Effective Team Development

Much of the work people are required to do these days depends on some form of collaboration. As John Campbell, partner, Australian Growth Coaching explains, "Employees today tend to work in a range of situations with others. Some of these situations are on extended long-term teams, others may be short-term project groups. Work today seems to be much more interdependent, occurring through a whole network of interpersonal relationships. These relationships can be with people within your department or unit, with people in other units, and with customers, suppliers and partners.

"Today, collaborative skills, which are at the heart of teamwork, are more critical to business success than ever," he says. "A good team-building exercise will highlight how effectively a team does these things, and in doing so provides powerful learning that is directly applicable in the workplace."

Campbell isn’t comfortable with the term ‘team building’, and prefers to call it team development. "Team building has often been associated with soft, touchy-feely type exercises which often have little long-term business value. However, teams do need to continually develop and renew themselves and redefine the skills they need to enable them to work collaboratively."

When building a team you need to not only be clear about what you want from them as a whole, and individually, you must also have the skills to communicate these requirements effectively.

"When deciding what you need from your team, make fine distinctions around the specific skills you need to teach them," says Ross Judd, managing director of Sydney based team-building company, Team Focus. "Is it clarifying goals, reviewing performance, providing feedback, decision-making? The more specific, the more successful your team building will be."

Alan Rich, principal of Business Mentoring Australia, believes people generally feel better working in a team, their work is therefore more productive and they feel better about themselves.

Staff Engagement

Many organisations today are conducting staff engagement surveys or something similar in an attempt to measure whether the organisation is tapping into the full contribution each individual is able to make.

"The premise is that if the workforce is more engaged the company will be more effective and profitable," Judd explains. "A team culture leads to increased engagement, contribution, commitment, and ultimately profitability.