In order to develop individually, as a team member and as a team, at work, individuals need to develop an understanding of their dependence, independence and inter-dependence.

Once it is experienced and understood that they all need each other to survive and succeed - it will be clearly seen that that individual and team actions, positive or negative, impact each individual, teams, companies/ organizations and dependents.

Our quality of life, the clothes that we wear, the humanity that we exude, the food on our table and the education of our family depends upon the quality of our relationships within and outside of the workplace.

When seen in this context we begin to understand that there is a vital need for teamwork for us all to succeed. And the more diverse the team, the more we win.

The challenge is that teams will only win through professionalism, accountability, respect, tolerance and understanding and that is our starting point.

Accountability for who we are

The first steps would be to develop an understanding of our intra-personal uniqueness and the ability to assess the uniqueness in other people in terms of their personality types and learning/ communication styles. These simple skills will develop interpersonal understanding and communication skills.

When we take responsibility for our attitudes, our communication and our actions, we can create a safe environment for ourselves, our families and others.

To further develop a nurturing environment it is critical to develop problem-solving and solution-finding skills and learn to handle reactions to external stimuli. Often we act out of historical programming. Developing skills in this area can save lives, families, sales and relationships!

As these transformational team building processes unfold individuals will begin to identify and break down their old prejudicial paradigms.

Accountability for how we behave

“At the level of respect all people are equal.”

Most companies and organisations send down a list of management-decided values.

Very few employees know or subscribe to the company values, especially management, and the “rules” are only paraded at disciplinary hearings.

In order for our individual transformation and accountability to be perpetuated within teams, it is critical that the environment is kept safe by a team-decided and managed set of interpersonal values.

This people-centred guidance system, if properly designed and implemented, will develop an ethic of praising and honouring, the praiseworthy. Thus motivating team members to perform within their agreements and to over deliver on their commitments.

Ongoing and regular meeting time must be committed to developing understanding and to offer guidance to those who break their self-chosen values.

Those who have personal challenges will often need professional support and those who continuously break the rules must be disciplined. Support, guidance and discipline in a proper system will be managed and supported by the greater team.

In this way we will have developed accountability and responsibility for our actions, within our team and an ongoing values structures to maintain respect and teamwork at the level of human interaction. This ensures sustainability of the process.

A good leadership team will be part of the development and ongoing implementation of such a programme and will be subject to the decisions of the team structure.

Through Transformational Team-building© programmes, such as Celebrating Humanity©, team members will come to understand their amazing relevance as individuals, contributors, team members and members of their team. As time goes on they will be able to see what they bring to their world and the people around them.

For more information visit www.teambuildinginsouthafrica.com or contact Brian at < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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