Team Building involves some obvious stages, such as joining the team and fitting in, participating in team activities, and taking action to make the team stronger. But certain critical factors will be the glue that binds the team together and drives its performance.
These critical factors are all important to Team Building at some time or another, and any missing factors will eventually become an issue to some degree. A team that lacks one or more contributing factors cannot realise its full potential, so we need to ensure we cover all of them when we bring people - and their behaviours - into a team relationship.
So, what are the twelve human factors critical to successfully building a team?
Factor # 1. JOINING
Joining is an obvious first step to becoming part of a team. When well-suited people join teams, they usually place the team's success equal to, or above their own. They fill a vacant slot and have a real part to play, applying their skills to deliver what the team needs from them.
But joining is about more than that. A new joiner has to find out how their team functions and must fit in with that, following both written and unwritten codes of conduct. They need to accept existing relationships of people and their roles, and be ready to do what they can to make these work. As part of the joining process they have to identify ways of making a useful contribution and then ensure that anything they do helps take the whole team further forward.
Behaviours associated with joining are likely to be more prevalent when people are looking for a slot to fill, and conversely, less prevalent when they are comfortable with the part they play. Joining behaviours tend to fade away once a person is embedded as a member.
Without joining behaviours, a team member may see themselves as separate from the team, with the others rather than one of them.
Factor # 2. INTEGRATING
Integrating makes people part of the team machine and forms stronger bonds, but not necessarily at a personal level. When team members are integrating, they are discovering and sharing common or overlapping interests, and holding similar opinions. They set or collaborate with compatible objectives that can be seen as part of the overall plan. They combine their resources with the rest of the team and join their own efforts to what others do.
The parts they play fit in well together as each one combines their action with everyone else's into a united effort. They adapt their activities to fill gaps and integrate for the best result. Loss of an integrated team member weakens the whole unit. And, unless each member is integrated into the team, they are potentially lost. That can allow resources and efforts to become fragmented.
Factor # 3. SEEKING
Seeking extends team integration into commitment to the pursuit of team objectives, with personal goals subordinated. This requires cooperation, mutual planning and shared understanding of what needs to be done and why. Within the overall objectives of the team, each member can still form individual goals as long as these are compatible overall. Each person needs to be well aware of what other team members seek so they can give their support in appropriate ways.
People with team-oriented seeking behaviours put the group’s goals ahead of their own and actively seek out objectives that contribute to team results. They plan together with others and ensure their goals are understood and accepted by everyone involved. They are clear about their team's priorities. They make sure they know what end result is expected of them and they put in the time needed to prepare. Their personal goals fit in with what the team wants to achieve.
Unless team members demonstrate these behaviours, they are unlikely to work toward collective goals, and they may have only a loose idea of what they are expected to do.
Factor # 4. LEADING
Leading, in the Team Building sense, refers to
- behaviours that enable everyone to do what has to be done, and
- the leader’s own capacity to stand the heat when things go wrong
To enable their team members, leaders need to establish an overall objective, identify what steps to take, recognise who is best equipped for the tasks involved, make sure they have what is needed for the situation and remove any obstacles. There is, of course, much more than that to leading and this can be seen in the Leading Assessment’s separate group of 12 factors (see: 12 essential Team Leading factors).
People who are capable of leading are true to their own beliefs and are able to take the heat when that is necessary. They commit themselves to their team's success, and they clear away obstacles. They treat other people with respect and let them play their part with as much freedom as they can handle. They see the energy the team has to offer and make the most of each person's talents. They make each person's part interesting and encourage them in what they do. People who are less capable of leading try to control what others do without necessarily accepting responsibility for the outcome, and without giving moral support.
Factor # 5. SHARING
Sharing what is in our minds is an important part of teamwork and team building. Unless we are open about thoughts, intentions and actions that affect others, positively or negatively, we can contribute to ignorance, confusion and possibly suspicion. To be really open we need to be ready and willing to express our thinking – but we also need to be with people who are ready and willing to take it in. Some people are more open than others can handle, while some are quite reserved. These opposites may have difficulty sharing and that will affect how well they integrate.
Sharing people say what they really think, and others willingly listen to what they have to say. They tell others everything they need to know and get everyone involved in decisions that affect them. When there's a problem, they say so. They say what they truly believe, taking a stand on important issues and speaking out when others stay silent. They ask for and give honest feedback and admit their mistakes freely. People who are less sharing may be closed to receiving negative feedback and withhold their opinions even when asked for them.
Factor # 6. CHALLENGING
Challenging requires us to listen as well as comment. As a first step toward improving team performance, someone needs to contest accepted norms and objectives and the way things are done. Teams need a balance between decisive commitment and continuity of operation, on the one hand, and willingness to confront and review any aspect that is not up to scratch. Some people in a team may not be able to handle contentious issues and the weight of their numbers might shut down a challenger. The team needs to guard against that happening.
Challenging people question the way things are done and whether these are worthwhile activities. They may challenge the way events and activities are organised, but they welcome opinions from others in the team. They also welcome opinions from outside the team and take an interest in how others see the team. They try to learn from their mistakes, looking for gaps in their own performance as well as the team’s as a whole. They confront the issues, debate the 'no go' areas and make the most of conflict. People who don’t display these behaviours tend to accept the status quo, at least on the surface, and that may handicap a team’s progress.
