Effective Work Teams
I am still dragging up stuff from my old files – authors totally unknown I’m afraid. This week it is characteristics of effective work teams.
A team can be defined as ‘a group of two or more people who combine the appropriate skills and talents and who work with positive harmony and spirit to achieve common aims’.
An effective team is more than just a collection of individuals achieving an objective. Team members actively care about their team’s wellbeing. The effectiveness of an organisation depends upon team strengths.
Six elements of effective teams include:
Leadership & Control
As a focal point to:
- Give clarity about what needs to be achieved, by when
- Develop goals and shared vision
- Co-ordinate activities
- Encourage team to pull together to achieve same end
- Communicate to and develop communications within the team
- Ensure goals /objectives are met within the time and quality constraints
Work methods
We need:
- Processes
- Systems
- Methods
- Procedures
- Structures
To organise the way we work in order to:
- Achieve tasks
- Work together as a team
- Solve problems
- Manage time and resources
- Manage information
There must be a correct balance of work methods otherwise too much structure could become bureaucratic and get in the way.
Work methods need constantly revising, updating, improving or replacing to meet changing needs.
Roles, Skills and Knowledge
Roles and responsibilities need to be defined and understood so that individuals know what is expected of them and others in their team.
Individuals within the team and the team as a whole need to have the skills and knowledge to:
- Tackle and achieve the task
- Ensure good team working
- Recognise, confront and remedy weaknesses
- Provide appropriate level of expertise and technical know-how
Climate and Morale
About the fundamentals of:
- Openness, trust and confidence in each other
- Loyalty and support to team and individuals
- Good feeling and respect for each other
- Valuing and listening to ideas/ contributions
- Expressing wants, fears and concerns
- Willingness to give and receive feedback
- Sense of harmony and belonging
- High morale; high level of fun and enthusiasm
Communications is core to effective team working. It is the element that ensures all other elements are working together.
The Environment
A team can only be effective in relation to the organisation and the environment within which it exists. An effective team must:
- Have goals compatible with the organisation goals
- Meet the needs of its clients (be they internal or external)
- Recognise areas of inter-dependence with other teams
- Develop and maintain good relationships with other teams internally and externally
Effective team working takes a good deal of nurturing and conscious development on the part of each of its members.
Underlying values of teams
- People are important
- People are social creatures
- Democratic society is the ideal
- We affiliate in order to survive