Building and Maintaining Effective Teams In this age of rapidly changing technology, market-driven decision making, customer sophistication, and employee restlessness, leaders and managers are faced with new challenges. Organizations must build new structures and master new skills in order to compete and survive. As work settings become more complex and involve increased numbers of interpersonal interactions, individual effort has less impact. In order to increase efficiency and effectiveness, a group effort is required. The creation of teams has become a key strategy in many organizations. Team building is an essential element in supporting and improving the effectiveness of small groups and task forces and must be a key part of a total program of organizational change. Hellriegel, Slocum, & Woodman (1986) state that team building is used to improve the effectiveness of work groups by focusing on any of the following four purposes: setting goals and priorities, deciding on means an methods, examining the way in which the group works, and exploring the quality of working relationships. A cycle then develops; it begins with the awareness or perception of a problem and is followed sequentially by data collection, data sharing diagnosis, action planning, action implementation, and behavioral evaluation. This style is repeated as new problems are identified. Not all work groups are teams. Reilly and Jones (1974) list four essential elements of teams: goals, interdependence, commitment, and accountability. The members must have mutual goals or a reason to work together; there must be an interdependent working relationship; individuals must be committed to the group effort; and the group must be accountable to a higher level within the organization. A good example is an athletic team, whose members share goals and an overall purpose. Individual players have specific assignments they are responsible for, but each depends on the other team members to complete their assignments. Lack of commitment to the team effort reduces overall effectiveness. Finally, the team usually operates within the framework of a higher organization such a league. The overall objective of a work team is to exercise control over organizational change (functionally, this involves increased decision-making and problem-solving efforts), although a side effect may be to increase the productivity of individual members. A primary objective of team building is to increase awareness of group process. In essence, the group members will learn how to control change externally by experimenting internally.
The exploration of two models will show an interesting relationship when compared and contrasted. Both can increase competency levels in team building. The models are the Drexler/Sibbet Team Performance model (Human Performance Strategies) and the Four Stage Team Performance model (Developing Management Skills). When they have been used correctly they’ve been shown to improve efficiency and profitability in organizations. “Developing team skills is important because of the tremendous explosion in the use of teams in work organizations over the last decade (Developing Management Skills).” An examination of these models will show the similarities and differences they have in the context of team building.
A team can be define as a group of people with distinct skills and different tasks, who work together on a goal, service or project, with a meshing of mutual and functions support. They are people that regularly contact and have close interaction and common feeling that able to work together (Team-Definition). A group is define as two or more figures forming a accomplish unit in a part. A group is also a number of individuals assembled together or facing some integration relationship (Merriam-webster 2014). A group do not necessarily constitute as a team because a team demands a coordinated effort. Characteristics of a group are synergy, common goals, interdependence, or cohesiveness. A group can be informal, like 3-12 people that are in a meeting to talk over a business problem. Teams are structured formally and sometimes are allocated. Teams have specific goals, purpose and allocate duties. Team need to have different members with particular roles in order to achieve a common goal (Boundless 2014). Without the goals and purpose, you will unable to build a team. The purpose must be worthwhile and create a sense of working something together. The goals must be specific and challenging in order each member can understand how they contribute to the success to the team. The power of a team appears from the sense of community that unleash strong influence on the behaviors and attitudes of the members. Peer pressure and wish to be an effective member helps to shape priorities and direct efforts which they will help the team goals (Sisson. J, 2013)
This is where the team comes together and get to know each other and feel each team member out and work on finding each member’s strengths and weaknesses. During forming, the team will begin working on establishing trust and getting over their fear of conflict. Lencioni recommends that the team members spend some time talking about their personal lives to help establish trust. He also suggests taking the Myer-Briggs personality profiles to help facilitate learning each member’s strengths and weaknesses (2002). According to Prytherch, et.al. (2012), when individuals are brought together into a team, it can take a long time for that group to bond cohesively and reach the stage where it is working well. Trust and confidence between team members also takes time. To hasten the process, the new team should first undergo a team-building activity. The goal of team building activities is to promote greater interaction and cohesiveness among employees (Schnall
Another important step to consider in effectively implementing team structures within an organization relates to the developmental stages of these teams. To properly tackle the challenges and objectives assigned, a team must develop a process for cohesively coming together as a functional unit. Marissa Shuffler (2011) details, “the two most prevalent approaches, team training and team building…highlight their contributions to improving teams when designed according to team development science” (p.365). These two processes permit a team to more effectively move through the four stages of development as a group.
