How to build better teams

The 1980s have a lot to answer for in team-building.

Even the mention of the word conjures images of falling from a height into the arms of co-workers muttering a mantra of togetherness, or of the team careering through rapids on an expedition of white-water, white-knuckle-inspired cohesion.

Modern organisational culture management, unfortunately, still suffers the hangover of team-building fads of the late 80s. The process of retaining motivated and productive staff is now vastly more exacting and advanced.

Contemporary team-building is less a singular event. It's more an on-going process in which team-building activities are planned for and scheduled for a specific purpose.

Bill Shields, a 28-year human resources veteran and director of HR at Wellington's Open Polytechnic, says activities should be planned at a strategic level and aligned with company objectives.

"It needs to be a proactive response to an organisation's developmental needs. Senior management needs to identify the outcomes it wants from its teams and plan for that, rather than reacting in response to a crisis or a glossy brochure."

Scheduling team-building activities into the annual plan enhances their long-term effectiveness.

Shields advocates taking an issue from the work context and replicating it in a fun, team-building exercise. He says it is not about taking a one-size-fits-all approach but, rather, choosing an appropriate vehicle and translating the issue to explore how people respond in a different environment.

"You can send people out white-water rafting to have some fun, and that's beneficial, but don't expect them to return having achieved a great wisdom of team cohesion unless you planned for it and workshopped the objectives prior to the activity."

Psychologist and Auckland University School of Business senior lecturer Giles Burch also notes care needs to be taken in the selection process to choose events relevant to the team in question.

A team of older academics is probably not going to respond well to lugging logs around on an Army obstacle course. The validity of the message will be lost.

He also says a balanced approach needs to be taken to schedule nitty-gritty forums and workshops to tackle deeper issues as well as the more popular and sexy off-site fun activities.

"Both are integral and need to be scheduled. But the nitty-gritty type events, which facilitate more in-depth examination of team dynamic issues, are often forgotten in favour of more popular activities."

The planning process itself should be collaborative, with input from both management and the team.

American consultant Susan Healthfield writes this is as much part of the team-building process as the activity itself and should model the behaviour you seek from the team-building sessions you schedule. Collaboration also ensures a shared vision for the activity and your business aims.

"I'm not averse to retreats, planning sessions, seminars and team-building activities. In fact I lead them. But they have to be part of a larger effort. You will not build team-work by retreating as a group for a couple of days each year. Think of team-building as something you do every single day," she writes on her website, www.humanresources.about.com

"Form teams to solve real work issues and to improve real work processes. Provide training in systematic methods so the team expends its energy on the project, not on figuring out how to work together to approach it." She suggests:

Build fun occasions into the work agenda, like pot luck lunches.

Use quick team-building exercises at regular staff meetings.

Celebrate all team successes publicly.

Try to sort out personal clashes or problems quickly.

Healthfield says any motivation gained from off-site team-building will be short-lived unless it is followed up with meaningful activities in the workplace.

Too often businesses don't review their team-building programmes or measure whether they have been a success.

Participant satisfaction is readily monitored while improvements in how the team functions can be measured. So, too, should any fall in bad incidents, or behaviour that you're attempting to eliminate, be measured.

In the medium and longer terms, bottom-line improvements in individual and business unit KPIs, reduction in staff turnover and employee 360-degree feedback are also indicators.

Some elements of team-building effectiveness will always be intangible.

However, a planned approach with clear objectives and buy-in from everybody helps get the maximum from what can be a significant part of the training and development budget. It makes sense of activities previously considered merely social or frivolous and brings accountability to the process.

And, most importantly, the next time you are about to go under with the sales team on a grade nine rapid, you will know exactly why you are taking this one for the team.

Team talk

* Use fun, off-site team-building exercises. But make sure they achieve what you want.

* Plan how you want your team to improve, then look for activities that will achieve that.

* Integrate team-building into daily activities. Don't just use big one-off events.

* Celebrate all successes publicly.

* Try to deal with inter-personal problems in a team quickly.

* Mike Angove is a freelance journalist with 10 years' experience in the corporate world, including advertising, strategic planning and recruitment.