Process Consultation and Feedback in Team Building

Everyone knows how important team building is! The purpose is to motivate people to work together, develop their strengths and address their weaknesses.

Easier said than done, right? 🙂

Yes, it’s not that easy to implement as it seems! We’re dealing with people and anything involving people calls for a proper plan. Today, let’s discuss two related skills that stand out as critical to successful team-building activities — Process Consultation and Feedback.

Process Consultation

Team building calls for a challenging role — that of a process consultant. If anyone is confused about what process consultation is, it iis a set of activities that help people to focus on what is currently happening around them. The process consultants hold a mirror to team members, thereby helping them see themselves in action.

In effect, the process consultants are team facilitators who encourage employees to understand their intended roles within the team and to examine whether their actual roles are in line with the expectations. They help in drawing several key facilitating behaviours to make people effectively think and act for themselves.

Facilitating Behaviours:

• Encouraging open Communication
• Exploring new alternatives for problem-solving
• Observing and energizing team meetings
• Explaining consequences of behaviour patterns
• Reacting constructively

Feedback

Feedback is often mistaken for criticism. Mostly, what is viewed as negative feedback is constructive criticism, which is necessary for better decision making and excellent work performance. It also encourages the need for continuous improvement to support the total quality management programmes in an organization.

Feedback encourages the team members to take self-correcting actions. They need feedback so that they can understand the situation well, develop specific plans of action for better decisions and resolve misunderstandings.

Feedback provides opportunities for:

• Bringing positive changes and fueling growth
• Providing a sense of purpose through thoughtful statements
• Improving teamwork and active employee engagement
• Promoting healthy work relationships
• Taking better decisions

Ethical Dilemmas

Throughout the team-building process, the chances for employees to encounter ethical dilemmas cannot be avoided. Team members often find themselves facing various problems for which no easy solutions are available. It should be carefully handled, failing which the process may not provide desired results as it can influence the employee’s decisions to a considerable extent.