Too often team construction is one of those vague, misused terms managers call into play as a panacea for sluggish work unit performance. The rise in the popularity and use of team construction has paralleled the growing perception of work as the output of teams of workers rather than as compartmentalized tasks on an assembly line. Field study Findings, such as the ones carried out by the American Productivity & quality town during their white-collar productivity improvement, multi-organizational field study efforts clearly demonstrate the significance of productive team structures to the total doing effectiveness of the knowledge/service worker.
The construction of a team requires a great deal more effort than naturally recognizing the interdependence among workers and work units. It requires, instead, some considered managed steps and is an ongoing cyclical process. The team-building process presented in this article offers the members of a work group a way to eye and analyze behaviors and activities that hinder their effectiveness and to fabricate and implement courses of activity that overcome recurring problems.
While the underlying purpose of team construction is to fabricate a more productive work group, the exact purposes of the process will depend largely upon the evaluation of facts gathered during the introductory data variety phase. Typically, team construction will seek to decree at least one of the following three issues:
1. A lack of clear goals and improbable doing outcomes: Frequently, interview data from work group members divulge that their doing is ordinarily directed by their individual (and often conflicting) doing goals. In that situation, the team-building model can be directed at establishing total work group goals, which affect both individual and group effort and behavior, and, ultimately, the doing outcomes at both the individual, as well as the group level.
2. Interpersonal disagreement and distrust: A lack of trust, supportiveness and communication not only slows down the day-to-day quality of a group to get work done, but also stands in the way of resolving the conflicts that naturally arise as the group makes decisions about its hereafter efforts.
One way to overcome this is to focus on the work problems and improved interpersonal skills requisite for the team to work inter-dependently and more effectively to achieve the task. In other words, the interpersonal data would be derived from the work context itself rather than from evaluations directed at individual personalities within the group. It is a concerted effort to locate mutual needs and desired outcomes ... A Win-Win approach.
3. A lack of clear roles and leadership: Obviously, duplications of effort ensue in sub-optimum levels of productivity. But when introductory interviews with work unit members suggest blurring over roles, the issues that covering may go well beyond task-specific problems. They may raise questions about who is providing leadership to the group, who feels empowered to act, what sources of power are being wielded and what interpersonal and inter-group relations underlie the group's effectiveness. When these issues arise, the team-building model uses group meetings to discuss and interpret members' roles and responsibilities - both prescribed and discretionary
Who are the "players" in the team construction process?
On the surface, a "team" suggests a group of interchangeable individuals of equal status. But in reality, most workplace teams have a supervisor or employer charged with leadership and accountability for the group's performance. Consequently, the team leader plays an foremost and somewhat different role than do other members in a thriving team construction effort. Retain from the leader is vital because if he or she does not identify and accept the need for team building, it is unlikely that other members of the work team will be very receptive to the idea.
The Value and Role of a Facilitator-Coach.
In increasing to the leader and other team members, thriving team construction calls for a third party participant in the process - a Facilitator-Coach, a expert with knowledge and caress in the field of applied behavioral science, but who is not a quarterly member of the team. This someone may be an internal reserved supply someone in the organization or be someone from covering the parent company/organization..
There are some roles, which this Facilitator-Coach may achieve in team building. Perhaps the most common and requisite is that of third-party facilitator, a "gate-keeper." The Facilitator-Coach also trains and coaches the team in becoming more skillful in understanding, identifying, diagnosing and solving its doing problems. To do this, the Facilitator-Coach gathers data needed for the team to conduct its own self- evaluation and structures a "safe" environment that encourages team collaboration and consensus building. As a turn agent, the Facilitator-Coach also serves as a catalyst to help bring about a greater degree of openness and trust and increased communication effectiveness.
Another role of the Facilitator-Coach is that of a knowledge reserved supply person, assisting team members to learn more about group dynamics, individual behavior and the skills needed to become more productive as a team and as individuals.
The Facilitator-Coach should ordinarily avoid assuming the role of the "expert." That is, the Facilitator-Coach's major function is not to directly decree the team's problems, but to help the team learn how to cope with its own problems and become more self-sufficient. If the Facilitator-Coach becomes the controlling force responsible for resolving the group's difficulties, he or she has denied the team the chance to grow by facing and resolving problems confronting them.
What are the steps in the team-building process?
At the core of the process will be a a well-defined process that is made up of a series of structured experiences and events, ones that will be repeated over time, that have been designed to help the group build and Retain a cohesive, effective, and ultimately, a high-performing work team. This process requires considered laid groundwork as well as long- term ensue up and re-evaluation. And further, team building, to be thriving in developing and sustaining high performance, must be viewed and approved as being a "continuous" and on-going process, not an "event" driven activity.
