We evaluate and develop teams and help them move in the same direction. We focus on self-awareness and good communication, as well as training them to draw on each other's strengths instead of getting annoyed by differences. Team building promotes trust and cooperation in the team, and can prevent misunderstandings and negative conflicts.
"A large European bank's executive committee gathered for a two-day meeting to work on a plan to turn the company around. The bank was not performing well and was nearing the limits of its permitted capital ratios. Yet instead of quickly jumping into financing options or other operational decisions, the meeting began with an unfamiliar series of exercises with an unusual goal: to help the leaders in the room get to know one another personally."
Les mer her
Forbes, 2017
What characterizes high performing teams? Do similar children play best?
Or do differences promote development and change? With the support of research and best practice, we recommend to ensure that the team does not become too homogenous, both in terms of competence and personality. The differences will be able to contribute to good discussions and dialogues to ensure that problems are seen from different points of view, which in turn can contribute to better problem solving and more innovative thinking.
Good dialogues and discussions however, requires an openness and trust in the team which often does not come by itself. This requires effort from both the team leader and the team as a whole. Organized team building workshops are often very helpful in this regard. The team members then work both with self-insight for the individual and self-view (how I appear to others), as well as with the understanding that differences can actually benefit the team. We coach them in taking each other's needs into account, and use the differences to promote good discussions and new thinking.
“When trust is low, communication requires much more time and effort, mistakes are made, creativity and energy drop. The confidence that trust brings to individuals, teams, or a company motivates and releases amazing potential.” Gloria Bader, Badergroup
Trust is key
Trust is fundamental for a team to succeed, and most researchers today agree that this is perhaps the most important factor that must be in place. By this is meant that team members feel safe with each other and trust each other. They dare to be open about their areas of development and weaknesses. The main reason for the absence of trust is usually due to team members not being able to show their weaknesses; being vulnerable and open to each other. Typical examples of this are
team members who spend time and energy on defensive behavior, who do not admit their mistakes or ask for help from others. The worst thing is often not the mistake itself, but that others find out too late and that you don't learn from each other's mistakes. It is therefore important to create a team culture where there is agreement that it is okay to make mistakes. In order to achieve this, one must put shyness of conflict and pride aside. Only then is it possible for open and transparent discussions where you can be sure that all input will be considered.
Can a certain level of conflict lead to good changes if handled correctly?
The prevailing opinion among the most famous team researchers and theorists today is yes, a little disagreement and a certain level of conflict between team members can be good if handled in the right way!
Fear of conflict or shyness of conflict often contributes to team members not sharing information with each other, they don't say
always his opinion and does not tell about things that have gone wrong. Bad decisions are often the result of teams where members do not openly express their opinions. One
teams without a certain degree of security that disagreement is constructive and not dangerous are often a team with little growth and innovation. Security requires trust. However, conflict is a word that many perceive as negative, and it can be useful in a team building process to talk about what conflict is and is not, and in what way disagreements can be constructive. We recommend using more positively charged words such as "openness to disagree", "height under the roof", "constructive feedback" and that you try to see the positive in that everyone is different and brings with them different knowledge, characteristics and perspective into the team.
"If team fit were only about skills and experience, Donald Trump might invite Bernie Sanders to serve in his administration — yet it is unlikely that they would work together well."
D. Winsborough and T. Chamorro-Premuzic
Harvard Business review, 2017
Can all conflicts be resolved?
Ideally, we would like to think so. However, reality tells us that, unfortunately, that is not always the case. In some teams, the individual members will have such different values and behavioral styles that it is not beneficial for the team's future to have them work together. In teams where major conflicts and negative history have developed between the team members, the best solution will sometimes be to let one or more team members go. If there are already major conflicts in the team, we recommend that we first meet all the team members separately before the actual team building. This is to ensure that we gain insight into all the team participants' image of the situation, as well as to ensure the safety of the individual team members before they meet in a team building workshop.
Tests and instruments suitable for team development
HiPOTENTIAL recommends using a personality or preference test so that team members can get to know their own preferences and each other better. This helps to build trust in the team, and gives an overview of what the team's strengths and development areas are. This can provide answers to questions such as what you can get help with from others in the team, how you can assist the others and what you need from external assistance. The preference instruments MBTI®
or LIFO®
is what we most often recommend in this regard. Both are globally recognized instruments with a positive focus, where no preference profile is better than others, but where all profiles can contribute something important to the team. If you want to go more in-depth, we recommend using the personality tests from
Hogan Assessment®,
or
MBTI step II®.
How can we help you?
Team building can last from half a day to a development initiative that lasts over a year with several meetings and individual coaching between meetings. It depends on the team's needs. Half a day gives you a bit of self-insight and you get an experience of the differences between yourself and the others in the team. With longer initiatives, one has the opportunity to go deeper into what these differences are, what they mean for the team, and how one can learn to become more aware of using the differences for something good for the team instead of focusing negatively on the differences.
Individual coaching
in parallel with team meetings is a good combination. Then we take the employees out of the team and work one-on-one with their unique needs. Then everyone gets the opportunity to go even deeper into their own preferences and behaviour, what governs their choices, decisions and communication style, and what motivates them.