One of the main reasons I get so many questions about how to build a strong team culture is that most people haven’t been taught how to collaborate well in any setting, including at work. Our companies and organizations are overwhelmingly unhealthy, hyper-competitive, stressed-out places where individualism matters more than teamwork. What so many people fail to realize is that things don’t have to be like this. Just because a bunch of uncaring, psychologically broken people came up with this harsh model doesn’t mean we have to keep repeating their mistakes and making ourselves and others miserable.

There are better ways of doing things and we now have the knowledge to build much more supportive workplaces where a strong team culture is created by doing things like:

• Setting aside time to practice team building.
• Teaching everyone, starting with leadership, practical skills to interact positively.
• Encouraging listening.
• Allowing people to share their ideas.
• Brainstorming.
• Praising people regularly.
• Being open to new and different people and perspectives.
• Improving social skills.
• Valuing kindness and empathy.
• Focusing less on competition and more on cooperation.
• Giving people the power to make decisions.
• Rewarding collaboration.
• Having clear goals.
• Putting aside egos.
• Placing more emphasis on the group rather than the individual.
• Creating policies that promote collaboration.

Building a strong team culture begins at the top. Traditionally, our companies were designed to cater to whatever the worldview or whims of the individuals in charge were. If you had authority figures who only valued competition, then the workplace reflected that; if they didn’t cherish empathy, you’d see a lot of harshness and cruelty. The cultural norm was to just shut up and do your job and, if you were asked to work with others, do it without complaining and, by the way, you’ll be punished if the results aren’t acceptable.

Our outdated, inadequate approach to creating teams is a direct result of people not knowing how to play well with others. If all we value is being on top of someone else, then we design workplaces where hierarchy and dominance supersede equality and collaboration. The strange thing is that the very same people who only focus on controlling and defeating others are the ones lamenting that there is no team spirit in their companies or organizations.

I had a client tell me that he had worked for a large corporation that portrayed itself as enlightened and innovative. From the outside, they looked like they had an enviable team culture that made them very successful but, on the inside, it was the same old story of forcing people to work together with no structure or support and demanding they create something ingenious in the midst of chaos. As a result of this negative experience, he created a team building program in his current company that gives people much more flexibility and autonomy and doesn’t make team members feel like they’re working in a pressure cooker. He said their approach has made them more creative, inventive, and productive.

In my experience, companies and organizations have a much easier time building a strong team culture when they let go of the antiquated, authoritarian, punitive, reactive model and replace it with a methodology that teaches people how to work together in a kind, calm, proactive, respectful, and supportive manner. Imagine how well your workplace would function if you had access to new strategies to help you and your employees do amazing things together.

It’s not difficult to create a vibrant culture of team building, it just requires the will to let go of the old way of doing things and replacing it with more effective behaviors. You get to decide whether or not you make it happen in your workplace. Cheers, Guy.

Bring Your People Together and Create a Thriving Culture of Team Building with My Advanced Team Building Program