7 Effective Team Building Strategies

Team building, or at least calling groups of people teams, is a very popular business practice and the T-Shirt
and ball cap manufacturers are loving it. But how many true teams are there? A team is a group where individual actions are driven by a common organizational goal. A team builds a sense of accountability and responsibility among its members for attaining those organizational goals. Just slapping a ball cap on the head of every sales person does not mean that those sales people are committed to the company's objectives. More likely they are focused on how to make more money for themselves.

To have a true team, and there are proven advantages to this model, a certain culture has to be established and that culture has to come from the top. Shown below are proven team building strategies that can help you on your way to a more effective organization.


1. Clear objectives and goals 
Ownership has to communicate to the workers just what the company wants to achieve and just how it wants to achieve it. This is not just about dollars it's about behavior and best practices as well. Each worker has to clearly understand how their particular job can contribute to the corporate vision and objectives and how failing to do the job correctly can negatively impact the company.

2. Open communication
Easy access and open communications are essential to team building. Senior leadership has to not only indorse this policy but practice it as well. Employees must feel that there is an open door policy among management and cannot feel intimidated. Good ideas that never make it out of the mouth are good ideas wasted. Likewise communications between departments can't be influenced by efforts to protect turf. You're all on the same team so it is assumed that you all have the same objective.

3. A team but with differences
In a perfect world we would all just get along. However the human animal is not designed that way and there will undoubtedly be conflicts among team members and there has to be a conflict resolution process in place to settle those disagreements early. One way to minimize conflict is to provide training in social intelligence. Developing better social interaction skills strengthens a team and makes it more productive.

4. Accountability
When a team member understands the role that he or she plays in the organization, then he or she has to be held accountable for performance both good and bad. In order to do this effectively, a system of measurement has to be developed and agreed upon by both management and employees. Following this policy of accountability is essential if the team is to have any credibility among its members.

5. Invest in team skills
Another way for the organization to demonstrate its commitment to teams is by providing team building training particularly those exercises that focus on group problem solving. This gives the employees an opportunity to interact with each other outside of the workplace and on a different, almost recreational basis. Team training is normally viewed as a fun perk by employees and has the additional benefit of actually imparting value.

6. Knock down barriers to complete worker integration
It's hard to be on a team when some members are more outwardly valuable than others. How would the professional ball player who was hitting .260 react if the team equipped him with a pair of spikes from K Mart and then gave another team member who hits .320 top of the line spikes from Nike? If the objective is to win the game, shouldn't each team member be equipped with the best equipment the team can afford to make it happen? Perks like reserved parking spaces, executive dining rooms, nicer furniture etc. all announce that some team members are more special than others and that's detrimental to the organization's goals.

7. Celebrate as a team
When goals are achieved, recognize the event as a team accomplishment and celebrate as a team. Depending on the type of goal that was met, this could be a simple pizza party or a trip to the Caribbean. Sharing success further bonds the team and encourages loyalty to the company.

In today's extremely competitive economy it is essential that companies focus on productivity and that is far easier to do as a team rather than as a group of departments each with their own agenda. But if you commit to the team concept, be prepared to walk the walk as well as talk the talk.