Team Development Team development is the process of integrating and aligning our actions and decisions to a common purpose…ensuring that people put team before individual aspirations. Team is about trust, respect and honesty. It is the recognition that we all have strengths and weaknesses and for the team to be successful we leverage the strengths and mitigate the weaknesses. Team is understanding that the output is always bigger, better and more aligned with stakeholder needs than that from the individual. For many, team building is limited to some form of experiential event…a wilderness retreat…a ropes course…or a facilitated “See the Light” session. But there is a lot more to team development than participating in “feel good” team building activities. An effective team development plan addresses everything from how we welcome individuals to the team, to how we bring them up to speed, to how we achieve and maintain alignment in principle and execution of initiatives.

Team development is gaining clarity on and respecting individual roles and responsibilities and creating a culture of accountability.  It is empowering each individual to be a leader within their responsibilities. It is ensuring each team member is engaged and has the skills and competencies they require to be successful in their role. It is recognizing and rewarding excellence. It is about creating a unique identity or brand. It is about collecting and storing information in a manner that will benefit future teams.

And team development IS about team building. Very few of us have had the privilege of being on a truly outstanding team and as a result we don’t have the fundamental understanding or the required habits to be an effective team player. Mesh has created a team development series of workshop-based activities to build the competencies and habits your team needs to be great.