Effective Team-building Strategies

It is said that what one person cannot do, two can; what one person can do- two can do still better. Paul Allen and Bill gates together found Microsoft, Our company was established in London as Wertheimer Lea ; John Henry Williams bought partnership and Williams Lea was created in 1883.

Team work is the backbone or basis of any family, society or a corporate world. We have evolving team leaders within our team and most of us have family. So I thought this topic would be apt for all.

The course in English is for 4 hours; Useful overall, some points appeared to be a little obvious but enriching; need to dedicate time, there were some really good team-building exercises as well.



Objective:

In this course, you'll learn tools, techniques, and tips to help you--the team member--help your team (which includes your family as well) develop a "one for all, all for one" mentality. In particular, you'll explore some motivational techniques to apply from the get-go so that potential problems are averted. You'll also learn how to promote and maintain a creative and productive atmosphere. Finally, you'll practice a couple of team building exercises.

Lessons overview:

Being Proactive : helps us to Build Trust; Understand Expectations; Become Effective; Acquire Motivation.

This is done by allocating responsibility logically, Clarifying expectation and Establishing team goals.

When we say Allocating responsibilities logically – It would mean this should play to the team members strength) –.

In a team we may need people to Lead the team i.e.(provide guidance and direction);to address technical issues;for heading up creative tasks, for facilitating meetings, for managing projects. In corporate world the people who do this are often called (Team Leader, Technical advisor, Creative lead, meeting facilitator, project manager

How do we allocate responsibility logically? Ask Team members if they agree and want to go ahead with a particular role. A person can assume two or more responsibility; but it is not fair and feasible for one person to do everything; it will lead to disaster. Team mates background and personality make them ideal candidate for certain task. Ask the people who will be effected by the decision on what their thoughts are.

· Team lead – motivated, team oriented, assertive

· Technical – Knows software programme, can set up computers

· Creative – innovative, artisy, good natured,

· Facilitate meetings – detail oriented, organised, foucsed

· Project Management – planning skill, supervisory, organized.

Clarifying expectation – (Life is largely a matter of expectation). One needs to fulfil ones Mission (what we are responsible for), need to be Interdependent (how it fits with the responsibility of others, how it completes the big picture) (This needs to be done at the early stage; ) Your are responsible for your fellow team members as well. You need to understand how all responsibilities, will lead to the successful completion of team goal. (Be Assertive to do this)

Establishing team goals – Decide what you really want. (team, each, value, build trust – good culture like sharing knowledge, being open to new ideas, working collobratively with others) {Be specific, clear, measurable)

Maximising Creativity (Don’t allow negative criticisim)

This lesson covers Two steps of creativity and how to apply them effectively.

It says Left part of our brain is Logical and Right part is Creative.

Maximising creativity helps Cross pollination of ideas. Of the two steps of creativity first is

Generating creativity ideas –This should happen in an open, non judgemental atmosphere.

For creativity to work the atmosphere needs to be that of – Playfulness, flexibility, brainstorming (you get quantity of idea – first thought comes first – so it may not be quality ideas), analogies (when you look at mutually exclusive things, new ideas may come up and potential solutions.. )

(Pringles Potato chips conceived? – P&G – Pack dry potato best when wet and dry them after packing – thought from dry leaves)

Evaluating creative ideas – This should be done only after all ideas are generated – sort, refine and eliminate if not required.

Two step process –

· Discuss pro and cons

· Combine better ideas and refine

Facilitating Synergy

Lessons overview – Reap benefits from synergestic team environment.

· Together

· Everyone

· Achieves

· More

Benefits:

· Working with one another

· Being foucsed and confident

· Counting on one another

· Having energy takes on a life of its own

The tighter the team, greater chance of team cohesiveness. It helps in Creating a sense of identity

Ask Each person in the team (Team exercise):

· To give atleast one reason why the team is unique (Attributes that make your team unique) (Formalise thoughts about team identity, go around the room)

· One example of a time when each identifying characteristic was demonstrated

· Agreement on teams idenfitying characteristic (Ask do you agree?)

how do we Increasing team cohesiveness?

· Collaborate don’t compete

· Assume – positive intent – Assume that team mates motives are positive

· Put the team first – ‘ V before I’ Team is not about I and me; but all about we and us.

To Sum up: ‘In the I alone world; let us have a we culture’.

Enjoyed this My Learning World exercise @ Williamslea