7 C’s of teambuilding

7 C’s (Coordination, Collaboration, Cooperation, Communication, Consensus, Commitment,

Confident)
Effective interaction

For a team to work effectively, it must build four basic attributes: Confidence

(the best word to use is Trust), Consensus, Commitment and Collaboration.

Each attribute is built on the previous attribute –a domino effect– that means that we cannot obtain
Commitment if there is no Consensus, and we cannot obtain Consensus if there is no Trust.

There is a fifth attribute: “Open Communication”, which plays an important role in the flow during the
process of building Confidence, Consensus, Commitment and Collaboration.

Confidence (Trust)

The first attribute is Confidence (Trust); however, for the purpose of creating the 5 Cs, it is called
Confidence. The rest of the attributes are based on Confidence (Trust), that is the primary base for the
creation of a team.

Many times we expect to have Commitment from all the members in a team, without first building Trust
among the members. Then, the result is a low level of Commitment that will crumble when confronted
with adversity –due to a weak foundation.

Now, how do you build Trust? I believe that trust is actually an individual and group phenomenon. There
are people who tend to trust others from the very beginning, and people who need more time to build
trustworthy relationships.
On the other hand there are environments that foster the creation of trustworthy relationships, and
others that don’t.

The leader of a team plays an important role in creating an atmosphere where trust among its members
can be developed. There are three key elements required to build trust:

1- Leadership
2- Facts
3- Open Communication

To build Trust among members, an appropiate atmosphere is required.

The leader of a team plays a key role in creating this atmosphere, and he/she can do that by setting the
example and properly guiding the other members of the team, to be able to establish the trustworthy
relationships.

A team led by a person that does not inspire trust is surely a team where trust will not flourish. Trust is
built based on facts and action, not based on words!

When team members find that they can depend on each other, on more ways than one, and feel that
they are not let down, then a solid and trustworthy relationship is built.

The communication within a team can be divided into two main categories:
Issues that the team is dealing with.

Interaction within the team itself.

Most of the time conversations are focused on the issues that the team is dealing with; however, time must be
invested in talking about the interaction within the team itself.

Within the atmosphere of trust that needs to be established, it is important to differentiate these two types of
communications, and to fully understand that by dealing and clarifying aspects of the interaction, will only help to
create a much more effective and productive team.

Consensus

We can agree or not, but once we reach a consensus –it is considered to be definite– and when we leave the room,
the team’s decision must continue to be supported by everyone.

Perhaps this phrase exemplifies very well the meaning of consensus.

Consensus is not just the decision of the majority, nor the decision of those who have more power. Consensus is built
by participating in dialogue and active listening. If a team has already developed mutual trust, the pathway leading to
consensus becomes much shorter.

If team members have a trustworthy relationship, dialogue and discussion to reach a consensus is then based on
their different points of view and not on indiviual positions; so, there are no winners or loosers, but an exchange of
ideas that can bring better solutions from a team’s point of view.

When trust exists, reaching a consensus is easy, as it is based on facts and not on personal positions!

I believe that just like the trust, there are some other elements that help to build a consensus:

Active listening = understanding other people’s point of view.

Eliminating subjectivities = specifying them; if it is not possible to fully
eliminate them.
Having empathy = making use of dialogue as a means to reach
better solutions.

Another important factor is to understand and comply with the rules that the team has to reach a consensus. By rules
I mean the process of decision making, how information is gathered and shared, how input is received from each
member of the team, how feedback is processed, how new options are explored, and when a decision is to be made.

Commitment

Team members can participate in a team, but not consider themselves aligned with the team’s objective. They
participate and do their job, but are not commited! In this situation, team members are not willing to give the best of
themselves to each other.

When team members are commited, they give their best, at all times, and make all necessary efforts to reach the
team’s objectives!
The lack of commitment can be due to many factors, but perhaps the key one is the lack of alignment between
individual and team objectives.

Building commitment is a difficult task because it has to do with the interests and values of the team members. Team
members will be committed if they feel part of something, that they belong to something. Now, what makes people
feel part of something? I believe this can better be answered by another question:

What’s in there for them?

An effective way to build Commitment is by identifying the motivation of each member of the team.

Everyone has different things that motivate them, and those motivations change with the course of time. That’s why
the leader of a team must understand and continuously monitor the things that motivate the team members. The
team leader also needs to make sure that these factors are taken care of, so they will generate commitment.

Collaboration

Collaboration happens only when commitment is achieved! Collaboration means that each member of the team is
giving his/her best, and helps others to reach their individual objectives.

Members of a team can lever on the strengths of each one and complement the weaknesses that they can have, to
obtain extraordinary results.

When each team member really works effectively and at its best, then we can say that we have created a High
Performance team.