How to create a cohesive team. Is a close-knit team about you? Examples of how to unite employees of different departments

American corporations began putting team work first 40 years ago. Taking sports principles as a basis, business coaches have developed many laws in accordance with which the work of a group should be based on a common result. Employees must learn these laws and principles directly in the workplace. To facilitate this task, there are many practices - from the notorious rope training to the fashionable one in Russia culinary team building.

Team-building trainings can solve various problems: relieve tension in the team, identify the leadership qualities of employees, and establish interaction between different departments of the company. When choosing training, experts advise, if possible, to avoid extreme sports and practices that involve public speaking by employees: stress and a feeling of awkwardness can kill the entire positive effect. Nevertheless, team building cannot be done without the competitive principle.

H&F has selected several interesting trainings that can make the team work more harmoniously.

A dark room

The German Andreas Heinecke invented and created the project “Dialogues in the Dark” in 1995. All coaches conducting trainings with company managers are blind; the training itself takes place in a completely dark room and lasts several hours (the part of the lesson dedicated to discussing the results is, after all, in the light). Team building can involve from two people to several dozen. The lesson begins with the simplest tasks - determine the size of the room, divide into teams, find a table in a dark room, sit at it, taking chairs, and so on. The training is aimed at identifying leadership qualities and team building, but can be transformed to suit other needs. For example, identifying an anti-leader in a team. In Russia, the “Dialogues in the Dark” franchise is being developed by another German, Tobias Reisner.

Winemaking

Owners of small private grape farms have become accustomed to renting out their lands to various companies specializing in training. Winemaking classes typically last three to four hours. During this time, teams consisting of company managers not only manage to trample bunches of grapes (which, of course, is a lot of fun), but also come up with a name for the wine, a label design, and present their product. Along the way, program participants learn about the technology of making wine, and after three to four months, the finished fermented drink arrives at their office. The purpose of the training is to introduce employees of different departments of the company to each other, who have not had to work together before, if they are faced with the task of tackling the same project.

The zombie apocalypse

US corporate culture is booming Humans vs. Zombies - trainings whose motto captivates any HR manager: “Zombies do not discriminate against you based on race or gender. They'll just eat you up if you don't know how to work as a team." The roles of zombies are played by hired actors, and company employees portray the surviving group of people who, depending on the script, need to get out of a closed room or save the world. The result is a mixture of paintball and costume performance. The program is good, on the one hand, for identifying the leadership qualities of employees, on the other hand, for forming the habit of obeying the leader and executing his orders. Such trainings, by the way, are popular at US military bases.

Steam room

Domestic businessmen had just begun to wean themselves from the habit of holding important meetings in the bathhouse, when it suddenly turned out that in Japan, joint baths between the head of a department and his subordinates are the main hit in the field of team building. Of course, if all employees are of the same gender. Sitting in a hot spring, colleagues can talk confidentially and frankly, say Asian business coaches, and even European managers agree with them. It is important to note that you need to immerse yourself in a hot spring completely naked, having first taken a shower and washed your hair in the company of the same colleagues.

Not every leader knows how to unite a team. If the set goal is achieved, the level of comfort among staff can be significantly increased, accelerating the process of achieving the set goals. Today, there are many known methods designed for unity, and each of them has its own specific features.

The manager must understand that there are no universal methods that help unite the team in a short time. Only establishing relationships with your employees will help take the company to a new level of development.

Locomotive production

Each company has a certain set of traditions that have been formed over many years. Many people make mistakes, trying to break an established system of interaction by introducing elements into it that simply won’t fit.

Today, corporate events have become very popular and are used to improve the efficiency of core activities. Depending on the goals set, both unity and separation can be achieved. An unoriginal scenario and identical type of event will lead to an even greater decrease in interaction in the group, since employees consider such activities to be “plastic.”

As practice shows, corporate meetings put every person under even greater stress. He cannot fully open up and feel organic in the current situation. The employee understands that such events are a continuation of the work process from which he wants to take a break.

For this reason, at work you can increasingly see sad and depressed people who feel responsible for their actions. Someone could have had too much alcohol and said something unnecessary, for which they could be ashamed. A holiday in any company should be thought out to the smallest detail and implemented by the entire work team.

