Team building is the process of building a good team - ie: one that performs well together.
In order to decide the best way to embark on a team building programme, you should first be able to see the difference between a group, a team and a good team. If you do proper team building with groups it can be counterproductive, sacrificing individual performance for no real collective benefit.
You can test your ability to see these differences by looking at the following terms that are associated with team building. Only one of these defines what a team is, can you spot it?
| A group of people | Synergy | Sharing one aim |
| Whole > Sum | Co-operation | Flexibility |
| Working together | Reporting to one boss | Serving one customer |
Most of these terms are features of good teams. For example, the expression ‘whole > sum’ is used when they are working well together. But this isn’t true of a bad team, where collective performance sometimes falls short of what you might expect given the quality of individuals.
The Apollo Syndrome is a good example of this - where highly intelligent people often perform worse when working together than ‘less able’ members. The Apollo Syndrome is just one of sixteen team complexes that can inhibit collective performance.
The important phrase in the above table is “sharing one aim”. It is having a shared goal that distinguishes a group from a team, and without understanding and commitment to that goal, all other attempts at building better performance will have limited value. It is therefore of the highest priority to have a firm foundation of:
- there being a common goal for which everyone has shared responsibility
- everyone understanding that goal and feeling committed to it
http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/tt/h-articl/tb-basic.htm
Sphere: Related ContentPosted under On Leadeship, Project Management Interview Questions
This post was written by techhair on December 13, 2007
