TITLE : TEAM BUILDING: ISSUES AND ALTERNATIVE. 2ND ED.

The puzzle to me, and the reason I am revising my book on team building, is that almost every manager in almost every organization supports teamwork. In fact, many feel it is essential. But very few organizations institute an organizationwide program to ensure team effectiveness, and relatively few managers start the process on their own without organizational support. This increases my feeling that managers at all levels must learn how to overcome the resistance to instituting a systematic team-building process, and must know how to go about conducting such a program.

Almost every current book on effective organizations has emphasized the crucial importance of teamwork.' My own recent research of 200 companies across the United States confirms that organizations do realize that well-functioning teams can produce results. Yet few organizations carry out a systematic program for developing organization teams. It is as though they feel that people ought to know how to work together without any formal training or development activity. And it is true that some managers have a personal "feel" for how to work with people to produce team effort. But many more do not. They do not know how to start up a new team in a way that will maximize the possibility of good teamwork, how to check to see if any problems are de- veloping, and how to deal with team problems when they occur. This book is written for managers who want to know how to get a more systematic program of team building moving in their organization or unit. It is also designed to help professional consultants or human resource specialists who assist managers in team-building programs to understand the dynamics of doing effective team building.

As I have talked with managers and workers over the past years, I have been impressed that people do seem to be aware of the unsatisfying nature of work activity when they do not feel there is any "teamwork" or "team spirit." They may not be able to define clearly what a good team includes, but they have a sense or a feeling about a unit that is not working as a team. What do people say about poor teamwork? They say things like

-It's no fun working with those people. They just seem to be so involved in their own work that they don't want to do anything for anyone else.

-Our meetings are chaos. When we get together and try to get work accomplished, nobody listens-we fight and argue and nobody supports anyone else.

-We never do anything that is teamlike. We don't set goals,

-we don't plan, we don't do work together. Everything is done in one-on-one meetings with the boss. When we have staff meetings it is just one person at a time talking to the boss while the rest listen.

-I don't trust anyone in that bunch I work with. They would all knife you in the back if they thought it would help their cause. At times they can act so friendly, but when the crunch comes it is each person for himself.

-People talk about teamwork around here but I don't know what that means. I go to work, I sit at my desk, and take care of my assignments. From time to time I go to meetings, which are usually a waste of time. I get a yearly performance review, which hasn't changed much in years, and I draw my pay. I don't see what teamwork means in my job.

-There are some people I work with whom I really like and enjoy working with, but there are others who bother me and we don't get along. I find it easier to avoid them or get things done with as little interaction as possible.

-My boss is so busy that he doesn't even talk about how our staff could become a team. He has his favorites whom he talks to, but the rest of us just do our work and hardly ever have any significant involvement with the boss.

Most people have had at least one work experience they felt was "a real good team," and they compare the existing situ- ation with that point of reference in the past. Some people claim they have never been a part of a satisfying work team and do not think they could describe an effective team. It is difficult for people in the latter category to engage in and sustain a team-building program since they really do not know what they are trying to achieve. The first group feels they know what real teamwork "feels" like, but they are often not sure what kind of actions are needed to reproduce what they had once experienced.

The most critical factor in starting a team-building program is the degree of commitment of the unit managers and members to building a better work team. I have become wary of working with a group on team building if the leader is suspicious, unconvinced, halfhearted, or engaging in the activity because of pressure from above. I want to hear the manager, as he or she talks to the subordinates, say something like,

I want this work group to be as good as it can be. There are some things that go on that keep us from being as effective as we could be. That disturbs me, and it disturbs me that I may be part of the problem. But I am willing to spend my time, energy, and resources to make this group as effective as possible, and I am willing to make needed changes. I need to know how you feel about engaging in a team-building activity. What are your real feelings? I don't think we ought to start unless all of us are truly committed to the activity.

It is possible, even with this approach and the commitment of leaders and members, that the team-building program will fail. Sometimes key people leave; sometimes the problems are too deep or complex. It is possible that the approach may not be right or the facilitator does not have enough skill. But without commitment to engage in the process, deeply and honestly, everything could be in order and still nothing would change. So I seek commitment in my team-building work. I feel commitment increases if people know what is going to happen and if the process makes sense. But after reviewing the approach and providing all the insight I can, then I want to know about people's commitment. For me, testing commitment is an art, not a science. I cannot measure whether a person is a 6 or an 8 on a commitment scale, because I do not have a scale. I have to talk and listen to others talk and trust my experience and judgment. I judge commitment, to some degree, by the willingness of the leader and unit members to take responsibility for team-building work, to spend time, to accept assignments, and to get involved in the agreed-on actions. Team building is a human process. It involves human feelings, attitudes, and actions. It is something that peo ple have to accomplish among themselves. You cannot substitute high-paid consultants, complex designs, or fancy resorts for human beings making a mutual commitment to try to work together more effectively.

Provo, UtahW. G. D.