Effective Team and Performance - Coursework Example

Effective Team and Performance Introduction A team is composed of a group of people who work together to obtain a common goal. A team that is effective in nature has particular distinctive characteristics that enable the team members to work more productively and efficiently. Such a team develops means of sharing roles of leadership and ways of sharing accountability for the products of their work. This shifts the emphasis from one particular individual to a number of various individuals in the team. An effective team will also develop a concrete work product and specified team purpose that the team members work to produce together (Smith 2010). This assignment therefore aims at describing the effective team performance in relation to the lectures and the seminar activities. The seminar activities that will be discussed include the general information on the features of the team performance, Belbin’s team roles, reflection on the team performance, and conflict and negotiation. The paper seeks to describe the overarching and recurring problems and how they would have been avoided as a result of what the team members could have done or should act next time to avoid the problematic situations. The paper will also describe the key issues and the experiences of the team members in the seminar. In addition, the things that were learnt in the seminar will also be highlighted in the paper. The assignment will be approached in such away that the reflection will be done on the seminar activities such as the general information about the features of effective team performance, Belbin’s team roles on team cohesion, reflection on the emotional intelligence, and conflict and negotiation by team members. The alternative action on the recurring problems will then follow and finally what the group learned from the seminar and a brief conclusion. As mentioned before, an effective team develops active strategies of solving problems and open ended meetings which go beyond deciding, discussing and delegating what the team members should do; instead they perform jointly their functions together. When possible and necessary, different individuals within a team will always set aside their personal work to in order to help the other team members. Performance of a well functioning team has its foundation based not just on the ability of an individual member to have other group members influenced, but is rather directly assessed via measuring the products of work of the team as a whole. In this relation, the rewards are based on the effort of the whole team in order to help in underscoring the importance of the responsibility of the team (Wilde 2010). In the mentioned seminar, the key issues that were discussed included the general information on the features of an effective team, the Belbin’s team roles on team cohesion, reflection on the emotional intelligence, conflict and negotiation by team members, the animal survival exercise under the lecture on team performance, the lost moon under the lecture on conflict, crime in Cambridge under the leadership lecture, and egg flying contest under the lecture on decision making. More specifically, we shall only focus under the reflection part on the four seminar tasks which include the general information on the features of effective team performance, Belbin’s team roles on team cohesion, reflection on the emotional intelligence, and conflict and negotiation by team members. In the seminar under the task of general information on the features of an effective team performance, we had a chance to learn ways in which a team could be made strong when working together. According to Homans-Theory of Group Formation, some of the general information discussed in the seminar on effecting a team included: allowing the team to establish its objectives together, the team should define its objectives of performance with the together and ensure that every team member gets to understand the goals, the objectives and the actions that must be taken to accomplish them; developing the style of participation together, the team should encourage the staff (Wilde 2010). All the team members should have their ideas heard and their point of view acknowledged. The team members should also be encouraged to discuss issues, concerns and look for solutions together; the team members should also focus on the contributions each of them give towards setting and defining objectives and teach every member on the ways in which they can have themselves participating in the process of defining the team’s goal; a team should hold and conduct meetings together; the roles and responsibilities of the team be defined together. This will help in eliminating frustrations on what should be done by a member; the rules of the team should be elaborative and well explained. The team members should discuss all standards and norms established for the team. The implications and the rationale for the regulations and rules should also be discussed; promoting the responsibility of the team where members are encouraged to solve problems. Finally, the team learned in the seminar under the general information that the team should establish time commitments. They should schedule how and when each member of the team member devotes his or her time to the team work (Wilde 2010). In the next seminar task, Belbin’s team roles on team cohesion, the team discussed some characteristics of an effective team and the roles that they should