Team-building and Communications - Essay Example

TEAM-BUILDING AND COMMUNICATIONS Introduction This paper identifies elements for an effective health care group, barriers to effective communication in a group, communication techniques employed to avoid conflicts and communication skills to be employed in a group to avoid recurrence of conflicts and leadership qualities that are employed to effectively lead a group. Elements in an effective health care working group An effective health care working group delivers satisfactory services in a health care environment. The first element is competency of team members who are ready to deliver services without being forced. The members should be willing to have one person as a leader who will be directing on what should be done. Hence, there is no leadership conflict regarding instruction that ensures that the work is well coordinated in the working group. The other element of an effective health care working group is honesty among the team members; the members must be transparent in all the work related matter since the health related issues are delicate. Through this element, mistakes will be rectified as soon as they have been noted as opposed to a team without transparency and honesty (Hargie, 2002). Honesty should be a virtue practiced by all the members and should be always encouraged to uphold it, in healthcare environment honesty is needed incase of uncertainty, mistakes, decisions and aims. The other element is creativity; the team members should be encouraged by the tem leader to be creative. This will give members a chance to be creative whenever faced by new challenges. This way, they will not disperse but ensure that they have come up with an acceptable solution to that problem. This element allows the team members to be courageous in tackling issues and making the team to learn even from errors committed in the process. The other element is humility; members of a team should come into terms that they are human beings who at times make mistakes, they should also recognize the fact that they are from different training background and no member has better training than the other. This ensures that the team members respect each other and work as a unit. Another element is discipline, team members should carry out work assigned to them with discipline no matter how inconvenient or uncomfortable it may feel. This way, the team’s objectives and goals are attained without delays or conflicts of indiscipline. The team members should be willing to share out information which will benefit individual’s in the group. This element allows team members to respect each other and works as a unity towards improving service delivery. The last element is team members practicing the virtue of being inquisitive. Hence allowing the team members to reflect each day’s challenges and using them as a learning opportunity for future challenges. Barriers of communication that may lead to conflict in a team Communication is one of the tools for a successful working team. Once communication has broken down, the team starts to face problems that may disintegrate it if no quick action is taken. The barriers of communication in a health care working team include mistrust amongst the team members. When mistrust arises in a team, crucial information will not flow as required. This will leave some members in the dark when it comes to service delivery. Some team members may feel that so members can not be trusted in a group hence, they do not need to be informed on some important work related information (Hargie, 2002). Mistrust mostly arises as a result of some member becoming indiscipline and can not keep team secrets. Another barrier of communication in the health care working group is stereotype among members. Stereotype is a wide assumption made against some group of people; it may be culture related, education background, age, race or any other judgment that is not proven. In a health care setting, some people may stop communication due to stereotype related issues. For example, some team members who are much older and have had long working experience tend to ignore advices given to them by young and recent graduate workers. This is because the old workers have a pre-judgment that young and recent graduates lack the experience and practical challenges hence, do not have a say in the work place other than following the advice of the more experienced team members. The team members who may feel discriminated on this pre-judgment may resolve not to warn others incase an error is committed. In this case, new ideas to tackle a challenge can not be communicated if stereotype exists. Another barrier of communication related to stereotype is assumption (Hargie, 2002). Team members must have the culture of communicating even in cases of applying common sense. Assumption that a member know the procedures or routine is a major barrier in communication as errors and mistakes can be committed easily. Sometime, a team member may be tired, hence things that may appear as normal routine can end up being affected due to lack of communication. This barrier can be avoided if the team leader develops a habit of constantly communicating to the team what is taking place at specific time. The team leader may decide to assign the labor and duties to other team members, but he or she must ensure that the barrier of assumption does not exist in his or her team. Another barrier of communication barrier that causes conflict is unresolved disagreement. Disagreement in a team is normal but if left unresolved will lead to team members not communicating freely and felling uneasy to work amicably. This barrier will affect communication and lack of cooperation in a team as the issues leads to tension among the team members. Conflict erupt when these issues comes up again in the day’s activity. The team members with unresolved issues may find it difficult to work in a team