Home » Solutions » Teamwork

TEAMWORK

High performance teams do not hold back. They consist of people who have the same goal and push each other to achieve greater success. Teamwork and team building is much more than it used to be, as a result it is also an important part of the fast-paced organization in today’s time. As the saying goes that two heads are better than one, so is certainly the case with teamwork in the workplace.

Why is Teamwork Important in Life?

teamwork

The advantages of teamwork are manifold for the companies and the individuals engaged in it. But on a more visceral level, teamwork is at the very essence of humanity. Humans are social beings who are at their peak performance when they are part of a group dynamic. That is when the most natural of leaders and followers emerge. It is one of the essentials of life. We are of different groups or ‘teams’ in different parts of our life; as a student, as part of a family, as part of a company! Working with a bonded team of colleagues helps to develop routines and practices that harness and augment the unique talent of each and every team member, giving rise to qualities in each member, greater than they ever thought themselves capable of. They become examples of teamwork for other sections within the organization; to be followed and integrated throughout the different departments and segments.

The camaraderie of a team; people supporting each other, coaching each other to improve the collective skills, going back to the drawing board when things go south and giving grief to each other when the going gets rough; creates very resilient individuals with a strong strength of character. Promoting teamwork and creating an atmosphere conducive to it, is the basic right of humanity.

The combined experience and research of the Training Impact’s Trainers shows that the importance of teamwork lies in team blondness, familiarity and a high comfort level among team members was a hefty predictor of project success and on-time delivery than total experience of individual team members. Seen this way, the whole is definitely bigger than the sum of its parts.

Benefits of Teamwork

Team work training

There are numerous benefits of teamwork in the workplace. It is the melting pot that creates and cascades values and ethics within the organization. If a dominant group of people exhibit certain behaviors and actions; they are sure to be copied and become a recurrent part of the organization. Involving teams in the decision making about a company’s vision, mission and culture will have a positive rippling effect that has the ability to cascade down through the organization.

Further, connective team building creates an environment of transparency and trust; where people look out for each other and everyone is held accountable for their actions. This is the biggest indicator of a group of people working together harmoniously; whether they have trust among their ranks or not. The maintenance of trust in the company also teaches the individuals in a team, the art of conflict resolution. That is, how best to come on top with a win-win situation when there is cognitive dissonance among the team members, different teams or different cadres. Because of constant successful conflict resolution there is a possibility for increased levels of ownership among the participants. They feel that they have engaged in positive teamwork when they diffuse the tensions that are sure to arise when many opinions and suggestions are voiced over an agenda.Teamwork and team building gives chances to people to develop themselves by learning from others in the team and also complement the strengths of others in the company; joining together like a jigsaw puzzle. This is another element that promotes ownership and accountability within the organization.

As there are many people supporting one another, Decision Making and risk taking is also more audacious, less conservative. Teams, have more heads than one when it comes to risk assessment which means that there are many different perspectives that analyze the many avenues and take risks that are calculated. This shows that there are lesser chances for failure.

Diversity and Teamwork

teamwork training

Another aspect worth exploring when making teams is diversity. With the onset of CPEC, there is sure to a more diverse population in the locale. Building teams with high levels of diversity in gender, perspective, religion and social standing will cause for large opportunities for learning and adapting and create avenues for creativity, insight and tolerance. In teams that have different forms of diversity, individuals are connected by a common goal and whatever their differences, team members set them aside for the bigger picture.

Team Vision

Teams however big or small, require an ideology, a vision to work towards. A vision that is supported by actionable steps and marked by tangible milestones is a way to improve teamwork in the workplace. So that the team has a trajectory to work towards and engage with each other on that basis. If the Senior Management or the C-Suite of the company, engages the many teams of the company in making a mission and vision, this would give rise to more inclusion and ownership among company members.

