The OLS Blog

TeamWORK: How is your team doing?

Teamwork, in its simplest form, involves two or more people working collaboratively to achieve a common goal. Regrettably, the term teamwork has become a cliché. Approximately eighty percent of American employees are organized into work "teams." In reality, employees are typically organized into groups based upon department, function or product. The members of these groups may or may not need to collaborate to accomplish their tasks.

When a group is organized to accomplish a common goal, then the ability to function as a cohesive team becomes imperative. Members are usually selected for their technical knowledge related to the group's performance goals. The individual member's interpersonal skills are rarely, if ever, considered during the selection process. Groups are set about their task with little or no attention to the differences that will certainly exist between members. These differences are often key to the ultimate success or failure of the group. Valuing these differences and developing collaborative relationships between members is implicit in effective teamwork behaviors. For many individuals, and therefore for the groups they are a part of, these are not natural outcomes of working together. In fact, in many cases, just the opposite is true. People allow their differences become sources of stress and conflict, which impairs the group's ability perform to its maximum potential. Managing latent or realized conflict and developing effective teamWORK processes is exactly that – WORK!

Unfortunately, many employees do not have the skills necessary to effectively manage conflict, build relationships and maintain a supportive climate. Fortunately, these skills can be taught. However, few organizations invest in teambuilding until the group has established dysfunctional behaviors. This complicates the matter because it is much more difficult to reverse the effects of bad habits than it is to establish good ones from the start. A one or two day investment in teambuilding skill development at the launch/point of a new team can have tremendous short and long term benefits in the groups time to productivity and overall output. By providing basic skills up front, the team can then WORK together to implement the skills and develop an effective team.

What is the current teambuilding skill level of your team? Please take the following survey. I will post the results next month.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9MY7MZ6 

Posted by:

Troy Perry, M.S.S.L

Learning Specialist, Baker Hughes Inc.