Page 168 - The McKinsey Mind

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ManagingYour Team 143

BONDING

The concept of team bonding is easy to understand yet often over-
looked. Why? Perhaps it is that the nature of business is to drive
forward with a relentless focus on results. We often find ourselves
in tough team situations because we overvalued the end product
and undervalued the process of getting it done. This section serves
as a reminder of the importance of putting a little time and energy
into team bonding—and a little is probably all that is needed.

THE McKINSEY WAY
Two lessons from McKinsey regard team bonding.
Take your team’s temperature to maintain morale. No one
likes to walk into a freezing-cold or a boiling-hot room. Taking the
temperature is an analogy that stresses the importance of staying in
touch with your team to maintain a sense of the level of motivation
and enthusiasm during the often-challenging course of a project.
People who attend to motivation levels should steer a steady
course, inform all team members of project status and their respec-
tive contribution, treat everyone with respect, get to know each
other, and feel others’ pain.
A little team bonding goes a long way. When a team spends
14 hours a day, 6 days a week working together, the last thing team
members want to do in their precious remaining time is go on a
team outing to Disney World or to dinner at the most expensive
restaurant in town. Some of that is OK, but the balance is impor-
tant. Too much can be as bad as too little. Bonding can take place
at work, too, so try to lighten up at times.