Establishing a cohesive team out of a diverse work force

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Bob Gregg, an employment relations attorney with the Boardman Law Firm in Madison, said he's found that a couple of key practices can help create a more unified work environment.

The most important, and most obvious, is to make sure that managers are aware of and careful about stereotyping, Gregg said.

"Just because somebody is different in some way, whether it's age, race, gender or national origin, doesn't mean they're different from anybody else," he said. "The moment you start to treat somebody with stereotypical perceptions, you get off on the wrong foot."

Another practice, Gregg said, is to clue in employees, particularly new ones, to the organization's "rites of passage." These can be traditions or a corporate culture that a company has maintained for years. For example, Gregg said, a new worker may not realize that they need to use colleague's titles instead of just first names, or that they may need to go through a "chain of command" with a complaint or concern. He said it's important that managers make sure there are no "unspoken boundaries" in an organization.

Laura V. Page, an independent business and organization consultant with Page Consulting in Madison, said early experiences for most employees can be profound. To create a team environment, she said, managers should spend a good amount of time orienting their employees the moment they walk in the door.

"Orientation is usually very poorly done ... very haphazard," she said. "For the first month, have a rotating schedule of taking the person to lunch and let other people know about the people they'll be working with right down to the communication style."

Page also said it's important that managers make sure employees get to know each other as human beings and learn to respect one another. She advised that after employees start to feel comfortable with one other, they begin working out agreements on how they are going to work together.

"Ask questions like, 'How are we going to do conflict together? How are we going to give feedback? How are we going to celebrate?'" Page said.

Page recommended that managers make sure they conduct "action reviews" or "post-project analyses." She said these reports help deconstruct how the workplace is functioning and if it's truly acting as a team.

"Great teams are learners," Page said. "They love getting better at their teamwork."