Building Effective Workgroups or Teams

HR can provide you with support for building effective team work.

Developing Effective Teams Model

Typically we work with the leader or a smaller working group to determine what they would like to get from the teambuilding session and develop an agenda to meet those desires. Depending on the time the group has allotted to the session, they may develop pre-work for members to help them do some thinking prior to the session.

New Teams:

New teams usually start by getting to know each other better and sharing their ideas and expectations for building healthy working relationships. They then work on creating shared vision of their preferred future and making team decisions about the processes and procedures they need to put in place to help them with their work. This can be done by the Team Charter Process.

Existing Teams:

Existing teams may go through a process similar to the one outlined in the Developing Effective Teams Workbook (PDF). This may include profiling the current team and exercising to increase awareness and teamwork.

The work of amalgamating teams is often more focused on bringing together existing visions, processes and procedures to help the team create something new.

The Consultant's Role During the Session:

The role of the consultant during the session is:

• to help create a safe environment for people to learn from each other
• manage the time and activities of the session
• equalize the air time of the participants
• ask questions to test for group understanding and agreement
• represent a "different" perspective as needed