Team Cohesion

1. Team Cohesion Harmony among athletes, among coaches, and between athletes and coaches affects almost everything else.

2. Imagine that you are going on an extended space voyage to another planet. You are restricted to living, working, and training in close proximity to your teammates within a confined space about the size of an average office. You must remain in this space several years. There is no chance of leaving until the mission is completed. Living and working in harmony would become critical to your survival, the survival of your teammates, and the mission itself. What would you do to avoid conflict or maintain some sense of harmony on a mission like this? Who would you want with you on this mission?

3. Cohesion • The total field of forces which act on members to remain in the group. • Task Cohesion: reflects the degree to which members of a group work together to achieve a common goal. • Social Cohesion: reflects the degree to which members of a team like each other and enjoy one another’s company.

4. Factors Associated With Cohesion • Team Satisfaction • Conformity • Adherence • Social Support • Stability • Group Goals

5. Does cohesion lead to winning, or does winning lead to cohesion?

6. Guidelines for Building Team Cohesion

7. What Coaches or Leaders Can Do • Communicate Effectively • Explain Individual Roles in Team Success • Develop Pride Within Subunits • Set Challenging Group Goals • Encourage Group Identity • Avoid Formation of Social Cliques • Avoid Excessive Turnover • Conduct Periodic Team Meetings • Know the Team Climate • Know Something Personal About Each Group Member

8. Although it is often considered the job of a coach to build team cohesion, athletes can also help in the process. If you were an athlete on a team lacking cohesion, what might you do to build your team’s unity?

9. What Group Members Can Do • Get Group Members of the Group • Help Group Members Whenever Possible • Give Group Members Positive Reinforcement • Be Responsible • Communicate Honestly and Openly With the Coach or Leader • Resolve Conflicts Immediately • Give 100% Effort at All Times

10. When we know that someone needs you, cares about you, appreciates you, respects you, believes in you, and accepts you—with your imperfections—harmony in nurtured. When we help others and they help us, we begin to appreciate each other. When we get past the surface and begin to understand another person’s problems, challenges, or perspectives in a more intimate way, we feel closer to or more connected with them.

11. Merely being together at work, practices, competitions, or in social settings like team parties does not necessarily increase mutual liking or harmony among team members. For harmony to develop, individuals must commit to a common mission or goal, or be liked in some interdependent way so that they rely on one another and help one another in the pursuit of that goal.

12. You are a new coach who has inherited a high school team that had a great deal of dissension and in-fighting last season. Using guidelines provided, discuss what you would do before and during the season to build both task and social cohesion in your team.