Success in building high performing teams in any organisation has huge benefits for the business, its Customers, the teams and for each team member. To achieve success in team building, it is important to have a tight focus on the objectives and goals of team building, as well as on the benefits of team building for that specific business or workplace.

The Overall Objectives of Team Building

Some think team building is about playing silly games, or indulging in expensive and irrelevant out of work activities. The managers or business people who believe this will quickly dismiss the concept of team building as a total waste of money and energy. Others who have problems in their workplace with conflict in groups, poor performance or demotivated staff may see team building as positive, but as an unattainable goal. They do not have a clear understanding of team building, or, indeed of the role of leadership in achieving a high performing team.

Team building is a PROCESS that takes place over time. The start of the team building process is where there is a group of people, two or more, and a leader. The end of the process is where there is a high performing team, who are highly motivated to perform better and better, who have well-developed processes and systems to organise their workload, and who gain immense satisfaction from their shared achievements.

The overall objectives of team building are to achieve this high performing team, to develop the group through the various stages of development, until it achieves high performance. However, like any other process, the team building process has different steps or stages, and there are quite different objectives and goals at each stage. Focussing on the RIGHT objectives at each stage, and changing your objectives as you go through the process, will help you and your team achieve high performance.

The Objectives at Stage One of Team Building

At the first stage of team building, the forming stage, there are very identifiable objectives and goals. These objectives MUST be achieved before the team can move on to the next stage. It is the role of the leader of the team to ensure the objectives are met.

These objectives at this stage are:

1. To bind the group as a team, so that they get to know each other and begin having a sense of team

2. To align the team to their shared purpose, goals and targets

3. To establish a positive team culture, the beliefs, values and norms of behaviour of this team

4. To establish the role of the leader of the team

It is at this stage that team building activities will help bind the team.

The Objectives at the Second Stage of Team Building

Some of the initial objectives will continue through to this stage, but other goals will be introduced to develop the team further. This stage is called the storming stage, where team members may challenge their shared purpose, the leadership or the norms of behaviour.

The objectives at this stage are:

1. To keep the team aligned to their purpose and goals

2. To develop the good working relationships between all members of the team, giving them experience of working with different team members

3. To nurture shared problem solving and generating new ideas

4. To introduce team processes so that the team work effectively together e.g. daily team huddles, flash problem solving meetings, regular team meeting, communication systems etc.

5. To establish clear short term goals and methods for celebrating achievement and milestones

The Objectives at the Third Stage of Team Building

When the team has worked through the storming stage, they will have become closer as a team, and will have a deep sense of working together to achieve their shared purpose. This stage is called the Norming stage, where the team works well together and has effective processes and systems.

To get the team to the next stage, the focus changes.

Not many teams achieve the fourth stage, the high performing team. The reason for this generally is that they get stuck in the Norming stage. To move the team forward, the objective now is to change the focus quite dramatically.

Up to now, the idea has been that there is no ‘I’ in team. The objective is to bind the team together to achieve their shared targets. Now the objective is to get the ‘I’ back in to the team, to hold the team together, but also to develop individual excellence and specialism.

The objectives at this stage are –

1. To increase the business knowledge within the team, so that the team and individual team members can take on more responsibility

2. To encourage team problem solving, innovation and leadership for specific projects or tasks. The leader delegates to the team, or to small project groups within the team.

3. To modify or change the team processes so that the team itself is taking on more responsibility. Team meetings reduce, team project teams increase. Leadership of projects or meetings rotates.

4. To get the team to set its own goals

With this type of clarity on the ladder of objectives, you will have a much better chance of developing your team effectively.