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Team Building vs Team Development

Travel budgets slashed, bonuses unlikely, the prospect of redundancies.  Now is probably not the time to ask for cash to fund the annual team building day but it might be the precisely the right time for some team development.

The phrase team building has risen in prominence in recent years as employers realised the value of a happy workforce where, despite their differences, team members are able to get along.  For many, team building is simply about getting away from the office for a celebratory meal, drink or day out and there is some value in this.  It creates a social context and allows colleagues space to become friends.

In the same way that a builder differs from a developer in the property world, team development is similar but distinctly different.  Builders will turn up and build a wall, whereas a developer sees the potential for that wall to become a terrace of houses.  Team development is a process in which a team takes time to explore its potential – how it can become greater than it’s been before….

Can team work save lives?

When individuals know how to work together as a team, it makes all the difference in the world.

US Airways Flight 1549 was a scheduled commercial passenger flight from New York City to Charlotte, North Carolina, that, on January 15, 2009, ditched in the Hudson River adjacent to Manhattan six minutes after departing from LaGuardia Airport.

While on its initial climb out, the Airbus A320 struck a flock of Canada Geese which resulted in an immediate almost complete loss of thrust from both engines. When the aircrew realised that the plane would be unable to safely reach any airport from its location just northeast of the George Washington Bridge, they turned it southbound and glided over the river, then ditched the airplane virtually intact near the USS Intrepid Museum in midtown Manhattan. After the 155 occupants safely evacuated the partially submerged and sinking plane they were all rescued by nearby watercraft.

Recently after a thorough review of the incident the National Transportation Safety Board official adamantly explained how the crew and passengers survived a near catastrophe in the incredible forced water landing on the Hudson River. “The crew worked as a team, not as individuals—and that saved the lives of all 155 people aboard”.

The message was clear: when individuals know how to work together as a team, it makes all the difference in the world.

Don’t forget motivation

What do organisations need to do to be able to bounce back once this economically gloomy period is over?

A discussion on the radio this morning was about whether the first green shoots of recovery from recession were appearing. The discussion was inconclusive and extended the green metaphor to suggest that we could also expect a lot of weeds, but highlighted once again the fact that no-one really knows how or when things are going to pick up.

The thing is that once things do get start to turn around, recovery is probably going to take as many by surprise as did the speed of the downturn last year, and a lot of organisations may be caught on the hop. Having cut back, streamlined, pruned, and cut down again to make do with fewer resources, for many it will be tough to keep up once things start to speed up again if the organisation hasn’t kept its remaining staff motivated and its systems up to date….

When teams and leaders collide

Why is it that when some companies and sports teams have a great leader and a brilliant team they still seem to under achieve?

I was recently talking to an executive from a business that has exceptional recruitment.  They are renowned for attracting and recruiting some of the brightest minds in their field.  Their leaders are highly skilled and many have graduated from the best business schools.
 
During our conversation it became apparent that matching great leaders to already successful teams doesn’t always lead to instant success, in fact all too often team performance dropped as a new, highly competent leader was appointed.  The issue here is one of alignment.  Leaders come in different flavours – visionary, strategic, entrepreneurial, consensual, pastoral, motivational, as well as those brought in to turn around a crisis, the re-engineering leader….

Is Team Building a Luxury?

An article recently published by Harvard Management Publishing looked at team building in economically uncertain times and concluded that “it’s in times like these that team building activities are most needed.”

Pat Olsen, in the Harvard Management Update, writes that: “Chances are, anyone who has worked for a corporation has suffered through at least one irrelevant or embarrassing team building exercise. But team building activities aren’t limited to trust falls and paint ball. Used wisely, they can improve morale, foster cohesiveness, increase motivation, and focus a team on a problem. The best ones also give employees insight about their organization.”

Read the Harvard Management Update article in full.

Does “team building” work?

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal* suggested that while team-building exercises may be fun (for some people), they really don’t do much to solve workplace issues.

