“Team” is defined as a group of people working together to achieve a common goal. Team members are mutually responsible for reaching the goal toward which they are working. Team building is a process meant to improve the performance of the team and involves activities designed to foster communication and encourage cooperation. Additionally, the objective is to avoid potential disputes and problems and to keep the morale of team members high.

Many different industries and organizations use teams to accomplish goals, because people working together can often achieve more than they could individually. How do you know if you need a team to complete a project? Ask yourself the following questions: Can I achieve this goal by myself? Do I have the resources and time to undertake this project? Can other people or a team of other people be more effective than I would be in achieving this goal? If your answers favor the involvement of others, it’s time to consider forming a team.

In an increasingly complex environment, organizations are using a team approach to bring a diverse set of skills and perspectives into play. An effective use of teams often draws upon a creative approach of bringing together specialists who combine their efforts and develop intra-team synergies to meet the challenges of their often complex organizational environment.

An example of an industry that often uses teamwork is the construction industry. A successful construction project cannot take place without the formation of teams. A design team will be formed at the beginning of the project and is made up of architects, engineers, and project consultants. The design team alone, however, will not be able to complete the project. They will also need to form a team with the owner of the project and the contractor.

Team building is an ongoing process that helps a work group evolve into a cohesive unit. The team members not only share expectations for accomplishing group tasks, but trust and support one another and respect one another's individual differences. Your role as a team builder is to lead your team toward cohesiveness and productivity. A team takes on a life of its own and you have to regularly nurture and maintain it, just as you do for individual employees. Team building in an office helps to foster better and open communication between the employees themselves, as well as between the employees and the higher management. It goes a long way in improving professional relations, understanding and co-operation, and this is very much reflected in the quality of work being done. Team building in the workplace significantly contributes towards employee motivation and building trust among the employees, thereby ensuring better productivity.

Team building can lead to:

Good communications with participants as team members and individuals Increased department productivity and creativity

Team members motivated to achieve goals A climate of cooperation and collaborative problem-solving Higher levels of job satisfaction and commitment Higher levels of trust and support Diverse co-workers working well together Clear work objectives Better operating policies and procedures

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TEAM AND GROUPWhat is the difference between a group of employees and a team? A group is

a collection of individuals who coordinate their individual efforts. On the other hand, at team is a group of people who share a common team purpose and a number of challenging goals. Members of the team are mutually committed to the goals and to each other. This mutual commitment also creates joint accountability which creates a strong bond and a strong motivation to perform.

Table 1. Difference between Work groups and Teams

WORK GROUPS TEAMS

Individual accountability Individual and mutual accountability

Come together to share information and perspectives

Frequently come together for discussion, decision making, problem solving, and planning.

Focus on individual goals Focus on team goals

Produce individual work products Produce collective work products

Define individual roles, responsibilities, and tasks

Define individual roles, responsibilities, and tasks to help team do its work; often share and rotate them

Concern with one's own outcome and challenges

Concern with outcomes of everyone and challenges the team faces

Purpose, goals, approach to work shaped by manager

Purpose, goals, approach to work shaped by team leader with team members

12 C’S OF TEAMWORKExecutives, managers and organization staff members universally explore

ways to improve business results and profitability. Many view team-based, horizontal, organization structures as the best design for involving all employees in creating business success.

No matter what you call your team-based improvement effort: continuous improvement, total quality, lean manufacturing or self-directed work teams, you are striving to improve results for customers. Few organizations, however, are totally pleased with the results their team improvement efforts produce. If your team improvement efforts are not living up to your expectations, this self-diagnosing checklist may tell you why. Successful team building, that creates effective, focused work teams, requires attention to each of the following:

Clear ExpectationsHas executive leadership clearly communicated its expectations for the team’s performance and expected outcomes? Do team members understand why the team was created? Is the organization demonstrating constancy of purpose in supporting the team with resources of people, time and money? Does the work of the team receive sufficient emphasis as a priority in terms of the time, discussion, attention and interest directed its way by executive leaders?

ContextDo team members understand why they are participating on the team? Do they understand how the strategy of using teams will help the organization attain its communicated business goals? Can team members define their team’s importance to the accomplishment of corporate goals? Does the team understand where its work fits in the total context of the organization’s goals, principles, vision and values?

CommitmentDo team members want to participate on the team? Do team members feel the team mission is important? Are members committed to accomplishing the team mission and expected outcomes? Do team members perceive their service as valuable to the organization and to their own careers? Do team members anticipate recognition for their contributions? Do team members expect their skills to grow and develop on the team? Are team members excited and challenged by the team opportunity?

CompetenceDoes the team feel that it has the appropriate people participating? (As an example, in a process improvement, is each step of the process represented on the team?) Does the team feel that its members have the knowledge, skill and capability to address the issues for which the team was formed? If not, does the team have

access to the help it needs? Does the team feel it has the resources, strategies and support needed to accomplish its mission?

