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Every team needs to develop. Business does not sit still for any organisation, and your company must foster effective, collaborative teams to stay ahead of the curve. Hybrid working, the growth of a skills economy, and the rise of an ageing workforce – these are challenges you will face at some point, and the strength of your team’s capabilities has never been more vital to the success of an organisation.

Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) designs and implements team development programmes for industry leaders like you. It’s down to this experience that we can assess what is needed to ensure your teams can thrive long term. 

Perhaps you’re interested in implementing a new team development programme in your organisation. Or maybe you’re looking for in-company training for your team. Whatever your situation, we’ve created a guide to help you understand team development before you embark on your organisational learning journey. 

A team of professionals attending a team development programme at RSM

Benefits of team development programmes

There are many benefits to investing in effective team development programmes. As a manager, you are most likely aware of what a team development programme can do for your team and your organisation. With benefits such as building key team skills, strengthening team cohesion, developing leadership capabilities and fostering team loyalty and identity. 

1. Building key team skills 

Having entered a new skills economy, you can see that growth is fuelled by vital soft and hard skills. The future of success at work is centered around how well your organisation can develop skills and adapt to change. Team development programmes hold the key to unlocking the potential of your team and can teach valuable skills that can create long-term value for your organisation. 

2. Strengthen team cohesion 

As an effective manager, you balance each team member’s individual skill levels. Every member has their own unique background, knowledge and set of capabilities. RSM team development programmes are specifically designed to upskill and reskill your team, so that they can share a common foundation of knowledge and ability. This improves the overall cohesion of your team and increases the efficiency of team processes and function. 

3. Developing leadership capabilities

Your ability to direct, inspire and develop people makes you a good leader. As such, you know that team development programmes teach relevant hard skills for organisational teams and instil holistic leadership capabilities. Communication, collaboration and emotional intelligence are all sharpened throughout the team development process, along with a greater understanding of what makes a team succeed. 

4. Fostering team loyalty and identity

Through implementing a team development programme, you invest in a programme and in your team. With our collective learning methods and by sharing a common learning path, your team members gain a better understanding of each other and themselves. This builds better relationships, and creates a stronger identity within the team. It’s this team loyalty and identity that reduces turnover, increases wellbeing and has an overall positive impact on your workforce. 

Types of team development programmes

In-company training

Development programmes designed for individual employees can also be applied to entire teams. In-company training brings the ease of implementation and skill training of short courses, such as those provided at RSM, and applies them to an entire team in-company. 

Customised programmes

Customised programmes are team development programmes, built from the ground-up to address specific organisational needs and challenges. A customised programme is truly unique to your business. It’s a process of co-creation, meaning that the learning process is built both by the organisation and by a learning partner such as RSM. 

Mentoring

Mentoring, or coaching, involves the knowledge of an individual mentor, such as an expert practitioner or leading researcher. This knowledge is passed down onto multiple members of a team. Using a more individual approach, relationships are built between the mentor and mentee over time, so that the mentor can oversee personal growth across the team.

Leadership team training

Our results show that team development is particularly effective when applied to an entire leadership team, as their own learnings can affect the entire organisation. RSM leadership team training can target certain weak points, build new capabilities or foster overall cohesion within the leadership team. 

How to implement team development programmes

Team development programmes can be implemented in five steps to maximise effectiveness and return on investment.

1.    Understand your team’s needs
2.    Establish clear team goals 
3.    Find the right team training programme 
4.    Deliver the programme
5.    Evaluate the effectiveness of your programme

Embarking on a team development programme requires an investment of finances, time and effort. This investment is of the utmost importance when competing in today’s uncertain business environment. To stay ahead, team development must not be an afterthought. Rather, it should be central to the long-term growth strategy of your organisation. 

Take the first steps for you team’s learning journey, and read more about our customised programmes, designed for team success. 

What else do you want to know?

How we work together

Read more about our purpose-driven process of co-creation. 

Learn more

In-company training

Read more about our offering for smaller private group trainings. 

Customised programmes

Customised learning solutions to meet your organisation's needs. 

Let's get in touch

Connect with our customised education specialists and start your learning journey

Murielle Bolsius

Client Engagement Director

Sharlene Bell

Key Account Manager

Marcos Siqueira

Key Account Manager

Sandra Koopmans

Key Account Manager