Team Work and Synergy - Case Study Example

Team Work and Synergy Name Institution Course Date Abstract For the success of any organisation and individual team work is a paramount engagement. People engage in groups so as to achieve desired goals. In learning process, grouping is an important part of learning process that holistically shapes one’s thinking, problem conceptualisation and solution formulation. This report indicates the importance of teamwork in achieving unrivalled output as a result of concerted synergies. The report is divided into two sections. The first section reports on the lessons learnt in terms of what went well and what did not go well. The contents explored here are like consultation approach, diversity management, objective setting and performance management. The second section examines theoretical constructs and model in relation to development of a group and learning process. Lastly, the report gives a conclusion on the importance of teamwork on learning and areas of improvement in future exercise. Keywords: Teamwork and synergy Contents Abstract 2 Contents 3 1.0 Introduction 4 2.0 Experiences in the Team 4 2.1 Diversity Management 5 2.2 Consultation Approach 5 2.3 Objective Setting and Performance Management 6 2.4 Other Experiences 6 3.0 Development and Functioning of the Group in Relation to Theories on Team Models 7 3.1 Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and Adjourning Theoretical Model 7 3.2 Kolt’s learning cycle 8 3.3 Belbin’s Team Role 9 4.0 Conclusion 10 References 11 Team Work and Synergy 1.0 Introduction For a success of any organisation or group, team work is a critical ingredient. Logically, a person can’t be knowledgeable in all areas. This calls for a concerted effort by all individuals involved so as to ensure cohesion and smooth flow of information. Teamwork is the main reason behind the success strategy of any organisation, because responsibilities and development stages are shared among organisation team. A teamwork can be conceptualised as “the work of a number of persons in close association as members of one unit” (Schiffman, 2004, p 17). In contrary, a distressed work environment is conceptualised as a situation where staff/ people works as individuals rather than a team. This report outlines the author’s reflection about engagement with his team by indicating experience during the whole period. Moreover, I will state what I learnt and their significance. In addition, the paper will examine various theoretical concepts on team work. 2.0 Experiences in the Team Lipman (2003, p. 26) posits that reflection is thinking that that is aware of its own assumptions and implications as well as being conscious of the reason and evidence that supports this or that conclusion. Moreover, he notes that this thinking paradigm takes in to account methodology, its own procedures, its own perspective and point of view. Teamwork is about managing people (Armstrong, 2001, p. 13 & 14). In the group activities, I feel I did exceptionally well because I was able to develop close working rapport and team work. Based on my learning style of hands on person, I integrated in to my group well. Moreover, at the group level, my interpersonal skills and leadership style worked for me. I find it easy to give concrete examples to my team in order to resolve a situation. This works for me all the time and make me gain greater influence and everyone sees how effective my ideas can be. To me, practically tackling the problem makes the tasks less difficult and the environment more appealing and conducive to getting good results. 2.1 Diversity Management In our team, I had mixed experiences most of these were positive experiences. In the team we embraced technical and soft skills of management like communication, leadership, diversity management, communication, knowledge sharing and good attitude towards team members. In overall observation the experience gained was good. One of the experiences that were evident in the team that went well was managing our diversity without affecting the quality of the group work. It is indeed true that in the group the first four people we had worked together initially, however, we had to new people in the group. Both of the individuals in this group had different backgrounds and the uniting factor was education. Culture is defined as “that whole complex which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, laws, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by individuals as members of society” (Tylor, 1871, cited in Jain, 2001, p. 212). 2.2 Consultation Approach Working in team can be exciting experience and at the same time a challenging engagement. The other significant team experience that moulded one into a team player was consultation as an ingredient for teamwork. The consultation approach is a technical skill used by many organisations in the field of management so as to allow for idea haring. The consultation concept includes how to conduct, describes and discusses expertise ideas to maintain organisation achievement (Kilburg, 2002, p. 76). During most of the meetings, as an individual I was able to apply consultation concepts such as clarifying the problem and create sustainable solution in relation to our case study. For instance, being the person who proposed the topic, I allowed the group to interrogate it and see if it is workable. 2.3 Objective Setting and Performance Management Apart from the above, it is evident that in our team we able to meet as per the agreement and attain our work deadlines. This was based on our ability as a team to set goals and objectives for individuals and the team as whole. This was like performance management. Thus, it is an experience that went well. According to Koontz and Weihrich (2008, p.92), setting of objectives for individuals in a collaborative engagement increase their performance. Goals formulated by individuals themselves contribute a huge portion towards motivating that person for unrivalled performance. The basis for this argument is that a person will try to attain goals set out and even if they are not met, they shall have made a tremendous effort in achieving them and thus, contributing to improved performance. Moreover, Brim (2012, p.3) notes that human beings performs well when they have goals and objectives set out for them. On the other hand, expectation theory looks at performance in relation to anticipated satisfaction of valued goals set by them. In this view, people adapt their behaviour in certain way so as to attain desired goals. 