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Team Building Strategies –
Victoria Service Team Case Study The continued organisational focus on the need for staff to work flexibly and be responsible and accountable for the performance outcomes of themselves and their work units has presented an array of challenges and opportunities in developing teams. The Victoria Service Team (VST) developed strategic initiatives to team building in response to a range of identified needs. Firstly, the focus on performance targets and individuals was recognised as the primary driver for the team. Ownership of both the team and individual plans was paramount. The process by which the plan was developed and delivered needed to be inclusive of all team members. The planning process was highly structured, delivered over a number of sessions and was of itself a team building exercise. The planning process and goal orientation contains an element of ‘mutual obligation’, to the extent that the individuals needs and expectations are incorporated into the plan. Secondly, management and leadership style was refocused toward a mentoring and coaching approach rather than surveillance and control. This strategy focused almost exclusively on training and developing team leaders. The emphasis being on a ‘hands-off’ management approach. Team leaders were charged with tutoring, encouraging team members to develop the confidence, and if need be additional skills, to undertake tasks and solve problems themselves. Not surprisingly this has been quite a cultural shift and has been met with resistance by some. Thirdly, team members were encouraged to take greater responsibility for monitoring their own performance, decision-making and problem solving. Cyclical performance reviews, informal feedback from team leaders and transparent feedback reporting on the intranet site, and being directly accountable to Members and other clients for errors, highlights to team members and clients both strengths and weaknesses and provides greater incentive to focus on quality and accuracy. Fourthly, team members were encouraged to develop a better understanding of their colleagues as individuals. To promote a better understanding of the demands of work processes across the team, a system of staff rotation was implemented. All team building activities involved a combination of team members from each work group. An e-magazine, Newslink was developed to encourage individual contributions in order to encourage personal respect for, and appreciation of, team members.
Newslink – one strategy designed to encourage greater personal involvement in the team environment.
A number of ‘fun’ activities, such as a table tennis competition, were organised during lunch hours and after work. Fifthly, reward and recognition strategies were developed. An employee-of-the-month scheme, known as the You Matter Trophy was introduced. The You Matter Trophy is peer-nominated and judged by team leaders according to a number of criteria developed by the nominee’s VST colleague at a team building session.
Victoria Service Team staff.
Enlarge photo
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