Managing Teamwork
Beyond Teambuilding Seminars
Managers value teamwork because it results in a more effective and profitable
organization. In addition to the typical benefits expected from
teamwork, our research shows that workgroups with higher teamwork:
- care more about the quality of their work,
- are better at learning from their experiences (acquiring and
using information), and
- are better able to resolve their problems at work.
What can you do when teamwork is low?
The 1990's solution: the teambuilding seminar. Many groups have found
teambuilding experiences to be helpful. However, when you take a group of
employees who have not worked well as a team in the past and have them attend
a teambuilding seminar, the effects of the seminar seem to last for a few
months and then tend to disappear.
Why? Surprisingly, it is probably not a
reflection of the quality of the
seminar. Our employee survey research identifies factors in the
workplace that can enhance or hinder teamwork. If these factors are not
identified and managed, like trying to get your garden to grow in weed killer, you
may be trying to "force" teamwork to occur in a work environment that is
actively resisting your efforts.
Pay and Recognition
First, examine your system of pay and recognition. What behaviors are
rewarded by pay (increases, bonuses, or commissions)? What behaviors are
rewarded by promotions? If your answer is "individual achievement" or
"individual performance," then you've discovered a portion of
your "problem": your own reward system. Restructure these systems to include
group and team achievements.
Assuming that you have managed pay and recognition, of the
factors inside your organization, which ones affect teamwork?
Case Study
The organization is a white collar, generally progressive company with
over 10,000 employees nationwide. Management considers teamwork
essential to the organization's success and teamwork is already part of the pay
and recognition structure. As part of a larger project whose goal was to create
an employee-driven, employee survey improvement process [our Continuous
Improvement Process], NBRI
identified four factors that influenced teamwork within
workgroups. When these four factors were high, teamwork was high. When
the four factors were low, teamwork was low. These factors are
similar to what we have found in other organizations.
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