1. What challenges would there be to creating an effective team in an organization that was growing by acquiring other companies? How could managers deal with these challenges?

2. Why do you think teamwork is crucial to Bancolombia’s efforts to forge a single identity?

3. How do identical office chairs and an open-space office contribute to the emphasis on teamwork? How important is the physical workplace environment to the development of a teamwork atmosphere?

Bancolombia is Colombia’s biggest bank. At its sleek new headquarters in Medellin, there are no plush executive chairs. Instead, everyone from the bank president to assistants use identical leather and steel ergonomic chairs. The subtle message: no one here has special privileges. The chairs, the open-space offices, and a contemporary design reflect the company’s organizational culture that recognizes individual contributions but heavily emphasizes teamwork. González Bacci, Bancolombia’s director of human resources, says that this culture developed out of the need to integrate employees from the bank’s many acquisitions and forge a single identity among employees and in the eyes of customers. “We want to reinforce the idea with our workers that achieving the group vision depends on everyone, not just on management, and we want to give clients the feeling that they are dealing with just one company, so they see no difference between the different companies in the banking group.”

Teamwork is crucial to the success of this approach. Managers are asked to foster cooperation and collaboration.

All employees have both individual and collective goals. Anyone who wants to become a supervisor must meet the evaluation criteria that’s heavily weighted toward people skills instead of technical skills.

Whatever Bancolombia is doing, it must be working. It was named by Latin Trade magazine as one of the best workplaces in Colombia. And it was named as one of the country award winners for best banks by The Banker magazine.