Team Building Tips

Cerk --

You have a major, but not insurmountable, challenge ahead of you. Typically IT folks have been hired for their talent and independence and now they probably feel like you are changing the rules of the game. Additionally, it sounds like key individual goals (billable hours) may ultimately work against you.

The best way to get this effort moving in the right direction is to involve these employees in the process and communicate as often as you can about what's happening. You and the other managers should create the framework for the move to teams -- number and type of teams and the ultimate goal. And then involve the employees in the definition of the specifics. This could be accomplished by each manager being responsible for the definition of a specific team and its scope and boundaries. Their job would then be to pull together the employees in a subteam and hammer out the details, then bring them back to the large group for concurrence.

This will enable the employees to have some skin in the game, leverage their independent thoughts by contributing to the greater good to the group and allow them to experience the team effort first hand. It should reduce or eliminate you having to "sell" them on this process.

Two tools to help you get those teams started are "Managed Empowerment - An Oxymoron" and the "Team Start Up Guide." You can pick up your free copies by going to our Team Building Tools page and entering your name and email address to get the instant download.

Change is hard and selling it to people rarely works. They have to see what's in it for them. The best way to do that is for them to be part of the development.

Let us know how this works out for you.