Teams are not the same as other groups: they need to be planned, built, and maintained. A number of people who happen to work together in the same place may not operate as a team, and may not need to. A team has a distinct characteristic – it is a group working together to achieve a common purpose, and it may be composed of people drawn from different functions, departments, or disciplines. Increasingly, teams are groups set up for a specific project, are empowered to steer and develop the work they do, and are responsible for their achievements.
Advantages
Successful team building can:
- Coordinate individuals’ efforts as they tackle complex tasks;
- Make the most of each team member’s personal expertise and knowledge, which might otherwise remain untapped;
- Raise and sustain motivation and confidence as individual team members feel supported and involved;
- Encourage members to spark ideas off each other, to solve problems, and to find appropriate ways forward;
- Help break down communication barriers and avoid unhealthy competition , rivalry, and point-scoring, raise the level of individual and collective empowerment;
- Support approaches such as total quality management, just-in-time management, and customer service programs;
- Bring about commitment to and ownership of the task in hand.
Disadvantages
There are circumstances where teams may be inadvisable – for example, they might not fit in some organizational cultures where there are rigid reporting structures or fixed work procedures.
A team approach may not be the answer especially:
- When one person has all the knowledge, expertise and resources to do the job independently;
- When there is no real common purpose, and a group is wrongly called a team.
What to Do
1. Decide Whether You Really Need a Team
Just because it is fashionable to talk about team-building, it does not mean that every job needs a team to complete it. It may be that a single skilled person working alone and properly supported can achieve the task more effectively than forming a group of people into a team. Consider whether you need a range of expertise and experience, shared workloads, brainstorming, and problem- solving. If you do, a team will be your best option.
2. Determine Your Objectives and The Skills Needed To Achieve Them
Be clear about the broad outcome of the project, identify the technical and team skills you need and bring together individuals with that range of skills. Whatever the range of personnel available, the key is to pick people with a mix of different skills. These include team skills, personal skills, and technical abilities.
3. Plan a Team-Building Strategy
Invest time at the outset in getting the operating framework right so that the team will develop and grow.
There are various areas to consider:
- A climate of trust in which mistakes and failures are viewed are learning experiences, not occasions for blame;
- Free flow of information to all those who need to integrate their work with business objectives;
- Training in communication, interpersonal, and negotiation skills, and coaching to handle the tasks required and adopt responsibility for them;
- Time, not only for regular meetings, but for coordinating activities, developing thoughts, and monitoring progress;
- Objectives that are clearly understood by all team members. This is increasingly a case of involving team members in setting the objectives rather than dictating prescribed objectives to them.
- Feedback focusing on the positive aspects and suggesting ways of dealing with the negative ones. Team members need to know how well they are doing and if and where improvements can be made.
4. Get the Team Together
It is important at this early stage that you don’t actually try to solve the problem you are confronted with. At the initial meeting you should aim to start to build the group into a team. Discuss and agree on the outcomes the team is to achieve. Clarify the common purposes and make sure that everyone knows what his or her personal contribution to the team’s success is, its place in the project schedule, and its importance to the project’s success.
5. Explore and Establish Ground Rules
There will be a need:
- To communicate openly and honestly, with team members feeling free to say what they think and feel without fear, rancor, or anger;
- To listen to others, including those voicing minority or extreme views;
- To agree on which decision-making, reporting and other processes will be adopted for the lifespan of the team.
6. Identify Individuals’ Strengths
Audit individuals’ strengths so the team as a whole can benefit from all the skills and expertise available. Consider bringing in someone with team-building experience to help with the initial phases, especially if the team’s task is important.
7. Include Yourself as a Team Member
Your role is as a member of the team, not just as the boss. Emphasize that everyone in the team has an important role and yours happen to be the team leader. Act as a role model and maintain effective communication – especially listening – with all members.
It may be helpful for roles to remain fluid, adding to the flexibility of working relationships without team members losing the focus of their individual strengths or objectives. An effective leader may decide to cede project leadership temporarily to another team member when specific skills are required.
8. Check Objectives
Check the team’s objectives regularly to make sure their members still have a clear focus on what they are working toward, individually and as a team.
9. Time Meetings with Care
Inessential meetings are a bane, but if there are too few, the project – and the team – can lose focus. Meet regularly, but purposefully:
- To provide an opportunity to ask “How are we doing?”
- To review progress on the task;
- To reflect on how the team is working.
If any gaps or problems arise from the review, plan and implement activity and corrective measures.
10. Dissolve the Team
When the team has accomplished its tasks, acknowledge completion. Carry out a final review to see if the team has achieved the objectives and to evaluate the team’s performance; individuals should learn, improve, and benefit next time from this exercise. If all the objectives have been met, the team can be disbanded.
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