Getting the Group to Work as a Team

Martha has been assigned a team of 10 people to help her plan a major customer appreciation event. They have been working together for over a month now and they just haven’t really come together as a team. She was sure she started off well. She contacted each individual on the team and let them know their responsibilities on the project.

Each of the members gets the tasks completed, but don’t seem concerned with the others on the team. If someone needs help, no one pitches in to assist. If a team member has a problem, no one helps him to solve that problem. Just yesterday one of the team members had an emergency and asked if someone on the team could have a call with the sales team so she could leave early. No one offered to help so Martha jumped in to assist. Martha had to do something. This was a bad experience for everyone frankly and some folks already were talking about getting off the project. Plus she felt the event won’t be as good as it could if they just came together as a team.

Here is what Martha should have done: Martha never got the team together prior to starting the project to get to know each other and discuss how they will work together to accomplish the goals of the project. She could have done this by getting the time in one location or even using a virtual tool. In order to get the group to come together as a team now, Martha might step back and hold a team building session. During this time she should plan to accomplish the following:

• Enable for time for team members to build relationships by getting to know each other on a personal level

• Develop processes and procedures for how the team will: share work, meet the objectives of the project, solve problems and resolve conflicts and make decisions

When the team members get to know each other, they will begin to support each other and will be more concerned about their team mates. Bottom line, they will function as a team.