Team Building Strategies: Corporate Learning Institute

Team building strategies are an important part of working effectively with other individuals in the modern work place. Whether you are a CEO, manager, or entry level employee, you will need the skills that will allow you to efficiently interact and work with other members of your team. Team building in a broad sense is defined as a philosophy which sees individuals as members of interdependent teams as opposed to individual workers. In any corporation there are many different inter-connected groups that all work together towards a common goal.  In order to work together at the maximum potential, team building strategies of various categories can be implemented. There are various types of team building strategies depending on how in-depth you would like to delve into the process.

In order to effectively implement team building strategies into a group, team building professionals have come up with the system of Five C’s: Clear Expectations, Channels of Communication, Conflict Resolution, Consequences, and Celebrating achievements. Clear expectations refer to having clear roles defined for each member of the group. One of the biggest roadblocks that groups run into is when roles are not defined clearly, leading to miscommunication and jumbled work.  Channels of communication are also extremely important in team building strategy. To create and maintain open channels of communication with employees will do wonders to aid your organization in working together.

Conflict Resolution is a team building strategy centered on resolving issues within your company. People are naturally very different and have very different points of view. To get everyone in your company on the same page can be a very difficult task. Developing effective resolution skills among employees and creating some kind of process for dealing with grievances is an important part of addressing conflict resolution. Team building strategies for conflict resolution may also include hiring professionals to give workshops and other classroom-based learning.

The fourth C of team building strategies, Consequences, is built around making team members feel responsible and accountable for both their achievements as well as well as their shortcomings or missteps. To this end, implementations that focus on enabling individual team members to understand that each contribution is a vital piece of a larger picture.  To accomplish this, various programs can be implemented that promote individual creativity by instituting various rewards and recognition programs.

The final C, celebrating achievements, is about implementing team building strategies based around valuing the successes and achievements of the group. This can be as simple as something like a pizza party to something like a group retreat. Celebrating collective achievements adds to the morale and can improve the results that your group produces. By implementing these team building strategies you can empower and instill a powerful sense of belonging in your employees that will strengthen their bonds and improve their ability to work with their team.

Susan Cain, Ed. D.

Corporate Learning Institute

scain@corplearning.com

1-800-203-6734

www.corplearning.com