Like millions of other people I was glued to the television screen last week watching the Chilean miners being slowly winched to safety. I reckon you could have walked into a room anywhere in the country and asked “How many?” and someone would have known what you meant.

It was a magnificent feat of engineering, technical and medical know how. More importantly it was a powerful demonstration of a team effort.

That got me thinking about team building. How do you build a team that can achieve awesome results?

We’re often asked for team building suggestions, for new teams coming together for the first time, or for existing teams who need a little help.

And there are lots of suggestions out there- a cornucopia of games, activities and challenges. But when you’ve built your raft, or made a bridge from newspapers, or even scaled Everest, is your team now pulling together or do they still have the same issues?

So when the games are over, how about some real team building?

I’ve facilitated team building events for many different teams over the years and I’ve observed many others in action. Some would recognise themselves as teams; others were just a group of people who came together to achieve a task, like the group who rescued all the passengers from the plane that landed in the Hudson a couple of years ago.

I’ve noticed that the thing most high performing teams share is a very clear Common Purpose. That’s the glue that holds them together.

With the Chilean miners and the plane on the Hudson, it was simple- “Get everyone out alive” They didn’t need to spend any time building their team, everyone could get behind the Common Purpose quite easily.

With teams in the workplace it can be more difficult. The first step is to ensure that everyone understands the Common Purpose and then motivate them to achieve it.

My suggestion for building motivation in the team is to agree a shared set of values and supporting behaviours that everyone in the team can sign up to. It also helps to have an agreement on what happens if someone in the team isn’t pulling their weight or acts against the agreed values and behaviours.

My favourite team building idea is to finish up one of our sessions with a fun drumming workshop from our dynamic friends over at DrumPulse!