Factor # 7. COMMUNICATING
Communicating keeps people in the picture. A companion to sharing behaviours, above, it goes to the next level by deliberately and promptly keeping people informed about everything that affects them. Because of this it has an impact on morale since it limits rumor and gossip. As with other factors in this group and the general concept of team building, communicating requires willingness to take in information as well as giving it out.
Communicative people encourage shared information. They share their thinking with their team and take in what the team tells them. They listen to what others have to say, recognising good ideas and passing them on to the most likely user. They choose effective means to get their own message across and look for ways to improve communications. They explain themselves clearly and their thinking is widely understood. They tell others what they intend to do and keep them informed as events unfold. People without these behaviours are unlikely to understand well what others think or intend to do, and their ideas and intentions may not be clear to others or accepted by them.
Factor # 8. DECIDING
Deciding can be done alone or with others. But the best understood and accepted decisions are those where the thinking is shared as it evolves, even if the final call falls to one person. These people involve the team in making decisions. They consult others before deciding to get the input they need. They share the decision process where the outcome affects the team and they gain team support. They consider all the options and put their feelings aside when making their choices. They decide within their authority and commit themselves firmly to their position. They take decisions alone when needed and expect others to do the same. They take absolute responsibility for their own decisions. Unless people act in this way, they are making decisions without real consultation with others and they may allow their feelings to influence their choices.
The ideas that lie behind the decision process are discussed further in 12 critical Transacting factors and the Problem Solving factor in 12 critical Vocational preferences.
Factor # 9. COLLABORATING
Collaborating relates in part to the way we organise, but also to personal and group interactions. We need to understand not what is said but what is meant and what is wanted otherwise we fall at each obstacle. Even then we need the goodwill of team members for full cooperation and each person must play her or his part.
Coordinated activities, shared effort and shared responsibility are part of the equation too. This factor is reflected in other groups in collaborative, participative and mediating behaviours, as well as the ones related to administration.
Collaborative people ensure they understand what their team is doing and what it wants from them. They make sure they are clear about what others intend to do and they share responsibility for team decisions. They win the goodwill of the team by taking the views of others into account and enabling them to get on together. They make sure differences are aired and resolved, putting conflict to good use in the team. They get others to pitch in together, coordinating activities and interactions. Non-cooperating people allow issues to get in the way of cooperation. These issues may include misunderstandings, disputes, lack of coordination and avoided responsibility.
Factor # 10. SUPPORTING
Supporting each other contributes to ensuring a team’s effectiveness. As with most other critical Team Building factors, mutual support depends on recognising the part each member plays, their place in the team, their needs and their strengths. It requires willingness to go the extra distance to give the help that is needed, even when the need isn’t recognised, and a willingness to let others know when we need help ourselves. Supporting behaviours are linked to the transacting and team roles groups.
These people give their full support to others and share their resources with them. They treat others as they like to be treated themselves and with dignity. They trust others fully and overlook their mistakes. They help others both to keep things running smoothly and to get them out of any difficulties. They gain strength from their team. They get the help that they need to do their part, and the support they need to improve themselves. People without these behaviours don’t give or get support. Those people are cautious about trusting others and sharing resources.
Factor # 11. REACHING OUT
Reaching-out keeps people and teams in touch with each other. No team works in isolation from the rest of the world, even astronauts. They may be physically removed but they are still very attached to their base. Teams reach out to others they operate with, in the same way that individuals need to build and sustain links. On-going communication and contact between groups helps them fulfill their functions. This aspect is related to the role of Liaisor in Promana’s Team Roles assessment.
People who reach out can be seen to get on well with other groups and they are accepted into them. They communicate between teams and share information between groups, creating and carrying goodwill from team to team. They go between their own and other teams, sharing interests and activities. They cooperate to get results with other groups, giving and getting the help each team needs. They build their understanding of how other teams work to improve the way they function together. They get feedback on how other teams see their own. Lacking these patterns, people are limited to operating largely within their own group, contributing little to relationships between their group and others.
Factor # 12. DEVELOPING
Developing the individual and the team is essential for improved performance and to grow success. This factor focuses on personal growth in a team environment, both self-initiated and encouraged by others. Without development of each team member, task skills are not maintained, let alone enhanced. Other areas need to be improved too, not least those connected with each team building factor covered in this group. Developing is related to the whole coaching people group, to growth in preferred interests, and to headway in activating people.
These people see themselves as having opportunities to grow and as being enabled to improve themselves. They are capable of performing more than one role and they work to keep their skills up-to-date. They continually seek to improve their performance. They feel encouraged to grow and they use any opportunity to explore new areas and they draw on other people’s experience. They see themselves as having room to do better and they have a good idea of the path they want to follow. They aim to be the best they can. People who are less concerned with developing are relaxed about their team’s capabilities and they are unlikely to extend themselves further.
Summary
We don’t get the full picture by looking at each critical Team Building factor in isolation from its counterparts.
By viewing all the factors for each individual person or compiled for the team, we can see where and how any one person makes their contribution, or where the high and low points of team behaviour lie.