Team Building

Team Building
DiscussantS:
Team Building
is a collective term for various types of
activities used to enhance social relations
and define roles within teams, often
involving collaborative tasks. It is distinct
from team training, which is designed by a
combine of business managers, learning
and development/OD (Internal or
external) and an HR Business Partner (if
the role exists) to improve the efficiency,
rather than interpersonal relations.
Many team building exercises aim
to expose and address interpersonal
problems within the group.
Over time, these activities are
intended to improve performance in a
team-based environment.
Team building is one of the
foundations of organizational
development that can be applied to
groups such as sports teams, school
classes, military units or flight crews.
The formal definition of team-
building includes:
aligning around goals
building effective working
relationships
reducing team members' role
ambiguity
finding solutions to team
problems
Team building is one of the most
widely used group-development activities
in organizations.
Of all organizational activities, one
study found team-development to have the
strongest effect (versus financial measures)
for improving organizational performance.
A 2008 meta-analysis found that team-
development activities, including team
building and team training, improve both a
team's objective performance and that
team's subjective supervisory ratings.
Four Approaches to Team
Building
1. Setting Goals
This emphasizes the importance of clear
objectives and individual and team goals. Team
members become involved in action planning to
identify ways to define success and failure and
achieve goals. This is intended to strengthen
motivation and foster a sense of ownership. By
identifying specific outcomes and tests of
incremental success, teams can measure their
progress. Many organizations negotiate a team
charter with the team and (union leaders).
2. Role Clarification
This emphasizes improving team
members' understanding of their own and
others' respective roles and duties. This is
intended to reduce ambiguity and foster
understanding of the importance of
structure by activities aimed at defining
and adjusting roles. It emphasizes the
members' interdependence and the value
of having each member focus on their own
role in the team's success.
3. Problem Solving
This emphasizes identifying
major problems within the team and
working together to find solutions.
This can have the added benefit of
enhancing critical-thinking.
4. Interpersonal Relations
This emphasizes
increasing teamwork skills such as giving
and receiving
support, communication and sharing.
Teams with fewer interpersonal conflicts
generally function more effectively than
others. A facilitator guides the
conversations to develop mutual trust and
open communication between team
members.
The effectiveness of team
building differs substantially
from one organization to another.
The most effective efforts occur
when team members are
interdependent, knowledgeable
and experienced and when
organizational leadership actively
establishes and supports the
team.
Effective team building
incorporates an awareness of
team objectives. Teams must
work to develop goals, roles and
procedures. As a result, team
building is usually associated
with increasing task
accomplishment, goal meeting,
and achievement of results within
teams.
Effect of Team Building on
Performance
Team building has been scientifically shown
to positively affect team effectiveness. Goal
setting and role clarification were shown to have
impact
on cognitive, affective, process and performance
outcomes. They had the most powerful impact
on affective and process outcomes, which
implies that team building can help benefit
teams experiencing issues with negative affect,
such as lack of cohesion or trust. It could also
improve teams suffering from process issues,
such as lack of clarification in roles.
Goal setting and role clarification
have the greatest impact because they
enhance motivation, reduce conflict and
help to set individual purposes, goals
and motivation.
Teams with 10 or more members
appear to benefit the most from team
building. This is attributed to larger
teams having generally speaking a
greater reservoir of cognitive resources
and capabilities than smaller teams.
Challenges on Team Building
1. Lack of Teamwork Skills
One of the challenges facing leaders is to
find team-oriented employees. Most organizations
rely on educational institutions to have inculcated
these skills into students. Dyer believed however,
that students are encouraged to work individually
and succeed without having to collaborate. This
works against the kinds of behavior needed for
teamwork. Another study found that team training
improved cognitive, affective, process and
performance outcomes.
2. Virtual workplaces and across organizational
boundaries
Members are typically unable to build
concrete relationships with other team
members. Another study found that face-
to-face communication is very important
in building an effective team
environment. Face-to-face contact was
key to developing trust. Formal team
building sessions with a facilitator led the
members to "agree to the relationship" and
define how the teams were work. Informal
contact was also mentioned.
3. Globalization and Virtualization
Teams increasingly include

members who have dissimilar
languages, cultures, values and
problem-solving approaches
problems. One-to-one meetings
has been successful in some
organizations.
Team Building on
Organization
Team building in organizations is a
common approach to improving performance.
Fun is an important component to team
building, but the intent is become productive,
focused, and aligned. Purely recreational
activities can be helpful, but must be timed and
consider the capabilities of team members
(e.g., sports are not for everyone). Other
activities geared toward creating a learning
environment, exceeding results and engaging
employees must be present.
Employee engagement exercises
allow teams to create solutions that
are meaningful to them, with direct
impact on the individuals, the team
and the organization. Experiential
learning and ramification methods
are effective ways to
engage millennials in the workplace.
Employee engagement is effective
because:
Employees enjoy problem-
solving activities.
Problem-solving creates
ownership.
It can increase capacity.
Competitive activities
encourage a results-based
outlook.
Outdoor activities can be an
effective way to engage the
team.
Competitive activities allow
teams to own their actions by
producing meaningful results.
Collaborative team building
activities push teams to work
together to produce results.
The best team building
experiences are the ones that
allow passionate, dedicated
and talented people to give
their best towards a common
goal, towards a shared
vision of success.

Team Building

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