Each employee should have his own role in the overall training process. He will feel his importance, and the unity of the team will happen much faster. On the eve of the event, everyone shares information with each other, setting themselves up for the positive. This approach will save the company money, since organizing and holding a corporate event with the involvement of specialized organizations will be expensive.

In order for the events to be remembered for a long time, it is necessary to conduct a preliminary anonymous survey. Each employee must express their point of view and display a vision of the future holiday. After the survey in the company is completed, it will be possible to draw conclusions and understand the needs of colleagues. The leader must form an initiative group that will deal with the subsequent organization of the event. In addition, you can always involve colleagues as assistants.

Team building

Many managers give advice, in which you can often hear advice on conducting team-building sports training. The market for educational services is constantly expanding, and therefore it is necessary to attract additional corporate areas for personnel development. Team building is a simple way to help create loyal connections and motivate unity with the team.

We must not forget that improperly organized corporate trainings can lead to the opposite result:

• discord between employees;
• loss of managerial authority;
• increased turnover in the company, etc.

Every little thing plays a big role, and therefore we must be constantly vigilant. The company should always have a person responsible for selecting training personnel, taking into account the current level of employees. There was an incident in one company: a female manager accidentally broke her leg during training, and then many could not understand whether everything happened intentionally or through negligence.

When active youth are involved in an event, and the physical fitness of the manager leaves much to be desired, the format needs to be reconsidered. This method of team unity will lead to the opposite result. A small mistake can affect the authority of the boss.

If the physical fitness of the company’s employees is not satisfactory, then a detailed plan for future action must be written down. In the case where the CEO is a professional athlete, then imposing his views on his subordinates will be unjustified. A simple example can be given to clearly demonstrate the situation.

In one company, a male manager was involved in parachuting professionally for several decades. He decided to bring a little extreme into the lives of top managers, 90% of whom were women over 45 years old. Of course, no one forced me to jump with a parachute, but it was clear that this was an easy way to establish contact with the boss. Many decided to jump, but not all. Extreme is an ideal option only for active teams who are in search of a constant source of adrenaline.

Education

Corporate trainings have begun to become very popular, and therefore many managers invite recognized masters of their craft to speak. Such events help achieve positive results for new employees who have not had time to adapt to new working conditions.

Some companies practice conducting training programs for each group of new employees. It should be of utmost importance to management that staff can navigate the current landscape. In addition, a professional trainer can tell complex things in simple language, bringing to everyone’s consciousness non-obvious truths.

After the staff underwent corporate training with one trainer, everyone began to use a single and understandable terminology. As practice shows, this educational methodology helps those teams that employ employees with different educational levels.

We must not forget that a newcomer, when starting work, must be familiar with the current work and colleagues in a short period of time. The team should form an attitude towards the newcomer, and therefore communication can begin much faster. Rapid adaptation is a way for production to continually maintain efficiency.

A team of like-minded people moving towards one goal is a cohesive team. Willingness to cooperate is the key to fruitful cooperation between people. We can talk not only about the work process, because unity is the opportunity to understand the person with whom you exist in the same space. Acting according to the same algorithm in tandem with a partner, without leaving your comfort zone - productivity and efficiency even in force majeure situations.

In order for a group to unite, it must have a common approach to the work process and mutual understanding. Motivation and encouragement can be a great help in this matter. Team cohesion is a set of determining factors of interpersonal relationships, a productive organization of life motives within the framework of joint activities. For cohesion, the socio-psychological climate in the team and mutual understanding between
leader and subordinates.

Employees are one unit

On a note! To unite, you need to be able to competently overcome any difficulties and disagreements within the team.

