EFFECTIVE TEAM BUILDINQ

Pre-reading activity

1. Why do you think team­work is important?

2. Is it easy to build an ef­fective team?

3. There are a number of reasons why teams fail. Could you name these reasons?

Building and maintaining effective teams is a time consuming and sensitive process particularly in businesses where the pres­sures of the moment are often intense.

Most attempts at team building don't work well, sim­ply because managers and staff fail to appreciate the effort that has to be invested in time and attention to detail. There is little doubt, however, that when done well, teamwork contributes considerably to greatly im­proved productivity and reduced costs.

Research shows there are a number of key reasons why teams fail. They include inability of the team or the organization to establish clear goals everyone can relate to, inability of the team to clearly define its members' roles, and poor leadership of the team or the organization.

Effective teams communicate easily and openly. Feed­back on "performance" is two-way and constant, pro­viding information to all members of the team on how their work supports the specific and overall effort of the team and the practice. Listening is a feature of their communication. There is minimum direction and a high level of open-ended questioning upon which full understand­ing is based.

Effective teams ac­cept team responsibility and do not "blame" one another for team mis­takes, nor do they spend useless time in personal justifications. They cel­ebrate their successes together, just as they identify the special per­formances and contributions of each individual. Good team work is based on prideful humility: pride in the outcomes of the team and a humility that assumes that other team members may well have an "angle", or a level of expertise that can add value to the outcome.

Good teams honour the contribution each makes to the total work of the team. For example, you as the leader are the team's expert in a particular area of re­sponsibility (leadership): your secretary is the expert at word processing and office procedures, and your re­ceptionist is the expert in client relations. Each is as important as the other in the application of their exper­tise!

Good teams share information about the overall rev­enue and profit objectives of the team. Effective teams are always informative and consultative and they are fully participative on those issues on which team mem­bers are competent.

The first thing to remember is that a team is a living organism, rather than some form of machine. Even without a change in membership, the values, emo­tions and behaviours of team members will change from moment to moment. A truly effective team needs regular time to examine the processes of being a team: how members relate to one another, how the team relates as a whole, and how it relates to the practice.

There is no magic formula for bring­ing "community" to your team other than a sensitive leader who spends quality time developing relationships based on a full understanding of the uniqueness of the constituent members of the team.

Unfortunately, managers seem to have a penchant for viewing team building as the equivalent of building a new prod­uct or service. They place considerable emphasis on creating the team and fail to recognize that it requires constant maintenance.

Team building and team maintenance only survives as an effective manage­ment practice if it is supported by strong relationships between the people of the teams and the practice.

Until the human needs of all mem­bers of the team (yours too) are upheld in direct ways, there can be no expectation of long-term improvement in productivity or cli­ent service.

The irony is that attention to these areas of activity is far less expensive than the average marketing campaign - and far more effective!

Answer the questions:

1. What is characteristic for effective teams?

2. What is the role of a team leader?

3. What should be done to maintain an effective team?

Discuss the following questions:

1. You definitely work in teams on different projects.

2. Is your team an effective one?

3. Why do you think so?

4. Do you have a team leader?

5. Is he (she) a good one?