Types of teams
Single-function team
Team members come from one functional area, which can be a natural work unit. Membership is free, and the team is constantly updated.
Multifunctional team
Team members come from dissimilar operable areas and meet up to performace on the opportunity to improve the quality, which can be found at the intersection of various areas in the work. As in the single-function team, the membership is free, and the team is constantly updated.
Team for task execution
Members of this team also exit from one or more practical areas. The team is shaped in order to resolve an exact job, or group of tasks, after which it disbanded. Members enter into the team, relying on their knowledge and experience of the task to be accomplished. Members of the team and the task for this team are usually offered by the leaders (Lead Team).
Leading team
The lead team acts as a management committee, developing plans, making general calculations and providing communications between the teams working under its direction. One of the main responsibilities of the Lead Team is the support and supervision of teams to improve quality.
Team formation
In the literature one can often find the point of view according to which the formation of a team is one of the styles of organizational counseling. At the same time, three styles of the process of forming teams are distinguished:
1) individual counseling, i.e. management of difficult problems arising from the existence in the organization;
2) directly forming the team – active team inclusion in the planning of organizational changes;
3) building inter-team relationships (in the case of several separate teams in the organization, counseling is directed to both the process of forming teams, and to establish the relationship between them).
Team building, or team building, is a term commonly used in the context of a business and applied to a wide range of activities to create and improve team performance. Team building is an important factor that ensures the best quality of services and at the same time preserves healthy competition.
Team members
To create an effective team, it is necessary to unite people with equal role characteristics in order to distribute functional and psychological roles, to support the interest of team members to each other, to use the whole range of types of thinking and approaches to solving problems and to keep the team for the entire duration of the goal.
Members of the team in the performance of work in addition to functional roles, depending on the competence in a certain area, play also social roles that determine how this member of the team affects the process of performing the work. One of the first who drew attention to this distinction of roles was the English researcher Belbin, who singled out nine social roles for the team members:
The thinker has imagination, is characterized by increased creativity; the performer translates ideas into practical actions, brings order to the actions of the team;
The door closer ensures that the tasks are carried out in full and on time;
the appraiser performs an impartial, critical analysis of the situation;
The resource researcher owns the art of negotiation and effective communication;
the educator is guided by the solution of the task, encourages colleagues to work more intensively;
The collectivist harmonizes relations in a team and eliminates differences;
the coordinator clearly articulates goals, is a social leader; the specialist has rarely encountered skills and abilities.
The same person can play several roles at the same time. The broader the range of roles that he is able to play in a team, the better team player he is.
Communications
Communication styles
Communication can be viewed at various styles. Everything depends on what is taken as a basis. That is why there are many classifications of styles of communication.
There are following distinguished styles of communication:
A macro level (a person communicates with other people according to traditions, customs, Social relations that have developed);
Mesa level (communication takes place in the context of a meaningful topic);
Microlevel (this is an act of contact: a question is an answer).
Each of these styles can manifest itself in different situations and in different spheres: business, interpersonal, role-playing etc. In particular, it is one thing when partners act as equal participants in communication, and quite another if one of them feels a certain dependence, and especially if unequal treatment begins in the form of pressure, aggression, intimidation, etc.
Team decision making
In practice, the decision point floats or is absent altogether. As a result, someone starts to embody, in his opinion, the decision already made, while the other members of the team look with perplexity and think I did not subscribe to it. There is also something else – what I call silent consent. At the end of the meeting the manager gets up and says: Well, as far as I understand, everyone agrees with this proposal and no more objections. So in fact; in response, only an indistinct murmur is everything, the decision is accepted. The meeting came to an end.
Often teams use only one rule by default – the majority rule, without even thinking about the fact that this rule can do more harm than good when considering some issues where support of the greater part of the team is needed. So, the rules of decision-making are important. They give transparency and clearly divide the world of decision-making from the world of discussion. Let’s try to understand and understand how they can be properly used.
Team interactions
Creating an effective team is a complex process that requires a long and painstaking work. And even when you manage to collect a dream team and build an interaction within it, the work cannot be considered complete. Algorithm, tools and simple ideas for team building – we’ll talk about this.
A serious task stimulates the good teamwork of people. Begin to build effective relations in the department with the formulation of the mission. Write down why and why your company exists so that employees understand why they need to work for you. Any real team needs a leader. We must not forget that the leader will always look back at you and to some extent reflect your management style, that’s why it’s very important to broadcast your principles to the team as quickly as possible, then the leader will pick them up, and you will ensure a reliable rear. Of course, good teamwork can not be without discipline. No matter how creative people are your employees, each of them should clearly understand what he is doing and what he is responsible for in his work.
But the most important thing is you yourself. The success of the team begins with the manager. Your employees will take an example from you, and if you allow yourself to violate discipline, do not develop, then there can be no question of any good teamwork.
Team Development
Structures and skills
Those methods of recruiting employees who worked earlier are no longer relevant. It is not enough simply to place on the site an announcement about opening a vacancy with a standard description of duties and selection criteria. Think of something interesting that meets the spirit of your company. As an example: we launched an advertisement with a photograph of the employee and one phrase: Do you want to work with her? We did not have such a summary for a long time. At the casting came 50 people, which for today – an incredible result.
When you find really worthwhile employees, do not leave them unattended, especially at first. The adaptation stage is necessary for the new person to become familiar with the company and begin to feel part of it. Immediately make it clear to the new employee that he is important to others and to the company as a whole that he has been waiting here for a long time and very happy about his appearance.
Managing performance
The basic concepts of the process of managing performance of team is based on the elements of managing performance, planning activities in the field of managing performance in team. Labor productivity, management, elements of management, planning. In modern conditions of development of market economy, one of the main problems of enterprise management practices is the performance management. At enterprises, very little attention is paid to the indicator of team performance. As a rule, no one is engaged in its analysis, control, planning, forecasting. This is explained either by an elementary misunderstanding of the importance, the priority of the problem, or by the reluctance to understand this importance, or by the unwillingness to spend time and money to solve it. However, the experience of the industrially developed countries of the world, the leading corporations in them, says that they spare neither time nor money for finding and realizing the reserves of team performance growth, and subsequently this results in a reduction in production and non-production costs, in profit growth, in competitive successes on the world market.
Development processes
By forming people in a team, you can face resistance. Especially often this happens when the club or studio is already working and there comes an understanding that there is not enough team interaction. The first reason, because of which there may be resistance, is the lack of confidence in the advantages of the team. The task of the manager in this case is to convey to each employee why the team work is effective not only for the club, but for every individual. The second reason is personal discomfort: every person can have his own motives to avoid teamwork, and here it is necessary to connect his managerial skills and motivate each individual employee. And the third reason is poorly developed ethics of efficiency. It’s not uncommon, when in the club it’s simply not common to interact with each other. If this is your case, then collect all your strength and patience and introduce such practice.
References
Klein, C. et al. (2009) ‘Does team building work?’, Small Group Research, 40(2), pp. 181–222. doi: 10.1177/1046496408328821.
Tseng, H. W. and Yeh, H. Te (2013) ‘Team members’ perceptions of online teamwork learning experiences and building teamwork trust: A qualitative study’, Computers and Education, 63, pp. 1–9. doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2012.11.013.
Widmeyer, W. N. and Ducharme, K. (1997) ‘Team building through team goal setting’, Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 9(1), pp. 97–113. doi: 10.1080/10413209708415386.
Nemiro, J. et al. (2008) The Handbook of High-Peformance Virtual Teams, The handbook of high-performance virtual teams: a toolkitfor collaborating across boundaries.
