Rick Bommelje says,
>I am currently searching for an effective, high quality
>teambuilding/teamwork program ...
Rick, there are some very competent people out there who can probably help
you. I want to help you, too, by passing along what I've learned in more
than 15 years of being asked by clients to help them "build a team."
1. Think about the differences between a team and a group of people
waiting for a bus. What makes a team a team and what makes them different
than this group at the bus stop?
2. [Did you think about it ... or are you just waiting for my answer?
Please stop for a couple of minutes and think about what your answers
might be.]
...
3. Okay, here is what I've learned from asking people that question. The
most important characteristics of a "team" are ...
a. The people on a team share a common purpose, and
b. they share a conviction that they will not achieve that purpose without
working together (or, at least, that they would not achieve it as
efficiently or as effectively.)
That is, what makes a team a team is commonality of purpose and
interdependence.
When I have intervened with a group who want "team building," what I have
done has always been to engage them in dialogue about purpose and then,
when that has been clarified (and consensus reached, and assessment of the
meaningfulness of that purpose to each individual has been publicly made),
to engage them in an investigation of how they will achieve that purpose
-- and the roles each individual must play in order to take the action
steps they've decided they must take.
I spend no time on "the theory of teams" and seldom bring in generic
"team building exercises" (although in some cases -- for intact teams with
a negative history -- these can be a useful way to lead into the real
dialogues I described above.) Instead, I put the team members to work on
the (common) work of the team -- and I try to do it in such a way that
they engage in double-loop learning from the work they do. Each task has
two goals: the accomplishment (furthering the purpose) goal, and the
learning goal. I have found some of the tools and methods in the Fifth
Discipline Fieldbook to be useful for helping people learn how to
dialogue.
Contact me for an address where you can send me your check!! ;-)
--"John Gunkler" <jgunkler@sprintmail.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>