Society is an extremely large and complexly interacting system and, whether we like it or not, such systems are error controlled. This means, paradoxically, that in them change and evolution can come about only as the result of deviation and pathology, and that without these imperfections a system would become hopelessly stagnant and sterile.
The goal of team building is to develop a method that will reduce the dysfunctional interaction and allow future problems to be ameliorated before a team breakdown occurs.
Moving through the what, so what, now what process occurs with every team building day, the connections and learning from the day lose power and focus when people get back to work and return to their day to day tasks.
Consulting on organization development often requires me to develop processes and tools to support people to understand better what they are accountable for, what authority is needed to complete what they are accountable for and how other can hurt and help them in completing the work.
Learning, and making progress on meaningful work are the 2 easiest ways to increase creativity and retain the talented people within your organization.
Often conflicts within teams are not the team itself, it is the needed work and support from another team in a different department within the organization.
Part of sense-making is removing the perceived expert from your work and placing you, the expert, at the periphery of your work.
“Managers and knowledge workers, such as consultants, now spend 90% to 95% of their working hours in meetings, on the phone and responding to email.”
In my research within organizations and informal discussions the idea of trust, felt-fairness, liberty, being unencumbered to complete your work without some asshole (or manipulative procedure) constricting you, are what most people want from their employer.
It has proven very useful to invest enough time for the definition of the goal. The more you talk about it, the clearer and more relevant it becomes. It is important to be very concrete when it comes to team goals and future actions.