Special project on the horizon? Put a team together! See a need for innovation at work? Put a team together! Want to break down your workplace silos? Put a team together! Employers are starting to look at the assembly of a team as the duct tape of the workforce.

Don’t get me wrong, workplace teams can expedite special projects, create an innovative atmosphere and break down silos; that is all true. However, in order to get there, teams have to be thoughtfully assembled. This workplace fix-all –teams- needs a strategy behind it. Just like any other move you would make in business, team building has to have a strong strategic element.

“Over the past couple of decades, a cult has grown up around teams. Even in a society as fiercely independent as America, teams are considered almost sacrosanct. The belief that working in teams makes us more creative and productive is so widespread that when faced with a challenging new task, leaders are quick to assume that teams are the best way to get the job done.” – Diane Coutu, Harvard Business Review

Richard Hackman, the Edgar Pierce Professor of Social and Organizational Psychology at Harvard University and a leading expert on teams, shared in an interview his observations and experience in why teams don’t work. Believe it or not, we agree with him, but we have the solutions. Because teams are a mandatory part of the workplace, the only option is to work on optimizing them with the use of team building software, rather than settling for their intrinsic downfalls.

Let’s get down to it –the reason you clicked. Here are the top 3 reasons you need to invest in team building software to help you build better teams at work.

1.   So…what exactly are we doing?

Hackman’s research has shown most of the time, all of the members of a team do not even agree on what the team is supposed to be doing or achieving. That’s a pretty big problem to start with.

Team building software can get entire teams off on the right foot by ensuring that the members have the same, or compatible communication styles. As communication is a sound part of the success of any team, ensuring strong communication is vital. With 3 out of 4 employers rating teamwork and collaboration as “very important”, it makes sense to get it right from the start.

This ambiguity goes even farther. A team of three workplace team building experts pulled together data and found that when executive members were asked to describe their teams, less than 10% were in agreement about who was even on the team. Please note, those were executives!

2.   Dream teams are just that… a dream.

We actually weren’t surprised to learn that research consistently shows that teams underperform. That’s exactly why we created our team building software. I’ll only say it once more; teams are a mandatory part of the workplace. Without the guidance of team building software, your employees are probably among the nearly 85% of U.S employees who think working on teams in the office is difficult.

3.   You throw together a meal, not a team.

Consider this quote from Hackman, and reflect on your own experiences with teams in the workplace…

“Fearful of seeming exclusionary—or, on the other end of the spectrum, determined to put people on the team for purely political reasons—the chief executive frequently creates a dysfunctional team.”

Employers and leaders simply have to stop constructing teams with all the wrong motives. Instead, use team building software to help make objective and effective team building decisions.

Instead of accepting what we have always believed to be the intrinsic flaws of teams, leaders now have the tools to build better, more effective and efficient teams with team building software. A tool that optimizes your most valued asset seems to make a whole lot of sense. Right?

Bio: Ryan Mead, CEO/Partner

Vitru is an online application that provides tools to evaluate and build better teams. Powered by science yet practical and easy to use for a variety of teams. From students and nonprofits to Fortune 500 companies Vitru works!

Great organizations, regardless of size or mission, understand that powerful team chemistry is impossible to force; but when it happens, it’s magic.

Vitru allows team leaders to create and assess teams virtually and in doing so helps quantify what makes an outstanding team outstanding.

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