Every good team needs a common goal and purpose, but it is not something
that should be dictated to the team. The team purpose, members’ roles
and responsibilities, goals plans and objectives need to be developed in
consultation with team members.
So what makes up an effective team? Emphasis on the word EFFECTIVE!!
1. Establishing Balance
A good team is the combination of all the skills required to complete a
task successfully. A good team needs the required technical skills to
get the task completed, but also needs a good balance of personalities
and psychological skills.
Team members can be categorised into the following:
The Leader - every team needs a good leader. That is someone who
is able to make the team work together and take advantage of each
individual's strengths and weaknesses.
The Devil's Advocate - every team needs a person to play the
Devil's Advocate. This person is the cynic of the team. They will
challenge everything that the team does. They need to highlight the
weaknesses and dangers of certain actions without being too negative.
They may even come up with some ideas of their own.
The Specialist - every team needs people who have a high level of
expertise in the areas required. People who can comment on ideas and
assess work that is being done.
The Public Relations Expert - This is the team member who takes
the ideas of the group and presents it in a way that will ensure they
are carried out properly.
The Adjudicator - this team member will listen to the team, but
without nit picking and getting involved in the arguments. When they
contribute, it will be intelligent and fair.
The ideas person - This is the person with the big imagination.
They will come up with lots of ideas, many of them without merit, but
will have such enthusiasm that will occasionally come up with just the
right solution.
The Diplomat - This person has the art of compromise. They will
constantly think about what is possible but will steer the group away
from areas of confrontation.
CLASS ACTIVITY
What type are you?
Do you agree with everyone else's concept of what category they fit into?
2. Defining Objectives and establishing goals.
Every team has to have clear objectives and agreed goals.
The objective defines the team's primary function - What are you forming
the team for and what do you hope to achieve. It is important that
every member of the team has the same objectives and goals.
Objectives and goals will be established at the beginning, but must be
constantly reviewed. It is important in any team to recognise the needs
of the individual members as well as the needs of the entire
organisation.
It is necessary to recognise:
• each individual's need to feel that their participation is fulfilling on a personal level
• the need for people to feel that their contribution to the group is recognised and appreciated
• the team's need to feel that goals are being achieved and that the team is not a waste of time.
Team Objectives need to be agreed between all or most of the team members. They need to be democratically reached.
Clear lines and levels of responsibility need to be established. Every
member of the team needs to know what the team can or can't do and what
the limit to their power is.
Teams are put together to achieve results and so need to have clear
objectives so that they can work out how and what they need to do to be
successful.
Everyone must have clearly communicated agreements on every aspect of
the team's activities. They must establish what results are to be
achieved, how the results will be measures, and a timeline for progress
and review.
3. Dealing openly with conflict within the team
It is essential that any conflict is handled openly and that each member is able to speak their mind without fear of conflict.
Each member must have respect and understanding of other members.
4. Being supportive and trusting
A good team is a group of people who support and trust each other.
Members of the team know that they can talk about ideas knowing that
they won't be judged or ridiculed.
Things that can damage trust and support are:
• different expectations of how the team is going
• different backgrounds of the people on teams and lack of sympathy or
respect for those who are lower or higher in the organisation
• different values in terms of what the team's primary tasks should be
• competition over areas of authority
• the sense that decisions are being made in an undemocratic manner
• anyone on the team adopting or being perceived as having attitudes of arrogance or superiority.
5. Cooperation
The team, and the team's decisions, must come before the problems of
individuals in the team. This means that the people in the team work
towards a common goal which will be to the benefit of everyone.
Cooperation is about sharing with others.
In a good team, everyone is honest with everyone else and listens to everyone else.
6. Sound Procedures
A good team must have clear objectives at the outset.
Once the objectives have been agreed upon, the team can then work on its procedures.
Procedures will cover areas such as:
• How does decision making occur?
• Are team meetings mostly formal or informal?
• Does the team have any real decision making power?
• If the team can make decisions does everyone have a say?
• If a group is affected by a team decision are they consulted?
• Are team decisions reached only after all the facts are collected?
• Do gossip and rumour play any part in team decision making?
• Is every team member receptive to change?
• Is there a process of review and analysis of decisions?
7. Appropriate Leadership
There are four basic styles of leadership:
- Dictatorial,
-
Authoritarian,
-
Democratic, and
-
Non-directive.
What Type of leader do you think you are? Why?
8. Regular Review
It is essential to review the performance of the team regularly.
At each team meeting, you should ask: Does the team still serve a useful purpose?
9. Sound inter-group relations
This deals with how each member gets on with the other members of the team.
A team with good inter-group relations will have:
• a sense of balance so that each person has their own contribution to make
• an ability to identify team objectives and to state them so everyone understands where the team is going
• a real sense of openness and cooperation so that everyone is trying to help everyone else on the team
• a leader who is prepared to listen and move discussions and conflict situations through to good, profitable resolutions
• members with high levels of communication skills.
10. Good Communication
Good communication requires the ability to listen, understand and develop a rapport with the team members.
Assessment Task 1
Think of a book that you have read that involves a "team". Using the 10 Characteristics of a good and effective team outlined above, explain how your selected team fared within each category.
- Balance - What categories did the team members fit in to
- Objectives and Goals - what were the team objectives and goals
- Was there any conflict within the team? How was it resolved?
- How did the team support and trust each other?
- Were the individuals in the team Cooperative? How?
- Were there any sound procedures and processes? What were they?
- Who was the leader? What style of leadership did they use? Was it appropriate and/or effective?
- Was the team performance reviewed at any stage?
- What were the intergroup relationships like?
- Was there good communication within the team? Explain how this communication helped achieve the team goals and/or objectives.
Conclusion: How effective was the team? How could it have worked better? What would you have done differently if you were a team member.
This is to be in the form of a report. Please make sure that you include something under each item. You are to upload your task as a document to Moodle for assessment, but you will also be sharing your responses with the class next week.
