Team Building in Oil and Gas Companies

Good afternoon everyone. Thank you for your coming today. I'd like to start by introducing myself. I am a manager of the Vam Oil and Gas Company, a global oil and gas producer and provider with 95,000 employees in nearly 130 countries worldwide. We deploy our technological expertise and capabilities to help meet world energy demand for current and future generations. We are also a world-class chemical manufacturer.

Today I’m going to talk about the problem of team-building in our company.

In particular there are three main points in the presentation. I will begin by considering the definition of team building and methods of developing an effective team. Secondly I will look at some problems of teamwork. Lastly, I want to show the ways of these problems solution.

Now let us turn to the first point.

Team building is improving team performance by developing teamworking skills by using any appropriate method. The term team building generally refers to the selection, development, and collective motivation of resultoriented teams. Team building is pursued via a variety of practices, such as group self-assessment and group-dynamic games, and generally sits within the theory and practice of organizational development.

The process of team building includes clarifying the goal, building ownership across the team and identifying the inhibitors to teamwork and removing or overcoming them, or if they cannot be removed, mitigating their negative effect on the team.

Team Building is a coverall term given to methods of developing an effective team.

The methods of doing this vary widely, and include:

- simple social activities – to encourage team members to spend time together;

- group bonding sessions – company sponsored fun activities to get to know team members;

- personal development activities – personal change applied on a group level, sometimes physically challenging;

- team development activities – group-dynamic games designed to reveal how individuals approach a problem and how the team works together;

- psychological analysis of team roles, and training in how to work better together.

Well, having looked at the definition of team building and methods of developing an effective team, I’d like to turn to some problems of teamwork.

There is a range of debates concerned with the negative features of teamworking. The move to teamwork in industry and services has led to a greater amount of peer pressure. Studies carried out in our company showed that team members pressure each other into working harder. Some scientists go into questions of bullying and of surveillance. This had led to a debate on the regulation of teamworking and the need to establish rules and procedures regarding its development and boundaries.

As team grow larger, the skills and methods that people require grow as more ideas are expressed freely. Managers must use these to create or maintain a spirit of teamwork change. The intimacy of a small group is lost, and the opportunity for misinformation and disruptive rumors grows. Managers find that communication methods that once worked well are impractical with so many people to lead.

Ok, that covers the main idea concerning the problems of teamwork. The final question that I am going to consider is the ways of these teamwork problems solution.

The principal aim of team building is to identify and remove personal and cultural problems that may prevent a group from achieving its goals. Work should not be the main focus. Any event that deals with work-related issues, even outside the workplace, is not a true teambuilding exercise. Team building in our company is centered on social events, which enable members to get to know each other away from the work environment. It could be a simple lunch or barbecue, an outing, a sporting activity or something more ambitious. This can be a good way of bringing a team together and the fun element often makes a valuable contribution to team spirit. Small changes to work practices can also help. Such measures could include regular communication or newsletters, a temporary exchange of jobs among members and an open-door policy practiced by senior members. Many firms take a more scientific approach and assess how members work together in the most effective way. This can be an excellent means of helping employees understand how their colleagues think, why they approach situations in a certain way and how they would react to issues or events. Such insights help neutralize the inevitable tension in a team and provide a powerful tool for conflict management. The level of understanding gathered through this approach contributes more effectively to team building than any number of social events.

In my opinion, the importance of having a good team that works together well cannot be underestimated. Belonging to a team is a result of feeling part of something larger than yourself. A unified approach will help an organization accomplish overall objectives.

In a team-oriented environment members will use individual strengths to contribute to the overall success of the organization. When team members are confident not only within their roles, but within themselves and the concept of working as a team, the team can start to move mountains.

In conclusion I would like to say that there are many ways and activities that oil and gas companies can undertake to build their own teams.

I would like to finish by reminding my main points. Firstly I considered the definition of team building and methods of developing an effective team. Secondly I touched upon some problems of teamwork. Lastly, I dealt with the ways of these problems solution.

Well, that is all. That’s all I wish to say, thanks for listening, and I’d be happy to answer questions.

UNIT 6

TELEPHONE CALLS

3.2 (1)

3.2 (2)

(from Telephoning in English)

3.4

CONNECTING TO AN EXTENSION

Wrong number