This morning you arrived at work early to review a special project. As she enters the building, she hears excited voices coming down the hall. Walking through the office door, Mary, her sales manager, notices the look of surprise on her face. She says, “Hey boss! I took on that project you gave me yesterday and it’s going great. We’re going to exceed our sales goals again this year!”

You see your staff huddled around a table working on the new proposal to improve customer service. They came early to work on the project. Overhead lights illuminate charts and graphs showing progress. There are no walls or barriers separating your team from each other. The room is full of energy, a charged and innovative atmosphere of motivated team members. They are proud of themselves and their achievements. Is this a dream? Or is this real?

The benefits of people working together as teams remain a critical element in building a positive work environment and high job satisfaction. In a rapidly changing world that values ​​technology, speed and flexibility, teamwork unites individual efforts and is key to success, innovation and creativity.

Teamwork has improved morale, reduced costs and drastically improved productivity in companies. William J. O’Brian, former CEO of Hanover Insurance Company, said many years ago: “The fundamental movement in business in the next 25 years will be to disperse power, to give meaning and satisfaction to employees in a way that avoid chaos.” and disorders.” Teamwork remains an important ingredient in high-performance organizations.

Teams can lessen the need for excessive layers of middle managers and supervisors. Aetna Life & Casualty reduced the worker-middle management ratio from one supervisor to seven workers to one supervisor to thirty workers, while improving customer service. At a General Mills plant in Lodi, California, productivity increased 40 percent over comparable plants thanks to the equipment.

However, many companies do a poor job of developing teamwork. I have visited organizations where open conflicts existed between individuals and departments. Imagine working for a company where people go out of their way to sabotage the efforts of others. According to the Mediate.com website, managers spend 30% of their time dealing with conflict. How long can a business stay viable when people refuse to work together?

Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith, in their book The Wisdom of Teams, provide an excellent definition of a team. They say, “A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.”

In their book, the authors discuss the following criteria for success in high performance teams.

complementary skills. Each person on a team possesses a particular skill or talent. When combined, these talents and abilities enhance the team’s ability. In a high-performance team, members can do each other’s work.

Committed people. Teams achieve their best performance when they engage with each other and trust management. Personalities and human dynamics are critical to team success. Until team members trust each other and understand each other’s individual personalities and work styles, commitment to the project is difficult.

common purpose. Most teams work on a particular project, task, or specific type of work. Committees are not teams. The most effective teams are those with a written charter that outlines a clear goal, purpose, and mission.

common approach. You can’t put a few people in a room and expect them to become an effective and productive team. Not having a structured way of getting work done is one of the biggest reasons teams fail. For example, project teams must follow a standardized methodology to solve problems, design a new service and/or improve a process. Initially, teams require training, mentoring, and coaching.