The Formation of Effective Teams - Essay Example

TEAMS CAN BE EXTREMLY POWERFUL WHEN THEY WORK WELL, BUT TRANSFORMING A GROUP OF INDIVIDUALS INTO A TEAM CAN BE HARD WORK. : INTRODUCTION The purpose of this essay is to help identify reasons why the formation of effective teams becomes difficult especially within cooperate bodies and how theses problems can be solved. The essay however, in an attempt to solve this issue, tries to provide some sort of education on what needs to be done or certain basic foundations or structures that need to be put in place before and during the formation of a tem, as well as the qualities or properties a team needs to have in order to be able to give out their very best and achieve the aim and objectives for which they formed. This will however help directors or departmental heads in firms and other business setups, to always be able to build strong and effective teams with the education this essay gives. This would in a way, help remove the wrong perceptions some people have about teams and their formation. Remember everything is easy to do; all that makes it difficult will be the wrong mindset the person doing the thing might have whiles doing the thing. WHAT IS A TEAM A team can be described as a collection of people or individuals with complementary skills, who are working towards the attainment of common goals and objectives. Teams are very important tools in various aspects of life ranging from education sports and the world of business. One very important thing that makes a team powerful is the coming together of various complementary skills from different individuals with different perspectives and qualities. All knowledge and skills are not embedded in only an individual . It is therefore important all these individual skills and qualities are brought together to complement one another or in other words enrich each others value and potential in attaining a common goal for the common good of all. This however makes teams especially i n the business sector very necessary and more powerful than indicial efforts in the performance of certain duties . Although characteristics of teams might sound very rosy, one difficulty that comes with it is its formation or I should say the ability to form an effective team. There is however more difficulty when the right steps are not taken before these teams are formed and when this happens managing the teams after formation becomes very difficult. These things that need to be considered before a team is formed will be explained into details later in the essay. WHO IS AN INDIVIDUAL From the definition of a team given earlier on in the essay, it is very obvious that individuals form the basic core and elements of a team. It is however important we take a look at who actually an individual is. This will help us especially in bringing the right and compactable individuals together to form a team. An individual however refers to a person or any subject in a collection. In this case, this collection will be all humans. Each individual however has his or her own unique qualities and skills but not all qualities and skills. It is therefore if not impossible, very rare to find an individual who poses all knowledge in all fields. This however means individual efforts and actions made in solving certain problems or attaining certain goals are limited hence reducing the efficiency in outputs of individual efforts as compared to the outputs of the efforts of an effective and well established team. In order to make good use of these individual traits and skills, it is important we bring all these individuals together and transform them into a strong team which will achieve great goals and give out efficient performances in whatever area of work that might be concerned, especially in the area of business. The process of transforming individuals into teams must however bring a complete change and all conditions of preservation and stagnation on the parts of the individuals must be eliminated. This also means certain mindsets and practices which might have been acceptable during individual basis must also be discarded. It is for this reason that certain important structures need to be put in place as far as the formation of the team is concerned. One very important reason why team formation becomes very difficult or almost impossible in certain business settings is the problem of ignorance on the qualities a good team should have or must posses and the basic principles on which effective teams need to be formed .It will therefore be of great importance to throw more light on these qualities and principles business and cooperate executives need to give very high priority to when it comes to the formatin of teams in their firms. QUALITIES OF A GOOD TEAM TRUST One very important element or quality hat exists in an effective team is trust. It is one condition that greatly affects the working atmosphere of a team. The working atmosphere within which a team works or operates is very important and has great effects on a teams effectiveness and delivery. This is because when trust exists among team members, the rate at which the teams work develops or progresses, becomes very high due to the effective participation and les conservativeness on the part of the team members as a result of the trust which exist amongst them. In other words team members, dare to express their ideas and perceptions without any fear and in a relaxed manner. This also helps enrich the groups with more ideas hence making the solving of problems very easy. COMMITMENT This is one quality, which really defines the efficiency of a team . The level of commitment by team members is what determines the strength of a workforce behind a team. However in a team, number of