Teams do not always perform at their best. P. Lencioni (The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, 2002) identified the following 5 common team dysfunctions :
- Absence of trust
- Fear of conflict
- Lack of commitment
- Avoidance of accountability
- Inattention to results
Imagine having a team not only composed of different personalities but cultures as well. These cultural differences can have an additional impact on the team´s dysfunction.
Individuals working together may have different cultural orientations meaning they are inclined to think, feel or act in a way that is culturally determined (P. Rosinski, 2003). Cultural orientations lie on a continuum bounded by the extreme on both ends and are therefore not purely black-and-white (P. Rosinski, 2003). Hence, in a team performance, not understanding these cultural orientation differences could lead to a break of trust and thus a decrease in team overall performance.
In our International team Building Workshop we use the Cultural Orientation Framework (COF) which is composed of a set of questions that are designed to assess and compare cultures present in the team. The COF is composed by a range of cultural dimensions grouped in seven categories:
- Sense of Power and Responsibility
- Time management approaches
- Definitions of identity and purpose
- Organizational arrangements
- Notions of territory and boundaries
- Communication patterns
- Modes of thinking
This tool will enable to integrate the cultural aspect into the team building through exercises that will build up the team´s capacity to create constructive dialogue and understanding of each other. Through recreating the team and dialogue between the individual members will ensure better communication, cooperation leading to trust. The result will be a greater performance of the team in reaching its common goal.
Please contact us to begin the dialogue on your specific needs.
Download a Registration Form for our 28th March Workshop.