Team building... teamwork... coach and team... team management system... team development... So many labels exist,  but none ever seems to do justice to the richness and diversity of this kind of work. Yet the basic formula is actually very simple. Many years of experience as a “team-builder” have taught me how useful this activity can be when done in the right way and at the right time. Following are a number of basic characteristics of team-building, together with guidelines to get the best out of the experience.

1. A powerful moment that crystallizes team identity

    A young Belgian manager is put in charge of the Finance Department of the company’s French head office. Most of his team have been working there from 10 to 20 years, and his predecessor was in the job for about the same amount of time. Six months later, he makes a series of key changes in the organization, causing considerable internal upheaval. His direct management style is unpopular, even though people recognize that the decisions he makes are good ones. Team members do not communicate much with each other, as each department has been used to operating in a very much of a vacuum. A crisis situation is looming, made worse by the fact that economic pressure is particularly strong and that the Financial Department does not have a very good internal image.

    The director has a vague idea that something must be done to ease the conflicts and create a real team around him. After interviews with each team member, ICM brought everyone together for a two-day residential seminar. By the end, the team had “come together”, like a good mayonnaise. The team members and their director had found common ground for an agreement on working principles and set individual and collective objectives.They defined an action plan which was successfully carried out in the months that followed, including a presentation of objectives to the Managing Director, a method of formalizing information exchange between departments and commitment to working on transversal missions. The whole atmosphere had changed for the better, and people were able to talk and work together with a greater sense of freedom and purpose. Who can say how much time and energy were gained in an investment of a mere 2 days together?
Team building is always a special moment. Team members gain new insights into the way they can work together for two main reasons. First, a high level of concentration can be achieved over a relatively short space of time (usually 2 to 3 days); and second, people are exposed to fresh, often unfamiliar ways of interacting and problem-solving, which, with the help of an outside consultant, brings rapid results. There are often great realizations, intense exchanges and the discovery of unexpected shared views as well as differences. Whatever the objectives of the sessions, the quality of reflection increases proportionately as trust grows. The external observer will notice important changes and developments over two or three days, even if the participants cannot always measure it themselves. When the team returns to the workplace, colleagues will often remark on the change, with the perception that “something has happened”.

    Tuning an instrument...In one recent team-building session, the participants wrote down their personal objectives on a large sheet of paper, and their expectations of colleagues on another, walking around and discussing them as they wrote.  The exercise lasted all afternoon and generated important exchanges, questions and information sharing. Throughout the afternoon, in the lobby of the hotel, someone was tuning a piano. It seemed like the perfect metaphore.

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