Maintaining team identity – Teleconference among conservation workers

Maintaining team identity

In today’s workplace everyone is busy – very busy. It can be hard to build a sense of team identity, especially if some members of your team seldom work together because of shift patterns, part-time working or flexible hours. And even if you do work together, team meetings during normal hours may be difficult because telephones, equipment or sales desks have to be fully and continuously manned. No one will accept a temporary close down of operations.

[Visual]: Teleconference among conservation workers in different parts of a nature reserve.

The following survey shows just how difficult it can be for team leaders to build a real sense of team identity:

In an employee survey recently completed for a high street retailer, 75 per cent of team members said they did not have team meetings because it simply wasn’t practical due to working patterns over seven days and the fact that two-thirds of staff were part time, with many just working Saturday or Sunday. However, they certainly saw themselves as part of a branch team. It was clear that team leaders wanted to develop their teams but found this very difficult to do and hence often settled for meeting with those individuals who just happened to be working similar hours to themselves.

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Now do this
Think for a moment about your own team. What constraints make it difficult for you to meet together on a regular and meaningful basis?
[space to write about 3 lines]