subject: How to Build a Strong Team [print this page] I personally clearly define an effective, dynamic team as: "a united group of individuals joined together by trust and a common challenge that requires their best efforts to achieve common goals."
That last facet of the team, a challenge that calls for their very best, is absolutely essential but often missing in a team. Without such a challenge, your "team" might simply be a group of people going through the motions.
Over the course of my job history I experienced great satisfaction while being employed for a mineral exploration company in northern Canada. A small group of us would pile into a Beaver or Otter aircraft, be flown to a remote area of land, ice or a lake and be dropped off to work. At that moment we had to become a team to survive- especially on some of those dismal 30 or 40 below camp move days!
We'd have to clear an area for the 14x16 tent, trim down straight trees for stringers, lay the floor, set up the stove, cut firewood, start a fire, build an outhouse, cut a hole in the ice for water- all before we even started the job. The necessity of teamwork continued into our job as well: finding the right location for starting a baseline, cutting lengths of section lines, prepping dinner, stoking the fire, and all other bush camp duties.
The bottom line was that we were totally forced to be a team- we had a clear compelling challenge that demanded it.
Does accomplishing your goals call for the use of a team? Must you and your people become a team to survive, to get the job done right?
If not, shoot higher! You don't need to work in a physically inhospitable environment like the Canadian North to face a unifying challenge.
Recently I was delighted to stumble upon a vision statement. A small town financial establishment has the following vision: "To be the number one financial services provider and be the number one workplace in every community where we serve."
I was amazed! They've got it right!
If you do not have a clear and powerful challenge, you will never form a strong team.Frankly, you don't even need the team because just the very existence of the challenge is THE prerequisite for team building.
