For years I have been reasonably sure that the consulting work I do with teams is different from 'normal' team building. Recently, I became certain. MetaSystem has been helping organizations and their teams for over 20 years internationally. Today, our cutting edge technology in working with teams is called Team Consulting^TM.

While doing a three day team intervention for a large pharmaceutical company a few weeks ago, I received a note from conference services asking if I was going to do the "team building" for the next two days. I didn't understand...I was in the middle of a Team Consulting^TM intervention. What was she talking about? I found out later that her definition of team building was outdoor low ropes course elements-and that was it. That same week I was engaged in a project with other organization development consultants only to find at least three other definitions of 'team building'. Hearing all of these perspectives and definitions convinced me that MetaSystem's work with our clients is different.

What is MetaSystem Team Consulting^TM? A team-consulting intervention is a practical, action-oriented consulting process centered on developing your organization's operational results. Rather than focusing on generating team spirit or creating grueling fantastic initiatives where people are pushed to their limits, the work we do is entirely operationally based and results oriented. This focus, however, does not exclude team spirit or discovery of limits. The main difference is:

• When clients leave a Team Consulting^TM process, they leave with something concrete towards the benefit of their operation.

Let's take the above team development with the pharmaceutical company as an example. The client had seven main objectives.

1. Leave with a finished "product"-In presentation condition for the COO and the CEO
2. Work on the dynamics and processes of the different sub-groups of the whole team
3. Examine and develop one particular group's leadership skills
4. Work on the relationship, operationally and dynamically, among two other sub-groups
5. Look at the entire team as a whole- functionally and dynamically
6. Leave with an enhanced sense of team and a quality finished product as a result of this team effort

During a Team Consulting^TM intervention, participants become involved in two interdependent living cases. The first is within a society (the team and its dynamics), and the other within an organization (how the team fits into the rest of the organization). Participants are put into these experiences either at the top-leadership, in the middle-management, or on the bottom-employee. Some of the positioning, as in the organization, is already determined. Others, as in the virtual learning within the society, will be determined on site. The immersion is total. From both of these perspectives, participants deal with real-life issues in real-life settings. The process consistently changes from one system- team processes, to the other-operational issues, and then ultimately simultaneous involvement in both. This process enables participants to raise levels of awareness of their systems; both behaviorally and operationally, learn from them, and make necessary changes.

MetaSystem Team Consulting^TM differs from other approaches in its manipulation of team processes within the operational context. One of the biggest reasons why team building hasn't produced optimal benefits in the past is because most learning from the retreat or simulated team building environment fails to transfer to the work place. Generic team buildings can be successful at creating awareness of changes needed, but this generic structure does not require these changes to be made. In Team Consulting^TM, concrete, operational issues must be resolved. They can only be resolved successfully by a functional and developmental system. Therefore, any changes required in the system, dynamically or operationally, must be made then and there. This not only enables but requires system adjustment for success. These interventions require a commitment to action while instilling a system of accountability. Therefore, there is much less transition to go through back in the office because the team has already made necessary changes in their systems. The changes that are required in a Team Consulting^TM intervention are easier to maintain in the work place because they have already been found to be successful.

This methodology may sound complex. It is and it must be. To deal successfully with the complexity in today's organizations MetaSystem matches this complexity with a structure that doesn't try to make simple what isn't. Again, this is another reason why team building in its most generic sense doesn't work. While teams may learn how to deal with issues on a simple level, this does not translate back in the complex workplace. The methodology that MetaSystem uses simulates as completely as possible the work environment of the team.

What can that look like? The structure is designed in response to the client's objectives. In the case of the intervention with the pharmaceutical company, the structure of the three days was a consistent flow of what was referred to as 'virtual learning versus real learning'. Metaphorical exercises were followed by concrete work on the 'product'. This continuous change from one to the other created a system of perception that made it difficult for participants to modify their behavior or communication systems for the 'virtual' or for the 'real'' learning. This supported the most basic underlying assumption in our work; that behavioral patterns remain the same, they are systemic; it is only the situations that change. This continuous flow from the 'real' to the 'unreal' made understanding participant's behaviors and the consequences more concrete. As a result of this awareness, the implementation of the learning in the work place was not as difficult.

Working with a team within the Team Consulting^TM process creates a steep, accelerated learning curve. Follow ups consistently find more mature, results oriented teams that are well on their way to meeting objectives, or in the process of setting new ones that would have seemed impossible when they first linked up with MetaSystem. This is why our clients choose to stay in relationship with us over long periods of time. This long term relationship is another differentiation between Team Consulting^TM and traditional team building. Those interventions are isolated events. Our goal is autonomy and success for our clients. Most of our clients realize the benefits of continuous learning and build this learning into their culture. They become 'learning organizations' and it works for them. Because MetaSystem is in business to help individuals and organizations get better results and have more fun while they do it, it works for us as well!

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