BUILDING TEAM COOPERATION

In the workplace, cooperation represents the blending of many skills to produce collective achievement. Even in teams where some members are competitive in nature, there are simple things you can do inspire genuine cooperation.

FOCUS ON TEAM GOALS –Keeping the team’s goals uppermost in everyone’s mind and explaining how each person’s tasks contribute to the team’s mission, encourages team members to be more cooperative as individuals in order to be more competitive as a team.

FOCUS TEAM MEMBERS ON DOING THEIR BEST (NOT ON “BESTING” OTHER TEAMMATES) – Make sure members know that they’ve been put on the team not to show what they can do personally, but rather to assist in making the TEAM successful.  Identify each person’s strengths from the perspective of how those strengths will blend with others to help the team achieve its desired outcomes.

REWARD THE TEAM BY DISTRIBUTING REWARDS COOPERATIVELY RATHER THAN COMPETITIVELY – Celebrate as a group when the team defeats its “opponent” (such as solving a key problem) and only then recognize individual contributions toward that victory.

DON’T CONFINE COOPERATION – Apply the Team Concept Beyond the Team Itself – Encourage team members to find ways of cooperating with other departments and outside entities in order to uncover fresh insights and new ways of doing things.

Let us help you build a winning team: contact Terri Codd MCF Corporate Training & Life Coach: 076 751 3556: coddterri@gmail.com: terricodd.blogspot.com