate as a collection of individuals who operate in separate silos,  but rather as a synergistic group of professionals who understand their respective roles and value the interdependence necessary to operate as a collective whole.  Regardless of whether the boundaries are significant or small,  every organization needs to operate in a collaborative fashion and teamwork is an essential component of making this happen.  

Assessment Questions: What is the organizational history with collaborative behavior?  Starting with the top person, how effectively do the senior leaders/managers model teamwork in their own behavior?  Does the organization foster an environment that encourages people to work together?  How does the organization use teams to accomplish its work?  What type of training is provided to ensure that teams will be successful?  What types of systems/processes are in place to support teamwork?  How are teams typically designed and staffed and by whom?  What are the standard team roles within the organization and how are they integrated into the process?  How does the organization define success in a team environment and what methods of accountability are in place to ensure it reaches these objectives?  Does the organization reward and value team accomplishments as highly as individual achievement?  How wide and diverse are the team interactions within the organization?  What are some examples of productive team behavior within the organization and why did they turn out that way?  What are some examples of dysfunctional team behavior within the organization and how was this dealt with?

Intervention: Depending upon the depth and breadth of the issue, we can provide customized coaching and guidance to individual teams or create  larger scale trainings and workshops for the organization as a whole.  Multiple assessment tools are used to gauge both team behavior and performance.  In addition, a review of overall strategic priorities and processes matched up against the organizational chart can be quite useful.

Miscellaneous: The success of teamwork is largely related to the cultural environment of an organization and the degree to  which individual employees view their destiny as shared rather than isolated.  Many organizations talk a good game when it comes to teamwork, but many also unfortunately don't back this rhetoric up with both the hard and soft management supports necessary to encourage people to work together.

Approach:

• General assessment  of existing team activity including reviewing meeting minutes and performance outcomes
• Observation of senior management team and other select team meetings
• Review of current employee satisfaction data
• Administer team member satisfaction survey
• Consider other team assessment tools including individual team member profiling as needed
• Conduct 1:1 interviews with senior management and key personnel
• Focus group(s) and/or retreats with staff to provide training and foster productive discussion around team building
• Review of performance management process and tools regarding team activity
• Facilitated discussion with senior management on assessment results and plan for next steps.
• Create team building  management document that clearly articulates a plan of action regarding team building next steps