An Action Approach to Team Building Part 2

Beliefs are the key motivators in peoples' behaviour. However, changing your team members beliefs is not an easy or swift task. Recruiting the right people through personality instruments and team interviews can be one strategy but understanding their beliefs can be important in identifying other strategies. Common beliefs limiting team performance include:

Feedback "I have some constructive feedback but expressing it may cause a confrontation � best to keep it to myself"

Delegation "The only way to get the job done properly is to do it myself"

Sales "Real salespeople are dishonest, pushy and arrogant"

Changing beliefs such as these can be a daunting challenge. Team leaders need to facilitate change by designing flexible experiences for people in organizations to learn that "maybe there is a different way to look at this". Experiential learning such as climbing trees and playing games aren't just used because they are fun and help build relationships but because they work. Multiple and varied experiences must be used to inspire new ways of seeing and thinking about things. Reframing opens the mind to new beliefs and behavior.

Information and ideas are not enough they need to be engrained in day to day activity. You need to look at training options and ask what beliefs in this organisation may hamper or aid in achieving the desired outcome? How can our work environment be changed to support flexibility and greater productivity or what experiences will help foster changes in belief and behaviours? Team building is not an exact science but a cast of finding the best strategies available to bring out the potential in your team.