Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Team building - A Process For increasing Work Group Effectiveness

Too often team building is one of those vague, misused terms managers call into play as a panacea for sluggish work unit performance. The rise in the popularity and use of team building has paralleled the growing perception of work as the production of teams of workers rather than as compartmentalized tasks on an assembly line. Field investigate Findings, such as the ones carried out by the American Productivity & ability center while their white-collar productivity improvement, multi-organizational field investigate efforts clearly demonstrate the point of efficient team structures to the full, carrying out effectiveness of the knowledge/service worker.

The building of a team requires a great deal more effort than simply recognizing the interdependence among workers and work units. It requires, instead, several carefully managed steps and is an ongoing cyclical process. The team-building process presented in this description offers the members of a work group a way to examine and analyze behaviors and activities that hinder their effectiveness and to invent and implement courses of operation that overcome recurring problems.

While the basal purpose of team building is to invent a more efficient work group, the definite purposes of the process will depend largely upon the estimation of information gathered while the first data variety phase. Typically, team building will seek to conclude at least one of the following three issues:

Team building - A Process For increasing Work Group Effectiveness

1. A lack of clear goals and expected carrying out outcomes: Frequently, interview data from work group members delineate that their carrying out is generally directed by their private (and often conflicting) carrying out goals. In that situation, the team-building model can be directed at establishing full, work group goals, which affect both private and group effort and behavior, and, ultimately, the carrying out outcomes at both the individual, as well as the group level.

2. Interpersonal conflict and distrust: A lack of trust, supportiveness and communication not only slows down the day-to-day ability of a group to get work done, but also stands in the way of resolving the conflicts that simply arise as the group makes decisions about its hereafter efforts.

One way to overcome this is to focus on the work problems and improved interpersonal skills significant for the team to work inter-dependently and more effectively to achieve the task. In other words, the interpersonal data would be derived from the work context itself rather than from evaluations directed at private personalities within the group. It is a concerted effort to find mutual needs and desired outcomes ... A Win-Win approach.

3. A lack of clear roles and leadership: Obviously, duplications of effort consequent in sub-optimum levels of productivity. But when first interviews with work unit members recommend obscuring over roles, the issues that surface may go well beyond task-specific problems. They may raise questions about who is providing leadership to the group, who feels empowered to act, what sources of power are being wielded and what interpersonal and inter-group relations underlie the group's effectiveness. When these issues arise, the team-building model uses group meetings to disc players" in the team building process?

On the surface, a "team" suggests a group of interchangeable individuals of equal status. But in reality, most workplace teams have a supervisor or manager charged with leadership and responsibility for the group's performance. Consequently, the team leader plays an important and somewhat distinct role than do other members in a successful team building effort. Sustain from the leader is vital because if he or she does not recognize and accept the need for team building, it is unlikely that other members of the work team will be very receptive to the idea.

The Value and Role of a Facilitator-Coach.

In increasing to the leader and other team members, successful team building calls for a third party participant in the process - a Facilitator-Coach, a pro with knowledge and experience in the field of applied behavioral science, but who is not a quarterly member of the team. This man may be an internal resource man in the assosication or be man from surface the parent company/organization..

There are several roles, which this Facilitator-Coach may achieve in team building. Possibly the most tasteless and significant is that of third-party facilitator, a "gate-keeper." The Facilitator-Coach also trains and coaches the team in becoming more skillful in understanding, identifying, diagnosing and solving its carrying out problems. To do this, the Facilitator-Coach gathers data needed for the team to conduct its own self- estimation and structures a "safe" environment that encourages team collaboration and consensus building. As a convert agent, the Facilitator-Coach also serves as a catalyst to help bring about a greater degree of openness and trust and increased communication effectiveness.

Another role of the Facilitator-Coach is that of a knowledge resource person, assisting team members to learn more about group dynamics, private behavior and the skills needed to come to be more efficient as a team and as individuals.

The Facilitator-Coach should generally avoid assuming the role of the "expert." That is, the Facilitator-Coach's major function is not to directly conclude the team's problems, but to help the team learn how to cope with its own problems and come to be more self-sufficient. If the Facilitator-Coach becomes the controlling force responsible for resolving the group's difficulties, he or she has denied the team the opening to grow by facing and resolving problems confronting them.

What are the steps in the team-building process?

At the core of the process will be a a well-defined process that is made up of a series of structured experiences and events, ones that will be repeated over time, that have been designed to help the group build and Sustain a cohesive, effective, and ultimately, a high-performing work team. This process requires carefully laid groundwork as well as long- term consequent up and re-evaluation. And further, team building, to be successful in developing and sustaining high performance, must be viewed and suitable as being a "continuous" and on-going process, not an "event" driven activity.

