There’s an old saying in the sporting world that says “A champion team will always beat a team of champions” and there’s little doubt that statement equally applies to the business community.

A strong team culture within any business provides a competitive advantage that increases staff engagement levels, productivity and the company’s bottom line profit.
But achieving high levels of teamwork is not something that many business leaders have the expertise or experience to execute effectively.

For example, a popular “team building” scenario in the corporate world involves the practice of taking employees out of the office to participate in a fun day of “team” activities that may include anything from “white-water rafting” to “orienteering” to “paintball”. The theory seems to be that if team members (aka the employees) experience a positive outcome as a result of working together in the activity they’ll somehow transform that new understanding of teamwork back to the workplace. The major problem with this theory is that team members have always known that if they work together with their team mates they’ll get an improved result, it’s embedded in our DNA…they just don’t put it into practice at work.

So what’s preventing them from putting it into practice?

Although there could be many reasons for blockages to teamwork, most of them can be traced back to one core visceral issue…a lack of trust!

All of the great sporting teams expend a lot of effort building trust amongst team members because they understand how crucial it is in achieving great teamwork. But when we turn our attention to the corporate world who often espouse a team ethic, the commitment to establishing and enhancing trust levels is relatively meek by comparison. In essence it’s like trying to build a skyscraper on shifting sands…you’re destined for setbacks unless you lay a solid foundation.

We should also point out that fun “team-building” activities such as those mentioned earlier play an important role in enhancing morale and team spirit but in isolation they aren’t enough to fast-track high quality teamwork in the workplace.

Our Wayne Pearce Advantage Team Ignition workshops will help your business fast track a significant and sustainable boost in team productivity without sacrificing the all important “fun factor”.

Some of the components we regularly use in our workshops are:

• Comprehending the Team Ignition pyramid (a framework for team excellence)
• Frustrations forum
• Developing a team behavioural charter
• Boomerang trust session
• CEO for a day activity
• Speaking to vs communicating with teammates
  

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