Characteristic

A friendly team means good interpersonal relationships. To organize communication between people, a democratic approach is not enough. First of all, you need to adequately assess the optimal level of psychological compatibility of each group member, smooth out rough edges and find the optimal solution. In order for a team to be characterized as successful, it is worth considering the main nuances of this issue:

• Unity is only possible if the goal is socially approved.
• Forcing something will give an immediate reaction, so this approach should be excluded.
• Integrity is a union of completely different people who work like a well-oiled machine.
• Clear distribution of positions and competent team management.
• Collectivist relations are defined through the concepts of morality.
• Responsibility is of great importance in cohesion. Not only the manager, but also every team member should have it.
• Movement towards a goal when everyone in the team objectively evaluates their successes and failures.
• Overcoming difficulties and helping a like-minded person in a difficult situation.
• The openness of the team is the ability to maintain a favorable atmosphere within the team and to sort out and eliminate any disagreements.
• Rational way out of conflict situations. It is built on a collectivist basis of relationships with other groups or their representatives

Each team member should have their own opinion. It is worth eliminating facelessness. If you organize corporate trainings where pressing problems are dealt with, you can find a way out of the most difficult situation. It is worth understanding that collectivism implies not only caring and desire, but also confidence in the person with whom you work.

Ways to rally

When a cohesive team is needed

A cohesive team has its own performance criteria. It is necessary to develop a specific methodology that is suitable for each team member. Below are the factors that will indicate to the manager that the team is disunited and needs to be united:

• There is no honesty. People provide each other with false information in pursuit of their own goals: they lie, gossip, and provoke conflict situations.
• Corruption within the company, abuse of power. When employees seek benefits from the activities of the enterprise.
• Lack of motivation.
• Opacity of the remuneration and bonus system.
• There is no control, which is why discord occurs. Outstanding leaders try to squeeze more driven employees into a framework.
• Unspoken rules and a code of behavior appear in society that goes against generally accepted concepts.
• Creation of internal unhealthy competition. Most often associated with illiterate management. When the main emphasis is on competition, employees' trust in each other completely disappears.
• Lack of strategy and formation and development of internal corporate culture.
• Inaction when conflict situations arise or lack of reaction to certain actions of colleagues, only because they are good specialists.
• Lack of purpose when people come to work to mediocrely sit through an eight-hour workday.

It is necessary to competently organize a set of trainings that will be conducted regularly. There are many techniques that allow you to change the attitude of employees to the work process and to the team.

Before and after

Formation methods and mechanisms

Team cohesion is easy to organize if you apply several modern techniques. Along with mutual understanding, trust will come, and an optimal atmosphere for work efficiency will be created. Basic ways to unite a team:

• social-role, business communication;
• discussion of controversial issues, sensitive situations;
• psychological tests;
• analysis of communication style and behavior of employees;
• elaboration of each employee’s view of a specific case;
• formation of a common position;
• discussion of circumstances related to achieving a common goal;
• mutual assistance;
• an expert method that optimizes personnel policy.

Any of these team-building activities requires the active participation of a manager or a person who directly supervises the work of a particular department.

Team Elements

Factors

To understand how to unite a team, you need to understand what nuances lead to disunity. Moreover, at the initial level, it is necessary to remember that the formation of a team occurs in stages. Any team building is a team effort and it requires immersion. Below are definitions of the main conditions/criteria for forming a cohesive team:

• coincidence of interests;
• the team consists of people of the same age category;
• goodwill;
• general psychological safety;
• the desire to consider and accept the opinion of another person;
• vigorous activity;
• work for results;
• a positive example in the person of the leader.

Disunity may not even be caused by internal conflicts, but by the fact that the company employs people of different ages.

Factors

How a cohesive team is formed

Success and a common goal unite the team. Interest is the basis of all fundamentals. This is not even about financial gain, but about spiritual development. Every person wants to become a professional in their field. If you put aside disagreements and focus on the process, then soon people will begin to understand each other more and the performance indicator will go up. Main formation factors:

1. Selection of strategy and grinding-in stage.
2. Identification of the main negative factors.
3. Working through conflict situations.
4. Modeling cases and conducting experiments.
5. Adding a creative touch to training.

When the formation is completed, colleagues will understand the multifunctionality of the team and be inspired by the tasks that are assigned specifically to them.

On a note! When receiving a warning from management, it should motivate, and not lower, the employee’s self-esteem. Every leader should be a psychologist.

Formation

Cohesion Tools

If you develop in your employees a desire to help each other, then mutual understanding will appear. After all, team cohesion is a set of human qualities that are developed in a positive way. Basic tools:

1. Creation of corporate traditions.
2. Spending time together outside of work: active recreation, training, celebrations.
3. Systematic meetings at which not only work issues will be discussed.
4. Gamification and communication.
5. Creative and intellectual team building.

