There are seven characteristics of an effective team according to a study conducted by Don Carew, Eunice Parisi-Carew and Ken Blanchard of Blanchard Training and Development. They are purpose and values, empowerment, relationships and communication, flexibility, optimal productivity, recognition and appreciation, and morale.
The first characteristics are purpose and values. Members of teams share a sense of common purpose. They are clear about what the teams work and why it is important. They can describe a picture of what the team intends to achieve, and the norms and values that will guide them. Purpose defines what the team is to accomplish and the values and norms define how. They have developed mutually agreed-upon and challenging goals that clearly relate to the team s vision. Strategies for achieving goals are clear. Each member understands his or her role in realizing the purpose and values.
The second characteristic is empowerment. Teams thrive on self-directed members who have been empowered to make decisions, troubleshoot problems, initiate change and experiment with creative ideas. The organization must dare to trust its employees enough to let them manage themselves in teams. Employees earn that trust by internalizing the goals and mission of their company. They put their career welfare in the hands of the team. Empowered teams share in power, but also in responsibility, for results. A sense of mutual respect enables members to share responsibilities, help each other out, and take initiative to meet challenges. Members have opportunities to grow and learn new skills. There is a sense of personal as well as collective power. Team leaders and members must dare to innovate, take risks and pursue continuous training in order to ensure breakthrough performance. Daring teams never settle for mediocrity, conformity or business as usual. They break out of their self-imposed comfort zone.
The third characteristics are relationships and communication. The aspects of relationships and communication in a team deal with the way people communicate with one another. Both words and nonverbal clues can reflect how they feel about working with one another and can build or reduce the team s effectiveness. Good communication gives clear messages, which are conducive to people working productively and harmoniously, without misunderstanding and misinterpretation. As people on the team learn to take other members at face value, they build trust and credibility. To build and maintain a team, its members must be willing and able to communicate with one another in ways that reflects openness, trust, and respect. Generally, sharing information, providing feedback, and encouraging participation among all team members are the three key communication practices used by successful teams.
Successful teams insist that team members willingly share timely information about developments occurring throughout the organization, except what is labeled confidential. It is considered bad form to withhold or ration information that could be useful to team members. Information is seen as empowering the group, not any one member.
Feedback is serious business. Team members must provide each other with feedback about whether their performance enhances the team s performance or impedes it. Feedback should be given immediately and should be confined to behavior. When people give feedback to others about their emotions or opinions, it should be prefaced with It s my perception that or You impress me as feeling Team members should never assume or label without checking to make sure their perceptions and analyses are correct. No one on a team is immune from receiving feedback. In fact, most people welcome feedback, even when it is critical, because they know it helps them develop more effective behavior. Feedback should not be delivered as a joke, which can contain hidden messages that make fun of someone. Team members should be encouraged to express their emotions when it is healthy and normal to do so, especially if it will illuminate their perception or perspective on an issue. Aggressiveness and non-assertiveness are not acceptable behaviors in teams. People who dissent or are unhappy with the way the group is working should be supported in what they say, even if other team members do not agree. No one gets punished for speaking out. When conflicts between members are prolonged or intense, other team members should step in to help resolve them.
The fourth characteristic is flexibility. Group members are flexible, and they perform different task. The responsibility for team development and leadership is shared. The strengths of each member are identified and used and individual efforts are coordinated when necessary. The team is fluid and open to both opinions and feelings. Members recognize the inevitability and desirability of change and adapt to changing conditions. Organization practices are responsive to changes, demands, and team needs.
The fifth characteristic is optimal productivity. Teams produce significant results. Critical success factors for the organization are clear. There is a commitment to high standards and quality results. They get the job done, meet deadlines, and achieve goals. The team has developed effective decision-making and problem solving methods that result in achieving optimum results and encourage participation and creativity. Members have developed strong skills in group process as well as task accomplishment.
Recognition and appreciation is the next attribute. When team members have accomplished what you have asked them to, reward them. An organization should recognize both the individual and team contributions simultaneously. For example, when a team s project is finished, the members can be publicly praised as a group for their work and additional individual praise can be given to top performance. Members feels highly regarded within the team and experience a sense of personal accomplishment in relation to their team and task contributions. How you reward team members depend in part on what you are rewarding any why. Your rewards should focus team members attention on the importance of both building and maintaining team success. There is a range of possibilities, rewards of days off, salary increases, coaching for career opportunities, or certificates.
The last, and most important characteristic is morale. Members are enthusiastic about the work of the team and each person feels pride in being a member of a team. Confident and committed, members are optimistic about the future. There is a sense of excitement about individual and team accomplishments as well as the way team members work together. Team spirit is high. To be a successful team, the group must have a strong ability to produce results and a high degree of satisfaction in working with one another.
