Page 165 - How America's Best Places to Work Inspire Extra Effort in Extraordinary Times

152B RE-ENGAGE

: Build “communities of practice,” where employees sepa-
rated by business unit or location with intense interest in
a particular strategic issue or challenge are encouraged
to share ideas and brainstorm solutions.
: Build teamwork through conferences where people from
various locations meet to develop relationships and share
ideas.
: Set up chat rooms, bulletin boards, blogs, wikis, and dedi-
cated forums for the sharing of ideas and best practices.
: Increase planned social activities as the business unit
size grows beyond 150 people per location.
: Increase the number and frequency of job rotations and
lateral job moves to enhance employee familiarity with
people in other units, and allow longer-term relation-
ships to develop.
: When new hires come on board, make it common prac-
tice that they meet one-on-one with all team members
and also with people outside their immediate team.

: CONDITIONS FOR EFFECTIVE TEAMWORK

Our personal experiences of working in teams and helping to build
teams have led us to some conclusions about the factors that make
teams effective. Other than just avoiding the negative factors cited
above, we believe that much of what makes teams successful is about
setting the right conditions for success up front. We have observed
that teams function best when:

1. The mission and purpose of the team is clear and personally mean-
ingful to all members.