It is required to analyze the individual/psychological characteristics of each team member. Disunity can occur even when people share a common goal.

Cohesion Tools

A well-coordinated team is the merit of the head of the enterprise. He must approach the organization of the work process from a psychological point of view. Resolving conflict situations and giving good advice to middle management is the right way. The “correct approach” to employees has many synonyms that every boss should know:

• Validity of orders and claims.
• Selection of a system of methods and techniques.
• Correct distribution of powers.
• Attentive attitude towards subordinates.
• Participation in team activities.

Equality and adequate assessment of employee performance must come first. It is difficult for a twenty-year-old guy to find a common language with a lady of Balzac’s age, but if a young man looks at a colleague as a mentor, and he, in turn, sees a student in the young employee, cohesion will occur, regardless of the age gap.

Even if the team is a single whole, constant work is required to maintain this state. It can be disrupted by any external factor: the appearance of a new team member, a conflict situation or a difference of opinion. Success will depend on a number of factors and sometimes training alone is not enough.

Personnel is one of the most important factors of production and the key to the stability of any company. Therefore, it is simply impossible to overestimate the importance of a healthy team. Like any resource, personnel require competent management and disposal. However, many production issues can be resolved without the direct participation of the company’s management - through the creation of a system of corporate values ​​and the unity of employees.

A united team, freed from internal contradictions, is able to effectively help management achieve their goals, overcome emerging difficulties and increase profits. In this case, all personnel are a single loyal team, subordinate to a common ideology and which is directly integrated into the business processes of the enterprise. In addition to high production efficiency, this team is also characterized by low staff turnover; as a result, the company saves significant funds on the selection and adaptation of new employees.

A close-knit team is characterized by the following features:

• awareness– each team member has an understanding of the company’s values, its goals and is able to determine their direct influence on the achievement of these goals. This allows each employee to assess their importance within the entire business and feel the common interests of the entire team.
• discipline and organization– personnel voluntarily submit to internal regulations, choosing a style of behavior that corresponds to corporate norms and general business ethics. This is not only a guarantee of conscientious work, but also an incentive to increase personal responsibility.
• activity– employees have a high interest in improving the company’s performance, therefore they take the initiative in optimizing processes, increasing efficiency, and reducing ineffective costs. At the same time, they are confident that such behavior is approved not only by management, but also by other members of the work group.

In accordance with the above characteristics, the main steps for creating a cohesive team can be formulated as follows.

• Competent personnel selection– This is the first and most important stage of working with the team. The new employee must not only have the necessary professional skills, but also correspond to the spirit of the company. If he is not able to share corporate values, then his full integration into an existing team is impossible, moreover, this will create various contradictions and tensions. It is extremely important to entrust such a task to an experienced recruiter, and if necessary, seek the help of specialized recruitment agencies.
• An important step for quickly integrating a newcomer into work can be the introduction of a mentoring tradition., when a newly arrived employee is assigned to a specialist who has been working for a long time. This ensures continuity of traditions and reduces the time required for adaptation.
• Raising awareness. Each employee must be provided with information about the goals and parameters of the company’s activities. The mission plays a huge role in this process, as a formalized purpose for the existence of the business, approved by top management. All other ideology, all tasks must be subordinated to this mission and united by it.
• To implement this approach, you can use a very diverse set of tools - a corporate information network, newspapers, honor boards, etc. It is also important to periodically hold events and internal trainings, at which management makes a presentation of the achieved results, emphasizing the role of each department, each working group in their achievement. This makes it possible to convey to the team recognition of their merits and fairly distribute bonuses and rewards.
• Team building and team building trainings. Such events, on the one hand, increase staff loyalty, because Corporate training is perceived by employees as a good opportunity to improve their professional level at the expense of the company. On the other hand, a member of a working group receives very specific skills and knowledge necessary to improve communication in the team and increases the level of trust between colleagues.
• Corporate holidays. Communication between employees outside the office walls and professional competencies promotes closer acquaintance, allows them to find a common language, feel an emotional community and unite existing staff. However, these methods are also quite suitable for new team members - this is an excellent opportunity to quickly get up to speed, make new acquaintances, and find like-minded people and friends with similar interests. Such events not only improve communications between departments of the company, but also contribute to the formation of well-established traditions that demonstrate the community of the team, and contribute to the emergence of a common, established corporate culture.
• Personnel placement. Traditionally, each department occupies separate work areas and offices in the company, thereby actually being isolated from other departments. Such a structure, on the one hand, makes it possible to create the necessary working environment, which is very important for creativity, but it greatly complicates communication between departments, resulting in the emergence of unhealthy competition between them, the formation of various closed subcultures along professional lines.

