TEAM BUILDING

There are several interrelated characteristics that are universal to well-functioning teams. They are:

(1) Trust among team members;

(2) Clearly defined roles that form an efficient system for accomplishing required tasks;

(3) An ability for the group to take calculated risks that result in growth and higher levels of achievement; and

(4) Team problem solving skills that effectively utilize all member resources and leave individual members satisfied that they have been given the opportunity to maximize their contributions based on their personal resources.

Deer Hill Corporate Learning Team Building programs are designed to develop all of these capabilities. We work with you through an individualized Needs Assessment process to determine your need for each of these skills and design your program accordingly.

DEVELOPING TRUST

The consensus among scholars in team development is that trust is the first component necessary for effective team functioning. The ultimate objective of any team is to have agreement among members on the procedures to be used to accomplish common goals. Before these procedures can be set up, the group must agree on their goals. In order to determine their mutual goals, group members must engage in open discussion that includes their personal perspectives and concerns. Such open discussion can only occur if there is complete trust among team members. The environment created among team members must be one where it is completely safe for individual members to express themselves openly without having to worry about repercussions from such openness. The extent to which members hold back their true beliefs is directly correlated to the completeness of the information available to the team, the degree of buy-in to team goals, and the ability of team members to follow team procedures.

Trust is an issue many are not comfortable addressing. This makes it one of the most common areas of deficiency for teams. Determining the level of trust within a team is a primary objective of the Needs Assessment process. We have developed many exercises over the years that can expose compromised levels of trust among team mates and give them opportunities to increase their trust. In addition, our facilitators are experts at creating situations where program participants feel it is safe to have open discussions, and they can provide participants with skills in re-creating these situations at work.

ESTABLISHING ROLES

One of the basic assumptions underlying the use of teams is that assigning different roles to team members allows them to focus their resources and then integrate these efforts in a way that creates better results than a group of unrelated individuals. In order to create this synergy, individual team members must accept responsibility for performing their jobs in ways that best benefit the group. This means each individual must become completely accountable for their role. It also means they must allow others to be completely accountable for their roles and not waste team resources by becoming involved in the details of the roles of others. This requires all team members to first have trust in the ability of their team mates to do their jobs.

When team members are completely trusted to fulfill their roles, they are empowered to do their best work and are primarily motivated to contribute maximum effort toward team success. Interaction among team members then takes place at the level of group performance, and members pool their strategic resources to create synergy. The exercises in Deer Hill Corporate programs provide participants with opportunities to achieve success by assigning roles and interacting at the strategic level. Team performance in these exercises is related back to workplace situations in debriefing discussions. Shortcomings in the abilities of groups to trust members to do their jobs and interact strategically become clear and are readily accepted by the group. They then have the opportunity to address these shortcomings and practice these changes in subsequent exercises.

MANAGING RISKS

Risk is inherent in most business activities at the strategic level. Any kind of expansion carries a certain amount of risk. Internal re-organizations carry risks as well. The taking of risks is a part of the creative process essential for the growth that businesses need to survive. We at Deer Hill Corporate we believe that a culture of learning is essential for a company to have enough creativity to sustain itself. In such a culture employees at all levels are encouraged to learn through experimentation. Experimentation involves the taking of risks. Managing these risks in a way that allows companies to learn from their mistakes and ultimately improve is an essential skill for employees.

The cultures of many companies, as well as western culture in general, are heavily focused on keeping people comfortable and insulated from risk. This ultimately inhibits their ability to learn. Deer Hill Corporate programs are designed to get people out of their comfort zones in order to experience the benefits and satisfaction that come from taking reasonable risks, learning from the results of taking these risks, and using this knowledge to improve their performance. We use the experiential learning model that asks program participants to become involved in a group challenge, reflect on their performance after attempting that challenge to integrate it with past experiences, generalize the lessons they take from the experience to create patterns that integrate previously isolated incidents, then test these generalizations in another group challenge. This learning method encourages participants to connect abstract theories with concrete experiences through active participation that results in them taking responsibility for their own behavior and learning.

GROUP PROBLEM SOLVING

A group that has established trusting relationships among all its members, understands the importance of establishing clear roles, and has a healthy capacity for taking the measured risks required for learning is in a position to use the experiential learning model most effectively. This model provides groups the opportunity to test theoretical assumptions through practical application and to learn from the natural consequences of this testing, whether good or bad. It works best when everyone is involved in the process of experiencing an activity, reflecting on the results of the experience, generalizing the lessons learned and applying these lessons to new activities. If everyone is not involved in an activity, this will come up in the reflection portion of the activity and most likely be changed through group consensus. The involvement of everyone results in a sense of ownership of what is learned for all group members. They accept responsibility for their own participation and learning instead of placing that responsibility on others. This facilitates the transfer of learning.

Because the experiential learning model is an ideal way to test theoretical assumptions through practical application, and because it values all group participants equally, it is an ideal model for incorporating the experience and knowledge of employees executing tasks with the strategic thinking of managers. These two parts of organizations have traditionally been isolated from one another, resulting in a lack of realism on the part of managers and frustration on the part of those executing management directives. At Deer Hill Corporate we believe that learning is an active endeavor, and that people learn in different ways. In our team building programs we ask groups to apply the experiential learning model to activities designed to replicate those faced in the real world in order to involve all group members and their various talents. In this way groups realize the benefits of having group members with diverse backgrounds and skills, and learn strategies for managing this diversity to their best advantage.