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Team - What and Why
Sporting analogies are popular in the field of workplace team development. Many have experienced effective teamwork in sport so we know how good it feels when it all clicks and the team achieves high performance. When you compare the dynamics facing your workplace team and your sports team however, they are very different. In some ways, we believe there is NO comparison between sport teams and workplace teams.In sport, clarifying the objective on the pitch is easy, there are umpires to see that everyone plays fair, the rules don’t change half-way through the game and the coach doesn’t expect you to score more often, whilst reducing the number of players on the pitch and moving the goalposts.
Given the different dynamics, it’s not surprising that building effective workplace teams is a challenge and simplistic change efforts fail.
So, if the environment at work makes it hard to build high performance teams, why do organisations bother with teams?
Most answers are captured by one of the following three facts:
- The problems organisations face are too big and complex to be solved by an individual or a collection of individuals working independently. We have to work in teams.
- Flatter organisational structures involving teams adapt faster.
- Effective teams out-perform a collection of individuals. They create synergies. They can make 2+2=5.
Happily, people in organisations want to work as part
of a good team. It’s more fun, more rewarding and
they feel supported and included. Overwhelmingly, people want
to connect with other people. It's a basic human instinct, one
step removed from breathing, eating and sleeping. Even the cynics
figure they spend at least 35% of their waking hours a week with
these people and are reliant on them so, “You may as well
try and make it work.”
Thankfully, that's not where the happy coincidences end. Developments
in the measurement of group behaviour in the last ten years provide
the tools for organisations to develop their teams in a way not
previously possible. Our client track record has enabled AC to
be at the forefront of this development.
Team - How
1. Understand
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2. Measure AC will tailor the measurement to meet your needs and leverage existing metrics. In this phase we will agree targeted changes to the teams KPIs and utilise appropriate tools from the following list:
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4. Coach
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3. Workshop
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5.
Re-measure