Team development training 

There’s no mystery to team development.  It’s about enabling members of the team to work together on identifying and overcoming the specific difficulties that are impeding their team development.

Why is it difficult to maintain effective teamwork under pressure?

No team or organisation can be successful if its members are always in agreement with each other.  People who are motivated to succeed have, by definition, strong feelings about what should be done.  Clashes of opinion are therefore inevitable as well as essential.  But whether the outcome of a disagreement is creative or destructive depends on how the people involved talk and listen to each other.  Most do it by defending their own position and debating with their opponent.  The trouble with this adversarial approach, however reasonable, logical and well intentioned, is that instead of producing a meeting of minds, it tends to lead to argument, entrenchment and mutual misunderstanding.  Cumulative misunderstanding is the most common cause of deterioration in teamwork.  People eventually lose hope of being able to achieve a meeting of minds when emotions are aroused.

The symptoms of poor teamwork

The consequence, when this happens, is loss of creative output, a lowering of satisfaction, trust and morale, and an increase in suspicion, organisational politics and conflict.  When highly motivated people lose confidence that they can achieve straight-forwardly what they believe is necessary they often resort to less direct methods.  They exhibit behaviour that makes them appear to be “poor team players” with “the wrong motivation and attitude”.

A wrong diagnosis

But these negative emotions and attitudes are the consequence, not the cause, of poor teamwork.  To mistake them for the cause perpetuates an atmosphere of blame and leads to attempts, which are bound to fail in the long run, to suppress the symptoms without treating the cause.

A more optimistic diagnosis

Our approach to team development not only shows more respect and understanding towards the individuals involved but also gives them more hope that there could be a genuine remedy.  Deterioration in teamwork is mostly caused by a lack not of the right attitude or motivation but of the right team-development skills - the skills of communicating effectively under pressure when emotions are aroused – the skills of emotional intelligence.

The remedy

The remedy is for team members to learn to handle emotions and disagreements creatively. Then they become more hopeful and capable of overcoming together the obstacles that are preventing them from achieving their potential as a team. This course teaches precisely the key team-development skills they need (see Skills with People course content).  With these team-development skills they can then discuss together, identify and overcome whatever practical obstacles are impeding their performance as a team (see also Team building).