Building Team Commitment

Why: In order for employees to feel engaged in a team or a process, managers need to foster an environment where each team member understands and shares the team's values and vision.

How: Create a shared sense of purpose, so that the team achieves greater alignment. The team should enter into a discussion and answer the following questions together:

What is the one goal we need to achieve in a defined period of time to consider ourselves successful? Some examples are:

• Improve customer service
• Control expenses
• Implement a new project or process
• Strengthen the team

Discuss as a team and come to agreement on the following organizational elements:

• Vision
• Mission
• Values
• Unit or department strategy
• Goals
• Team roles and responsibilities

Discuss as a team and come to agreement on how the team members will deal with one another on an ongoing basis. Develop group norms on:

• Meeting schedule and structure
• Acceptable behavior during meetings (e.g. BlackBerry use)
• Preferred methods of communication (e.g. email, face-to-face)
• Response timelines
• Use of shared resources
• Team member availability for questions, support, tastings, etc.