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Why Team Work? Two heads are better than one
Highlights
A team is a group of people with a full set of complementary skills required to complete a task, job, or project. Team members operate with a high degree of interdependence, share authority and responsibility for self-management, are accountable for the collective performance, and work toward a common goal and shared rewards(s).
A team is a group of people with a full set of complementary skills required to complete a task, job, or project. Team members operate with a high degree of interdependence, share authority and responsibility for self-management, are accountable for the collective performance, and work toward a common goal and shared rewards(s).
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A team becomes more than just a collection of people when a strong sense of mutual commitment creates synergy, thus generating performance greater than the sum of the performance of its individual members.
Why Teams? Peter Honey, leading industrial psychologist and learning guru, explains the ever growing importance of teams as under:
The flattening of hierarchical levels means that people have to be more interdependent in order to achieve more with less. The whole quest for Total Quality, continuous improvement and improved customer service means that the functional barriers are breached and people forced to co-operate between functions, not just within a function.
The need to respond more rapidly to market forces and changes external to the organization, means that organizational structures are more complex (matrix management is just one example) and more flexible. This increases the need for collaborative decision making (more 'we' decisions, less 'I' decisions).
Raised expectations about participating in, or at the very least being consulted about, decisions that affect people and their work practices. This automatically increases the demand for more group/team decision making.
The increased use of project teams and task forces, often multi-disciplinary, to come together rapidly to tackle a major issue or problem and then disband.
The empowerment movement and the changing role of managers from director to facilitator (is there such a word?), inevitably puts greater emphasis on the group/team and less on 'divide and conquer' management styles.
Last but not least, the attempts to create Learning Organisations, which is only possible if learning teams, meet frequently to trawl their experiences for learning and agree what to do better/differently in future. The key to creating a Learning Organization is to have lots of overlapping Learning Teams.
Importance of working together in teams. No employee can work alone; he has to take the help of his colleagues to accomplish the tasks efficiently. And it has been observed that the outcome comes out to be far better when employees work in a team rather than individually as every individual can contribute in his best possible way.
In organizations, individuals having a similar interest and specializations come together on a common platform and form a team. Research supports that organizations with clearly defined teams are more successful as compared to those with a one man show.
Team work is essential in corporate for better output and a better bonding among employees. No organization runs for charity. Targets must be met and revenues have to be generated.
Tasks must not be kept pending for a long time and ought to be completed within the desired timeframe. In a team, every team member has an equal contribution and each team member comes out with a solution best suited to the problem. All the alternatives can be explored to come out with the best possible solution.
Thoughts can be discussed among the team members and the pros and cons can be evaluated. Tasks are accomplished at a faster pace when it is done by a team rather than an individual.
An individual will definitely take more time to perform if he is single handedly responsible for everything. When employees work together, they start helping each other and responsibilities are shared and thus it reduces the work load and work pressure.
Every team member is assigned one or the other responsibility according to his specialization, level of interest and thus the output is much more efficient and faster. Team work is also important to improve the relations among the employees. Individuals work in close coordination with each other and thus come to know each other better.
Team work also reduces the chances of unnecessary conflicts among the employees and every individual tries his level best to support his team member. Team members can also gain from each other. Every individual is different and has some qualities. One can always benefit something or the other from his team members which would help him in the long run. Everyone is hungry for recognitions and praises. One feels motivated to work hard in a team and to live up to the expectations of the other members. Each member is a critic of the other and can correct him whenever the other person is wrong.
One always has someone to fall back on at the time of crisis. Team and team work must be encouraged at workplace as it strengthens the bond among the employees and the targets can be met at a faster pace. Workload is shared and individuals feel motivated to perform better than his team members. Given the importance of team work in a VUCA environment of today, What Needs To Be Done To Build Effective Teams?
1. Recognize the Power of Teamwork: A successful team project maximizes the talents of its individual members, but the true power of teamwork comes from the group's cohesion and combined energies focused on a common goal.
2. Choose the Right People: If you want your team to be really effective, you'll need to get the right people for the job. If possible, try to incorporate employees or departments in your organization that bring varied experience and perspective to the project.
3. Delegate: Once you have set forth your guidelines, your job becomes making sure they can do theirs. Avoid telling members of a team what to do and how to do it. Instead, work with them to set goals, and then remove obstacles, grant access, and provide the support your team needs to achieve those goals.
4. Monitor Progress: In an ideal world, you'll have chosen exactly the right people for the team, and everything will take care of itself.However, in the real world, you will have to verify that the team is working well together and that the project is on track.
5. Celebrate Your Successes: When your team accomplishes or exceeds its goals, then be sure to recognize the win and celebrate it. At minimum, schedule a final team meeting where you can thank the group collectively and describe the positive impact their work will have on your organization and your customers.
Conclusion Teamwork is important, but it doesn’t mean everybody doing the same thing or everybody being able to do each other’s jobs. It’s more a means to a synergistic way of working, where the sum is greater than the parts. Properly managed, teamwork maximizes strengths, bringing out the best in each team member.
The specific, possibly unique individual strengths are then complimented by the strengths of others, or of the team as a unit. The value of teamwork is regularly seen in sports. How often do we see teams made up of expensive star players outperformed by teams with players who may be individually less talented? The answer lies in two things.
The synergistic value of teamwork (our glue and oil), and in the crucial role of the manager. As we all know, we don't win with the best talent - we win with all the players playing well together.
By Dr A Jagan Mohan Reddy
The author is a Senior Faculty [HR] at Institute of Public Enterprise teaching HR & Talent Management.
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