For example, sales executive Paul Garvey claimed that the most insightful team-building exercise he ever participated in involved paintball, which in no way helped to resolve the relationship issues back at the office. Speaking of his former company, he said that colleagues would poach each other’s deals while their manager played favourites. Someone decided a paintball exercise would help. It didn’t, and merely reinforced the divisions and favouritism already present.

Another instance of completely inappropriate team building involved the team from a contractor on an Apollo space project. They were asked by their HR department to participate in a role-playing exercise where they had to return safely from the North Pole. Their day-to-day job involved helping astronauts return safely from space. What additional insights into teamwork did HR think this role play could teach them?…

Teams have competitive advantage

When Southwest Airlines said that it’s important to them that staff have fun at work did anybody believe them or did it just sound like more corporate mission statement jargon?

It’s easier to put a mission statement on the wall than it is to put it into action. We know of organisations who have spent months of meetings carefully crafting and re-wording their corporate mission statements, only to find the life sapped from them soon after they’re finished. Or sometimes mission statements work for a while, but then turnover takes a toll and the new people never seem to really get on board.

It’s great to see the video, above, of David, a Southwest Airlines flight attendant, keeping some of their mission statement alive.  He and his colleagues make a great team because they’re committed to the same vision and they support each other.  There is no doubt that team work benefits everybody – customers and colleagues alike.  But sometimes people within an organisation forget they’re part of a team.  One department regards another as a thorn in its side and sometimes colleagues just don’t like each other.

A key factor to success during these hard economic times was summed up by Gary Kelly, CEO of Southwest Airlines, when he said “Our people are our single greatest strength and our most enduring longterm competitive advantage.” Long may it last.

A day in the life of an event manager

From protecting the event equipment from monkeys to facilitating a team building programme for 140 managers, event management can require a lot of different skills.

Trying to explain to the curious staff at the Virgin check-in desk quite why we needed two aluminium pyramids, 65 hoola-hoops and 140 white baseball caps was the easy part…… Managing to make 200 lengths of rope, 35 pencil cases,  staff uniforms,  assorted event equipment and a bundle of paperwork meet the strict baggage restrictions was not so easy.

The look on the honeymooners’  and holiday makers’  faces as we struggled across the terminal with our  peculiar luggage was priceless at 5am in the morning. Little did we know what lay ahead; we faced a 9 hour flight sitting  with the Barmy Army England cricket supporters also on their way to the Caribbean . Let’s just say we got no sleep whatsoever!…

What motivates your staff?

Corporate values could be a determining factor for staff as they choose to join, stay or leave your organisation.

Friday was Comic Relief Day and this year it seemed to bring relief in a number of ways.  The record total raised of £57m will undoubtedly help those in need in Africa and closer to home.  This year, perhaps more than in previous, years the opportunity to laugh and give seemed  also to bring some relief to those watching and giving.

Two examples stand out in my memory of generous giving.  One was the anonymous donor of an incredible £6m; the other the little girl who gave up a whole month’s pocket money.  I wonder if now that it’s no longer ‘cool’ to splash out on flat screen TVs and designer gear the public at large is discovering that a greater sense of satisfaction comes from giving rather than getting. 

If my hunch is correct, then what does this mean for employers?  …

Trust in your team

At the Fresh Tracks office we recently got together as a team look at the issue of trust.  It made me realise how much we take trust for granted when it’s there, and how much extra work a lack of trust can create.

Although our session included event managers, admin staff and senior managers, it was fairly informal and allowed participants to look at their own views on trust –  how and why trust is important at work and at home; what does trust mean to the individual and to the team; what would happen if there was little or no trust in colleagues.

In our team, it soon became apparent that there is quite a huge amount of trust; everyone seemed to take it for granted that they would be trusted and that they would in turn trust their colleagues. For us that makes for an easy and friendly work environment, part of the reason we choose to work here at Fresh Tracks. But it also made me realise that trust is ultimately at the heart of this office culture….