The Business Case for teamwork

Helping employees, mangers and departments work better together has several advantages. Rather than thinking about the development team in the world of work as a special intervention, should be viewed more as helping the company to work to its full potential. Teamwork is at its essence, a series of individual choices of behavior that employees do in their own best interest, and to his satisfaction, security and survival.

Better teamwork is essentially free, and the benefits of greater synergy, cooperation, communication and commitment can produce a return very tangible results, ie, higher performance and greater organizational competitiveness. By tapping into this 'free resource' however, is a very artificial process that is often mis-managed, ill not delivered, accurately measured or neglected altogether.

Consultants and trainers are often brought to a quick solution to try to learn something about how to work better, to provide a 'feel good' experience in team building, or groped long held to resolve conflicts and animosities among the services that are causing serious damage in the process or production. Often these patches are too little and too late with no long-term solution.

The factors of stress from lack of teamwork in an organization are many, insecurity and mistrust, dishonesty, not sharing information and resources, intentional non-performance collaboration, lack of communication, and generally poor compared what could be possible. Intentional or not, the complexities and interactions of each company with more than 50 employees are expected to cause friction and misunderstanding in which human beings try to work together. That's why teamwork is one of the most important factors to pay attention.

Departmental teams and identity. Each department develops naturally their identity, culture and norms. Natural competition between departments will be developed in an ad-hoc, if not deliberately driven. Research shows that small units benefit more from the development team work and can apply positive approaches teamwork for faster results. The departmental team is 'where the rubber meets the road' in terms of potential benefits of better teamwork.

Organizational culture of teamwork. On a macro-scale the entire organization must be careful of what you communicate in relation to teamwork. Expectations clearly on the departments and divisions that work well together and should always be stressed in statements of Top Executive, corporate communications and symbolism throughout each facility and office.

Knocking down walls and silos. Teamwork is especially important among the internal customers in the value chain to perform the essential functions of the organization and contribute to key processes. Teamwork can be the lubricant that makes all parts of the machine running smoothly.

Human-ness, fun and enjoyment at work. When people feel relaxed and secure place to a much higher level. Humor and fun at work are closely related to employee satisfaction, turnover, and organizational climate issues. The warmth of the relationships can affect the morale and reduce the barriers between people that resistance to approach each other and work well together. It 's always better when the workers would come to work and enjoy the ones that work.

Leaders lead more effectively. With good teamwork, leaders can share the load more effectively, developing their teams to be more self-directed. This also provides development opportunities for employees and builds respect for leaders. Leaders who lead their teams and are better supported and have strengthened the credibility of the organization. Leaders with strong teams behind them are more able to meet special needs that require an extra effort.

Teamwork Measurement. With the accurate measurement of the factors of teamwork and attitudinal trends over time, the training team work and other initiatives can be directly attributed to the successes, and the detection of downward trends before they become critical. The teamwork of measure must be one of the most important indicators on the corporate dashboard.

Teamwork yield higher productivity. The teams that invest in problem solving, group process, continuous improvement and other behaviors more sophisticated work in groups out-perform other teams of similar size and make-up. The meetings will be more efficient, objectives, directions and tactics will be better understood, the main partnerships as a priority and the teams will have a much more definitive direction.

New organizations, mergers, new leaders, change. The time and energy spent on the development of new teams and relationships is a critical factor in the fusion of cultures different organizations, integrating new managers and executives, and the creation of a new set of rules and behaviors that lead to high performance. There is no substitute for pace of integration between companies in a merger situation or between managers and employees with a change of leadership, but can be managed efficiently and proactively with a focus on building a better team since from the beginning. When all parties are clear and comfortable with the new direction, the inefficiencies of the change can be minimized.

Investments in virtual relationships lubrication or Long Range. Teamwork should be a great emphasis for each session in which relationships are maintained virtually or at a distance most of the time. The time spent in building better relationships and team work harder when the team is really together is insurance for the lion's share of time in which team members can not meet face to face.

Impact on customer satisfaction. One of the areas most severely felt when interdepartmental teamwork is poor is the area of ​​customer satisfaction. This could take the form of experience radically different for the customer when it comes to a department or another. It may be a lack of follow through from production of a critical commitment by sales or engineering. It could be the customer experience negative feeling neglected because no department in the company's vendor seems to want to take responsibility. We've all been there. A strong theme of training and development team needs to show the direct impact on the external customer and the potential costs if the company can not function well together.

Impact on Strategic Alignment Buy-in and support for the plans, especially as they become more complex happen easier with good teamwork. When an organization has the task of multi-dimensional complexity, the more demanding customers and the need for highly accurate and specific levels of quality will require much more detailed interaction and cooperation. The importance of great teamwork is more important as tasks become more complex. With good teamwork, employees have a greater propensity to assume individual responsibility and share a positive culture of mutual assistance and support to help carry the load. The ability to respond to change, achieve greater goals and implement more complex strategies are possible only with strong teams in itself.

Teamwork is a critical factor in Employee Self-actualization. Great team work paves the way for the initiative that is freely shared, the creativity to come on line and the extra effort when needed. All employees share the desire for a greater sense of involvement, ownership and participation. The team supplies the basic human needs for membership and acceptance in a group of individuals and freedom to express themselves and their talents to the best of their ability.

In summary, a proactive focus on teamwork is an organizational imperative, not just something given to words in the annual company picnic. When developed responsibly in every department and level of organization, teamwork may be the critical factor that ensures goals are met, the initiatives are well implemented and you get more competitive. When high levels of teamwork is in place, a set of measurable factors will all strive positively, from lower employee turnover and absenteeism stress the improvement of services and efficiencies and high levels of customer satisfaction.

Your company will be a happier place to work too .......