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Building a Collaborative Team Environment

April 17,2001

"In many ways, a collaborative team environment serves as the foundation for so many other aspects of team success.  There are six components that are critical to creating a collaborative team:

1. Common-purpose - All team members share and are committed to a mission that provides focus and direction.
2. Trust - Team members believe in each other, work for each other's success, and know that they can count on each other.
3. Clear roles - Team members know what is expected of them and how they can best contribute to team success.
4. Open communication - Team members continually share information, ideas, concerns, ideas, skills, and knowledge.
5. Diversity - Team members recognize and value their differences in styles, ideas, cultures, backgrounds, and expertise.
6. Balance of task and relationship - Team members work to balance the need to get work done with the need to maintain strong and healthy relationships (Fisher, 1995, p.294)."

Reference: Fisher, K. (1995).  Tips for teams: a ready reference for
solving common team problems.  New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.

Are you building a collaborative work environment?

Tips for Teams is available on loan from the OSU Leadership Center.  A complete listing of all the Leadership Center's resources is available on our website http://leadershipcenter.osu.edu/

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Created: 2009-01-02, Updated: 2009-01-15