Team Building and Team Learning

Team Building and Team Learning (TBTL) is a key Leadership Development practice that enables the leader to foster the conditions necessary for groups to become effective teams. It builds the team's cohesion and commitment and aligns individual members' insights to improve team effectiveness. It should be seen as part of a continuous developmental process throughout a team's lifespan.

Specifics of Team Building (TB) and Team Learning (TL)

TB focuses on improving teamwork. It typically involves the team members coming to an agreement to work together towards shared desired outcomes. They usually examine how they currently work together, explore their strengths and weaknesses, agree on their ideal or preferred way of collaborating and establish action plans for implementing more effective ways of working together. TB builds the foundation for the team to be developed further.

TL focuses on improving alignment of individual insights to become shared knowledge. It involves the team members sharing their insights and creating shared knowledge that enables the team to adapt to changing situations. This requires them to reflect on their experiences, share insights or knowledge, respect each other's views and create shared mental models for enhanced team responsiveness and adaptability.

While TB creates the conditions necessary for individuals to start transiting from being an individual (“I”) to a member of the team (“We”), TL leverages the resultant team dynamics and accelerates the surfacing and aligning of individual insights to derive shared mental models, which facilitates team effectiveness.

Key TBTL Models

Vision, Roles, Rules & Relationships (V3R)

The model comprises the key aspects a team needs to agree on to enable team effectiveness. The team must have a shared vision. Members must have well defined functional and behavioural roles, clear rules and good interpersonal relationships.

Tetra Model

The Tetra model allows individuals to understand their and others' behavioural preferences. Team members will better respect the diversity in their team, work inter-dependently, create synergy in terms of their insights and work, and ensure that team efforts are sustainable.

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