In some cases, a mixed or open arrangement of personnel, when employees from different departments are placed together, can be very useful. This approach improves interaction between different departments and allows you to better understand the work of different employees. However, a mixed arrangement is only appropriate for departments that have similar functions. For example, loud departments that are constantly in communication and movement can interfere with the production process of creative employees or employees working with paper documents.

As you can see, in order to unite the team into a single team, it is necessary to carry out a number of activities, many of which may not bring the desired result. At the same time, if such complex work is crowned with success, the results can exceed all imaginable expectations.

In general, the entire set of tools that will help unite the team includes the following basic steps:

• development of communications both between departments and between employees and company management;
• formalization of the mission and goals of the company;
• developing team spirit and encouraging traditions;
• corporate events and educational trainings;
• correct selection and placement of employees.

Each manager strives to unite the team in order to maximize the level of comfort of employees and their desire to move together towards their goal. There are many tools used to build relationships between employees.

You will learn:

• What are the advantages of a close-knit team?
• How to form a cohesive team
• How the New Year can help unite the team
• What problems may arise in creating a cohesive team?

What are the benefits of a close-knit team?

1) Collective-team is an analogue of such concepts as strength, unity and reliability of personal interactions and relationships between employees. Team cohesion is a necessary factor for the company’s productive and focused work. A group selected from strangers must spend N amount of time to unite and focus on solving the tasks assigned to it. As a rule, only a well-worked and loyal team can successfully overcome periods of crisis during its formation and advancement, which is their fundamental discrepancy with a group where the members are hastily found people.

2) Only a cohesive team has the ability to overcome the crises that await its members on the path of their formation without losses, which cannot be said about a group of incompatible people. The concept of compatibility is a real opportunity to overcome difficulties, and solving the problems they face actually means that all team members are integrated in the best sense of the word.

3) If the company has a friendly team, then staff turnover practically zero or none at all. Employees do not run away from work after the end of the working day, do not try to help each other out, and do not have the habit of gossiping about their colleagues.

4) Working in such a team, it is immediately clear that everyone is ready to help a colleague, talk about their ideas and developments that can be applied in common work. Employees do not experience negative emotions when thinking about work, they are less tired and more stress-resistant. and they are the ones who are ready to ultimately increase the company's profits.

Team building that will unite the team

Find out how to think through a scenario for an ideal team building from the article in the electronic magazine “Commercial Director”.

Characteristics of a cohesive team

1. Awareness is one of the important concepts of conscious human behavior. The level of awareness of people affects the performance of the entire team as a whole. A timely information process, sent to all recipients and reaching everyone, gives a person a feeling of involvement in the life of the team and its goals. Thanks to this, there are no uninitiated or indifferent employees in the team.

Openness and interest in the economic interests of almost all team members encourages employees to jointly participate in the management activities of the team. It is unlikely that even the most experienced top manager will be able to hope for the support of the team if he does not use or minimally uses the available information channels, both oral and printed, in his work.

2. Discipline is the accepted order of people’s behavior, which meets the moral norms and rules established in the company, which allows you to regulate the processes of behavioral mood in the team. A disciplined person in a team is a stimulus for social development and responsibility towards work. High awareness and understanding of the importance of one’s place in the team contributes to the conscientious performance of functional duties.

Compliance with discipline is the fulfillment by people of established norms and rules of behavior. The level of personal relationships between management and each team member directly affects the quality performance of job duties and social functions.

Methods for maintaining order and discipline can vary widely. Types of social discipline can be such concepts as morality, mores and traditions.

3. Activity is an increased activity performed by a person not so much because of the obligation to fulfill official duty, but because of the opportunity for free self-expression. Thus, the activity of the individual is a need for work and knowledge of the surrounding world.

