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The words team building trigger instant images for most of us. Climbing walls, outdoor settings, group hugs, and of course the kum ba ya jokes.

There are reasons why our past experiences were ineffective and a waste of time and money. Not because the workshop was necessarily bad, but because nothing changed when the group went back to work. The activities and metaphors created by these types of sessions do a wonderful job creating insights, but high performance team functioning is a discipline. The bad reputation comes from the inability to turn these insights into applications.

So how does one invest time and money in these programs and get a positive return?

There are basically three opportunities for using team types of programs. Actually there are probably more, but here are the most consistent trends:

Conference workshops

*These sessions are designed to support the concepts and themes for a specific conference. This may include a content speaker and interactive learning sessions that usually last between four and eight hours in length.

*Or participants may be in break out sessions for a few days and its nice to have a fun, yet tangible release.

Performance development

*These are the roll-up your sleeves, lets get at the issues of our organization, types of programs. The may be the result of change, or just dysfunctional team behavior.

*Measurement and assessment, as well as action planning, in conjunction with interactive learning work best. Sessions can be four hours to four days.

Social interaction

*These are recreational events with little to no insights. They might include corporate olympics, paint ball, or boat building types of activities.

*They are fun and social, but no epiphanies are going to take place.

All three types of programs can be well run with varying degrees of effectiveness. The first two, though, are workshops that can be disappointing if expectations are not met and no positive results have occurred.

The management of expectations is crucial to the success of any team development process. Your odds for success increase dramatically when you address five key components. These include the needs assessment, interactive learning, the debrief, action planning and follow up.

The needs assessment

Basically, putting the custom back into customer. Every organizations culture is different and so are their needs. So, how do we customize a program to get the largest return on investment? For this we reference Stephen Covey and The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People specifically by beginning with the end in mind.

Once the information on the dynamics of the group are understood, which could include organizational or industry changes, specific interpersonal issues, or recent events that have impacted this group, then we can start painting the picture of what an absolutely successful program really looks like. What are participants walking away with? What behavior or process changes will take place? Visualize successwhat does it look like? Basically, begin with the end in mind.

I have a friend who owns Sandler Sales Institute in Tampa, Florida and he describes this as defining the pain. Why have you here today? When the elements of a successful team development program are visualized and verbalized, then a customized program can be designed to accomplish these desired outcomes.

A well executed needs assessment will allow the mapping and customization of an effective team development program. Information and data gathering can happen through:

Interviewing team leaders and/or participants

Measurement tools

This data is useful as both a diagnostic and for tracking development. Team development has often been perceived as an intangible. The fact is groups can apply metrics and track a teams development and hold its members accountable.

By beginning with the end in mind facilitators can clearly identify the pain and begin to manage expectations of the outcomes.

Interactive Learning

Whether you chose to call it action learning or experiential learning, these activities can be fun and insightful.

How does one select the appropriate activities for a results driven program and what are the options? There are hundreds of choices to choose including cognitive problem solving activities, board games, philanthropic community projects and of course ROPES courses.

Truly, the purpose of these activities is to create insight. The activities are not team building in and of themselves. They are the prompts for discussion. Trust Falls dont build trust and climbing 60 feet in the air doesnt make you a risk taker in business.

If you want to be trusted be trustworthy and if you want to be respected be respectful.

What program should provide are experiences to look at individual and group dynamics regardless of the activity. Its the insights extracted during the conversation after the activity that truly begins the developmental process.

The debrief Very simply three things should be discussed:

What?

So what?

Now what?

Not to discount the importance of this component, in fact quite the contrary, but it is that simple.

What? Is the discussion of what just took place. So what? Is the transfer back to the day in the life of our business. How does the way we functioned together just now have anything to do with this team, this organization and our objectives? Now what? This takes us back to the beginning of this article and why most team development is ineffective. Its because this question doesnt get addressed.

Action planning The question needs to be addressed, what is going to be doing different on Monday morning as a result of this session together? How do we turn our insights into applications?

Very often work groups leave these sessions feeling pretty good and even somewhat energized, but its just a matter of time before this too will pass.

Insights must be surfaced

Changes need to be identified

Action plans, whether individual or group focused, must be developed

Group members need to be held accountable

Follow up

A reason for the failure to implement change and experience a successful team development program is the perception that these sessions are events, not a process.

Work groups dont leave a session and all of a sudden are knighted as high performance teams. Action plans need to be put into action, metrics need to be applied and team members need to be held accountable.

Follow up sessions are crucial to maintaining momentum as well as revisiting and restructuring goals and actions and maintaining top of mind awareness.

If the group goes back to business as usual as opposed to business as unusual, well then shame on them. At the end of the day then the critics are right. Why waste your money on team building? I wish you all the success in your endeavors as you inspire your leaders and develop your teams!