Team working• A team is a psychological group whose members share a common goal

which they pursue collaboratively. Members can only succeed or fail as a whole, and all share the benefits and costs of collective success or failure

• A work practice based on the use of teams, or groups of limited numbers of people, who have shared objectives at work and who co-operate, on a permanent or temporary basis, to achieve those objectives in a way that allows each individual to make a distinctive contribution.

• The process of working collaboratively (a combined effort) with other people in order to achieve a common goal.

Benefits of Team-working•Better Ideas – Creativity (individual’s different knowledge, personal attributes and skills generate better ideas and better results)

•Better outcomes•Efficiency (when team works well, all together can accomplish more than individuals can do alone)

•Mutual support & trust (can encourage people to achieve goals they may not have realized they could reach on their own – increase morale and reduces stress)

•Sense of accomplishment (greater sense of accomplishment than what an employee may feel when working on its own)

•Speed (achieve the goal faster as multiple ideas come easier)

•Flexibility (teams are more responsive and flexible towards changing demands and events)

•Organizational Agility (ability to develop and quickly apply nimble and dynamic competitive moves)

•Skills development (being part of a team helps an employee to develop its interpersonal skills such as being an active listener, leader)

•Enhanced self-awareness (collaborating with others helps individuals to identify their own strengths and weaknesses.

•Increased employee satisfaction.•Teams often take more risks than individuals.•Increase individual’s sense of belongingness (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – part of a team)

Problems with working within a team

•Not all work is suited to team-working (there are one man tasks).

•Conflict.•Ideas from quieter members may get lost by members with larger personalities.

•Unequal participation.•Lack of communication.

If team members do not resolve these issues, the benefits from team-working can be transformed into major disadvantages.

• Develop a team vision.• Set a maximum of measurable objectives.• Manage poor performance.• Use an induction framework that outlines expectations.• Undertake honest appraisals.• Be a firm but fair leader.• Use different leadership styles to suit the situation.• Make the effort to build an effective team.

Tips for good Team-working within organizations

Autonomous TeamsAn autonomous team, sometimes called an autonomous work group or self-directed, is a group of individuals working in concert toward specific goals without the direct influence of an outside party, such as a manager to whom the team reports. The members of the autonomous team are given latitude to establish their own internal goals and work practices.

• Self-directed teams consist of team members with a high level of independence and empowerment.  The team members work together in an intensive way, and frequently plan their own work, solve problems, take decisions influencing their production or administrative processes.

• A central concept of self-directed teams is that the team works with a clearly defined process.  The task of the team is to manage, control or improve this process.  Another key theme is that team members need each other and complement each other in performing their tasks.  Contributions to the process are not evaluated on an individual basis but as a result of teamwork.

Benefits from autonomous teams• Higher involvement and motivation• Short communication lines• Continuous improvement• Flexibility• Time efficient

BUT…….. What about teams as a form of work intensification, greater responsibility without team autonomy and management’s continuous pressure???

Common challenges of team-working and practical solutions

Common challenges of team-working and practical solutions

Team-working: From failure to success

Team roles

Star Trek characters and their team roles

Groups vs. Teams

Groups vs. Teams