Team building, from a systems perspective, requires some considered opinion out and managed steps and is clearly understood to be an ongoing cyclical process. The team-building process offers members of a work group a way to eye and analyze behaviors and activities that hinder their effectiveness and to fabricate and implement courses of activity that overcome recurring problems. If successfully implemented, the team construction process is integrated into the work team's day-to-day operations.
Assuming work group manager-leader and team members, after having an chance to become aware of what the team construction process has to offer and requires of them, have indicated and voiced their Retain for the team construction process, the first preparatory step is the introduction of the Facilitator-Coach to the team. Often this is done by the team leader during a quarterly staff meeting at which the Facilitator-Coach is introduced to the group. The role of the Facilitator-Coach is discussed as well as the process and inherent benefits of team building.
In establishment for the kick-off of the team-building process, the Facilitator-Coach will then take accountability for the next step - the conferrence of data from each team member about the "strengths" and "weaknesses" of the team and barriers to productive team performance. This diagnostic phase will typically make use of questionnaires and/or interviews.
he use of personal interviews has some advantages. First, interviews furnish the Facilitator-Coach a better insight of the team, its functions and its problems. Second, interviews enable the Facilitator-Coach to fabricate rapport with team members and to begin to fabricate a relationship of openness and trust. Third, interviews furnish the chance for each individual team member to participate in the identification of the work group's strengths and weaknesses. Finally, personal interviews are flexible. On the other hand, the less flexible questionnaire coming ensures that common areas will be covered by all team members.
After conducting the interviews or surveys, the Facilitator-Coach summarizes the information, which is to be fed back to the group during the team-building meeting. A useful way of presenting the comments is agreeing to the frequency with which the items were
mentioned or accorded to major problem areas.
During the actual team-building meeting, the data feedback session becomes a springboard for the rest of the session's activities. With the assistance and Retain of the Facilitator-Coach, the group then formulates an schedule and decides on the priorities of the issues raised by the diagnostic phase.
Before the team-building meeting ends, activity plans are industrialized which specify the steps the group will take in attempting to decree exact problems.
What factors affect the success of team building?
Because productive team construction is not a one-shot affair, a schedule of hereafter team- construction efforts needs to be established. For chronic turn to take place, subsequent meetings will need to divulge the implementation of activity plans and study additional problem areas.
As mentioned earlier, the Retain and commitment of the formal team leader (Work Group Manager) are requisite to thriving team building. His or her attitude toward the process has an certain impact upon other team members. Furthermore, because conference sometimes centers on the team leader's behavior, he or she has to be open to constructive criticism.
The leader must also fully understand team building, its time requirements and implications. The leader's own personality and leadership style affect the probability of the success of tear-n building. If the team employer is not comfortable with a participative style of leadership, team development naturally will not work.
The other team members should also want to become complicated in the effort and believe in its relevance. Otherwise, team construction may be viewed as a ploy by the leader to pacify the team or naturally as a substitute for productive management. Each individual within the group should be part of the effort and feel personally accumulate to participate in the process.
Since the team-building efforts may generate a turn in the relationship between the team and the organization, the Retain of executive supervision is also vital. The chances for a thriving team-building effort are improved if the team has knowledge of any organizational constraints on the options for production changes within the team.
The timing of team construction is someone else requisite factor. If the team is experiencing turmoil or blurring over its direction (mission, goals, purpose, objectives, leadership, changes, etc.), the time could be ripe for team-building efforts to begin because the members may feel a need to fabricate what is improbable of them. Thus, their receptivity to the process is often increased under such destabilizing conditions.
Finally, team construction requires sufficient time for the activities to take effect. Relatively large blocks of time and even changes in the work setting are sometimes needed for team building. Divorce from the workplace during the introductory team meeting phase of the process is frequently needed to avoid work pressures and interruptions and to help generate greater commitment and increased concentration from team members.
What are the results of thriving team building?
The team-building process may affect some levels within the organization. First, the individuals in the team may become more sensitive to the impact of their behavior on the productive functioning of the team. More self-awareness may also lead to changed behavior patterns. For example, recognition by the team leader that he or she does not share leadership and decision production with others may furnish the impetus to adopt a more participative style.
Second, team construction may help team members perceive that different and better approaches exist to the way the team operates and performs its work. Third, team construction may affect the relation- ship of the group to the rest of the organization. For example, a team member may stop using other parts of the organization as scapegoats to hide his or her own inefficient operations. Ultimately, greater harmony among organizational units could well result.
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