Building an Effective Team
What team building is and can do.
A team is a group of persons who have a distinct identity and work together in a coordinated and mutually supportive way. To get the team to work well together, it takes a good leader to develop and coordinate the group.
Team building is an ongoing process. It is not something you do one time and then think it is in place. Effective workplace teams need to be aware of their purpose and how they function as a team. They provide an ongoing opportunity to identify, discuss, and solve problems.
Workplace teams are really a structure for steady, constructive communication. The key is training the leader on how to effectively give and receive feedback so they can be a model to the team. This keeps a path of open communication when dealing with issues that may come up.
All teams exist to accomplish a purpose.
Building a team begins with identifying the vision and mission. The "vision" normally refers to a brief description of where the organization wants to be three to five years into the future. The "mission" normally refers to a simple one or two sentence statement about the purpose of the team.
Team members need to discuss, understand, and accept the overall vision and mission in order to function effectively. When all team members are clear on where they fit into the big picture, the next step is setting goals for the group.
A goal is a more specific statement of what the group wants to accomplish over a set period of time. Goals are prioritized and chosen by the team based on their support of the overall mission. Goals must be doable and produce observable results.
Other areas the team needs to discuss are any obstacles preventing them from accomplishing the goals; financial or material needs; and a way to measure the results.
Role clarification is an early, and ongoing, part of team building.
Having team members describe their duties and responsibilities identifies related duties, overlaps, and problem gaps with other team members.
To develop a team, the group's first goal may be to improve and shed light on the way the members of the unit communicate and work together. This needs to be taken care of before proceeding to some other work project.
Some questions to ask to open a discussion could be:
- Are there any duties you regularly perform that are not part of your job description?
- Do you do these because you think they're important and choose to? because people assume you will do them? because they need to be done and no one else is available to take care of them?
- Is there anything that keeps you from doing what you think you should? If so, what?
- What do you need to know about the work others are doing?
- Is it clear to you how others' jobs are related to yours? If not, do you have questions?
- Is there any type of information you feel you regularly want or need that you do not get? What is it?
Team building is a nonstop action.
After setting the team goal(s), make an action plan. Then assign responsibilities and a target completion date for each person. Each team member should develop an action plan to accomplish their individual job. The leader needs to monitor and evaluate results.
Some questions that may need to be answered in this stage are:
- Who is responsible for what? What is the chain of command in terms of authority?
- What is the authority level of each person in handling their task?
- What are the rules and limits?
- What are the standards, policies and procedures?
- What are we trying to accomplish?
- What should be my focus?
The leader needs to realize as the team begins to function there maybe some conflicts with individuals or between team members. Sometimes the team will feel they are making insufficient progress compared to what they initially expected or they may have set unrealistic goals. This can cause them to feel disillusioned.
Some members may have an over reliance on the experience and ideas of one or a few persons which can cause conflicts or lack of involvement from others. There may be conflicts over differing expectations, perceptions, priorities, methods, personalities, or values. Some members may compete for control and resist working together. Members may point to those they blame as responsible for problems and it will hinder communication.
Here the leader must be very effective in observing and monitoring the team's progress and step in to address the issues and lead the group to come up with solutions. Effective communications are again the key for the leader and the team to function.
When the tasks are completed celebrate the successes. The team should also recognize gaps between goals and results and then identify new or continuous problems and continue the process of planning, implementing, and evaluating.
Team work must be ongoing and continually refined and reinforced.
Building an effective team depends on effective communication.
True teamwork isn't confined to a special meeting time and place, it needs to be an atmosphere that continually penetrates your working arena. The tone for teamwork comes from the leader's openness and willingness to listen.
Communication in an effective team is characterized by many factors including involvement, interest, respect, open discussion among "equals", freedom to disagree and criticize without fear of reprisal and freedom to praise and give credit where due. Our company has a rule for every meeting - "it's ok to agree to disagree". This keeps open communication during the meeting. We can then work out any problems or concerns so we can stay on target.
It is important that there is a lack of domination by one individual or clique. Group discussions and decisions are important. Many times decisions will be reached by consensus and the leader needs to observe and see if anyone has "checked-out" to keep the focus on the success of the team. There should be an opportunity for quiet members to speak and be recognized.
When preparing for the meetings a written agenda is needed, but keep it flexible for unexpected issues. During the meeting review of previous assignments and results are discussed, new assignments are set and consistent follow-up timeframes are determined. Recognition and celebration of completed projects are also included.
Developing functional teams does not happen overnight. It takes time and practice to develop a good team. It is the leader's responsibility to model the way for the success of the team and the company.
