August 9, 4:41 am
Training for Teamwork: Can it be done?
If you’ve ever been on a team that “gels” you know the power of good teamwork. But can training for teamwork be effective, or does it just happen? In other words, can we hold a training class—or a series of classes—that brings a group of individuals into a dynamic, cohesive unit?
I’m going to say yes, but I’ll add that it’s akin to taking a horse to water. Either the individual team members are open to functioning as a team or they’re not.
One of the factors necessary for success is a facilitator who can tune in to the emotions of the learners. Just going through the motions of facilitation won’t cut it.
In fact, after facilitating team building workshops for scores of management teams over the past dozen years (and supervising other facilitators in the process), I’d say the quality of the facilitation is at least 85% of what makes or breaks the quality of a team building class.
A couple of things I think facilitators should be aware of:
- The team’s routine. Are the class participants working side by side every day, or are they at different locations, communicating infrequently?
- The personality makeup of the team members. Without knowing the spectrums of preferred behaviors, motivations, and thinking processes, I think it would be incredibly difficult to help team members become aware of and value the differences among them.
- The “present” mindset of the learners. If class participants are distracted by pressing work deadlines, personal or professional problems, or are being made to feel unsafe or uncomfortable without reason, then their desire to join in the effort of teambuilding will be severely diminished.
Many more factors need to be considered and monitored by a facilitator, but I believe these three are vitally essential for effective results.
The power of a good team is phenomenal, so don’t leave “team development” to inexperienced facilitators. When done right, team building workshops pay for themselves hundreds of times over.
Filed in Work, Training, Team Building, Workplace, Train the Trainer, Corporate Culture
Dan:
Couldn’t agree more - teamwork training does pay off. We have over 200 different seminars dealing with teamwork and teambuilding on our website given be lots of different seminar companies.
I think, though, that to make the training worthwhile the team has to take a look at itself before entering into any formal training. What exactly is the problem the team is having and why can’t they solve it themselves. Would it pay to just send the team leader or the team leader and a few members to a public seminar or should the company invest more money and train or retrain the whole team?
I also agree that the quality of the faciliation is important but so is the follow through and follow up. How many of us leave a training session totally motivated with lots of great new ideas to put into practice only to get back to the office the next day and get caught up in the usual patterns and not adapt anything new. Anyone who attends training should be accountable - at least to share the new ideas with others.