What kind of image do you conjure up when someone mentions the phrase “team building.” If your head starts spinning with visions of trust falls, rock climbing, playing with legos or some other game type of activity, you’re not alone. That’s what most people think of when they hear those words. And along with that comes a lot of rolling eyes and groans about wasting time.

It’s a shame team building has such a bad name because of poorly executed experiential team building days that became so popular in the nineties. Experiential team building can be the catalyst that causes a breakthrough in a team if done correctly and integrated with your team’s regular objectives and goals. But the biggest problem with them is that they typically occur only once a year. That’s not enough to maintain your team. Team building is definitely not an annual affair.

Let’s think back to why you have a team in the first place. Your team was created with a specific purpose — to accomplish a project, or focus organizational efforts in a specific direction, or to accomplish a certain goal. These activities take place every single day. And so should your team building.

Here’s what I recommend to help you build your team.

• Develop a set of ground rules that define how your team members are supposed to behave. These are things like communicate openly, be on time for meetings, meet commitments, and resolve conflict effectively.
• Create an environment where your team ground rules can be carried out. This should include both a virtual and face-to-face space that allows for plenty of interaction in your team.
• Set up a regular schedule of meetings, about once a month, for the sole purpose of monitoring your team’s health. The objective of these meetings will be single thread — to talk about how effective the communication methods are within the team, or discuss what processes are working or not working, or to determine whether meetings are effective or not. In other words, monitoring your team health focuses on the interactions of your team that enable its goals to be accomplished.

When you consider team building as part of your day-to-day activities, your team will be a healthy one that functions well together to accomplish its goals.

What do you think? Let’s talk about it. Please leave your comment.

I have an issue with getting my employees to follow the rules in the office. I started in my position 8 months ago as a team leader. It was a unique situation. I was working the floor along with everyone else (I’m the youngest team member). Ive worked for the company for four years now and we have never had an manager in the office. When I came in as team leader, I had to start enforcing rules that were introduced by our new practice administrator. Before this we had the rules but they were never enforced by anyone. I’ve gotten part of my staff to understand the importance in this but they are also the newest staff its just the older staff that have been here for awhile that don’t want to follow the rules. What do I do?

The Team Doc Says…

Your older team members might just look at the rules as something they can choose to do since they never bothered before you came and to them things seemed to run just fine. Does that make them not following rules the right thing to do? No, but it could put it in perspective for you.

What I suggest you do is to first take a look at the rules and see if they add value to the business or the work that your team has to accomplish. Are they rules for rules sake? Are they required rules to meet some type of regulation? Are they rules that help the company run better?

Once you’ve taken a look at those rules, talk with your practice manager about any rule that isn’t adding value and isn’t required by law. Just get rid of those.

Then you need to educate your team on the rules that are left. Make sure you identify why the rules are important and what will happen if your team members don’t follow the rules. Listen carefully to feedback from your team while you are having this discussion. Make sure you address the team member concerns. Follow through on implementation and take action as necessary.

What do you think reader? Please share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

What are codes of conduct?

The Team Doc Says…

A team code of conduct defines the standards of behavior for team members. In the work environment, this would include things like:

• Communicate openly

• Share issues with the team

• Use consensus for team decisions

• Actively participate in meetings

• Be present and engaged

• Others…

It’s very common for a team to develop a code of conduct. What’s not so common is for the team to have success holding team members accountable for abiding by the code of conduct. The team members either ignore the behavior and just stew about it or it elevates into a full scale unresolved conflict. Not a good thing.

It takes team growth for the team to be able to work through these issues. Establishing a team code of conduct is a good thing for the team as long as you’re prepared to deal with any roadblocks that may occur.

Reader, what do you think?