A well-designed house starts with a solid foundation so that it can withstand the challenges of its environment. But even before the foundation is laid or the first nail is hammered, we must first have a model or a picture in our minds eye of the completed project. Locking in a solid foundation is likewise critical for Corporate Team Building. Individual team members must prepare themselves by making a commitment to ongoing and continual self-examination, learning, planning and execution. The five critical steps in Corporate Team Building are:

Step One - Think

The focus of Corporate Team Building in your business is improving the effectiveness of thought and the quality of relationships. As business owners and managers, we work on the systems, the structures, the policies, the procedures, and the measures to ensure this occurs. The primary role of the manager today is that of a professional thinker.

As top managers within a high performing team, we must assume responsibility for thinking deeply about the means by which we carry out our business as well as our desired business results. In so doing, we assume the pursuit of excellence in all we do. This spills over naturally into the business environment in a way that lifts and encourages those around us in reaching for the vision that we have set.

Step Two - Know

Having a shared vision of our destination, as well as the milestones along the way, is critical in drawing the roadmap for our organization, its people, structures and systems. Knowing ourselves and where we are headed as a management team serves as the basis for making the future we have envisioned for our organization a reality.

We must not become overly fascinated by the map, but by the territory that informs the map and by the journey that informs our thought.

Step Three Overcome Defensiveness

Eliminating defensive behavior in a management team is often a difficult and uncomfortable undertaking. At times, it can even be painful and daunting, but it is traversing the real territory. Letting go of the old ways of self-interest and getting ones own way and replacing them with an environment that is marked by open communication and that emphasizes what is best for the whole organization takes real courage.

This coming to grips with our own defensiveness and fear is a highly personal experience, and yet when it is shared with others on the same journey, we feel liberated and very powerful.

Step Four - Learn

Corporate Team Building ensures that team members get a hunger for knowledge. This hunger is one of the qualities of good leadership. The management team begins to thrive on new ideas and enjoys sharing them with others. Learning becomes fun and exciting, and it takes the organization forward in leaps and bounds.

Keeping up with the best knowledge by reading voraciously, sharing ideas freely, meeting with others outside our industry, attending workshops and conferences and visiting other organizations to observe exemplary performance enhance the development of our leadership skills exponentially.

Step Five Build Relationships

Corporate Team Building means working on the quality of our relationships with others. Self-awareness, interpersonal communication skills and developing emotional intelligence in the business world are integral to better relationships with each other.

This type of Corporate Team Building leads the change that we want to see throughout our relationships in the whole organisation. It starts with each of us setting the example.

In summary then, the five key steps to Corporate Team Building are:

- Thinking

- Knowing

- Overcoming Defensiveness

- Learning

- Building Relationships