For centuries, teams have been established and run to enable collective responsibility. To reap the clear benefits of teamwork, it is important to manage the team properly. This involves understanding how to build a team and how it is likely to behave. People in all workplaces talk about team building and teamwork, but only a few understand how to create the teamwork experience or how to develop an effective team. In a team-oriented environment, one contributes to the overall success of the organization.
The three elements needed for team evolution are cooperation, trust and cohesion. Each of these three elements makes a significant contribution to effective teamwork.
Cooperation is an important element of teamwork. Individuals in a team are said to cooperate when their approach to work is integrated to achieve a common goal together. If team members are not integrated with each other, cooperation is less and it is very difficult to achieve a collective goal. A major reason for lack of cooperation within a team is competition between team members. If unhealthy competition is encouraged among team members, it results in less cooperation leading to lower productivity and achievement.
Trust is the second element of teamwork. It is a key element that intervenes in the evolution of the team. It is a mutual faith and trust in intent and behavior among all team members. Fernando Bartolomé, administration professor and consultant, offers six guidelines for building and maintaining trust. These are communication, support, respect, fairness, predictability, and competition. These guidelines need to be present among team members. If this is possible, trust builds over time and the team becomes stronger.
The third element necessary for the evolution of the team is cohesion. Cohesion is the sense of unity among team members. When team members enjoy each other and are emotionally satisfied with their participation, it’s called social-emotional cohesion. On the other hand, when team members know that they need each other to achieve the common goal and that they depend on each other, it is called instrumental cohesion. Cohesion helps unite the team.
There are some common management mistakes that can lead to team failure. Failing teams are based on weak strategies and poor business practices. There may be times when vague or conflicting assignments are given to the team. In those cases where vague assignments are given to the team, there are no clear goals set for the employees. As a result, employees have little or no motivation towards work. It is best to set goals for employees and keep them challenged. Management must work with them to achieve these goals. Also, sometimes management fixes the problem temporarily and ignores the long-term commitment. This can lead to team failure. The manager may like to fix the problem quickly, but at the same time neglect the long-term solution of the problem. After finding the cause of the problem, management must develop real solutions that have lasting effects. Poor staffing of teams by management is another mistake. The manager must know what the team members can achieve. The manager must also ensure that the team members are trained and have the proper training required for the job to be performed.
When the equipment is installed in a hostile environment, it is certain that the equipment will fail. The hostile environment arises when there is resistant management. Management must be positive and forward-looking. Resisting or trying to stop a change doesn’t help. Management must anticipate upcoming changes and make plans to address them before they affect the organization. A hostile environment is also created within a team if management follows a strict command and control culture. In addition, the achievements of employees must be recognized. It provides encouragement to employees and helps improve their morale, performance, and loyalty. But, competitive or individual reward plans will exert a negative influence on team members and contribute to team failure.
Lack of trust between management and team members will also lead to team failure. The manager needs to believe that her employees have the skills to manage the project. The manager must guide them in the appropriate leadership style and elicit the desired behavior from the employees. This will definitely lead to success. On the other hand, team members must trust their manager for having the wisdom to make sound business decisions.
There are some team member problems that lead to team failure. Poor interpersonal skills such as a lack of communication between team members. Doing anything on the team involves communication. If this is missing, team failure is on the way. Conflicts between team members and unhealthy competition also result in team failure. Ego annoyances can create conflict and power struggles within a team. When ego kicks in, team members don’t focus on the joint responsibility they have as a team. Therefore, the work begins to suffer.
When team members try to accomplish more in a shorter amount of time and try to get quick results, the chance of failure is greater. In some of these cases, too much emphasis is placed on results rather than group dynamics and the skills used for the job. On the other hand, the team must plan its objectives and activities keeping in mind the time constraints and deadlines.
When the roles of team members are not clearly defined, conflicts between team members are generated. Team failure can also result when there are differences in work styles. Team members resist other members working differently. They do not accept other ideas and their way of working.
Problems can also arise between team members due to some unforeseen hurdles and uncertainties in market conditions. Sometimes companies can run into problems due to strategic reasons. Also if the team is too internalized and does not have enough exposure to external influences.
Lack of trust between team members can lead to team failure. An example of distrust is a lack of confidence in the ability and quality of the team member’s work. In such cases of mistrust, team members are suspicious of each other’s motives and the element of cohesion in the team’s approach is also missing.
Eric Sundstrom and his colleagues classified work teams into 4 types. They were advisory, production, project and action teams.
Advisory teams are those who help in managerial decisions and give suggestions for quality and production improvement. These teams have both a low degree of technical specialization and a low degree of coordination with other work units.
Production teams are the ones that run the day-to-day operations. Their degree of technical specialization is low but the degree of coordination with other work units is high because they are interrelated.
Project teams are those required to provide creative problem solving. Its degree of technical specialization is high since it implies the application of this specialized knowledge. The degree of coordination can be low or high. There may be low coordination in cases of independent units and high coordination in cases of cross-functional units.
Action teams are those that must show peak performance when necessary. These teams have both a high degree of technical specialization and a high degree of coordination with other work units.
The goal of any team building should be to create a high performing team. This can be achieved by following the attributes of the high performing team, i.e., participative leadership, shared responsibility, excellent communication, task-focused team, applied talents and creativity, a quick response, willing to embrace change with an opportunity to grow. and keeping team members aligned in a common purpose.
