Tebarco Mechanical recognized how important teamwork relates to the overall success of their organization.  In March 2018, Tebarco expanded their workforce from a three member management team to eight members in order to address current issues, such as responding in a timely manner and communicating thoroughly to the greater Tebarco Team.  

“We chose to utilize The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni as a tool to help form and develop this new team,” said Tony Adams, Vice President of Preconstruction Services.  The publication reveals the basics of teamwork by utilizing a fable about leadership that covers the absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability and inattention to results.  

Much time was spent initially to determine the three goals that needed to be focused on until the end of 2018.  The team meets twice per month and includes team building exercises at the start of the meeting related to one of the Five Dysfunctions.  These exercises can take anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour; some exercises are easy and some are rather difficult.  

“It’s great to hear the team members tell you what your greatest strength is, and it can be a little painful when they tell you what your biggest weakness is concerning your contribution to the team.  After our team exercise we address issues as they relate to achieving our three goals.  At the end of our meetings we agree on what we will “cascade” to the greater Tebarco team. The purpose of this “cascading exercise” is to make sure we communicate a consistent message.  Most often it is not the words you say, it’s how they are said,” said Adams. 

Tebarco took to learning about their management team even further by having each of the eight team members complete an Innermetrix DISC Index to better understand their own behavioral preferences and the preferences of others on the team.  “The results were very interesting and helpful in how to better interact with one another.  So much so, we have had all members of our entire office team, a total of 30+, complete a DISC Index.  Everyone’s DISC Index is posted on our server in a public folder so everyone can read and better understand who they work with every day,” says Adams. 

Lastly, Tebarco increased their team’s communication by utilizing Microsoft Teams, which is the hub for teamwork in Office 365 that integrates all the people, content, and tools your team needs to be more engaged and effective.  Tebarco believes Microsoft Teams has been more effective than chain emails. 

Utilizing this strategy has been very beneficial to Tebarco’s success in creating an environment of teamwork within their organization.