play for an effective performance. In the seminar, we learned that according to the Tuckman’s Group Development Model, the members of an effective team has specific characteristics which included sharing the roles of leadership, developing products of work which are tangible in nature, developing the scope of their own work, members are accountable mutually for the products of work, schedules work to be accomplished and are committed to the allocated time for the work performance, discuss and resolve problems together as a team, and the team performance is based on the team products achieved (Principe 2010). In the reflection task at the seminar, we learned about emotional intelligence. According to Goleman Druskat , Wolff Cherniss & Goleman, teamwork has a theatrical impact on the performance of an organization. A team that is effective can assist an organization accomplish implausible results. On the other hand, an ineffective team that does not work can root unnecessary interference, strategic failure, and failed delivery. It is almost impossible to avoid being a team member. In fact if one is not an official team member at work, then chances are he or she function within a team in some way or another. So learning team skills is vital for anyone’s career and personal development in order to know understand the strengths and weaknesses of working as a team. The seminar lessons helped us to uncover common problems of working as a team that the members of a team are likely to experience (Myers 2010). According to Thompson-Negotiation styles,Naquin & Kurtz berg-Trust, there is no particular method of solving team conflicts. Negotiating the interests of the team is all it takes to come up with the effective team. This depends on how the team was build. It is in this ground that we had a lesson in the seminar on leadership, decision making and team building. According to Northouse-Leadership style, Padilla-Toxic Leader, Kelley-Follower on leadership, there is no one ideal mechanism of building a team. As a team learns the manner in which it will function, it should develop a preferred approach of undertaking its functions. It is important to note that performance and production is at the center and core of building an effective and strong team. Performance and production serves as the compass that moves the team ahead in achieving desired results (Linden 2010). According to Homans-Theory of Group Formation and Tuckman-Group Development model, the criteria of creating a well functioning team includes the fact that every member of the team must create a belief that the team has got a worthwhile and urgent purposes. It is evident that the more urgent the purpose is, the more the likelihood of a team that is highly performing will emerge; selecting the team members not by personalities, but by their skills, teams that are effective require complementary skills. The skills that are basically needed for an effective team include problem-solving, technical, and interpersonal skills. It is essential for the team to achieve appropriate skill balance. It is however not necessary for the team members to possess immediately all the technical skills. Instead, what is vital is to have the required skills at the start-up of the team and the ability of team members to obtain additional skills at a later date. The basic skills that should be necessarily learned at a team start-up include team skills, problem-solving, and interpersonal; and that sufficient time should be given to the initial team meetings (Kummerow 2010). This is a very important time in the development of the team. The initial meetings entail members of the group introducing themselves and getting to know each other. Any prevailing assumptions are hence destroyed or confirmed. Team members let the leader determine if their actions are actually consistent with the objectives of the team (Kerwin 2008). According to Homans-Theory of Group Formation, it is in order to establish rules that govern the behavior of the team members. The theory asserts that a real team has defined set rules that guide its operations described as the code of conduct. Without the rules, it would not be possible for a team that is newly forming to find its way to transcend to a team that is really effective. The theory defines some basic rules for a team at an early stage of formation to include: confidentiality, attendance, open discussion, fair workload, and constructive disagreement. The stated rules promote trust, participation, commitment, and openness, commitment. Team members should set some short term goals to be achieved by the team. This will help in generating immediate momentum and wins to drive the team members forward. This will make sure that the goals and objectives of the team are reasonable and can be achieved quickly and fairly and quickly (Klein 2010). In the view of Tuckman-Group Development Model, a developing team should be stimulated up with various new and emerging challenges. This is very important for the teams that are intact since they have a propensity to be comfortable with what they have in the status quo. Giving new information to a team in form of challenges may in the end serve as a catalyst for the members who are reexamining their performance of the team. The members of the team should also interact both at work and outside workplace. A team should not only spend time together at the place of work but also share some time together when they are outside the workplace. This is very