Team Building San Diego CA

It is not unusual for businesses to equate departments or groups of workers as teams. This can cause a problem, because just calling a group of people does not make them behave like a “team”; however management will expect them to behave like a team. Everyone then is disappointed, the members of the teams, because they usually get negative feedback for not acting like a “team”; management because they are not getting the results they think a “team” should produce.

What does it make to make or build a “team”. First the group has to agree it wants to be a team. Second they to be treated like a team; this means being included in whatever the decision process is for the team. Many in management misunderstand, being included in the decision process does not mean giving up the decision process. Management always has the right to make the final decision. Being included means asking for feedback, asking the team what it thinks of the decisions it is asked to implement and if they have any suggestions or concerns, before implementation phase. This may seem to slow down decision phase, but it dramatically speeds up the execution stage which means increased productivity. An added benefit is this process provides members of the team real personal growth.

The Team Building process I subscribe to is:

1. Survey each member of the team to if they want to be a team and then have them fill out a questionnaire that has been cleared with management that will uncover most of the blocking issues they see to becoming a team
2. I compile all the answers and reduce them to major categories and bring them to an offsite meeting. The length of the offsite meeting, 1 or 2 days, depends on the size of the group and the desired outcome.
3. I start the offsite by having the top manager introduce the purpose of the meeting and their expectations. Management as well as team members take part in offsite.
4. I then list the results of the survey and break the participants into smaller groups. I ask them to answer a number of questions This gives you an idea of the process without giving away the whole thing.