Team building is the process of turning a group of individual contributing employees into a cohesive team. A group of people organized to work together to meet the needs of their customers by accomplishing their purpose and goals. These team members have one goal and all of them strive for the same.
Team building brings people together by encouraging collaboration and teamwork. Team building in the workplace is the process of creating a team that is cohesively working together towards a common goal. The importance and main purpose of team building is to create a strong team through forming bonds and connections. They not only share commitment to goal but also a team vision of success. They also provide support to each other which facilitates their mental and physical well-being.
APA defines team building as a structured intervention designed to increase the extent to which a group functions as an organized, coherent whole. When all members of the group share a common goal, work along with each other, then we can refer to them as a team.
The world is extremely complex that no one is competent to stay alone. Realizing this long ago, human being started staying in a group. Nowadays, people need to work with different groups of people in their personal as well as professional lives.
Building a Dream Team.
Team building is a process of establishing and developing a greater sense of collaboration and trust among the members of a team. We cannot expect that if an individual joins any group, he will immediately get along. That won’t be possible. One needs some time to adapt with new people, new norms, new working atmosphere.
During this period of development, people face difficulties, but once the team has been established, it works efficiently. Every person is unique by its nature and temperament. Because of difference in opinions, it might be difficult for some people to get along. Thus, building and maintaining a team is a task.
A teams success often depends upon its composition. The composition of team may be of two types Surface level and deep level.
Surface level characteristics of team members such as age, gender, etc. are of primary importance for overall functioning of the team. But these characteristics do not matter as significantly as the deep level characteristics matter.
Deep level characters like abilities, personality traits, values, etc. are not readily observable. Though we cannot see these attributes at a glace, they have great impact on team and its working.
According to Bell, the deep level factors which are ABC of teamwork. These factors are attitude, behavior and cognitive state. These are three basic tenets of team work and its success. Team members with high morality, are better at self discipline and regulation of the team. Members who are willing to adapt, learn, solve problems, etc. are better in working together.
Benefits of Team Building.
From corporate or organizational aspect, team development is important not just for the immediate advantage to the company, but also to the team and the members for developing group skills, communication and consequent bonding. All organization can run successfully if they work as a team. Formation of strong team is one of the major tasks to increase the efficiency and productivity.
The major aim to build a team is to increase productivity and motivation to work together in harmony, there are other significant goals of team building. They are:
- Improves leadership skills.
- Gives awareness regarding expectations and responsibilities of an individual separately and also as a part of team.
- Helps in overcoming the lacunas and shortcoming in an individual when working as a team.
- We can identify hidden potential as well as weaknesses of an individual.
- Organization gets an idea about what factors may be considered as opportunities and what are threats.
- Brings all the members of the organization together for a common cause, which helps in cultivating sense of belonging.
- Overall running of the organization occurs harmoniously.
Therefore, working as a team has always been proved to be beneficial. Team activity helps in making group decisions. Such structured activities not only encourage individuals’ development, but also promote growth of the organization.
Reference,
Baron, R. A. and Byrne, D (1997). Social Psychology, 8th edition, Boston, MA; Allyn and Bacon.
Dalal, A.K. and Mishra, G. (2001). New Directions in Indian Psychology. (Vol 1: Social Psychology). New Delhi: Sage Publications.