Building team solidarity, may it be in inter or intro departmental, cross functional, matrix- styles, project based or simply among all the workers in a company; is a sure shot way to achieve high performance and reap repeated success. Teams are, in essence, small pockets of communities with their sets of rules, principles and ethics that every new entrant has to abide by and everyone has to work towards preserving, perpetuating and changing for the better.

C-Suite and Teamwork

For the Senior Management of a company; it is instrumental to their success that they create an atmosphere in their company that is conducive to teamwork and team building continuously. Because people derive their identity from the group they are a part of, it is important for the company heads to constantly send out implicit and explicit signals about the importance of cohesion, togetherness and mutual trust among the teams in the bullpen.

So, it goes to show that building teams and doing work as a team is not only the responsibility of the team members but the responsibility of all the members in the organization; top to bottom. In fact, it is of utmost significance that the individuals spearheading the organization have unity among them. This is also part of the scope of the training and interventions provided by Training Impact. Here we do not simply initiate teamwork in already formed groups in the organization. there is a careful analysis of the context of the company and teams a built keeping in mind the many cadres within the organization that have a direct and indirect connection to the productivity and performance of the team in question. Only then is a solution suggested that considers all the stakeholders involved, contemplates and understands their points of views and incorporates them in the bigger plan.

The Flip-side

There are many benefits of teamwork but it is not to say that it is always desired. Training Impact makes sure that the company understands the need and requirement of teams and develops a structure that is conducive to teamwork and solo work. So that there is no fixed status quo, of always working with a group of people. The training ensure that it is understood that having diversity within the company means that there are people who work better solo first and then bring their ideas to the group. Furthermore, teams are not always supposed to moving like a contingent or always be found sitting together, which is the general stereotype. Teamwork means that when people work together there is positive conflict, tolerance to listen to the opinions of others, productive results, harmony and transparency. It means that the role of everyone is understood by the individual and by one another as well.

It means that everyone joins together in discussions and check ins and goes back to their respective drawing-boards to come up with solutions and complete their tasks. In such a scenario communication that is clear and consistent is key. Most teams disintegrate because of untimely communication or miscommunication. One of the hallmarks of a successful team is communication that is always direct and uses those channels of communication that are frequented by the majority in the team. Clear and transparent communication among team requires that the agenda of each and every one should be the same. When people develop different motives, that is when their behavior reflects their attitude of dissonance which might lead to spirals of problems in the chain of communication.

Training Impact Interventions

The training and OD solutions provided by Training Impact cover all of these areas, or more specialized areas as per the need of the company. The business solutions provided are robust in their longevity and provide actionable steps that every link in the organization has to take to reach to a summit goal which gives rise to unmitigated performance, recurrent success and a general air of well being and harmony within the organization.

The method of Experiential Learning is embedded in the programs; outdoors or indoors. This method helps root out all forms of conflicts and issues that colleagues are facing through activities and purposeful games. The training sessions and the debriefs then build on the observations of behaviors displayed, the performance in the activity and the correlation with workplace scenarios. These areas are discussed in length and the behavior of one individual or team is a live case study to learn from for other participants of the program. The learning are entrenched through the stricture of the program and the facilitation of the trainers.

The basic principle is to make people go through situations which induce their natural behavioral reactions and then those reactions are dissected in detail. The emotions and feelings behind those reactions is studied and an alternate path of response is devised that allows the concerned people to change their behavior to reflect their Learning and Development.

The interventions proposed by Training Impact, to generate teamwork for employees, are developed after in depth understanding of the workings of the company. They are based on the latest research done through secondary and primary means by Training Impact’s Trainers. Furthermore, not only training but interventions that spread over the scale of the organization are also proposed.Team building, is an extensive process. It is not perpetuated, usually, by simple one off training sessions. It is perpetuated through long term interventions, which is why all our programs are customized to the situations, current culture and happenings of the company.

Training Impact keeps in mind the challenges of the triad: the company, the market and the individuals, fluidly developing the initiatives around the perceived needs.