Building an effective team is actually a complicated process.  Effective team building should result in the creation of a positive atmosphere and an environment that values partnerships and collaboration.  In a true teamwork environment, people believe that thinking, planning, decisions and actions are better when done cooperatively.  Yet, organizations often focus on other work-related issues rather than stressing the importance of team building and supporting a positive teamwork environment.  This can have a serious effect on your employees -- if you and your employees do not feel like you are a part of a team, the motivation and outcome of their work may not be as strong.

It is up to the managers, supervisors and leaders of the organization to help create and establish a teamwork culture.  Through commitment and a strong belief in the results, any employer can create a sense of teamwork within an organization. 

Creating a Teamwork Culture
Before you can build an effective team, you need to create a culture of teamwork within your company.  Certain steps can be taken to build the foundation for a successful culture of teamwork: 

• Communicate the belief that teamwork and collaboration are expected.  No single person completely owns a work area.  Show your employees that they have a say in things and encourage them to get involved.  

• Model teamwork by your own interaction with others. Try to maintain teamwork even when things are going wrong.  It may not always be easy to do, but the impact on your employees will be significant.

• Talk about and identify the value of a teamwork culture with your employees.  Write ideas down to help reinforce what your team has discussed.  Once you have reviewed these ideas, try putting some of them into action.

• Teamwork should be rewarded and recognized.  Rewards should depend on collaborative practices just as much as individual practices.

• Encourage your employees to talk about "remember when" stories from the company.  ("Remember the year the capsule team reduced scrap by 20 percent?")  This will emphasize teamwork and remind them that people who do well and are promoted within the company are team players.

• Incorporate tools such as the 360-degree feedback system into your performance management system.  Gather results from colleagues, direct reports and managers, then share them with the employee.  This will have a powerful impact on work behavior and will encourage interaction with others within the group.

Tips for Team Building
When you think of team building, do you immediately picture your group off at a resort playing games or hanging from ropes? Historically, organizations had approached team building exercises in this manner and then were disappointed when the strong sense of team failed on the long-term basis. Rather them than trying to create massive team building exercises a few days a year, think of team building as something you do every single day. Finding ways to incorporate small elements of teamwork into your daily work practices and enforce the importance of your employees working together could be your most effective tool for creating and maintaining team building in your workplace. 

Here are a few additional ideas to try:

• Form teams to solve real work issues and to improve real work processes.  Provide training so the team expends its energy on the project, not on figuring out how to work together to approach it.

• Hold department meetings to review projects and progress, to obtain broad input, and to coordinate shared work processes.  If group members are not getting along, examine the work processes they share.  The problem is not usually the personalities of the people; it's the fact that they often haven’t agreed on how they will deliver a product or a service or the steps required to get something done.

• Build fun and shared occasions into the organization’s agenda.  Hold potluck lunches, take the organization to a sporting event, sponsor dinners at a local restaurant.  Occasional perks such as these are needed by everyone, even if you feel they are costly or unnecessary.

• Use occasional ice-breakers and time-limited fun team building exercises at meetings or as a voluntary activity. For example, take a weekly staff meeting.  Have your employees take turns bringing a "fun" ice-breaker to the meeting. Limit the activities to ten minutes.  You will see that participants will laugh together and get to know each other -- a small investment in a major sense of team!

• Celebrate group successes publicly.  Buy everyone the same t-shirt or hat.  Put team member names in a drawing for company merchandise and gift certificates.  You are limited only by your imagination.

By trying these tips and putting forth a little bit of effort, you will be amazed at the progress you will make in creating a teamwork culture for your workplace.  People work most effectively when they can collaborate ideas and efforts with others involved.  If you add an occasional fun event or exercise to the organization, your team building efforts will be greatly rewarded.