A person always has a desire to realize and more fully express his inner essence, which leads to his most complete and integral development as a person. The level of activity and initiative of a person is more influenced by the situation when he is alone or in contact with colleagues. Naturally, the feelings and moral component of a person in society are much different from his behavioral mood in a state of loneliness.

4. Organization programs the accurate and competent definition and distribution of rights and responsibilities of employees. It can be traced in the response of team members to changes in the environment, to updating internal and external awareness. The attitude of personnel to the labor process and discipline depends on the correct organization of work.

It is easier for a top manager to work in a highly organized team. To create such a company requires enormous effort and the highest professionalism. Organization is influenced by reasons such as the role of the individual in the team, discipline and other important factors. But even an ideally formed team experiences ups and downs during its existence due to the distribution of responsibilities of its employees as subjects of labor communication and cognition.

To strengthen personal connections in the team, take into account the interests of employees, using economic and social leverage.

5. Cohesion is an action that unites all employees in their common work and gives integrity, which proves the team’s attraction to each other and to the team. This is undoubtedly a qualitative indicator of any work collective.

When the formation of a cohesive team is required

1) At the stage of active development. If the number of employees increases over a short period of time, the “old guys” sometimes develop rather difficult relationships with the newcomers. To unite both groups, you need to start with leaders, both recognized and unrecognized. Team building will serve to bring you closer and benevolent.

2) During stagnation or business downturn. This period is characterized by the fact that employees, doubting the future of the company, begin to work unsteadily, slowly, without showing initiative, begin to look for a new job, and then go free swimming. At this time, the main task of the manager is to raise the working spirit of the staff so that they can realize that improving the situation is in their hands.

3) When there is a conflict between the company's departments, such events will help resolve the problems that arise. So, in one company sales fell sharply. The head of the company organized team building, which contributed to the breakthrough. This event was held after the January holidays, after which the employees went to work rested and ready to move mountains.

What factors influence team cohesion?

1) Common interests, hobbies, views, ethical and material values ​​and orientation of group members;

2) Age composition of groups;

3) A feeling of psychological safety and goodwill;

4) Active and intense joint labor unity aimed at solving common problems;

5) The attractiveness of the leader as a reference model who performs functions to the maximum;

6) Skilled leadership work;

7) The presence of a competing group;

8) The presence in the group of a person who is sharply different from other members and who opposes himself to the group.

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Ways to unite the company team

1. Corporate events. They are used as an effective mechanism designed to unite the team or divide it. The unoriginality of the script and the same type of corporate events will not lead to anything good, since employees treat these events as artificial. During the meeting, they are tense and cannot feel at ease. The person understands that this is a continuation of the work process. After returning to work, people feel awkward and worried that someone behaved inappropriately, someone had too much alcohol.

A full-fledged holiday occurs when the entire scenario is invented and implemented by team members. Colleagues learn new information about themselves and others, and everyone is positive from the very beginning. This approach saves the company money, since holding corporate events by specialized organizations is quite expensive.

In order for the event to be rich and original, you need to conduct an anonymous survey to find out what employees want to see as a corporate event. To do this, fill out a questionnaire. After processing the completed questionnaires, you will understand what employees want, and an initiative group will be determined that can be involved in organizing the event.

2. Team-building sports trainings. Team building will help team members create loyal relationships and motivate team unity and team organization. Improperly organized team building can lead to unforeseen consequences - disengagement of employees, loss of authoritarianism on the part of the manager, and dismissal of staff. Therefore, you should take the choice of a coach very seriously and take into account the physical fitness of the participants. There was such a case, a female leader broke her arm during team building and then thought for a long time whether it was done intentionally or not.

When a company employs active young people, and the physical shape of the manager leaves much to be desired, then team building is hardly justified. This can diminish the boss's authoritarianism. If the general director has much higher sports training than the employees, there is no need to force everyone to take an active part in the event.

For example, in one company the manager, an athletic man aged 36, was passionate about skydiving, so he organized extreme team building for top managers, who were mainly representatives of the fairer sex over 40 years old. Naturally, no one was forced to jump, but they hinted that anyone who did not jump was not our man. Many had to jump, but not all. It is better to compete with extreme sports with those who love such recreation.

