Team development

We call team development the Common Ground Process and it is an effective tool for noticeably improving team building and performance. This is because the common ground of a team is the common platform for successful and sustainable goal achievement.

Key factors for the common ground of a team are

• A goal that everyone involved can identify with
• Strategic and other intentions regarding the goals that are clear to everyone involved
• Shared values
• Mutual appreciation
• Clear communication (open and honest, all participants are involved, everyone has the same level of information regarding the common goal and plan)
• Shared rituals
• Clear roles
• Clear areas of expertise and responsibility
• Commitment

Our experience shows: The conscious and active establishment, organisation and maintenance of common ground is an ongoing management task and central to successful action. It is fundamental to every goal realisation. All strategies, procedures and actions that serve to realise goals are dependent on the quality of the common ground. Actively shaping the common ground reduces the likelihood of disruption, sabotage and resistance – in day-to-day business and especially when dealing with change

Throughout the entire process, we support managers in shaping and developing the common ground together with their team as the ‘operating system‘ of collaboration. In the Common Ground Workshop, we coach teams and departments to realise their full potential together and to want to and be able to achieve top performance together.

You can find more detailed information on the Common Ground process in the following article, which was published in the Zeitschrift für Organisationsentwicklung (ZOE):

ZOE “The Common Ground Process” article