The health of an organisation and its long-term standing is definitely influenced by the people who work in the organisation. It’s people who run the show and make decisions, not machines or computers and it is people who build client relationships. Over the last few decades the corporate world has accepted and adopted teamwork as an effective way to manage a business. The concept of the team as an entity that can deliver far more than an individual is now firmly established. The team is the unit that evaluates problems, develops strategies, and takes decisions on various aspects pertaining to the business.

A team’s effectiveness or ineffectiveness can therefore have a direct impact on the performance of a business. Ineffective teams can potentially damage the reputation of a business. Quite often, poorly performing teams are responsible for clients or customers taking their business to a rival firm. Intense competition in several business segments means the teams have to be faster, better, offer more value, and display a distinct edge. When an organisation has highly motivated, effective teams managing various aspects of its business, the benefits to the organisation are enormous both in the tangible and intangible space.

Sustaining team effectiveness can specifically help in the following areas:

• It helps an organisation build its credibility and reliability among it’s clients.
• It helps build long-term client relationships and therefore retain client and sales revenues over an extended period of time.
• It helps an organisation maintain continuity of work teams, especially on large clients or projects. This means less need to train new members and then incorporate them into an already established team.
• It helps an organisation maintain quality in work output and consistently meet client expectation or even surpass expectations.
• It helps an organisation attempt new business development and new initiatives with total confidence in the ability of its teams to deliver great work and great results.
• It positively impacts business growth and this has a direct bearing on the bottom-line of the organisation.

An organisation has to strive to get the best out of its teams and to do this they have to make the right investments in training and development. This helps their business run a lot more efficiently, and more importantly it builds favourable credentials for the business in corporate circles. Every organisation has the capability to make their teams effective for the long haul, they just need the right inclination to take that first step forward.

Facilitating Effectiveness in Teams