Beyond Team Building

11CREATING A TEAM-BUILDING ORGANIZATION

In the introduction we described how social scientists of the 1950s started experimenting with T-groups and how this intervention evolved over time to become team building. In team building, intact workgroups, typically those facing problems, were given the tools and training to improve their performance. Unfortunately, team building is still seen by some organizations as a one-off activity: an intervention that some teams in the organization may need when they are in trouble. Few organizations have systematic programs to improve teamwork. We believe that all teams, regardless of how well they are performing, need periodic checkups to assess how they are doing and to make course corrections to continually improve. This requires more than just calling in a consultant or human resource person to work with teams periodically. It requires a team-building organization designed with the 5Cs in mind to create the right context, composition, competencies, change management skills, and collaborative leadership to achieve continuous improvement in team performance.

We've described several organizations in this book, such as Bain & Company, which has come a long way to becoming a team-building organization. However, one organization, Cisco Systems, seems to stand out as an excellent example of how team development can be embedded in an organization's structures, systems, and processes. Here's how Cisco Systems has built an organization-wide capability ...