Improving Team Effectiveness

We do everything in teams these days. We have teams in our private lives, such as sports teams and church groups. We have a multitude of teams in our workplaces, like product teams, department teams, leadership teams, and task teams. We even can be members of teams when we have never seen our teammates... so-called "virtual teams".

Teams are everywhere. When you are a member of a successful team, it is a tremendously gratifying experience. You feel a sense of accomplishment that is extremely powerful and fulfilling. It is almost as if you are one mind and one body working together.

Conversely, we have all spent time being on a team that did not function well, where conflict was rampant, where hidden agendas and a "me first" attitude contributed to a lack of trust, a negative experience so overwhelming that we simply could not wait to have it end.

The good news is that the positive experience is not an accident. The factors that work to make a team a smooth, cohesive, high functioning unit are known and repeatable.

Two realities have helped shape organization life today: first, that all organizations are faced with a primary challenge: to produce consistently superior performance - or they will soon not be producing much at all. Second, superior teamwork and superior work teams have been demonstrated to be a consistent strategy for producing superior performance in providing services and products.

Teamwork is what leverages the potential of an organization into superior results. Teamwork is the vehicle for integrating information, technology, competence, and resources. But teamwork is not easy, and it is not simple. For, without a clear, functional model to guide us, the task becomes so confused and contaminated with unsupported opinion and bias that it is impossible.

At Wolf Management Consultants, LLC we believe that the key to developing high performing teams is to remember that successful teams do not simply happen. They take tremendous effort and time. They require a culture which enables and supports team work and need proper guidance and support from the team leader. We will work with you and your teams to determine the objectives and scope of a team engagement - and then provide process consulting, group facilitation and skill building to make truly high performing teams a reality in your organization.