Does your Work Team have Posted Rules of Team Behavior? If you dont, it could explain why your work team acts more like the crew from animal house, than your dream team pulling together and crossing the finish line to the music from Chariots of Fire.

Do you shake your head and wonder Why cant everyone just get along and work together? Why do I feel like Im mediating and babysitting verses facilitating a self- directed group of business professionals?

Management is often quick to document small procedural and operational infractions of rules in their business units, while the workplace bully is free to roam and terrorize at large with inappropriate communication to both managers and fellow employees. The cost: much higher than any operational infraction with loss of productivity and good employees to the cancer that is Negativity in the Workplace.

The answer may be in the Rule Book or the absence thereof.

Consider that we are a society of rules and most of us do try to follow them. In my Training Seminars, I tell managers it is inappropriate and in some cases actually illegal to tell an employee that they have an attitude even if they do have a rotten one, because each of us is entitled to our own attitude.

What is critical is following what I call the CSI formula: No, dont bring your rotten employee in for an autopsy, though some I assure you are sucking the life out of your organization, but do follow and document the evidence of Unacceptable Team Behavior.

The problem encountered in business organizations however is that there is often an absence of Posted Rules of the Road for team behavior and communication. Every work team needs those rules, even family teams. Just imagine if for every couple, and in ever family, there were printed rules for how we manage eventual family conflict and WE FOLLOWED THEM .

I was amazed at reading the statistical percentage (in the high 90s) of psychologists who can predict with uncanny accuracy who will be divorced and not - based on a 15 minute observations of the couple in common dialogue. In essence how they follow the rules of respectful communication, regardless of the issue was the determinant factor.

The following is a small excerpt of rules from various self-directed work teams--- Dont copy them, but do use them as a springboard for the design of your own Team Rule Book. Remember, without rules; expect flagrant violations, zero enforcement and lack of team synergy.

Sample of Team Work Rules:

1. We are Solution Oriented, Not Problem Focused. When identifying any problem, we always provide at least 1 solution.

2. We seek to have all of our customers and team members feel Trusted, Important, Special and Pleased through respectful verbal and non-verbal communication.

3. We address any workplace conflict within 24 hours or it did not happen.

4. We look for the good in other people, recognizing if we dont well never know any good people.

5. We refrain from destructive inner-office gossip recognizing the negative impact on our team.

6. We have fun working together and celebrate our accomplishments.

7. We begin each work-day with a positive greeting, recognizing the first 15 minutes of the day often sets the team environment.

PS - A License to Lead:

Just as there are Rules of Team Behavior, Im a proponent that before Leading Other people there should be a Drivers Road Test for New Managers and Supervisors on the Fundamentals of Business Leadership: Im betting we just might have some, who need to take that test again, but in the long run, we just might have less employee accidents! All new managers ( and some not so new ) should be sent to a course or seminar on How to Manage Others . The question is would you put your 16 year old without training, instruction, simulation and Rules of the Road behind the drivers seat? So why would you do that with your business. Insist on a License to Lead.

Rosemary Rein, Ph.D is a Professional Speaker, Author and founder of Costa Rica Learning Adventures. http://www.costaricatraining.com. Dr Rein conducts Leadership Safaris and Team Building Retreats in Costa Rica, the United States and Canada along with her keynote speaking and on site training.

Corporate Team Building Techniques
Corporate Team Building generally refers to the selection and motivation of teams for fulfillment of organizational goals. Our society is increasingly becoming a multi-cultural one and you are required to work with different groups of people and expe...

Ideas for Team Building - Building an Effective Team
Team building rarely happens by itself. You need to generate ideas for team building that focus on efforts to bring different personalities together, to complement and balance each other and work as a team. To begin with, there may be a complete lack...

Team Building: Getting together to Win
Before we talk about team building, we must have a fair idea of the word Team. Team is a collection of people, often from diverse but related groups, assigned to perform a well-defined function for an organization or a project.From the word, team com...

Building Your Commercial Real Estate Team
Many people find that being successful by yourself in commercial real estate is very difficult, which is why many people decide to build a commercial real estate team. Sure, you can try to do it all on your own, but it is usually a great deal more ef...

Professional Corporate Team Building Services
Team building is the technical process used to build a people with good orientation, motivation, proficiency and self esteem to compete with the corporate environment. Team structure process is used to select person with good efficiency and capable t...

Team Work and Team Building
So much has been written on this subject; Team Work, its almost hard to add any thing at this point. T E A M; TOGETHER EVERYONE ACCOMPLISHES MORE. That is really easy to say and it makes for a great acronym. It seems it has even hit corporate America...

Team Building - A Race Against Yourself
How do you make the environment in your business conducive to team building.In the past this was often done with merit pay raises, employee of the month awards and other performance based gifts. Many businesses that are interested in team building ha...

Team Building The Only Way to Succeed
A great way to build a stronger team is to increase the understanding that every member has with regard to the part they play in the team and the part that all other members play. The more a person knows about how they contribute to the whole the mor...

A Guide to Corporate Team Building
A corporate team refers to a group of people who work towards a common objective. Corporate team building is the process of enabling a corporate team to achieve specific goals. Team building rarely occurs by itself. Team building requires bringing ...

Team Building
Team building is essentially a process involving participation, collaboration and nurturing of team spirit amongst the team members. This sense of team spirit is inculcated amongst participants in the team through interactive team exercises and group...