Thursday, April 29, 2010

the cost of team-building

Part of what makes team-building so hard is its cost. There are personal costs, political costs, and organizational costs--plus the cost of time. Yet people who've been on a performing team often want to get back on one, and managers are often hoping to create them. I think that listing some of the costs may help us understand the resistance to team-building / gelling:

costbenefit
loss of independencewe accomplish more than we'd do alone
increased visibility of mistakesour team is there to help us when we fall
increased visibility of weaknesses" " "
with more trust in teammates comes more vulnerability that they'll let you downmore connection and support
full presence requires more energywe relish more in our success
decreased recognition from management for individual contributionsmuch more constructive feedback and learning opportunities from peers
organizations lose some control when a group has gelled--a self-organizing team does what it chooses, rather than always doing what the organization has requestedunprecedented levels of productivity and value

1 comment:

Daryl Richter said...

Nice article, thanks.

It might have a bit more impact if you laid out your analysis as a table:

perceived cost | realized gain
loss of independence | accomplish more than we do alone

All the best,
Daryl