2.4 Other Experiences The other experiences that went well were in terms of time management where we were able to adhere to deadlines. Moreover, the group was excellent in motivating each other so that the required task would be attained. The only experience in the team that did not go well was out of the fact that in our group, English was not our native and first language. This gave us hard time especially during presentations. This was clearly evident during our first presentation where we had to read directly from the script. Moreover, during presentations there was lot nervousness. However, as a team we practised hard that in the second presentation we tried to present off head. 3.0 Development and Functioning of the Group in Relation to Theories on Team Models 3.1 Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and Adjourning Theoretical Model There are various literatures that points at how small group evolve overtime. Before one talks about team work and success, one of the integral steps is on team development. It is indeed true that teamwork if well managed can lead to unrivalled performance, but this is not an overnight engagement since it involves bringing various people with different traits and backgrounds on board to build a united block (Schermerhorn et al, 2011, p. 156). Team development can best be expressed in the forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning framework. This conceptual framework concept is attributed to Bruce Tuckman. According to the proponent, the first stage is forming which is an introductory phase where people are anxious and anticipatory of the engagement and how they will work. However, this stage can’t last for long (Robbins et al., 2009, p. 220). In our team, this was during our first meeting in first week when the group met for the first time with two new members aboard. It was not easy to settle on the topic, but as group we managed to choose one. The next stage under this concept that he identified is storming. It is under this phase that the real work begins. It is here that group members will deliberate on how they will work and the approach to be taken. As the name suggest it involves brainstorming over various divergent views (Robbins et al., 2009, p. 220). This phase was more pronounced on second and third week where after settling for the topic of ‘managing diversity through organisational culture’, allocation of work was challenging as a group member and me were haggling on who was to handle which sub topic. The third phase is norming where group members socialise easily after knowing each other and everyone assumes his or her role so that the stated objectives can be achieved even though with some fall back to second phase(Robbins et al., 2009, p. 220). The group experienced this phase during the 4th through to 7th week. The fourth stage is performing phase that is marked with hard work so as to attain desired outcomes (Robbins et al., 2009, p. 220). This step in our group has a real overlap and is traceable from 4th week after allocation of duties before first presentation to 7th week. However, this stage was more pronounced in 8th week through to 11th week after learning of various interventions and perfection on presentation skills the group was able to do a good presentation without script and with no nervousness. A team in an organisation which was mandated to achieve a certain goal, programme or project has a life span. This means that the mandate has come to an end and thus, it will be disbanded. This is hard times because the group had jelled and enjoyed working together. This phase is called adjourning or mourning stage (Robbins et al., 2009, p. 220). This happened to the group after 11th week when the mandate was over and presentation completed. 3.2 Kolt’s learning cycle Kolb developed experiential learning theory that aimed at explaining how people learn. He noted that learning takes places between two intersecting continua of perception and processing. Moreover, he notes that this takes place in four stages with each continuum (perception and processing) having two (Morris, Porter & Griffiths, 2004, p. 93). Other authors refer these continuums as passive and active (wpi.edu, p. 402). The faculties under the continua are watching, thinking, doing and feeling. Watching involves observation and reflection about an event. The second phase which is feeling involves abstraction and conceptualization of the issue at hand. The third step is doing which involves testing the implications. The final step is thinking and it involves applying concrete experiences to the event. Moreover, Kolb notes that learners can be categorised in all these four areas. Kolb 1984 cited in Morris, Porter & Griffiths (2004, p. 94) notes that engaging learners in all these four steps enhances learning. As a group we had a mixture of people who fall in different categories. There are those who thought in abstract and would give what ought to be solutions and there were those who were practical and would give an active solution through reflective thinking. While developing the topic I engaged in watching and thinking based on my experience. In the second step of conceptualisation every team member was asked from second week to develop drivers of change. The third step of testing the implication, we gave suitable solutions to the problem based on our experiences. 3.3 Belbin’s Team Role Belbin understands group as a body made of people with no significance attached to positions, but roles. This approach can then be used to build behavioural strengths and weaknesses in organisation. The theory proposes nine roles and each role is best tapped through the act of balancing between strength and allowable weaknesses (Belbin, 2011, p. 9). These roles are defined according to one contribution to the team. The nine roles include plant who is creative, resource investigator, coordinator, shaper, monitor evaluator, team worker, implementer, complementer finisher and specialist. Some of these roles were evident during our group work with some being resourceful and theoretical while some being practical. 4.0 Conclusion A united work force is one sure way to success while a disjointed one is a step towards failure. In overall assessment, the experience in the team and with the team was excellent as it allowed students to share and build knowledge in various perspectives. In this encounter one was able to learn communication skills, management skills, use of technology and consultation approaches so as to fulfil group objectives. As an individual the greatest lesson is relation to team work was on the need of team building and cohesion at any level in any organisation so as to guarantee success. As an individual, I was able to see the applicability of various theoretical concepts on team work, managing people, interpersonal & people’s skills among others. However, one area that I felt was not adequately covered was group richness in terms of language diversity. This was evident during our presentation whereby all our group members were non native English speakers and with background of not having it as our first language. References Armstrong, M. (2001). Managing people: a practical guide for line managers. London: Kogan Page Belbin, H. (2011). Method, Reliability & Validity, Statistics & Research: A comprehensive review of Belbin’s team roles. Retrieved on 7th June 2012 from: http://www.belbin.com/content/page/5596/A%20Comprehensive%20Review.pdf Brim, R. (2012). A history of MBO, and recommendation for today’s manager. Retrieved on 7th June 2012 from: www.managePro.com. Jain, S. (2001). International Marketing, 6th Edition. USA: South-western, Thomson Learning. Kilburg, R. (2002). Shadow consultation: A reflective approach for preventing practice disasters. Consulting psychology journal, Vol. 54 (2), pp. 75-92. Koontz, H. and Weihrich, H. (2008). Essentials of management: an international perspective. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill. Lipman, M. (2003). Thinking in education second edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Morris, M., Porter, A. & Griffiths, D. (2004). Assessment in bloomin luverly; developing assessment that enhances learning. Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, Vol. 1 (2), pp. 90-106. Robbins, S. P., Judge, T. A., Odendaal, A. & Roodt, G. (2009). Organisational behaviour: global and southern Africa perspectives. Cape Town: Pearson Education South Africa. Schermerhorn, J. R., Osborn, R. N., Uhl-Bien, M. & Hunt, J. G. (2011). Organisational behaviour. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Schiffman, R. (2004). Teamwork. Chiropractic Journal, Vol. 19 (1), pg. 17. Study conclusion excerpt. 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