As the year is quickly coming to a close, you may be evaluating your recognition programs for the year ahead. What's working, what's not, and what needs a program refresh?

Many workplace core values include working together as a team to achieve a common goal. And if you're following recognition program best practices, you will want to align your programs with your organization's core values for the best business results. While you may not think of Employee of the Month as one of those programs that brings people together, we've got an idea to change things up a bit!

What if I told you that your Employee of the Month program could also serve as a high-performing team building tool? As you look to re-evaluate your current program, try this:

I’ve spent the last several weeks analyzing teamwork, and considering what makes some teams work and other teams fail. It seems fitting that I continue on this path—after all, we can’t have too much information on this ever-elusive objective. For this month’s Five Fascinating Finds, I’m sharing a variety of great reads covering just about every facet of teamwork. Check them out:

I was catching up on Project Runway last week, and the episode I was watching featured a dreaded team challenge. If you don’t know what Project Runway is, I will resist the urge to tell you we can’t be friends and provide a polite explanation instead. The show consists of a number of fashion designers who compete against each other weekly to create the winning apparel design. Occasionally, one contestant is paired with another for a challenge, and sometimes the whole group is split into two equal teams. Either of these scenarios is when the cringing starts. And, when things get interesting for those of us who are nerdy about interpersonal dynamics.

First, I couldn’t get over how drastically different the emotions were between these participants and those football players I talked about in my last post. The designers were worried, annoyed, and resistant about working together; the players were excited, optimistic, and confident. Hmmm…

I had another one of those a-ha moments last Friday night that compelled me to email myself at work so I’d be sure not forget my groundbreaking thought. When I arrived at the office the following weekday, this is the message that was waiting for me: “Football is a lot like teamwork.”

I had to laugh out loud. Of course it’s like teamwork. Organized sports are what gave us the concept of team collaboration in the workplace. Duh. Seriously, duh. I told Kaleigh about it and she laughed, too. But, we both concluded that there is still an important point here, despite the lack of ingenuity in my statement...