Team Retreats and Processes * When is a retreat useful? * When do you need an outside facilitator? * Facilitator and participant responsibilities * What is your approach to retreats? * Sample team projects Audio Clips How do you approach retreats? (60 secs.) AIFF Format Please note that this file may take some time to download. For help listening to the audio, please click here. About my work Mary Dingee Fillmore, Director Clients Projects	The Art of Teambuilding Every team is as different as every family, and needs a different approach. There are no formulas about how to bring individuals together in a way that turns them into a real team. To us, A team is a group of people with a common purpose so important to them that the needs and priorities of the group generally supersede the individual's. The first, and most difficult, task in teambuilding is setting the stage and getting everyone on it together, with the agreement to take a risk and work together. Following that, people can be prepared with specific tools as team leaders and members. The Initial Assessment By interviewing people at all levels individually and in focus groups, and by reviewing written material, we look at how the organization functions now in terms of tasks (what is best done alone and what is best done jointly), existing bonds, and the formal and informal channels for getting things done. People are asked questions like: What has this group accomplished? How do you assess the process of producing those accomplishments on the scale of pleasure to torture, and why? What is rewarded here? What is punished? How? When conflicts arise, what do you do? What are the pressures on the situation related to teamwork, both external and internal? Where is the organization heading? Where do you want to go? How do you feel about working here and why? What has already changed? For better or worse? What needs to change? Design and Feedback Based on the assessment, we design a process that is carefully tailored to the situation to help people take the first steps. Too often, organizations want to plunge into training team leaders and members in specific skills before they have agreed to try the process of teaming at all. This generates needless resistance and undermines possible success. By reporting back to the full group on the proposed next steps, the consultants bring people together to influence the agenda and the overall process. Initial Retreat Although every retreat is different and is tailored to the organization's specific situation and the people involved, there are some common elements which are usually present. The desired outcome (for both existing and new teams) is generally participants who understand what a team is and are more ready to accept the idea and move forward with it. The agenda often includes such elements as: an opening exercise to connect people in unfamiliar ways so they see more commonalities. This is always substantive rather than superficial, even if it involves information about activities outside work. a joint analysis of the situation as it is, often with some pre-work as a starting point (for example, someone might be assigned to bring in financial data, someone else might do an advance consultation with technical staff, or collect other specific data). Both internal and external factors need to be considered. an experience of working together as a team on the spot. Sometimes this is a case study directly related to work, sometimes it is a problem situation which draws on broader life skills, and sometimes it is a creative task (such as developing a skit which illustrates the organization's current dilemma). People are thrown together in unexpected ways and reflect on their experience. a conceptual education about teams and their consequences. Building on their own experience as a starting point, we usually discuss what a team is, how it works, the usual results, and common pitfalls and how to overcome them. a real debate about the potential of the team approach to address the situation the organization faces now. New teams ask which tasks would be easier and which would be more difficult; existing teams examine the positive and negative consequences thus far. agreement about next steps, whether that means continuing the debate or actually beginning the process. There is no point in "forcing" people to team up; unless there is a solid majority, it's better to keep talking than jump in. Training and Outside Facilitation Depending on the situation, some team tools may be needed. Former supervisors often need significant assistance in developing the coaching and more indirect motivational strategies needed by a team leader; rarely have they designed group processes for getting things done rather than delegating. Team members may be more accustomed to relating to each other as competitors at worst or innocuous colleagues at best; they need to learn the skills of both conflict and collaboration. When a team feels "stuck," when it never really gets off the ground, when people are thrown in unwillingly or are untrained in team concepts, an outside facilitator can not only help the group through the crisis, but also model how to initiate that process and train others to intervene in future.
© 1996 - 1998 Mary Dingee Fillmore, Changing Work <mfillmore@usa.net>. All rights reserved.