CharterHas the team taken its assigned area of responsibility and designed its own mission, vision and strategies to accomplish the mission. Has the team defined and communicated its goals; its anticipated outcomes and contributions; its timelines; and how it will measure both the outcomes of its work and the process the team followed to accomplish their task? Does the leadership team or other coordinating group support what the team has designed?

ControlDoes the team have enough freedom and empowerment to feel the ownership necessary to accomplish its charter? At the same time, do team members clearly understand their boundaries? How far may members go in pursuit of solutions? Are limitations (i.e. monetary and time resources) defined at the beginning of the project before the team experiences barriers and rework? Is the team’s reporting relationship and accountability understood by all members of the organization? Has the organization defined the team’s authority? To make recommendations? To implement its plan? Is there a defined review process so both the team and the organization are consistently aligned in direction and purpose? Do team members hold each other accountable for project timelines, commitments and results? Does the organization have a plan to increase opportunities for self-management among organization members?

CollaborationDoes the team understand team and group process? Do members understand the stages of group development? Are team members working together effectively interpersonally? Do all team members understand the roles and responsibilities of team members? team leaders? team recorders? Can the team approach problem solving, process improvement, goal setting and measurement jointly? Do team members cooperate to accomplish the team charter? Has the team established group norms or rules of conduct in areas such as conflict resolution, consensus decision making and meeting management? Is the team using an appropriate strategy to accomplish its action plan?

CommunicationAre team members clear about the priority of their tasks? Is there an established method for the teams to give feedback and receive honest performance feedback? Does the organization provide important business information regularly? Do the teams understand the complete context for their existence? Do team members communicate clearly and honestly with each other?

Creative InnovationIs the organization really interested in change? Does it value creative thinking, unique solutions, and new ideas? Does it reward people who take reasonable risks

to make improvements? Or does it reward the people who fit in and maintain the status quo? Does it provide the training, education, access to books and films, and field trips necessary to stimulate new thinking?

ConsequencesDo team members feel responsible and accountable for team achievements? Are rewards and recognition supplied when teams are successful? Is reasonable risk respected and encouraged in the organization? Do team members fear reprisal? Do team members spend their time finger pointing rather than resolving problems? Is the organization designing reward systems that recognize both team and individual performance? Is the organization planning to share gains and increased profitability with team and individual contributors? Can contributors see their impact on increased organization success?

CoordinationAre teams coordinated by a central leadership team that assists the groups to obtain what they need for success? Have priorities and resource allocation been planned across departments? Do teams understand the concept of the internal customer—the next process, anyone to whom they provide a product or a service? Are cross-functional and multi-department teams common and working together effectively? Is the organization developing a customer-focused process-focused orientation and moving away from traditional departmental thinking?

Cultural ChangeDoes the organization recognize that the team-based, collaborative, empowering, enabling organizational culture of the future is different than the traditional, hierarchical organization it may currently be? Is the organization planning to or in the process of changing how it rewards, recognizes, appraises, hires, develops, plans with, motivates and manages the people it employs? Does the organization plan to use failures for learning and support reasonable risk? Does the organization recognize that the more it can change its climate to support teams, the more it will receive in pay back from the work of the teams?

Spend time and attention on each of these twelve tips to ensure your work teams contribute most effectively to your business success. Your team members will love you, your business will soar, and empowered people will "own" and be responsible for their work processes. Can your work life get any better than this?

BARRIERS TO TEAMWORKEfficient teamwork improves the professional bonds between employees and

between the staff and management. Encouraging teamwork raises staff morale and has a positive impact on productivity. But there are barriers to developing an effective team atmosphere, and being able to identify the biggest barriers to teamwork is an important part of being a corporate manager.

Bad LeadershipA team without an effective leader is not going to be a productive team. Leaders need to establish the policies that govern the team and help the team achieve its goals. When a leader lacks vision or the ability to effectively manage the team, then the group loses the motivation and confidence necessary to come together as a unit.

Poor Goal PlanningFor a team to feel effective and relevant, it needs to have well-defined goals to accomplish. Long-term team goals need to be broken down into smaller milestones so that the team is able to chart its success or failure and make any necessary changes to its procedures. When there are no clearly defined goals for the team to achieve, the team members do not have a way of utilizing their individual talents and they have no way of pooling those talents toward achieving a common result.

Poor CommunicationAn effective team has developed an efficient method of communication that processes incoming information and distributes it to the proper parties. Good team communication also means that each of the team members feels comfortable and confident when addressing other members of the group. The group is able to communicate without egos or personal agendas getting in the way. A team with a poor communication structure, or no communication structure at all, has no way of getting information to the team members that need it. A lack of internal communication does not allow the group members to bond and find ways of solving the issues that face the team.

Personality ClashesPeople who have their own agenda that they are unwilling to compromise for the good of the group will be some of the biggest barriers to developing an efficient team. A lack of respect for other members of the team can lead to conflict within the team and cause people who have personal issues with each other to disrupt the constructive nature of the group.