When he was dean of Brigham Young University’s Graduate School of Management in the early 1980s, William Dyer wrote the pioneering text on team building, entitled appropriately enough Team Building. The book is now in its fifth edition. From the beginning, Dyer cautioned against using teams for anything but team-oriented work. He also was wary of trying to implement team building if an organization’s leadership was halfhearted or skeptical about committing the time and resources needed to do it right.

Dyer and his associates did extensive research to identify the characteristics of effective teams. He proposed that these characteristics could be used not only to diagnose team performance, but also to set improvement goals and design team-building sessions.

1. Goals and values are clear, understood, and accepted by everyone.
2. People understand their assignments and roles and how they contribute to the whole.
3. The basic climate is one of trust and support among members.
4. Communication is open and people willingly share information relevant to team goals.
5. People can participate in making free and informed decisions.
6. Everyone implements decisions with commitment.
7. Team leaders are supportive of others and have high personal performance standards.
8. Differences are recognized and handled, not ignored or brushed over lightly.
9. Team structure and procedures are consistent with the tasks, goals, and people involved.

Team Building is a Process

Close examination of Dyer’s nine characteristics makes it clear that forming, developing, and improving teams is an ongoing process that takes work. Team building can’t be done in a few hours, or even in a day or two. To build a real team, the team and organization have to be in it for the long haul. Yet, the time invested in increasing team performance has been proven time and again to yield benefits that far outweigh their cost.