Team building, from a systems perspective, requires several carefully concept out and managed steps and is clearly understood to be an ongoing cyclical process. The team-building process offers members of a work group a way to examine and analyze behaviors and activities that hinder their effectiveness and to invent and implement courses of operation that overcome recurring problems. If successfully implemented, the team building process is integrated into the work team's day-to-day operations.

Assuming work group manager-leader and team members, after having an opening to come to be aware of what the team building process has to offer and requires of them, have indicated and voiced their Sustain for the team building process, the first preparatory step is the introduction of the Facilitator-Coach to the team. Often this is done by the team leader while a quarterly staff meeting at which the Facilitator-Coach is introduced to the group. The role of the Facilitator-Coach is discussed as well as the process and inherent benefits of team building.

In establishment for the kick-off of the team-building process, the Facilitator-Coach will then take responsibility for the next step - the conference of data from each team member about the "strengths" and "weaknesses" of the team and barriers to efficient team performance. This diagnostic phase will typically make use of questionnaires and/or interviews.

he use of personal interviews has several advantages. First, interviews contribute the Facilitator-Coach a best comprehension of the team, its functions and its problems. Second, interviews enable the Facilitator-Coach to invent rapport with team members and to begin to invent a connection of openness and trust. Third, interviews contribute the opening for each private team member to partake in the identification of the work group's strengths and weaknesses. Finally, personal interviews are flexible. On the other hand, the less flexible questionnaire approach ensures that tasteless areas will be covered by all team members.

After conducting the interviews or surveys, the Facilitator-Coach summarizes the information, which is to be fed back to the group while the team-building meeting. A beneficial way of presenting the comments is agreeing to the frequency with which the items were
mentioned or accorded to major question areas.

During the actual team-building meeting, the data feedback session becomes a springboard for the rest of the session's activities. With the assistance and Sustain of the Facilitator-Coach, the group then formulates an agenda and decides on the priorities of the issues raised by the diagnostic phase.

Before the team-building meeting ends, operation plans are industrialized which specify the steps the group will take in attempting to conclude definite problems.

What factors affect the success of team building?

Because efficient team building is not a one-shot affair, a agenda of hereafter team- building efforts needs to be established. For chronic convert to take place, subsequent meetings will need to delineate the implementation of operation plans and investigate supplementary question areas.

As mentioned earlier, the Sustain and commitment of the formal team leader (Work Group Manager) are significant to successful team building. His or her attitude toward the process has an obvious impact upon other team members. Furthermore, because consulation sometimes centers on the team leader's behavior, he or she has to be open to constructive criticism.

The leader must also fully understand team building, its time requirements and implications. The leader's own personality and leadership style affect the probability of the success of tear-n building. If the team manager is not comfortable with a participative style of leadership, team amelioration simply will not work.

The other team members should also want to come to be complicated in the effort and believe in its relevance. Otherwise, team building may be viewed as a ploy by the leader to pacify the team or simply as a substitute for efficient management. Each private within the group should be part of the effort and feel personally secure to partake in the process.

Since the team-building efforts may originate a convert in the connection between the team and the organization, the Sustain of administrative management is also vital. The chances for a successful team-building effort are improved if the team has knowledge of any organizational constraints on the options for production changes within the team.

The timing of team building is someone else significant factor. If the team is experiencing turmoil or obscuring over its direction (mission, goals, purpose, objectives, leadership, changes, etc.), the time could be ripe for team-building efforts to begin because the members may feel a need to invent what is expected of them. Thus, their receptivity to the process is often increased under such destabilizing conditions.

Finally, team building requires enough time for the activities to take effect. Relatively large blocks of time and even changes in the work setting are sometimes needed for team building. Disunion from the workplace while the first team meeting phase of the process is frequently needed to avoid work pressures and interruptions and to help originate greater commitment and increased attention from team members.

What are the results of successful team building?

The team-building process may affect several levels within the organization. First, the individuals in the team may come to be more sensitive to the impact of their behavior on the efficient functioning of the team. More self-awareness may also lead to changed behavior patterns. For example, recognition by the team leader that he or she does not share leadership and decision production with others may contribute the impetus to adopt a more participative style.

Second, team building may help team members comprehend that distinct and best approaches exist to the way the team operates and performs its work. Third, team building may affect the relation- ship of the group to the rest of the organization. For example, a team member may stop using other parts of the assosication as scapegoats to hide his or her own inefficient operations. Ultimately, greater harmony among organizational units could well result.

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