Larson, C. and LaFasto, F. (1989), Teamwork: What Must Go Right/What Can Go Wrong. Newberry Park, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
In this Discussion Board post I will describe my interpretation and give examples of the various stages that an efficient team should experience as they are working together to achieve a goal. Second, I will briefly compare the qualities of a group versus a team. Third, I will go over the various roles that each of the members in a team may play, and I will explain which of these roles may be the easiest for me based on my character strengths and which ones may be the hardest for me based on my character weaknesses. Fourth, I will discuss why I think it is important to learn and fully understand how to work in a group. Lets begin with the various stages a group will find themselves in when becoming a team.
A work team will be defined for the purposes of this paper by a definition borrowed from Bateman and Snell (2004). A team is formed of people (usually a small number) with complementary skills who trust one another and are committed to a common purpose, common performance goals, and a common approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. Teams generally see themselves and are seen by others as a social entity, which is interdependent because of the tasks performed as members of a group.
Modern day organizations have to constantly change to meet the demands of customers. Workers have to change with the organizations to be able to perform new functions and complete new sophisticated tasks.
The area of team leadership attracts a lot of attention in the modern world because of the need to assemble and deploy diverse teams for the completion of projects. The future of many corporations relies more and more on the kind of team leadership they have for their projects. This paper explores a number of facets that constitute effective team leadership.
Organizations use teamwork because it increases productivity. This concept was used in corporations as early as the 1920s, but it has become increasingly important in recent years as employ...
Effective teams work to establish common goals. These goals are usually the drivers of an effective team when all of the participants are communicating to develop the goals they would all like to achieve. In business, this can be seen when groups set a sales goal and develop a plan of action to achieve this goal. Individuals empowered to approach a goal with their interests in mind as well as the interest of the whole group.
Working in teams provides an opportunity for individuals to come together and establish a rapport towards others within a group. Teamwork is classified as people with different strengths and skills who work together to achieve a common goal. When a team works well, specific objectives are fulfilled and satisfied. Teamwork plays a crucial role in implementing and fulfilling a common goal in a team project. Each member plays a role and takes on different responsibilities combined together. In different stages of teamwork, conflicts and arguments may occur for as members have different standpoints which need to be harmonized within the team. The key to having an effective teamwork is to explore each member's unique abilities to motivate them.
There are several steps of creating team effectiveness. The steps include context, composition, work design, and process. The steps of context are to help with the performance of the team. The four contextual factors are adequate resources, effective leadership and structure, climate of trust, and performance evaluation and reward system.
Many businesses place an emphasis on the importance of teamwork. A good team consists of people with different skills, abilities and characters. A successful team is able to blend these differences together to enable the organisation to achieve its desired objectives.
Teamwork is a coordinated function implemented by a set of employees, often individuals with very different skills. These different types of teams can even be found in a college setting. Teams may be permanent or established on short notice to handle problems or opportunities as they occur. These concepts depend quite heavily on open and effective communication. Employees who are empowered to make decisions need information and the insights of their colleagues; they cannot make good decisions without an effective communication system. Questions need to be asked within a “teamwork” setting in order to work to a solution. For teams to communicate effectively there has to be more than one person. For one person does not make a team! Communication is the single most important aspect of a successful team. “Along with cooperation and commitment; communication is critical in the success of teams.” (Luebeck, 2014) “Clearly articulating the division of responsibilities and having a mutual understanding of the shared goals, division of responsibility and ultimate end product is critical.” (Luebeck, 2014) Next is motivation. Not everyone seems to have motivation. Motivating staff requires awareness and good communication. For a team to be successful, there needs to be the fundamentals of good leadership and great communication. This is all very true and I will explain throughout this paper what I believe teamwork and leadership should entail.