Teambuilding: It Never Stops

Last month I blogged about team development in general and in particular our team here at Kissing With Confidence.  They’re a great bunch.

Later this week I’ll be spending the day with a team I work with regularly, and they are also a great bunch.  It’s always a pleasure spending time with them.  Their engagement with and commitment to improving their selves, their processes, their focus and their working relationships with clients (internal and external) is commendable.

This is a team that understands that creating and maintaining a fantastic team is a continuous process, not a one-off outcome.  Of course they do experience outcomes in relation to changing processes, behaviours etc but they don’t have an expectation that at some point in the future they will be the finished article.

They understand that people joining and leaving changes the dynamic of the team.  They understand that the nature of the roles they do are shaped constantly in response to the changing nature of their marketplace.  They recognise that people need and want different things at different times, and that it’s about working with that – in a way that’s beneficial to the individual and the team – to help them achieve those aims.

The great thing about working on an away day with them is that in pursuit of team excellence, they’re willing to pile in, have a go at the activities and discussion points that I set for them as facilitator and then reflect in a constructive way on what does and doesn’t work for them, individually and collectively.  They won’t like everything.  They won’t agree with anything.  And not everything will work for them.  But the discussion is really interesting and no matter what, they always take away a set of action plans, individual and collective.

I find them an inspirational team to work with, and they understand that the secret to their success is – not simple to do – but they are able to articulate the components:

• Be ruthlessly self-aware
• Create a feedback culture
• Be able to handle “conflict” (in its simplest sense, a disagreement)
• Be prepared to try things
• Don’t let egos get in the way
• Be prepared to change (but not for change’s sake)
• Plan, prepare and practise for success – time and time again

Does this sound like your team?  Or everything it’s not?  Either way, we love facilitating and training operational teams and would welcome the opportunity to talk to you about yours.

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Nicky Denegri is our Senior Consultant. If you would like to know more about this subject, drop her an email and we will be in touch.