A Team Building Program to Build Inclusive Teams
Building inclusive teams isn’t difficult, yet I’ve noticed over many years of consulting that the majority of companies and organizations have no system in place to help people collaborate in a way that invites everyone to the table and values their input. I most often see the opposite being done, creating teams that are rife with dominance by the in group, harshness, pressure, conflict, inequality, and exclusion.
The standard, outdated, and ineffective model of building teams is for the people in power to order their employees to go work on something together without any ground rules or support. This leads to reactive groups of people flailing wildly and getting much less done than if they had a clear methodology in place. It also sets the stage for teams where a couple of strong personalities impose their will and ideas upon everyone, creating restrictive, unequal, unhappy, unproductive dynamics.
Thankfully, you have better options at your fingertips. You can start shifting away from the mediocre, exclusionary model of yesteryear by doing things like:
- Inviting everyone to participate.
- Committing to teaching everyone from leadership down how to come together.
- Setting aside the time to teach and practice new skills.
- Valuing collaboration over competition.
- Setting up teams that give all members an equal voice.
- Doing away with power differentials and titles.
- Emphasizing effective communication.
- Allowing people to speak their minds without fear of punishment.
- Practicing emotional intelligence.
- Rewarding positive behaviors.
- Encouraging trust.
- Sharing information openly.
- Giving team members the ability to work independently.
- Getting rid of distractions.
- Being open to a variety of outcomes.
- Praising people.
- Creating a step-by-step methodology that people can use to work together well.
Imagine what your teams would be like if they practiced all these things. Everyone would be happier and enjoy the following benefits:
- Greater productivity.
- Generating results instead of getting stuck.
- Better use of time.
- Open communication.
- People treating each other well.
- More trust.
- Sharing common goals.
- Working together instead of competing against each other.
- Greater creativity.
- More innovative ideas and solutions.
- Less emphasis on personalities and egos.
- Fewer cliques.
- Better brainstorming.
- Eliminating power struggles.
- A more positive work environment.
- People feeling included and valued.
How many of these characteristics are present in your teams? If you’re like most workplaces, very few of them. Traditionally we’ve placed so much emphasis on competition and power that we forget the amazing results we can get when we give everyone the chance to exchange ideas freely in an atmosphere of kindness and collaboration.
The good news is that we now have the knowledge and tools to help you build dynamic, positive, healthy teams that are able to achieve great things. The trick is to create a methodology you and your staff can follow to get things done together. I always recommend that learning team building skills start at the top, that way the people in leadership positions show everyone how important teams are to the company or organization.
You can get started building inclusive teams whenever you choose to. All it takes is learning some core skills and setting aside the time to make it a reality. You’ll be happy you did. Cheers, Guy.