TEAMWORK and TEAM BUILDING: The Art, Science and Practice

Team Building & Teamwork

The Art, Science and Practice

Founder, Ten3 Business e-Coach – Inspiration and Innovation unlimited!

"It's possible to achieve almost anything as long as you are not worried about who gets the credit." ~ Harry S. Truman

Team vs. Group

A group consists of any number of people who interact with one another, are psychologically aware of one another, and think of themselves as a group.⁹
A team is a group whose members influence one another toward the accomplishment of an organizational objective(s)... More

STAR TEAM, WINNING TEAM: How To Build a Dream Team - Team Building and Teamwork: 7 Characteristics of a Dream Team

Strategies of Market Leaders

Winning Leaders and Team... More

12 Effective Leadership Roles

Use team approach; facilitate cooperation; involve everyone; trust your group; rely on their judgment... More

6Ws of Corporate Growth

Know WHO: develop leaders, empower employees, build teams, establish strategic alliances, partner with customers... More

Innovation Practice Tips

By: IDEO

Stay human, scale your organizational environment so that there's room for hot teams to emerge and thrive... More

TEAMWORK: Keys to Success - Shared Values, Mutual Trust, Inspiring Vision, Complementary Skills, Rewards

5 Characteristics of a Winning Team

Shared Values: Team members are looking for a "values fit" with their team. Without it, they won't give the team their best. Team members should participate in establishing shared values and values-based common goals if you wish them to live these values, be committed to these goals, and have a feeling of interdependence and ownership for their jobs and unit. Shared values become also your team's code of behavior as they define what is and isn't acceptable... More

Model of a Team Leader

Support them with tasks whenever they have a problem – giving them another resource or working with them... More

The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork

By John Maxwell⁴

The Law of Significance: One Is Too Small a Number to Achieve Greatness
The Law of the Big Picture: The Goal is More Important Than the Role
The Law of the Niche: All Players Have a Place Where They Add the Most Value
The Law of the Great Challenge ("Mount Everest"): As the Challenge Escalates, the Need for Teamwork Elevates
The Law of the Chain: The Strength of the Team Is Impacted by Its Weakest Link... More

Team Assessment and Improvement

Part 1: What's working for us?
Part 2: What' can we improve?... More

Why New Products Fail?

Cross-functional teams are weak or insufficiently empowered... More

9 Signs of a Losing Organization

Poor Teamwork: no organizational commitment to team culture; lack of shared and worthwhile goals; weak team leaders; team members who don't want to play as part of a team are tolerated; teams are too large; lack of shared rewards... More

Why Team Building?

Teamwork is essential for competing in today's global arena, where individual perfection is not as desirable as a high level of collective performance. In knowledge based enterprises, teams are the norm rather than the exception. A critical feature of these teams is that they have a significant degree of empowerment, or decision-making authority. There are many different kinds of teams: top management teams, focused task forces, self-directed teams, concurrent engineering teams, product/service development and/or launch teams, quality improvement teams, and so on.

9 Roles of a Team Leader

Leadership-Management Synergy

Leaders: Inspire. Managers: Coordinate.

► Resulting synergy: Teamwork... More

Team vs. Group

Not all groups in organizations are teams, but all teams are groups. The difference between a team and a group is that a team is interdependent for overall performance. A group qualifies as a team only if its members focus on helping one another to accomplish organizational objectives. In today's quickly changing business environment, teams have emerged as a requirement for business success. Therefore you should constantly try to help groups become teams and facilitate the evolution of groups into teams... More

Be the Best Possible

10 Tips by Ten3 NZ Ltd.

Be a team player. The most valuable single factor that contributes towards high levels of excellence and quality in a team, stem from an individual team member's ability to work with others, i.e. his or her levels of cooperation and communication. These "social intelligence" skills include the ability to persuade, negotiate, compromise and make others feel important... More

SWOT Analysis: Questions To Answer

Do you consider your team strong? Why?... More

Building a Team Culture: 10 Action Areas

It is becoming increasingly important that teams function productively with a minimum of supervision. Team culture ensures that individual members both demonstrate their best talents and function synergistically as a unit to achieve common goals.

When team culture reigns, teams are dependable and consistent. People voice their opinions openly. They demonstrate creativity, innovate and see a job through to conclusion.

Inspiring Culture: 5 Elements

To build a team culture:

The 10 Key Project Leader Skills

Leadership skills; leading the project team through the stages of team development... More

Inspirational Leadership: 10 Roles

Build teams and promote teamwork, leverage diversity. Teamwork is essential for competing in today's global arena. Build a star team, not a team of stars. Diversity of thought, perception, background and experience enhance the creativity and innovation.
A team should not just be diverse; it has to make the most of it. Involve everyone, facilitate cross-pollination of ideas, build and empower cross-functional teams if you wish to harness the power of diversity. Challenge people from different disciplines and cultures to come up with something better together and achieve creative breakthroughs... More

The Tao of Leadership

Cases in Point GE

At General Electric (GE), Jack Welch required all managers should learn to become team players and coaches. He also took steps against those managers who wouldn't learn to become team players by cutting the bottom 10% every year. "One of the surest ways to raise the level of a team is to cut from the bottom and add to the top,"³ advised Welch.

Managing Cross-Cultural Differences

Cultural differences in multicultural teams can create misunderstandings between team members before they have had a chance to establish any credibility with each other. Thus, building trust is a critical step in creation and development of such teams. As a manager of a multicultural team, you need to recognize that building trust between different people is a complex process, since each culture has its own way of building trust and its own interpretation of what trust is.... More

Cross-Functional Teams

To face today's complex challenges, you need to incorporate a wide range of styles, skills, and perspectives... More

Managing Systemic Innovation by Cross-Functional Teams

In the new era of systemic innovation, it is more important for an organization to be cross-functionally excellent than functionally excellent. Firms which are successful in realizing the full returns from their technologies and innovations are able to match their technological developments with complementary expertise in other areas of their business, such as manufacturing, distribution, human resources, marketing, and customer relationships. To lead these expertise development efforts, cross-functional teams, either formal or informal, need to be formed. These teams can also find new businesses in white spaces between existing business units... More