7 Reasons Why Team Building Is Essential
When a number of individuals act in tandem, moving towards achieving a planned outcome, within a set time frame, they are called a team. In the world today, we find teams everywhere, in corporate settings, as a group of entrepreneurs and business associates, a squad of fire fighters or in sporting arenas. In these cases and every other example you might see around yourself, even a cursory examination would lead us to conclude that that there is always a team dynamic at work as these individuals set about achieving their objectives. Throughout human history, we have been impressed upon the importance of togetherness – the sum of parts always being greater than the whole. We also know that the difference between success and failure is, more often than not, indicative of the quality of teamwork. So for any budding leaders in industry, business, government, academics, law, sport or any given domain here are top seven reasons why team building is one of the most important skills to acquire in order to survive the trials of performance and delivery.
Communication plays the most vital role for team interaction, it is important to gel a team together where communication channels are open and everyone is on the same page. People are able to convey their goals and work together towards creating a path to achieve them.
Building Trust is the fundamental layer upon which team dynamics play out. It is very important for a team to know each other and to know that team is united by a common vision and common goal. Trust gives them confidence to create out-of-the-box ideas and facilitate different approaches towards creating productive outcomes.
Complementing Skills are an important consideration in order to build a successful team. You wouldn’t see two goalkeepers on pitch in the same team. It’s important that skills of team members are unique enough to offer a different value to the team, to enhance team as a whole. Team building is akin to a jigsaw puzzle, where all pieces of varying sizes shapes and colors come together to complete a picture.
Promotion of Creativity and innovation requires frank exchange of ideas. A team which is comfortable with each other provides a trusting environment, where people talk with each other; they understand problems from a different perspective and find an innovative solution.
Problem Solving ability is hugely increased within a team with good working relationship. People tend to help out each other and pick up slack, while focusing on same greater goal. Brainstorming sessions combine individual perspectives to create a more effective solution compared to people finding solutions on their own. A good team always harnesses the creativity and produces innovative solutions in a bigger, better and faster manner.
Team Motivation has always been a common thread running through successful teams. In sports we often see, it’s not always the team that looks best on paper who wins, but one who wants it most. Modern business leaders strive to build great teams and undertake all modern tools available to them to achieve well gelled teams, which inevitably enhance production.
Conflict Resolution in a collaborative environment is an important skill that great teams learn to excel at. When a group of people with varied backgrounds, experiences, skill sets and working habits come together it’s natural that conflicts will arise. A team with open communication, trust and vision is quickly able to move towards a resolution. This not only promotes a good team dynamic but also has dramatic effect on the productivity.
Once teams are formed and go through the mandatory cycle to create trust, communication, idea generation, overcoming obstacles and finally achieving their vision, a true team bond is formed. It is only then the employers, leaders and the team itself reaps rewards of a true collaboration resulting in greater productivity, innovative solution and having confidence in their ability to take risks and achieve truly great things.
At Vector Partners we engage clients from the perspective of creating team-oriented solutions, that is, a holistic approach factoring in the collective effort of all stakeholders. We believe sustainable business solutions are those that leverage the team's core strengths and before a solution is finalized, the team entrusted with that solution has to be carefully crafted. Few businesses take the time and discipline to refine their designated groups of responsible staff and the respective team dynamic. The few companies that really invest in building these solid human resource pillars of accountable and productive teams, reap the long term benefits of efficiency, scalability, profitability and a healthy and high-morale working environment.
Good luck with your Team!
