Teambuilding - Common Goals More Critical Than Relationship Programs

Almost every week of the year, I recieve a phone call or email from a business owner, manager or another consultant wanting help with "teambuilding". Nearly always, the emphasis is on a problem with relationships. While relationships are obviously critical to effective teams, they seldom are the root cause of problems in teams or the keys to developing highly effective teams. The most critical "a priori" factor of effective teams and teambuilding processes is a shared goal or mission. Then each person (or business unit, location, etc.) must understand his or her role in relationship to the team's mission, as well as reasonable expectations of other team member roles. Finally, everyone on the team must be playing by the same rules. There is so much more to this model in team process and application, but you should get the gist of it here. When the goals, roles and rules are clear, relationships begin to take on a new positive dynamic.

I can think of no better example of this model for teambuilding than the fact that two diametrically opposed sociopolitical personalities like Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson have teamed up for the cause of protecting the planet.

Watch this delightful video. Consider the mission of your own team(s) and the people involved. Maybe when you get clarity as a group on your team mission, you'll begin to see each other in a whole new light!

Young at Heart chorus sings Golden Years

Teambuilding - perhaps the most critical of all organizational techniques, yet we have such a limited perspective of what it means. Two of my favorite examples of teambuilding are the septuagenerian singing group "Young at Heart" and the new "We Can Solve It" commercial featuring political and social change adversaries Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson. Great examples of "teambuilding" go way beyond athletic and work teams, wouldn't you say?