Team Development vs Team Building

I recently read an article that suggested “team building” doesn’t get at the root of resolving cultural and behavioural issues within the team.

I agree.  Let me take it a step further.  There is a distinct difference between “team building” and “team development”. 

Team Building often brings people together through experiential learning.  Popular team building strategies include day long or weekend retreats where team members perform activities such as mountain climbing, walking a tight rope, fire walking, skydiving, or a range of other activities intended to build trust.  They can be fun and challenging ways of conquering fear or superficially supporting each other in seemingly hazardous situations. They build short-term camaraderie but don’t help to establish longer-term results for the team.

Without assimilation of the “experience” to develop the team and the organization, the stories of courage and adventure quickly fade back to the status quo when participants return to the workplace.

Team Development on the other hand, may use experiential learning but it goes much deeper and far beyond just a few days of jovial bonding. Team development takes a broader and longer-term approach to integrate learning and create sustainable effectiveness. 

Team development strategies include an exploration into: the construct and leadership of the team; the shared vision and values by which they will function; the flow of information and resources; accountability and responsibility factors; and, the essential communication skills that build trust, enhance collaboration, and break down the barriers to effectiveness. 

In their book, The Wisdom of Teams, Katzenbach and Smith (1993), suggest that “the most powerful motivational force within a performing team is the pride that members take in what they are achieving, who they are working with, and how they go about their task” (p. 85).The challenge is to move from the individual paradigm toward the concept of real teamwork. “Because of deep-seated values of individualism and a natural reluctance to trust one’s fate to the performance of others, the team choice demands a leap of faith” (p. 90).  Herein lays the importance of team development.

While team building attempts to temporarily bridge the gap between individualism and teamwork, team development continually focuses on developing all areas of the team over a longer period of time.  Richard Knowles, author of The Leadership Dance, has documented nine key areas for development and consideration by any team:

1.    Identity

2.    Guiding principles

3.    Relationships

4.    Communication

5.    Learning

6.    Shared vision

7.    Organization

8.    Accountability

9.    Global environment and impact

If you want to build a strong organizational culture, develop your teams, develop your individuals and work groups, and do it in a way that goes beyond a weekend retreat of camaraderie or bungie jumping.  Build the people, develop trust, establish strategies that will keep you on track, and ultimately, you will generate a culture of greatness within your organization.

“Humans have intellectual limits. Teams have the potential

to find solutions that lie beyond those limits” ~ Paviak (2003)

If you want to discuss options for developing your team, email me (vawoods@me.com) or call me (250-307-4745). 

If you like to read, here are a few good books that I found during my master’s research on team development:

Katzenbach, J.R., & Smith, D.K. (2003). The wisdom of teams. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.

Knowles, R. (2002). The leadership dance.  Niagara Falls, NY: Center for Self Organizing Leadership (3rd edition)

Krakauer, J. (1999). Into thin air. New York, NY: Anchor Books.

Lencioni, P. (2002). The five dysfunctions of a team: A leadership fable. Sanfrancisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Senge, P.M. (1990). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Doubleday.

Other interesting articles related to leadership:

Argyris, C. (1991). Teaching smart people how to learn. Retrieved August 25, 2010 from http://pds8.egloos.com/pds/200805/20/87/chris_argyris_learning.pdf.

Argyris, C. (1994). Good communication that blocks learning. Retrieved August 25, 2010 from http://www.lbl.gov/BLI/BLI_Library/assets/articles/OM/OM_OLAKM_Good_Comm_Blocks.pdf