Five Issues to Be Considered in Teambuilding
Darwyn Linder, Department of Psychology & Susan Ledlow,
Instructional Innovation Network, Arizona State University
A group is “a collection of people who come together because they share something in
common.” (Solomon, Davidson, and Solomon, 1993). What they share could be as
insignificant as desire to get on the next bus that will arrive at a particular stop. A team,
however, is “a group of people who share a common name, mission, history, set of goals or
objectives and expectations.” A strategy that can help groups develop into real teams is
teambuilding, “the process needed to create, maintain, and enrich the development of a group
of people into a cohesive unit.” Teambuilding exercises are very important in the development
of teams that will work together for an extended period of time on a complex project or a series
of activities. Teambuilding is not a silver bullet for fixing dysfunctional teams, or assuring that
all of your teams will work well. But, teambuilding exercises can be helpful in developing
effective teams, if they are selected to enable teams to explore the five critical issues identified
in this outline.
Cohesiveness
This term refers to the attractiveness of group membership. Groups are cohesive to the extent
that membership in them is positively valued, and members are drawn toward the group. In
task oriented (e.g., learning or project) groups, the concept can be differentiated into two
subconcepts: social cohesiveness and task cohesiveness. Social cohesiveness refers to the
bonds of interpersonal attraction that link group members. Task cohesiveness refers to the
way in which skills and abilities of the group members mesh to allow optimal performance.
Team building exercises that have a component of fun or play are useful in allowing social
cohesiveness to develop. Examples include: designing a team logo, sharing information about
first jobs, or participating in activities to discover characteristi