team building

The term team-building can refer generally to the selection and motivation of teams, or more specifically to group self-assessment in the theory and practice of Organizational development (OD).

Generic team-building - "Team building" (or "teambuilding") can refer to the process of establishing specific groups to accomplish certain tasks in a sports club or some sort of organization. Ingredients seen as important to the successful set-up and launch of such team efforts include:

selection

establishing visions, goals, missions and/or objectives

distribution of workload

timetabling

balancing skill-sets

metrics

harmonising personality types

training on how to work togetherThe morale of the team, an important variable, may depend on such factors as:

support

resources

communication

personalitiesAs team performance reflects on management, managers -- and even coach (sport) coaches -- sometimes feel the need to take part in constructing and fostering teams.As with many activities, team-building can run to extremes. For a notorious recent example of team building run amok, see the case of Kamp Staaldraad in 2003.

Need for team-building - Modern society and culture continues to become more fluid and dynamic. Factors contributing to this include the communications revolution, the global market and the ever-increasing specialization and division of labor. The net effect is that individuals are now required to move between working with many different groups of people in their working and also personal lives. Joining a new group and immediately being expected to get along with them is somewhat unnatural - historically humans have evolved to work and live in close-knit, static societies. Hence the sudden need for methods to help people adapt to the new requirements. All kinds of people, from investment bankers to catering staff and session musicians, face the same difficulties. As yet there is no generally agreed solution to the problem - it may not even be possible given the thousands of years of cultural evolution that brought us to our present behavior patterns.

Team-building in Organizational development - Whenever a team in an OD context embarks upon a process of self-assessment in order to gauge its own effectiveness and thereby improve performance, it engages in team building.

Assessing team effectiveness - To assess itself, a team seeks feedback to find out both:

its current strengths as a team

its current weaknesses

Improving team performance - To improve its current performance, a team uses the feedback from the team assessment in order to:

identify any gap between the desired state and the actual state

design any gap-closure strategy

See also -

Cross-Functional Team

!Forming-storming-norming-perfo rming

List of human resource management topics

Team

External links -

wilderdom.com - Team Building Resources News, Methods, Activities, Research, & More - News, definitions, articles, methods, and research.

? wilderdom.com - Team Building Activities, Initiative Games, & Problem Solving Exercises - Descriptions of exercises to help groups to develop effective communication and problem-solving skills.

freechild.org - So You Wanna Be a Playa: Cooperative Games for Social Change - A free booklet of activities for teambuilding, problemsolving, and more.

nasa.perbang.dk - The Nasa Exercise: Lost on the Moon - On-line version of a widely used team-building exercise for measuring team processes.

Developing Teamwork - A DVD-video based developingteamwork.com - team building package designed for organisations wishing to improve the effective use of the intellectual resource of their people. Available for review online free of charge.

Off-line reference material -

William G. Dyer, ''Team building: Current Issues and New Alternatives (3rd Edition)''. Pearson Education POD, 1995. ISBN !0201628821.category:Organizati onal? studies and human resource managementcs:Team !buildingnl:Teambuilding

Aurora Executive Solutions
Aurora Executive Solutions (AES)is a Training and Development company, whose focus is on helping organisations achieve maximum efficiency through a comprehensive range of training and development programmes. AES also facilitates the development of the individuals’ personal effectiveness in their career and life goals. Our development programmes provide individuals and employees with opportunities to enhance an enormous variety of skills, ranging from personal effectiveness such as improving communication and interpersonal skills, through team building at the group level to organisational development.
http://www.auroraexecutive.com/

Opus Productivty
OPUS Productivity Solutions is a management consulting company that specializes in products and services that are geared towards helping our clients make more informed, and ultimately better hiring decisions, and then assist them in maximizing the productivity of their new and existing people. Clients range in size from small, entrepreneurial led companies of less than ten people to corporations with revenues in excess of one billion dollars.
http://www.opusproductivity.com/

Gypsy Productions
Specializing in Interactive Murder Mystery Dinner Theater.
http://www.justmurder.com/

Data Dome Inc. Maximizing Individual and Corporate Potential
Select, retain and motivate a talented workforce with assessments, processes, and win-win strategies for the workplace.
http://www.datadome.com/

