 Allowing the team to
develop their Mission / Vision statements together is an excellent way of
building team ownership and responsibility for delivering results.
Work together on a
short-term challenge. This may be completely unrelated to the task, eg.
undertaking a sponsored walk together, or painting a community building. The process of
working together on a task offers a chance for the team to talk to each other, build
relationships and to achieve early success.
Have an early team
meeting away from home - either going away for the day, or even better with an
overnight stay. Being away from home base helps to generate team spirit.
Have fun!
A shared social event, party, hike or whatever can be a great way of allowing people to
get to know one another without any pressure to get on with the task.
Look
together at successful examples of teams, and understand what they have in
common. Broaden the net to consider sporting teams and business teams as well as Christian
teams. Think through how their common elements can be reapplied in your team. You might
even consider going together to watch a match, or to talk to a business team.
Pray
together. Praying together for the success of the team, and for each other is a
powerful way of supporting one another. This can either be as a whole team, or by giving
each member of the team two or three other team members to pray for (so each team member
gets prayed for by two or three other members of the team.)
Share personal
experiences and expectations. Each person takes between five and ten minutes to
outline why they want to be on the team, what they bring that is relevant, and what they
are hoping to get out of it. No interruptions whilst they are talking, but questions
allowed at the end. (This works best when all members of the group will feel comfortable
participating!)
Affirm Each Other.
- Each member of the team is given the same number of cards as there are team members,
less one. Each person then writes the name of another team member on the top of each card,
and then briefly writes down one quality, strength or characteristic they particularly
appreciate about that person. This is replicated until they have completed one for each
other member of the team. All the cards are gathered together and then redistributed to
the members concerned. Feedback remains anonymous.
Roles and Tasks.
- The team works out the tasks and roles needed to achieve its mission and allocates roles
to team members. Then allow an open discussion to develop about what will be done
independently and what will be done together.
These suggestions are likely to
require the team to invest in a reasonable amount of time to ensure that they are working
effectively, and feel comfortable with one another. This is time well invested, and is
likely to pay dividends later. In addition there are a number of good ten to twenty minute
teambuilding games and exercises that can be carried out at the start of a team meeting.
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