In today’s context, great teamwork is what all organizations aspire to have as it is through great teamwork that higher productivity can be realized. When team embraces productive conversations, it will lead to a higher quality of communication and relationship, and then the accomplishment of goals and objectives goes beyond the target set. By MI’s definition, Teamwork is the capacity of a group of highly passionate players unified by a common shared vision, working and toiling together despite all circumstances, synthesizing and synergizing to produce beyond even their own expectations.
MI’s experiences with Teams were that despite a strong desire to have great teamwork, most teams experience a certain degree of dysfunction ranging from trivial conflicts to heavy crisis politicking.
Establishing team trust and developing team competency leads to team credibility and resiliency. One that can withstand the test of trying times. MI’s approach towards team building and team development begins with a Team Dialogue on current realities and desired future of the team. This is sometimes supplemented with a Team Climate Survey.
MI engages Team Climate Survey, Team Reflection, Team Dialogues, Team Conflict Resolution and Team Competency Development to help teams start well, stay well and grow well beyond the work boundaries. Team Visioning is inadvertently a key milestone in the Team Development process based on the “MI Aspiration 10” fro teams:
The “MI Aspiration 10 ” for teams:
- What do we really want as a team?
- Where are we today?
- Why do we have what we have today?
- What must we do to get what we want?
- What team values and behaviors do we need to embrace?
- What help do we need to get started?
- What support do we need to sustain our momentum?
- How do we measure progress?
- How do we ascertain success?
- How do we want to encourage and celebrate?
Another critical Team Development process is the “Team Transition Meeting” (TTM). This is an ever growing needs in all matrix organizations that constantly evolve by forming new teams and/or changing team leads, be it at the most senior level or at the frontline. This is a process that provides a vital opportunity for both newly formed teams or seasoned teams that now has a new leader, to engage in a productive dialogue to begin understanding where each comes from and desires to go to. It allows all members of the team, including the leader, a deeper insight of the team culture, its origins, its growth potential and its aspirations. It provides a private forum for each team member to share about themselves, their “high and low” experiences working within the team, and to express individual perspectives of what they think of their team and where they desire the team to move from here. This TTM provides a real good starting point for the team to get to know each other in terms of future team directions and the possible changes ahead of them. It also provides the team leader an opportunity to establish some key team norms that will help govern their progress to the next level of performance with minimal loss of productivity.
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