There is a built in conflict in our system where we learn to be individualistic and competitive from early childhood and then are expected to perform well in groups in the adult world.

Our early childhood experiences were dominated by school and play.

In school, we were in a world whose reward system focused on individual accomplishment.

When a teacher asked a question, it was the person whose hand went up first who got to answer. We certainly didn’t see two or three students collaborating to develop the best answer.

When we took tests, we knew we were competing against the other students for the best scores. 

As we moved through our school system we learned that the way to succeed in the classroom/the real world was to do it ourselves in an ongoing competition against others.

In the business world when people get together and work on a project, it’s called `teamwork.’ In schools, the way we were taught in the past, it’s called ‘cheating’.

The only time during childhood that team collaboration was appropriate was during recess on the playground or during team games.

This early programming taught many of us that teaming is for play and not really meant for real work.

The Business World Reinforces Competition

As we moved from school to the world of work we entered another system with an individualistic and competitive thrust.

Concepts such as performance evaluations, merit raises, forced rankings, reward processes and promotions, aggressive supplier policies, and combative union relations have tended to reinforce, once again, competition and individual accomplishment.

Unfortunately, when we ask people to work together and simultaneously place them in a competitive system, the resulting psychological dissonance can lead to inaction rather than action.

When these same people are then assigned to a work team and told to operate as a team, there is often limited energy to move forward because the contradiction between the system wide “programming” and what is being asked of them creates a certain apathy, and ultimately eroding, of the team process.

So What is Team Building?

Much of the problem of making teams successful in the workplace stems from our past perceptions of what teams are, and a degree of ignorance of the powerful principles that underlay them.

Teams are really just a formal way to bring about real collaboration.

Teaming isn’t something we do because it creates harmonious work groups, or simply because it is fun. 

It is a way to formalize and institutionalize the power of collaboration among individuals. It is a way to blend the talents, skills, and inherent creativity of diverse people. It is a way to use this collaboration so that we can leverage skills, time, and resources for maximum results.

Let’s look at the word "collaboration".

At its core is the word “co-labor”, or working together toward some meaningful end.

It is people combining their collective knowledge and skills so that the sum total of the collaboration is greater than what could have been achieved individually. 

The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

So what is team building? Team building is a process of building awareness. It’s helping people to understand that they are greater together than individually. It is an understanding that all of our decisions will be better when some degree of collaboration occurs. It is bringing people to a place where there is an honest appreciation of each other’s skills, knowledge, background and insights.

Call Professional Teambuilding at 1-800-446-4742 and find out more about how our corporate teambuilding and motivational programs can help you build a more satisfied, motivated and productive workforce.

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