by Michael Holland    

How’s the social cohesion within your team?  To what extent are you and your team members really enjoying each other and relishing in each other’s successes?  Enjoying each other, now there’s a concept!  How on earth could I even begin to enjoy those people who seem to work so hard at making my life miserable?

A tremendous amount of time and energy is invested to create appearances of cohesion within teams – particularly management teams – while those teams struggle to reap the synergy of their wisdom.  The art of building cohesive teams is really quite simple: build trusting relationships.

According to Patrick Lencioni, a renowned guru on the topic of teams, one of the most effective ways to build trust is a process he calls “getting naked.”  The critical component or outcome is for “team members to get comfortable with letting colleagues see them for who they are.  No pretension.  No positioning.”

Be a leader and take the first step.  Drop the act and be vulnerable with one of your peers.  Let them get to know you better and seek to get to know them better.