by James M. Ballard III, Ph.D.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Never has building a cohesive team been more important. You\u2019re coming off years of social, emotional, and physical isolation and distancing. Even those who were comfortable interpersonally prior to the pandemic, in many cases, are finding it challenging to reconnect with others in an effective way. Despite such, the tasks you\u2019re required to complete, to realize success on our jobs and through our businesses, are still very much present. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Team building is the process of turning a group of individual contributing employees into a cohesive team\u2014a group of people organized to work together to meet the needs of their customers by accomplishing their purpose and goals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many organizations rely heavily on the team approach to achieve their goals. Employees work in specific groups tasked with a project (Quain, 2019). Impactful group work\/teamwork is critical. Consequently, it\u2019s essential that all — from front-line to administrative staff and back — have a clear understanding of what it takes to build a highly efficient team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As you\u2019re reentering our work and returning to group\/teamwork, it\u2019s best that you consider the following when building and implementing group\/teamwork: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 The Mission and Purpose. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
o Answers must be clear regarding the question or problem the group\/team is solving or addressing. These answers must be worded in ways that clearly define why the issue exists, the resources that feed its existence, the degree of urgency, the steps that need to be taken to address the issue, and the best individuals or other resources believed necessary to address the concern. Additionally, the operational definition of \u201caddress\u201d must be made clear. The team will need to be able to recognize when their task has been completed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 The Vision. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
o A \u201cclear, inspiring vision\u201d is critical in that it \u201csets the foundation for successful teamwork, and helps guide the direction of the group when they face challenges and decisions,\u201d according to Michael Page (Michael Page, n.d.). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 The Goals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
o According to Human Resources: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (HR: MIT, n.d.) the best goals are S-M-A-R-T goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant <\/p>\n\n\n\n
and Time-bound. According to HR: MIT, “Improving customer service” may sound like a good goal for a team, but it doesn\u2019t really meet the S-M-A-R-T criteria (HR: MIT, n.d.). HR: MIT reports that a more effective goal would be to \u201cReduce call-back time to customers to two hours or less within six months.” The revised goal is: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Specific (reduce call-back time to customers) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Measurable (to two hours or less) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Achievable (The team would need to decide this. Maybe call-backs need four hours, or maybe the time can be reduced to 30 minutes.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Relevant (Again, the team will know if slow call-back time is an issue for the customers? For the team\u2019s manager? Is reducing call-back time important <\/p>\n\n\n\n
enough to merit team effort?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Time bound (within six months) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Assembling the Team properly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
o Team members are to be identified, interviewed, and selected based on the degree to which their skills are expected to allow for the accomplishment of the mission. Whether a team of program managers completing a grant proposal, a 12-member Division I basketball team preparing to win a national championship, or a squadron of 15 U.S. Marines addressing concerns in a forward area, expertly trained individuals must be selected and teamed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Setting Expectations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
o Leadership must ensure that the mission is clearly understood, that the \u201cwhy\u201d for accomplishing the mission is fully felt, possible barriers, and ways for getting <\/p>\n\n\n\n
around\/over\/through each barrier. Also, along with being experts in their given fields, teammates must be experts in skills most associated with high functioning teams. Teammates must be devoted, trusting, committed, humble, and sacrificial. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Roles and Responsibilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
o All involved with the team, to include each team member, must clearly know the role they are being expected to fulfill, the roles of their teammates, and how their roles impact each other and mission accomplishment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Monitoring and Reviewing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
o Michael Page (n.d.) noted how performance through team meetings and one-on-one catch-ups must occur to ensure that progress is made, and raised the following as good questions to ask along the way: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
▪ How are we doing? What have we achieved so far? What have we learned? What isn\u2019t working so well? And how can we improve? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
o Michael Page (n.d.) acknowledges how monitoring and reviewing progress allows for adjustments and improvements to be incorporated along the way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Encouraging, Celebrating, and Rewarding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
o Encouragement facilitates attention, focus, belief in self, motivation, and trust. Also, celebrating teammates for effort and goal achievement fosters a culture of trust, thoughtfulness, and community. It also associates good feelings with expectations. Rewarding teammates also helps each feel valued and as though their presence, hard work, and commitment matter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
References: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heathfield, Susan. (2021). What is team building? Careers. https:\/\/www.thebalancecareers.com\/what-is-team-building-1918270<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Human Resources: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (n.d.). Important steps when building a team. https:\/\/hr.mit.edu\/learning-topics\/teams\/articles\/new-team <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Michael Page. (n.d.). Building an effective team. https:\/\/www.michaelpage.ae\/advice\/management advice\/development-and-retention\/building-effective-team<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sampson, Quain. (2019). Advantages & Disadvantages of Team-Based Organizations. Chron. https:\/\/smallbusiness.chron.com\/advantages-disadvantages-teambased-organizations 25370.html<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by James M. Ballard III, Ph.D.\u00a0 Never has building a cohesive team been more important. You\u2019re coming off years of social, emotional, and physical isolation and distancing. Even those who were comfortable interpersonally prior to the pandemic, in many cases, are finding it challenging to reconnect with others in an effective way. Despite such, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corporate-wellness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eloquent-brown.192-250-224-79.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eloquent-brown.192-250-224-79.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eloquent-brown.192-250-224-79.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eloquent-brown.192-250-224-79.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eloquent-brown.192-250-224-79.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/eloquent-brown.192-250-224-79.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51456\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eloquent-brown.192-250-224-79.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eloquent-brown.192-250-224-79.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eloquent-brown.192-250-224-79.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}