The Importance of Development, Communication, and Learning in Teams - Essay Example

Importance of Team Development Team development is important because it produces a productive workforce. Team work inspires solidarity among employees and it also helps build trust (Mackin, 2007). This way everyone in the company carries out their duties effectively since they have the support of everyone else. For example, when a company encourages team work among its employees, they will be able to trust each other, communicate better and learn to work together to achieve the company’s objectives.

Effective Training Principles For effective team development, the following team principles are necessary: leadership, communication, trust, problem solving and decision making capabilities (Midura and Glover, 2005). In a company scenario, when team members are trained to work as a team, they not only enhance their leadership skills, but they also learn how to trust and communicate more effectively. This helps them solve problems and make decisions that are beneficial for the project at hand.

Stages in Team Development The five stages of team development proposed by Bruce Tuckman are: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and Adjourning (Sugars, 2006). At the forming stage, the team members get to know each other better, they exchange personal information and they also make new friends. It is at this stage that members get a scope of the task at hand. Example: when team members get together to know each other’s names and interests, that is forming. At the storming stage, each team member has different ideas of the project at hand.

It is at this stage that the team decides which problems to solve and how to solve them. Example: there may be differences on the reporting time for the team project, but when the members sit and agree on a specific time, the issue is resolved. At the norming stage, the team comes up with a single goal and a plan for carrying out activities. For example: a team might decide that the goal is to build new software in two months and everyone should take the responsibility in ensuring that that happens.

At the performing stage, the team members are actually working together to finish a project without any conflicts. Example: team members working on the algorithms of software can be said to be performing. Adjourning is the final stage that involves the dissolution of the team after a task has been finished. For instance, when a team comes up with new software, there is no more work to be done by the team and so it is dissolved (Midura and Glover, 2005). Communication in Teams Communication in a team helps individuals to achieve what they set out to achieve when they formed the team.

When there is communication within the team, the team members are likely to be more efficient in carrying out their duties, and therefore they end up being more productive (Sugars, 2006). Teams communicate when individuals share information about the projects that they are working on. Communication also occurs when each member lets the others know what his role is and what he expects to get from the team work. Communication allows the team members to develop trust and find ways of resolving conflicts that may arise (Lumsden, Lumsden and Wiethoff, 2010).

An example of team communication is when members know each other so well that they are able to help each other out and compliment each other’s efforts without a problem. Team Learning This is the organizational process that involves individuals working