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Teams
That Play Together Work Together
What would
you put at the top of a list of characteristics that make a good
team? Perhaps initiative?, trust?, flexibility?, empathy?, leadership?,
or effectiveness?
What becomes
clear if you look at these characteristics is that most of them
are not the hard skills of industry or management expertise: most
are attitudes rather than skills. Successful team players are defined
by the way they relate to their colleagues, and the way in which
they interact across a broad range of skills bases. In fact 80%
of what makes a good team member is determined by these positive
attitudes, and only 20% by the specific job skills they possess.
So why does
industry spend around 80% of its training budget on developing often
short-lived skills which need updating on a regular basis? For any
real value to be gained from team development initiatives, you must
be able to get colleagues to recognise a whole range of contributions
made by different team members. Only then will they be able to think
about how best they can exploit this potential and work effectively
together to ensure that everyone plays to their strengths and maximises
the team's efforts.
One of the
best ways of bringing about this recognition is to get the team
away from the office environment. Putting groups of people together
in new, fun or unusual settings, in which they depend on each other's
individual strengths and attitudes to work through challenges and
problem-solving can have immensely powerful consequences.
The relationships
you see in the office are only the tip of the iceberg. To fully
appreciate the qualities your colleagues possess, you really do
need to take time out and get rid of the 9-to-5 agenda. Far from
wasting time, this enables you to develop new ways of working together
based on the powerful experience of shared experience. For example,
we have run team-building workshops based on activities such as
scuba diving where participants are literally thrust into a totally
alien environment. Colleagues have to work together using non-verbal
communication, trust each other to share masks as they tackle a
range of tasks, and learn to adapt both to the unfamiliar environment
and to their colleagues' needs and abilities. Similarly, team challenges
based on off-road driving or sailing activities, or some of the
more simple team tasks involving problem-solving and competitive,
time-limited challenges will highlight these areas of strength and
potential for further development.
So get out
of the office: think about the added value that a really well-designed
team-building event can add to the in-house training you may already
have. And have fun!
Author:
Jane Mole
Jane Mole can be contacted c/o of Fresh
Tracks on (tel) +44 (0) 01920 822 220, (fax) +44 (0) 1920 822
884 or at mail@freshtracks.co.uk
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