Molly said:
>I
>have repeatedly seen a lack of clear sponsorship at the root of
>unsuccessful and demoralizing team building efforts. When leadership is
>unclear as to what the Vision is, or why we're doing this round of
>reorganization, look for sponsorship. A sponsor devotes fulltime effort
>to discussing the new direction, new expectations, and is willing to do so
>over a long haul. This commitment is not made lightly--and involves
>support, influence, resources to make it happen. As a consultant I am
>committed to saying no to projects that are not well sponsored, and many
>of the questions will help elicit the info needed prior to contracting
Molly's comments are valuable.
In our own experience, we never set out to do team building. Silver is a
byproduct of gold mining. Mining companies often sell a lot of silver
because it is found in conjunction with gold.
Here is a formula for successful teambuilding which has been working for a
long time. Bring together a well-informed group of people who want to
contribute to resolving some mess in which they all have a stake.
Conduct an Interactive Management session with them, which is 99.9%
certain to yield products that they develop which are highly contributory
to resolving the mess.
Results: (1) Gold, in the form of the group products, (2) Silver, a group
of people who like and respect each other, and are ready to work as a team
if called upon to do so in the future.
Price for the Gold: Maybe $20,000. (I don't sell it.)
Price for the Team-Building: $0
Team-Building, done separately, is social overhead.
-- John N. Warfield Johnwfield@aol.com