Team construction - A Process For expanding Work Group Effectiveness
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 production of teams of workers rather than as compartmentalized tasks on an assembly line. Field investigate Findings, such as the ones carried out by the American Productivity & ability center during their white-collar productivity improvement, multi-organizational field investigate efforts clearly demonstrate the point of sufficient team structures to the allinclusive carrying out effectiveness of the knowledge/service worker.
Team construction - A Process For expanding Work Group Effectiveness
The construction of a team requires a great deal more endeavor than naturally recognizing the interdependence among workers and work units. It requires, instead, any carefully managed steps and is an ongoing cyclical process. The team-building process presented in this record offers the members of a work group a way to witness and analyze behaviors and activities that hinder their effectiveness and to establish and implement courses of performance that overcome recurring problems.
While the basal purpose of team construction is to establish a more sufficient work group, the definite purposes of the process will depend largely upon the appraisal of information gathered during the initial data range phase. Typically, team construction will seek to rule at least one of the following three issues:
1. A lack of clear goals and unbelievable carrying out outcomes: Frequently, interview data from work group members retell that their carrying out is generally directed by their personel (and often conflicting) carrying out goals. In that situation, the team-building model can be directed at establishing allinclusive work group goals, which affect both personel and group endeavor and behavior, and, ultimately, the carrying out outcomes at both the individual, as well as the group level.
2. Interpersonal friction and distrust: A lack of trust, supportiveness and communication not only slows down the day-to-day ability 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 indispensable for the team to work inter-dependently and more effectively to accomplish the task. In other words, the interpersonal data would be derived from the work context itself rather than from evaluations directed at personel personalities within the group. It is a concerted endeavor to search mutual needs and desired outcomes ... A Win-Win approach.
3. A lack of clear roles and leadership: Obviously, duplications of endeavor ensue in sub-optimum levels of productivity. But when initial interviews with work unit members recommend confusion over roles, the issues that outside 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 expound 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 boss charged with leadership and responsibility for the group's performance. Consequently, the team leader plays an important and somewhat different role than do other members in a flourishing team construction effort. Withhold 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 addition to the leader and other team members, flourishing team construction calls for a third party participant in the process - a Facilitator-Coach, a pro with knowledge and experience 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 club or be someone from outside the parent company/organization..
There are any roles, which this Facilitator-Coach may accomplish in team building. Maybe the most tasteless and indispensable 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 carrying out problems. To do this, the Facilitator-Coach gathers data needed for the team to show the way its own self- appraisal 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, personel behavior and the skills needed to become more sufficient as a team and as individuals.
The Facilitator-Coach should generally avoid assuming the role of the "expert." That is, the Facilitator-Coach's major function is not to directly rule 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 Withhold a cohesive, effective, and ultimately, a high-performing work team. This process requires carefully laid groundwork as well as long- term ensue up and re-evaluation. And further, team building, to be flourishing 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 any carefully thought 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 witness and analyze behaviors and activities that hinder their effectiveness and to establish and implement courses of performance 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 Withhold 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 making ready for the kick-off of the team-building process, the Facilitator-Coach will then take responsibility for the next step - the conference of data from each team member about the "strengths" and "weaknesses" of the team and barriers to sufficient team performance. This diagnostic phase will typically make use of questionnaires and/or interviews.
he use of personal interviews has any advantages. First, interviews furnish the Facilitator-Coach a better comprehension of the team, its functions and its problems. Second, interviews enable the Facilitator-Coach to establish rapport with team members and to begin to establish a association of openness and trust. Third, interviews furnish the chance for each personel team member to partake in the identification of the work group's strengths and weaknesses. Finally, personal interviews are flexible. On the other hand, the less flexible questionnaire approach ensures that tasteless 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 beneficial way of presenting the comments is according 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 Withhold of the Facilitator-Coach, the group then formulates an agenda and decides on the priorities of the issues raised by the diagnostic phase.
Before the team-building meeting ends, performance plans are advanced which specify the steps the group will take in attempting to rule definite problems.
What factors affect the success of team building?
Because sufficient team construction is not a one-shot affair, a agenda of hereafter team- construction efforts needs to be established. For chronic turn to take place, subsequent meetings will need to retell the implementation of performance plans and investigate additional problem areas.
As mentioned earlier, the Withhold and commitment of the formal team leader (Work Group Manager) are indispensable to flourishing team building. His or her attitude toward the process has an determined 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 boss is not comfortable with a participative style of leadership, team improvement naturally will not work.
The other team members should also want to become complicated in the endeavor 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 sufficient management. Each personel within the group should be part of the endeavor and feel personally gain to partake in the process.
Since the team-building efforts may create a turn in the association between the team and the organization, the Withhold of executive supervision is also vital. The chances for a flourishing team-building endeavor are improved if the team has knowledge of any organizational constraints on the options for making changes within the team.
The timing of team construction is other indispensable factor. If the team is experiencing turmoil or confusion 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 establish what is unbelievable 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. Disjunction from the workplace during the initial team meeting phase of the process is oftentimes needed to avoid work pressures and interruptions and to help create greater commitment and increased attention from team members.
What are the results of flourishing team building?
The team-building process may affect any levels within the organization. First, the individuals in the team may become more sensitive to the impact of their behavior on the sufficient 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 making with others may furnish the impetus to adopt a more participative style.
Second, team construction may help team members comprehend 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 club as scapegoats to hide his or her own inefficient operations. Ultimately, greater harmony among organizational units could well result.
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