WHAT IS TEAM BUILDING? It is to increase the teams

understanding of team dynamics and improve how the team works together. Unlike working as a group, working as a team incorporates group accountability rather than individual accountability and results in a collective work product.

Advantages of this approach include:

Increased flexibility in skills and abilitiesMore productive than work groups with

individual mindsetMore beneficial in times of organizational

changeEncourage both individual and team

development and improvementFocuses on group goals to accomplish

more beneficial tasksImproved range of team building objectives

such as collaboration, communication and increased creative or flexible thinking

when team building is a necessary

Decreased productivityConflicts and hostilityConfusion about assignments and unclear

relationshipsDecisions are misunderstood or nor carried

out completelyLack of involvementLack of initiation, imagination and innovationComplaints of discrimination and favoritismIneffective staff meetingsNegative reactions to the managerComplaints about quality of services

CASE STUDY

In 1997,Samsung $60 million products division of a global leader in flat-screen TV and wireless equipment was failing to get new products to its market on time. Consequently, it was losing $13 million a year in revenue.

Challenge:Identify ineffective management and leadership

practicesreplace them with new ones that bring the

vision, direction, team dynamics discipline needed to get projects completed on

time.

Plan of Engagement:Samsung begin by building a team that

agreesto work toward the following objectives:• More effective communication• Accountability• Trust• Conflict resolution• Accomplishments measured by results, not activities

What Samsung consider in designing team building?

Background• History, norms, culture• Context of current request

• Why now (not 6 months earlier/later?)• What happens if TB is not done?

• What do you want to be different?• What’s prevented this from happening until now?

Evaluation• What are the immediate, short and long term indications that TB

was successful? (e.g., Kirkpatrick Model)

Design• Sufficient time (2-3 hours); protected time (retreat)• Homework, preparation• Legitimacy, authorization, support• Materials (handouts, surveys, facilities, A-V, etc.)• Structured exercises & processing

Kirkpatrick Evaluation Model

Participants immediate reaction: Did you enjoy it?

Learning outcomes: did you get what you expected? Meet objectives?

Transfer to work: Did you take the new learning to work & apply it?

Outcomes: Did it contribute to an observable & material difference?

What outcome measures might be considered regarding outcomes?

Activities:- Building Better Teams  -

This activity gave participants the opportunity to explore the elements of a successful team, as well as examine their interactions and how to improve them. Each member on the team is empowered to contribute from their special perspective, so the chemistry of the team interaction creates magnified results.

Long-Distance Teams- Long distance work arrangements, even within the same building, have inherent obstacles. This course offers practical solutions to better communications within and across, teams.

Team Efficiency in Action  -The Efficiency in Action program is wholly dedicated to the quality approach as it concerns continuous improvement. Explore the interaction of quality, productivity and efficiency in the team-driven environment.

Responsibility in Team Leadership  -Responsibility can seem a blessing or a burden.   Discover the distinctions that make the difference, exploring the lines between responsibility and obligation, responsibility and authority, and how to juggle multiple responsibilities effectively.

Through a series of these activities , they were able to guide and direct the management in transforming the team in new ways to do business to achieve dramatically better results.

The transformation occurs when the team realizes that saying “yes” to everything is a destructive practice. By limiting their commitments to what is actually do able, they are now able to get products developed and out the door, with increased customer satisfaction and profitability

They were successful in meeting all of the objectives included in the Plan of Engagement, resulting in better communication and workability among the team, a more efficient process that saves both time and costs, increased client satisfaction and a products division that is again profitable, realized in little more than two years after facing $13 million annual losses.