members does not really matter, but rather the number of dedicated hands o board the team. One very important step or action that helps in lightening up commitment amongst team members is by involving them in the setting of the goals the team is supposed to meet. In this way, it becomes more or less like a common personal goals that have been made although it is something to be achieved as a team of the individuals having this common individual goals. As a result, each individual in the team, will do everything possible in achieving these objectives and aims. These strong desires in members of the team to do so as a result of being committed to the work of the group; when brought together, will make the team very effective and efficient. HIGH LEVEL OF COOPERATION High level of commitment from individual team members without proper cooperation, leads or amounts to nothing. All these distinct properties of commitment, by individual group members need to be made very compatible and geared towards a common course if the team is to succeed and the commitment of the individuals is to have any value as far as the group is concerned. In some cases however the existence of an effective cooperation is what boost's the morale of team members especially in moments when the team faces a lot of setbacks that might affect their success during their operations. This is because, every member will serve as a source of encouragement to each other and that drives the whole team to move on no matter the situations surrounding their work. In order words they lean on each other and thus one beauty of tem work. CREATIVITY With the existence of trust amongst members of a team and an environment that allows or makes team members express their ideas freely, there could be situations were certain impossible suggestions that comes with a lot of uncertainties will be made, that could also however, lead to the team coming up with very creative and innovative ideas and solutions which can make a firm or business become more competitive on the market than its competitors. Remember a business with creative staffs and innovative ideas, always come out with something new and that makes them stand out amongst the rest. TURNING DIFFERENCES INTO A RESOURCE Since the team is made up of individuals who are distinct in their own ways, it is obvious there will exist some kind of differences amongst them. It is therefore left to the team to be able to convert those differences into a powerful resource in their working procedures instead of letting it rather become a canker that would prevent the team from achieving it set goals. The differences between team members help a lot when used as a strength in achieving a common goal, since this will help provide multiple solutions to a particular problem hence, finding a solution to that problem, becomes less and less difficult. PRINCIPLES AND STRUCTURES NEEDED TO BE ADHERED TO, IN THE FORMATION OF A TEAM. 1. The first and foremost thing is that, the leaders or cooperate heads forming a team, must as much as possible let the members of the team be informed on the expectations they are to fulfill as far as the outcome of the teams work and performance is concerned. This will in a way help members to be focused and know what is expected from them at the end of the day , hence making them work with a clear vision. 2. One other important thing that needs to be considered is the provision of the necessary resources the team needs or will need in its operations. The availability of these needed resources helps in speeding up the work of the team and beef up the hard work of the team members in order to achieve the desired results from the team. 3. It is also important team members are made to know the importance of team in cooperate growth and development in firms. This would also help make the team members know the seriousness of what they are into and how their actions and attitudes towards the team's work could affect the organization or firm in which they find themselves in, either negatively or positively. 4. The organizations or firms within which these teams are formed must also be ready to give high priority to the outcomes made from the teams work and the suggestions hey make from their findings .This is what would make the members of the team feel their work is being recognized hence, increase their commitment towards the teams work CONCLUSION You would realize that although achieving or ensuring all these things are put in place or are done during the formation of the team might seem very difficult to achieve, it pays a lot when the team is formed using these principles and foundations. When these principles are used , some of those qualities expected to be exhibited in an effective team mentioned earlier will come naturally and the others would be easy to attain or instilled into the members of the team. I believe however that when all these things; although numerous and difficult to achieve especially in an human institution, when achieved or done, very effective, efficient and strong teams would be formed to help boost the productivity of most firms and cooperate bodies in the business world. THANK YOU. REFERENCE 1. 'individual.' Encarta Msn, 2007. Encartamsn.com 21 Mar 2007 http://www.encarta.msn.com/dictionary/individual 2. 'individual' Wikipedia 2007. Wikipedia.org 29 Mar 2007. http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/individual 3. 'transform.' Antonyms. Answers Corporation,2007. Anserws.com 29 Mar. 2007. http://www.answers.com/topic/transform 4. 'team.'Jobfunctions, 2007. Jobfunctions.bnet.com 29 Mar 2007. http://www.jobfunctions.bnet.com/whitepaper 5. 'team.' Virtuaaliyliopisto 2007. Virtuaaliyliopisto.fi 21 Mar 2007. http://www.virtuaaliyliopisto.fi/team Read More