vital according to Tuckman-Group Development Model during the early development stages of a team. Whenever team members have fun both outside and at work, a bonding element is promoted among them. The newly formed teams are in essence weakest at this point and have to make conscious attempts such as socializing. Team performance should be recognized. The ultimate reward of a team is when it achieves high performance level. It is important to realize the achievements and progress of the team. This would have the members of the team motivated and focused. The team had some experiences in the seminar, we as a team realized that the criteria of developing a new team are vital for the long term team successes. We had disunity problems recurring in the seminar and we learnt that these could be averted if we observed the team rules and regulations. In fact the team would have remained united if only we had observed and stuck to the team objectives. According to Tuckman-Group Development model, it is of supreme importance to keep always in mind the necessary conditions for the effective teamwork. The conditions are interdependency of work effort, and shared vision and purpose of the team. Whenever the stated conditions are absent, nothing will resultantly be successful on teambuilding (Gallen 2010). Some of the things the team and I learnt from the seminar include the characteristics of an effective team. This left me so empowered and aware of the essentials of an effective team. We also leaned that most people identify the value of teams, untested assumptions, and demanding time schedules which prevent most organizations and teams from taking advantage of the opportunities to achieve their desired outcomes by using teams to get work done. I also leant that in order for teams to remain effective, team members and team leaders must apply the defined essentials of an effective team. In the seminar, we learned that there is no particular method of solving team conflicts. It is negotiation among the team members that can easily solve the team conflicts. Negotiating the interests of the team is all it takes to come up with the effective team. According to Northouse-Leadership style, Padilla-Toxic Leader, Kelley-Follower on leadership, there is no one ideal mechanism of building a team. As a team learns the manner in which it will function, it should develop a preferred approach of undertaking its functions. Whether a team is effective or not depends on how the team was build. It is in this ground that we had a lesson in the seminar on leadership. Performance and production is at the center and core of building an effective and strong team. Performance and production serves as the compass that moves the team ahead in achieving desired results. Performance of a well functioning team is based just not on the ability of an individual member to have other group members influenced, but is rather directly assessed via measuring the products of work of the team as a whole (CPP, Inc. 2009). Conclusion In summary, an effective team has very actively developed strategies of solving problems and open ended meetings which go beyond deciding, discussing and delegating. The rewards are based on the effort of the whole team in order to help in underscoring the importance of the responsibility of the team. The team members should however instead perform jointly their functions together. Different individuals within a team will always set aside their personal work to in order to help the other team members whenever it is possible and necessary. This paper has described the activities of the seminar such as the general information on the features of an effective team, the Belbin’s team roles on team cohesion, reflection on the emotional intelligence, conflict and negotiation by team members. The paper has also given the description of what the group learnt from the seminar such as the characteristics of an effective team. The team has also understood from the seminar the conditions of a successful team. We identified the recurrent problems that we had due to our failure as a group to follow the stated conditions of an effective team. Bibliography CPP, Inc. 2009. Myers-Briggs ThinkBox Team Edition. Mountain View, CA: CPP, Inc. Gallen, T. 2010. Personality and strategy: Cognitive styles and strategic decisions of managers and top management teams. Doctoral dissertation. University of Vaasa, Finland. (ACTA Wasaensia No. 221) Klein, R. R. 2010. Coaching and team-building using the Klein Group Instrument and the MBTI tool: Bulletin of Psychological Type, 33(2), 8-11. Kerwin, P. L. 2008. MBTI Team Performance Accelerator program. Mountain View, CA: CPP, Inc. Kummerow, J. M. 2010. Team tendencies. Training handout and leaders guide. Gainesville, FL: Center for Applications of Psychological Type. Linden, C. A. 2010. Using temperament theory with IT teams: Bulletin of Psychological Type, 33(4), 30-31. Myers, S. P. 2010. Psychological roles: Management Team Roles-Indicator: Bulletin of Psychological Type, 33(1), 25-26. Principe, J. A. 2010. Pull something great out of the box Review of the book Out of the box: Exercises for mastering the power of type to build effective teams. Bulletin of Psychological Type, 33(2), 49-50. Smith, J. J. 2010. Designing effective teams of shift personnel: Applied Research Project, Executive Fire Officer Program. Emmitsburg: National Fire Academy. Wilde, D. J. 2010. Personalities into teams. Mechanical Engineering, 132(2), 22-25. In E- Library. Read More