subject: Notes On Building A Sense Of Teamwork In The Workplace [print this page] It appears that it is quite essential for organizations to foster a sense of collaboration among its members. Indeed, teamwork has an important place in any company or organization that seeks to increase its chances of success in achieving its goals, mission or objectives. However, fostering a work culture that values collaboration is not as easy at it seems. There are several obstacles to working in teams and these blocks must be broken down so that an organization can finally find success in collaborative effort. In an environment where a shared goal and collaborative effort is given great value, people or employees are able to grasp and understand the whole concept of collaboration and cooperation.
It can truly be a challenge to find organizations wherein teamwork is best exemplified. Not because no one is willing to work collaboratively and cooperatively but more often than not, the reason behind this is that leaders and employees do not quite have a good understanding of what it is to work in teams and to work as a team. In many cases, they are too confined within the idea of emerging as the best that they forget that being the best can be achieved when working cooperatively. We cannot totally blame leaders and employees for this as it seems that we all have grown up in world where there is great emphasis in winning and coming out on top of the others.
There is really nothing wrong in this concept of winning. What we need to give attention to is how we go about it. If we try to realign our concept of winning and think about it as something that can be best achieved through working in a team and working as a team, we might just be able to embrace the whole concept of collaborative effort more easily.
So how do we create a culture of teamwork? There are several ways to achieve this and we can start with having leaders communicate clear expectations on teamwork and collaboration being expected from each and every member of the organization. They must also become models of collaborative effort and forget about maliciously competing with each other.
We can also consider participating in team building workshops and development programs that are built around the concept of teamwork in the workplace. And it must be emphasized that leaders and executives are not the only ones who must attend such workshops and training programs, but even the rank and file employees as well.