Zalkin Training and Development
Management/ Leadership Training and Coaching Services for government, corporate, and small businesses. Zalkin Training also offers services for Jewish communal organizations and general non-profit organizations. Zalkin Training offers coaching services for executives, clergy members, government officials, professionals, entrepreuners, and individuals. Zalkin Training works throughout the US and in Asia.
http://www.zalkin-training.com/

Welcome to the Dan River Company
The Dan River Company provides professional rental and shuttle services on the Dan River. We are located in the foothills of the Sauratown Mountain Range and adjacent to Hanging Rock State Park in Danbury, North Carolina. Whether you are located in Winston Salem, Martinsville, High Point, Mt. Airy or Greensboro, you are less than 1 hour from adventure. Rent our canoes, kayaks and Sit on Tops, or bring your own boats.
http://www.danrivercompany.com

World-Class Customer Service Training
Belding Skills Development delivers world-class customer service training, seminars and workshops for retail, call center, corporate and public sectors
http://www.beldingskills.com/

BIO-UNIT
Coaching, development and organisational enhancment
http://soft-skills.co.uk/

Team Building
Action days out based in Surrey & Sussex. Offering a wide range of pacakges from motorised event to team building events.
http://www.actiondaysout.co.uk

Improv Playhouse
Improv Playhouse is a comprehensive, professional actor training organization that offers classes and instruction, corporate training and development, and event planning and entertainment. We also produce traditional theater and improv comedy performances for youth and adults.
http://www.improvplayhouse.com/

http://www.presentation-skills.org/
The following is a summary of presentation skills hints and tips for managers and others. For best effect they should be used in conjunction with a good quality presentation or public speaking training course.
http://www.presentation-skills.org/

Art Deco Murders
Art Deco Murders are established as one of the leading murder mystery production companies in the UK offering a truly professional and unique event. We invite you to join the characters from the village of Thymely over Actin where the originally written plots are set in the year 1929, the golden era of art deco, offering several different formats to suit your requirements. Art Deco Murders will entertain your guests over an evening or weekend catering for corporate groups, conferences, hotels, team building or private parties using only professionally trained actors who are very experienced in reading audiences, improvisation, role play and corporate entertainment. All of our actors are fully insured members of Equity. We have worked with a host of top celebrities on our events across the UK and Europe, so if discretion is required, you can rest assured that you can rely on us for total confidentiality. To ensure the smooth running of your event, we provide an Event Manager to co-ordinate every performance.
http://www.artdecoproductions.co.uk

www.johncremer.co.uk
Improvisation skills training
http://johncremer.co.uk/

London Walks
Welcome to the London Walks site of best selling author Richard Jones.
http://london-walks.co.uk/

Visual Impact Promotions Inc
Providing custom imprinted promotional and apparel items.
http://www.vipinc.ca/

www.comptec.com
CompTEC is a Microsoft Certified Partner for Learning Solutions, (MCPLS) (formerly known as Microsoft Certified Technical Education Center (CTEC), and a Cisco Sponsored Learning partner In beautiful West Palm Beach, Florida
http://www.comptec.com/

Craig Consulting
A consultancy specialising in Executive Development and Coaching, talent management and psychometric assessment services. Career consulting and management services
http://www.craigconsulting.net/

Timberline Tipis UK
We are specialist tipi makers and can offer tipi holidays, sales, rentals, events, etc. We have one of the biggest Native American Trading Posts in the UK
http://timberlinetipis.co.uk/

Accel-Team.com
Sales management, team building, motivational and management research resources.
http://www.accel-team.com

Team Technology
Large number of articles about Myers-Briggs and team building. Team Technology is a training consultancy that specialises in team building, leadership development and interpersonal skills training, in which they make extensive use of the MBTI and Jungian typological theory.
http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/

Management Assistance Program for Nonprofits (MAP)
Free management library resources for nonprofit and for-profit businesses. Topics include: HR, leadership, management development, organizational performance, change, and communications, research design, and systems thinking.
http://www.mapnp.org

Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources
USA. From the University of Nebraska. Research department. Use search to reach information on fibers for textiles and nonwovens.
http://www.ianr.unl.edu/

Teambuilding, Inc.
Team building services, bookstore, catalog, discussion, articles, links, and team problem solver.
http://www.teambuildinginc.com/

Team Building, Corporate Team Training
Custom tailored corporate team building, leadership development, group processing workshops and teamwork deliverables.
http://www.ebl.org