TEAM...An E-Mail From One Of Our Followers For Anyone In Management

There’s no “I” in “team.”

Whatever you do, wherever you work, chances are you spend your day with other people.  Most jobs require a group of people to work together to get things accomplished, and the best way to do that successfully is to embrace the interdependence of working with others.

Given the choice, I’d bet anyone would prefer to work in a place where people know and like each other.  In an earlier post on this blog, entitled “We All Have a Story,” the following was written: “I absolutely believe that most people want to do good and are good people.  What happens is sometimes, we get preconceived notions of people, perhaps from others or from a bad conversation that we had in the past.”  I completely agree, and that common ground sometimes gets buried under the stress and pressure of the workplace.

Some of you may be familiar with Bruce Tuckman’s stages of group development: forming, storming, norming and performing.  The stages were developed in 1965 and adopted by the Boy Scouts in 1998, and you can read about them here, if you’re interested: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_86.htm  In order to keep your existing team or staff or department in the “performing” stage, try to fit in some team building activities whenever you can.  And if you happen to be in the unique position of being part of a group that is just forming, definitely start with a healthy dose of them to get people started on the right foot, finding common ground and discovering how to draw on each other’s strengths and skills.

Now, sometimes people will call team building activities “cheesy” or be resistant to participating, but in the end, I’ve always find that people have a good time and come out of the activities smiling and knowing a little bit more about each other, which will help to make the workplace more comfortable and productive.  Choose an activity that meets your objective and your time frame; activities can range from anything as simple as a “getting to know you” go-around, like “I’m going to a picnic and I’m going to bring” (where people state their name and something they’d bring to a picnic that starts with the first letter of their name, and everyone has to repeat the names and picnic items of everyone before them in the circle) to all-out, week long cheer challenges where each department prepares, practices and presents a cheer extolling the virtues of their role at the workplace.   To help build listening and cooperation skills in your team, try an activity like the one in which objects are scattered around a yard, people pair up, and one partner wears a blindfold while the other tries to direct him or her around the yard to pick up the objects.  There are loads of activities out there, so google “team building activities” today and plan one for your next company event!