BUSINESS - Building Strong Teams, webinar

Every organization strives for success and a large contributor to reaching goals and achieving success is teamwork.

In today’s ever- and fast-changing world, the importance of strong teams is even greater.

But effective teamwork can be easier said than done.

According to a Forbes article: “It requires that people manage their egos, develop humility, communicate effectively, resolve conflicts and, above all, commit to one another and to a common goal.”

Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith, authors of The Wisdom of Teams, studied teamwork across several companies and created the “team performance curve” which defines five stages of teamwork.

1. Working Group

The team members come together to share information but as yet there is no common purpose or performance goals that require mutual accountability. Each team member is only accountable for the work that the group has delegated to them.

2.    Pseudo-team

This team is at the bottom of the performance curve. Members may believe they are part of a team but not yet acting like one. This may be because they don’t want to take the risk of committing to a common purpose and the mutual accountability that this entails.

3.     Potential Team

At this level the team members are moving towards a common goal and approach to achieving it. They are working towards a higher level of performance and must agree on mutual accountability.

4.    Real Team

In this type of team a small group of people share a common purpose and approach. They have complementary skills and share accountability for results.

5.    High Performing Team

The difference between a real team and a high performing team is the relationships between the team members. High performance results from the members being committed to one another’s personal growth and development.

So how do you optimize your organization for teamwork?

A free webinar by Queen’s University may have some answers.

Brenda Barker Scott, co-author of Building Smart Teams is presenting Designing Collaborative Workplaces on February 28th.

The webinar will cover:

• the value of shaping work as a collaborative instead of a solo task
• the art of forming co-evolving teams and scoping who should be involved and how
• a platform of supportive practices, tools, principles and technologies to help teams quickly become productive
• the role of leadership in setting the outcomes, pace and tempo of collaborative work, as well as coaching collaborative performance
• approaches that support teams to learn together and innovate
• the elements of a foundational social fabric for collaboration.

Sign up for the free webinar.