with a common goal of achieving success (Gwen, 2009). The other barrier of communication is the ego problem. This is a major barrier in communication; ego makes people to always feel right even if they have committed a mistake, which leads to conflict. Conflict as easily resolved when one person agrees to have committed a mistake and accepts to be corrected or not to repeat the same next time. Ego can be the main driver in conflict as members do not want their ego to be affected. For example, if a graduate of a certain training institute that may be assumed to give low quality of training is given leadership position some people may oppose and refuse to be directed by them. This ego may result in the team delivering poor quality services. The other barrier is the underlying stress and pressure. In a health care set up, the work pressure is great, if this is combined with personal pressure it may erupt in a slightest provocation by any team member. This barrier leads to conflict among the team members if the team members are not given time to rest or team building activities to diffuse this pressure. The last barrier is difference in acquired values (Hargie, 2002). In a team, acquired values differ as one is brought up in different environment, culture, religious background and parents. These values may be based on things others may take as wrong or right, normal or abnormal among other things. Communication techniques used to avoid conflicts The first technique is developing the attitude of problem resolution. The team members should practice the attitude of addressing the barriers immediately they arise. The problems should be resolved to avoid them affecting future assignment in the team. The team should develop this attitude to help them learn to work with all type of personalities and characters in a team. The other technique of communication is; progress review. Team leaders should arrange each day or after a specific time organize a meeting among the team members to review the day’s progress. This allows team members to diffuse the work related pressures and ironing out of personal clashes and problems that may have arose during the day. The other technique is ensuring that team members develop the behavior of listening and respecting each other’s opinion. This allows each member to be heard and helped where possible. This behavior of listening and respecting each other, allows one to talk out their points that may at the long run help the progress of the team. The other technique is collaboration among the team members (Gwen, 2009). The team members should develop the habit of collaborating amongst themselves and conducting the assigned activities as a unit. The last technique is ensuring that team members practice the habit of being organized. This habit helps the members to avoid delays and making of mistakes related being disorganized. An organized team knows where the work related equipments and ensures that work is done in a certain routine. This helps save time and ensures efficiency. Ways to improve communication among department Communication among departments is essential as it allows crucial information to flow from one interlinked department to another. Effective communication needs discipline and respect amongst all employees. Respect for the employees and line managers ensure that conflict does not arise when orders and personality clashes do not arise (Gwen, 2009). The other way to improve communication is to ensure all employees have rest time and off days. This reduces work related pressure and helps one to re-energize. The other way is to hold team building activities like sports, camping, adventures and experience sharing seminars away from the work place. All departments should be involved in these activities. These activities allow team members and department members to bond and know each other well. The last way is to ensure the culture collective responsibility is developed. The departments should feel that they belong to a unit that works towards achieving one goal and vision. This will ensure that employees work to deliver and meet their target to ensure the whole group achieves their goals. Strategies and leadership qualities to avoid conflict recurrence Team leaders should be people with a clear vision and objective to lead other members in achieving the set goals and ensuring effectiveness of the team. The leaders should divide labor among the subordinate so as to avoid pilling pressure on some team members. The leader should develop the culture of equality amongst the team members. The culture of equality avoids cases of some members feeling inferior or superior, this limits ego related cases. The leader organizes seminars and problem sharing forums where the members meet have an open discussion on the personal and work related issues (Hargie, 2002). The strategies that can be employed include participation in the team which allows each member to be allowed members to share the responsibilities and avoid overbearing of the work related responsibilities. This strategy avoids cases of some members being over dominant and allows develop each person’s inner skills. Another strategy is accommodation, the team members should learn to accommodate each other’s behavior, character and opinion. Hence, smooth running of the work related activities. Conclusion The team building and conflict resolution strategies differ from one leader to another and from one filed of operation to another, but the most standing strategy is creating a health working environment and ensuring that each team member participate equally in all the activities. This allows members not to withdraw from expressing themselves and excising their full potential. References Gwen, V. (2009). Communication Skills for the Health Care Proffessional. New York: James & Bartlett. Hargie, O. (2002). The Handbook of Communication Skills. London: Taylor & Francis pub. Read More