You've Decided to do a Team-Building Program, Should You?

Welcome to the first of three parts on team performance building focused on remote or largely dispersed teams. In these we'll talk about what outcomes to focus on and the process for doing so.

In nearly all teams, remote or not, you have those who think they are fantastic problem solvers, effective influencers, great conflict resolvers, motivating communicators, powerful coaches etc…. Of course, in most cases, some will have the strengths they claim and some clearly will not and do not realize it. This overall lack of self-awareness results in people featuring their weaknesses which causes diminished trust, increased conflict and reduced engagement. These widespread behaviors greatly diminish the effectiveness of the teams these people are on. The root cause of many of team issues is simply a lack of Self-awareness. Without accurate self-awareness, it is very difficult to have effective team member awareness and when both are deficient, you will see all kind of problems. 

To address these issues, most organizations invest in team building activities where games are played and discussions facilitated but little is actually accomplished to address fundamental improvements in how the team functions. Many of these approaches are actually effective AFTER a proven method for improving self and team awareness is executed, but this is not common. In this video discussion, we look at the areas that need to be addressed that form the foundation of excellent remote or blended/remote teams.