You have the potential to eliminate the distractions and obstacles that arise because your employees don't work well together. Team building doesn't take a large amount of resources and it offers great rewards in the form of fewer headaches, higher productivity and motivated staff members. There are many organizations that have discovered that team building is a tool that can help them improve the functioning of their organization. The following ideas will help you design a strategy that works for you.
Develop a team building plan. Decide beforehand at what time and how frequently your team building activities will take place, who will facilitate and who will attend.
Welcome everyone. Nothing detracts from a sense of team cohesiveness like leaving someone out because they are labeled "difficult." This process is universally inclusive because everyone gets to participate. I highly encourage agencies to consistently include top management, staff and especially people who are having challenges working with others.
Regular attendance is important. Nobody gets to avoid these meetings. Think of the message it sends the rest of the staff when one person or a leader is not present. Over time you'll find that people actually enjoy the process.
Schedule for success. Schedule meetings during calmer times when people can dedicate their time and brains to thinking and participating. I recommend holding one-hour meetings weekly on a predictable, regular and ongoing schedule so that people get in the habit of practicing team building.
Establish a calm, civil, caring and professional atmosphere. All comments and opinions are welcome, everyone gets equal time to talk and share ideas, no rebuttals, no personal attacks, leave personal agendas at the door and everyone agrees to listen to one another. It helps to have a neutral facilitator set the ground rules and facilitate the meetings, someone who is familiar with how to run effective meetings.
Make your meetings exclusively about team building. We aren't here to fix problems, get into arguments or do strategic planning. These interruptions take away from the learning process. Remember that you're doing this because you're trying to build stronger teams.
Keep practicing. Continue holding the meetings over time and you will get good at it. Commit to meeting regularly and team building will become a normal part of your operations.
These seven ideas will increase the morale and cohesiveness at your organization because you will be consciously working on changing behaviors in your workplace. A small investment in time and energy up front pays off big in the end because the pitfalls associated with people not working together gradually fade away. At first this process may seem strange or different but give it time. I takes commitment and practice to make changes in the workplace and building effective teams is no exception. The payoff will come when you eliminate the noise that gets in the way of highly functional teams. Now it's your turn to make it happen.