3. Team building activities. These include carrying out educational trainings, which will unite the existing staff. They will help adapt new employees to achieve positive results:

- Find a common language. There is a known case when a company conducted training 6 times and each time for a new department. The company's management set a goal for the staff to speak the same language. This could be achieved by undergoing training from one trainer. As a result, colleagues began to use a single terminology. Typically, this training is most useful for employees with different educational levels.

– Bring newcomers up to speed. Within a few hours or days, a new employee gets to know his colleagues, gets involved in the work and ceases to be a stranger. During this time, the team can draw up a portrait of the person and move on to an active form of cooperation. Under normal circumstances, a newcomer can undergo adaptation for several months.

– Earn authority. In the financial division of one company, the core of the employees were people of above average age. A new manager was appointed to the position of financial director, and a young woman at that. How the employees reacted was quite predictable - disrespectful attitude, insubordination, sabotage.

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The financial director made an unusual proposal - she announced her intention to conduct free seminars on English and financial analysis. It is clear that at the first lesson there was no queue of people interested, but there were also those who became interested and came to the conclusion that the classes were worthwhile, and even free. He told his colleagues, and the employees reached out. As a result, she gained authority and respect from her colleagues.

– Development of new documents. During the training session, you can work together to develop, for example, a corporate set of rules for the company, which sets out all the acquisitions and developments of the company. If such a document is provided by a higher organization, it will not work. It’s another matter when the employees themselves become the creators, and the document is honed through an open discussion.

How to unite truants and drinkers

Aigul Gomoyunova, General Director of Penopol Group of Companies, Moscow

The main part of our company are warehouse employees (loaders) and sales department. Therefore, we had a constant turnover of staff. The loaders' staff was constantly being replaced because they drank and skipped work. In just one year, the entire sales department left. It seemed impossible to find out the reason for the constant turnover, because at that time I paid too little attention to the issues of retaining employees. I was at a loss as to what the reason was: our wages are quite high.

Hundreds of methods were used to change the situation: fines, bonuses, promotions - nothing worked. Various methods were used throughout the year, but there was no result.

Remembering my past experience as a business coach, I thought about conducting trainings on team building, inviting the whole team to it: after all, every employee should understand that the final result depends on his contribution, regardless of what he does. The movers expressed a strong reaction to the proposal; they were pleased that someone was interested in their opinion and listened to it. Today they are already interested in the training schedule. The office staff also reacted actively and with understanding.

The first training was devoted to identifying problems with interaction. We played a game on the theme of a shipwreck, in which everyone present took part. Everyone tried to prove their point of view, no one heard anyone, the office employees treated the lower classes with semi-contempt, i.e. movers. The problem was obvious: the entire team was divided into groups, and each considered itself the main one. The goal became clear to me - team unity.

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The culmination of the training was our biggest event, when we rented a cottage and went out into nature for four days. The picnic program included barbecue, paintball and training. The participants were divided into two teams, each including colleagues from all departments. Before we started, I asked departments to make a list of what they needed to buy for their work.

The accounting staff needed some kind of program, the loaders needed an electric car and a microwave, etc. The winning team could choose only one item. Before the start of the competition, everyone argued and proved that the most important thing was the one they ordered. And when the game started, and the first winning team chose the very first item, the situation changed dramatically, each department refused its prize, everyone chose a microwave for the movers, realizing that it was more important to them. And this was repeated at every stage of the competition - everyone completely forgot about their interests and decided on its value for the company, and not for themselves personally.

Today I am pleased with the result:

– permanent employees work at the warehouse site, loaders take an active part in the work of the company.

– in the office, only two employees quit in 2 years, one of them for a good reason.

The effect of the training did not appear immediately, but the first results became visible after the 2nd training.

How to unite the team with the help of a New Year's corporate party

Nadezhda Finochkina, director of the company “Formula for Successful Selection”, Moscow

One day, a client approached us with a request for help in increasing the level of interaction between employees. It was not customary for the team to communicate with each other or attend corporate gatherings. Such relationships within the company were reflected in productivity.

