oHIP-1 | Teamwork

"Groups become great only when everyone in them, leaders and members alike, is free to do his or her absolute best."

W. Bennis & P.W. Biederman

• Why Teamwork

• The Organizational Health Improvement Program Part One | oHIP-1

• The Format

Why Teamwork

Most of today's organizational improvement efforts depend heavily upon teams. However, research has shown that 80 percent of change management efforts are failing. One study, for example, found that only 13 percent of teams received high ratings. Another extensive study of teams found that in more than half the teams studied team members gave up.

The problem is that many so-called "teams" aren't. Often they are too bureaucratic, poorly focused, and weakly led groups, committees, task forces, or councils. Here are some of the common reasons that teams fail:

• Ambiguity about the direction of the team and the priorities
• Issues that are never resolved and resurface again and again
• Second guessing about solutions or potential strategies
• Excess analysis of issues and opportunities
• Missed deadlines
• Poor results
• A weak competitive posture.

Team leaders will, at one time or another, face the challenge of fostering group harmony in teams where there is inevitably going to be flaws due to human nature. Therefore, they must recognize and drive groups to overcome certain behavioral tendencies, many of which are negative and can bring down an entire organization. When this happens there are a number of distinct symptoms that appear as distress signals, which include team members that:

• Hold grudges
• Are unwilling to help outside their area of responsibility
• Avoid controversial topics
• Hide mistakes
• Hold uneventful and unproductive meetings
• Use personal attacks as a defence mechanism
• Are quick to resent one another.

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The Organizational Health Improvement Program Part One | oHIP-1

oHIP-1 helps organizations understand the power and problems of teams, launch and sustain new teams or renew and refocus existing teams, develop team leadership and effectiveness skills.

oHIP-1 has been designed to provide a structure and methodology for teams to become high performing. It is based on a simple and proven model using exercises that Fortune 500 companies have found useful.

The purpose of oHIP-1 is to align the team under a common vision and direction while taking into account different objectives and needs. The objective is simple: to make substantial progress to becoming a more cohesive organization.

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