Teamwork and Team Building
Why is Effective Teamwork Important?
Effective team working is becoming more and more critical to the success of organisations. People need to be able to work together in a variety of ways, taking responsibility as individuals, working in functional groupings, and contributing to project groups for specific tasks. Cross organisational and multi-disciplinary groupings are becoming increasingly important ways of achieving results.
This means that people must develop the capability to contribute to effective group working, both as leaders and as members. Organisations need their teams to achieve high performance in a short space of time; to be self directing, responsive and motivating.
As well as being the most effective way of achieving high business performance, the well-functioning team provides social and emotional support for its members, helping them to develop skills and confidence and deal with pressure and stress.
How Can Clare Howard Consultants Help?
Clare Howard Consultants provides help to leaders and teams, at all levels in the organisation, in agreeing how they need to work together, and in developing the skills of team leadership and membership. We work with leaders and their teams on a long term basis, offering consultancy, individual coaching and workshops to develop and sustain individual, team and organisational performance.
An Effective Team Building Programme
There is no one right way to work as a team. Every group is unique, and must find its own ways of working together productively. We therefore offer team building programmes to help accelerate this process, to match the specific needs of the organisation and the group.
Effective teamwork will occur only where the business requires it. A demanding performance challenge provides the incentive and commitment which are essential for effective teamworking. Therefore, we take as the starting point the critical issue which requires team performance, for example: customer care, quality, introduction of new methods and roles.
Our Approach
Our approach is to focus on three aspects of group working that need to be developed in order for people to perform well as a group and as individuals.
We start by working with the individuals, leaders and members, to diagnose the current situation, and the issues that need to be addressed. Based on that diagnosis we help the groups to:
- Create their Team Infrastructure, decide their common goals, and establish the different ways in which they need to operate, to satisfy their business need
- Become aware of Group Dynamics, and recognise what is really going on in the group in terms of group development and relationships
- Develop Teamworking Skills for creating mutual understanding, including receiving and giving feedback, support and challenge, and resolving conflict
Methods
We use a wide range of methods to ensure that our programmes are effective and enjoyable. We employ diagnostics to help team members understand their own and other people's preferred ways of working. We pick from a powerful toolkit of creative strategies and techniques, including visioning, scenario planning and storytelling, according to the needs of the group and the business need.
The aim of all the methods is to help leaders and members take responsibility for working effectively together, for improved business performance and individual satisfaction.
Facilitation
Clare Howard Consultants can provide the services of skilled facilitators to help Senior Management teams faced with important decisions to make, or difficult situations to resolve. For example, we can work with Senior Management to facilitate the development of strategic plans. Strategic Alignment is another business technique we use to help managers to forge strongly-held differing recommendations into a joint committed business decision.
Conferences and Large-Group Interventions
There are times when you need the whole system in one room to work together to create fundamental change, to celebrate achievement, to kick off the new year - the new organisation - the way forward.
Large-group methods can be used successfully for, among other things: changing corporate culture, strategic planning, business process engineering, and the resolution of large and intractable organisational problems. The large-group event is only one part of a wider process. Clare Howard Consultants can work with you to design your conference or Large Group Intervention and provide expert facilitators who are experienced in this way of working.