All members should share the responsibility for initiating behaviors that give direction and support to the group. With practice and improvement, the group can assume the other characteristics needed to PERFORM and will be well on its way to becoming a high performing team. As organizations continue to flatten their hierarchies and empower front line workers with more responsibility and authority, the use of teams will continue to rise. Developing new ways to recognize teams will be essential for their continued success.
TEAM BUILDING EXERCISES
One way to improve or start your team in an effective manner is to use team building exercises, or team builders. These types of exercises will give your group a chance to deal with issues in a safe environment. Team builders are effective for many reasons. Two main reasons are, to improve how the group as a whole performs. As explained by William G. Dyer, The overall goal of any team-development program is to improve the effectiveness of a group that must work together to achieve results . The second reason is to improve employee development and growth. This improvement will not only assist the team s development, but assist the individual as well. Individuals will develop a check and balance system to aid in their own development. …team-building program . its purpose is to help the work unit engage in a continual process of self-examination to gain awareness of those conditions that keep the unit from functioning effectively (Dyer). The check and balance system gathers information and compares it to the group or individual to help them grow.
A team builder can be used in many circumstances. One circumstance is when a group is first created. In newly formed groups, there is a need to learn about each other. Another is when a group is having problems and requires intervention (normally in a safe environment) to resolve the problems. In the process of leading a team builder, four steps occur. These steps are: developing the purpose of the team builder; performing the team builder; analyzing the team builder; and concluding the team builder. The first step, developing the purpose. The main purpose of a team builder is to make sure that the group feels comfortable to talk and deal with issues, problems, or concerns that they might have. An effective recommendation for a team builder exercise is to conduct them outside of the work environment. Many companies will schedule two or three day trips away from the company to give them the proper environment. In developing the purpose, the team should create goals or outline issues that must be address. Also, determine what the team wants to accomplish during the allotted time period. During this time, it is advisable to write down these goals and post them in areas where everyone can see them. The facilitator of the team builder should read the list aloud to the group and request any additions or deletions to the goal list at that time. This will allow the group to offer personal goals, thereby creating individual attachment to the team builder.
Next is conducting the team builder with the group. The group will be given a task or problem to solve as a group. The team builder is purposely designed so that the group must work together to solve the task or problem. The team builder facilitator must keep careful watch over the group during the problem solving session. This will enable the facilitator to later analyze the outcome of the team builder session with the group. More data can be derived from the team builder when the group is handicapped from performing certain tasks. If the team builder was designed to address a particular group problem area, a handicap can be used in the team builder to assure this particular problem area is dealt with by the group. For example, one issue that a group might have is their dependency on their leader. The desired result would be to have the group, as a whole, resolving problems. During the team builder, you could prevent the leader from talking (handicap him/her) and see how the group deals with the problem. Not only will this teach the group to work without their leader, but also it will teach the leader to trust the group to solve problems without taking charge. The desired results will be made clear to the group when the group goes through the analyzing process of the team builder.
During the analyzing process the facilitator will ask certain questions that will draw out what the team learned from the exercise. Before starting, the facilitator should assure that the group feels comfortable or safe to open up and voice their opinions. The facilitator should question the group on how they felt about the experience. Also on what roles each person felt they played or others played in the exercise. Inquire as to whether any buttons were pushed during the experience and attempt to draw out what they were. Also, the facilitator should access the group s feelings of any strengths and weakness of themselves or others that they derived from the exercise. This question and answer session should help the group realize their problem areas and work through them. With all the personal issues resolved, the group can now be shown how the lessons from the exercise relate to the work environment. Simply questioning the group on how they would relate the exercise to their work environment could do this.
The last step of the process, the conclusion, wraps up what the group has learned as a whole. The facilitator should ask questions to determine if the group completed their individual goals, the group goals and/or resolve all issues that might have arises during the exercise. At this point, it is acceptable for the group to agree to disagree as long as the group can work together without worrying about personal issues. The facilitator should also assess other issues that may have arisen and how they relate to the work environment. When all the feedback is done and everyone in the group has resolved their issues, the facilitator should add closures to the exercise. This is done by going over what the group accomplished, what they learned and what they need to work on in the future. Most important is for the facilitator to reinforce what the group learned and strengthen the bond that was created during the team builder so that this may be taken back to the work environment.
CONCLUSION
Team building is directed toward improving group effectiveness and the ways in which members of teams work together. These teams may be permanent or temporary, but their members have either common organizational aims or work activities. The general process of team building attempts to equip a group to handle its own ongoing problem solving. Team building incorporates a conglomerate of skills and behaviors used to develop effective teams. Skills such as team development, communication, training and exercises, and feedback. Teams, in other words, are tools. As such, each team design has its own uses, its own characteristics, its own requirements, and its own limitations. Teamwork is neither good nor desirable ; it is a fact in today s environment. Wherever people work together or play together they do so as a team. Which team to use for what purpose is a crucial, difficult, and risky decision that is even harder to unmake. Managers must learn how to make this decision and afford each team participant the skills and resources necessary to be effective in the team.
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