We gave the client's employees a carefully thought-out and original surprise. We conducted mini-interviews with the staff separately in advance to find out personal preferences and facts from their biography, what they spend their free time on. We collected 25 questionnaires and, using the information provided by employees, prepared a questionnaire for the quiz. On the announced day, the entire team of 35 people was invited, as the New Year holidays were approaching.

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According to the rules of the quiz, you had to listen to an interesting description of the hobbies and characteristics of any employee and determine who exactly they were talking about. This story was accompanied by a showing of his childhood photographs. The duration of the corporate holiday took about 6 hours in total, including the official part, a quiz with photos and a buffet reception.

After the corporate event, the colleagues got to know each other again. Such an unusual and educational experience helped the team unite and even created friendly relations between departments. In just one evening, people learned more about each other than in the previous ten years of work.

An original idea for team building for 300 rubles

Eduard Kolotukhin, General Director of the company “Stayer.ru”, Yekaterinburg

Our company is not engaged in sales, but in the emotional involvement of customers. True, this approach works only if team members are endowed with emotional intelligence, the ability to note and emotionally welcome the best sides of their work colleagues. One of the ideas that helps develop empathy in a team is cards with the word “CLASS!”

The essence of the idea. To convince employees to notice the good deeds of their colleagues and thank them, we did not use the usual means of suggestion such as “encourage the best qualities of your colleagues.” Instead, we used a simple technique: we allowed employees to pay each other a small incentive every month. Today, any member of the company can personally present 300 rubles once a month to someone who, in his opinion, has earned it. All employees are given a personalized “CLASS!” card on the first day of each month. Throughout the month, he can give this card to a colleague whose work has delighted or helped him. On the last day of the month they are counted, and we celebrate the leader of the month in corporate media and on the company website.

Here are examples of cases that, in our opinion, are worthy of encouragement and monetary incentives. One replaced a colleague who was on vacation or sick. Another went to the post office to do his business and bought some stamps to send mail to the company, although he was not asked to do so. You can always do a good deed! But if a person is sure that there were no people worthy of the award in the past month, then he may not indicate anyone and not give his card to anyone. Then the next month starts from scratch.

Result. The relationship between the two internal divisions is slowly building. By the way, this pleased me the most. The staff gradually gets involved in the game, learns to notice signs of attention and concern from their colleagues, because sometimes it’s difficult to come up and say: “Thank you!”, but with personalized cards it’s easy and simple. In addition, we noticed emotional leaders of the company.

Factors that reduce team cohesion

Factor 1. The presence of small subgroups in the group, which leads to “parochial” behavior and thinking. The larger the group, the greater the likelihood of subgroups emerging. Limit the number of team members to 5-7, sometimes up to 20 people. Typically, friendships or acquaintances between individual members before the group is formed will lead to separation of these individuals from the team, which can lead to the alienation of that pair or small group from the entire team. This problem can be present when combining old and new team members, which clients usually want to resolve.

Factor 2. Incompetent leadership of the leader leads to conflict situations and even the elimination of the team. So, if a leader is engaged in building intrigues, bringing in or removing selected members, giving powers and rewards, based on personal preferences, and not on the knowledge, competence and existing merits of the team, then such a group eventually ceases to be a team.

Factor 3: Lack of common purpose and shared direction. For example, asking a group of students: “Is our group considered a team?” - the participants say: “No, we are all good people, but we have no future.” When people do not have a future, it is created by a leader who brings down a goal from above. When this goal is realized and accepted by each member of the group, then the group turns into a team. If the leader does not give such a task, then everyone carries out their own plans and sets personal goals.

Information about the author and company

Aigul Gomoyunova, General Director of Penopol Group of Companies, Moscow. "Penopol". Field of activity: production and wholesale trade of construction and finishing materials; logistics services; The holding of trainings.

Nadezhda Finochkina, director of the company “Formula for Successful Selection”, Moscow. "Formula for Successful Selection" LLC. Field of activity: personnel selection. Number of staff: 5. Closed vacancies per month: 7–12.

Eduard Kolotukhin, General Director of Stayer.ru, Yekaterinburg. GC "Stayer" (Stayer.ru). Field of activity: production and sale of sportswear, as well as equipment; sale of sports equipment. Number of staff: 25. Annual turnover: 50 million rubles. (in 2014).