Motivation: Action! Start Teambuilding Now!
October 03, 2008
By Rob Carey
Although most everyone in business has lived for years by the mantra "do more with less," it looks as if the time of reckoning has truly arrived.
The most recent economic forecasts call for painfully slow growth and higher unemployment between now and mid-2009, if not longer. So with employees especially mindful of the need to prove their own value to management to avoid layoffs, it's unlikely that many of them currently harbor the spirit to assist and support coworkers in their duties.
Nonetheless, some firms are making the considerable effort to implement team-building programs, complete with pre-event assessments of group dynamics as well as continuous post-event follow-up. And despite the extra work that teambuilding brings to all participants—plus the cost—these companies are counting on a return-on-investment through increased efficiency, productivity and innovation. They're also seeking to make employees more satisfied, and thus more loyal.
"Teambuilding in difficult times should be aimed at the most valuable people in the company," says Shawn Dunning, a director and lead facilitator for Adventure Associates, based in San Francisco. "It's about learning how to stay effective through all this change: downsizing, reorganizing, mergers and shrunken sales. But the longer you wait while change sweeps through your business, the further your inefficiencies compound and set back performance, and the more frustrated your people become."
Merrick Rosenberg, president and chief learning officer for Team Builders Plus in Cherry Hill, N.J., agrees. "In this climate, you have to create a more positive work environment and show people that the goals are not so tough if we can think differently and execute differently," he says.
Furthermore, firms that go through the economic turmoil even without building tighter teams won't necessarily retain their stars very long. "The number-one reason people leave companies is not money," Rosenberg adds. "People quit their managers or they quit their coworkers." On the other hand, if high performers like their environment, "when outside job opportunities start popping up again eighteen months from now, they'll say, 'Forget that. Where else could I find a good situation like this?'"
 Lights! Camera! Action!
When General Mills held its annual internal financial conference earlier this year at the convention center in its home city of Minneapolis, the giant foodmaker's 600 finance managers didn't expect to be standing before, or behind, video cameras. But in an effort to prove that the success of the entire firm rests upon communication and cooperation among financial managers across the hundreds of product lines, executives asked each team to write, act in and film a commercial about their roles and challenges in the job.
"We needed to create a better peer network, which meant breaking down barriers to collaborating with each other," says Jason Krob, customer financial analysis manager for General Mills and a member of the conference-planning committee. "We wanted to make sure we used an exercise that would push people out of their comfort zone, but which still was relevant to their jobs and proved that they could change the way they operate."
But can employees learn from a task so incongruous to their work specialty? "It's best to create a simulation unrelated to their job, because otherwise the same old processes and power dynamics will take over," says Brian Kathenes, principal of Progressive Business Concepts in Hope, N.J., and author of How to Build Teams That Will Still Respect You in the Morning. On the other hand, "it meant that we had to do a lot of sell-in to attendees ahead of the event," Krob admits.
Partnering with Los Angeles–based team-building firm Lights Camera Interaction, each team assigned roles to members, brainstormed themes, discussed dialogue and action, and learned to use professional cameras to record their performances. The production firm took charge of only the final editing process, but with direction from the team as to which footage to use. And for the conference's final event, organizers transformed the ballroom into the Academy Awards, and attendees arrived in black tie for the viewing gala and white-glove dinner.
"It was important that attendees knew the program had support at a high level," says Kathenes. The proof: General Mills' CFO was on the planning committee, and its CEO sat in the front row for the viewing gala.
"We had to do something that would be memorable, that had a lasting effect," says Krob. "Everyone gets used to working in their own silos and they don't think about collaborating beyond that to create a better solution. But by having people be actors or directors or camera people or sound people, the exercise made clear that everyone's input is needed to do the best job we can. And once these very analytical employees stepped out of their typical skill sets, they did things that they didn't think they could do—some of the commercials were so good and so clever."
By pushing attendees to interact with people they don't normally work with on a daily basis, "we've made the 'extended network' concept a reality, so now people feel they can approach others outside their areas," Krob adds. "The teambuilding makes them more willing to share their success stories and bounce ideas off each other." And to make sure such behavior continues, the CFO sends a quarterly e-mail newsletter that highlights recent collaborative successes and encourages cross-divisional dialogue.
General Mills' example highlights one aspect of teambuilding that's often overlooked: The process is designed to expose team strengths and not simply deficiencies or dysfunctions.
 Keeping Momentum
Highlighting the positive boosts morale, and helps attendees accept the exposed deficiencies rather than dismiss them as not reflective of or not applicable to reality. "When people make mistakes in an exercise, they often discount the experience, saying that it's nothing like their work," says Adventure Associates' Dunning. "But when they do something well, it's easier for us to get them to see and accept the business connection."
So in the post-activity discussion and "debriefing," Dunning makes sure to focus first on what was done well "to show that there was at least some accomplishment, even if they did not complete all the terms of the exercise," he says. "Groups often note they were able to come to agreement on how decisions would be made, that they listened to everyone's input before decisions were made, that roles and assignments were openly discussed and generally agreed upon, and that communication was more easily given and received as time went on."
However, all of these accomplishments will fade away if the group does not create formal channels to apply and reinforce these new lessons back in the work landscape. One way to do this is through regular meetings that recount partial or complete successes that came from applying the team-building lessons to work situations. And with the rise of social media, some firms have created proprietary electronic forums or blogs for employees to share victories, inquiries and commiserate.
To maintain the spirit, "there needs to be an internal facilitator to keep all the dialogue going and keep people believing that the system can work," Kathenes says. "The culture change, where you have constant informal collaboration, will come by getting people into the habit first."
Accomplishments will disappear, as well, if recognition programs aren't altered to reward the new behaviors and skills a group developed. "The success measurements of teambuilding have to be as clear to employees as its objectives and action plans were," Dunning says. Rosenberg suggests incorporating team collaboration and effectiveness criteria into performance reviews for salaries and promotions, while Kathenes adds that reaching specified levels of collaboration or productivity gains can qualify participants for levels of travel and merchandise awards, or some other shared prize.
If done right, a full team-building program doesn't simply keep top employees in the fold. "It also encourages those performers to help recruit and evaluate new talent, because they'll want to ensure that coworkers believe in the system that makes the job easier and brings rewards," says Kathenes.
And a temporary economic downturn is no match for that.
Editor's Note: For more on this topic, read Building the Foundation for the "Lightbulb Moment.
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