Bart Allen Berry Consulting & Training
There are a lot of platitudes out there to be sure, such as: 'Together Everyone Achieves More' etc. When we are talking about groups working well together in the workplace, however a closer examination of the nuts and bolts of teamwork is in order. Especially when we are talking about the quality of teamwork directly affecting the bottom line results of the company, and its profitability.
Teamwork is how everyone goes about accomplishing the work in any company or organization with more than two people. It is worth re-examining the basics to see if you are doing it well or not. To begin with, Teamwork works best when the foundations are right. That means the team is stable, it has a leader, it has a clear purpose and the outcomes or work products of the team are measurable. Paralleling this is the need for each employee or worker to know their specific role and how it fits, and where their contributions affect the team’s goals and objectives. It is truly amazing to see teams try to functions without these simple elements in place, but many work groups are handicapped when priorities are loose, roles are muddled, responsibilities overlap or have gaps, goals are unclear or where leadership is weak. Teamwork requires that there really is a team in place. Without these foundations, it is more of a loose group, wandering. Teamwork won't work without the commitment of it's members. Each mechanical part in the team engine needs to do its job. Some parts will perform in a limited way, some parts will perform as required, and some parts will exceed expectations. A great team won't have any poorly performing parts, and an excellent team will have all the parts performing beyond expectations. Therefore, the commitment level of the team members is a critical component of teamwork. Team members must make the committed effort to work together. Overcoming personal issues or dislikes, and making a commitment to get along well to achieve the team's goals is a requirement for teamwork to work well. Building and maintaining commitment of each team member insures that the 'team machine' as a whole, has every chance of running well.
Team members must make the commitment to work together.
Teamwork means that the team members want to work on the teams goals and they understand the necessity of working together well.
Strong teams build a strong identity together through regular communication. They know what they can do and what they are about because they talk about it-regularly. They can advocate for their interests and goals and support one another in their accomplishment because they understand what they
Bart Allen Berry Consulting & Training
are doing on a deeper level. Great communication also serves to strengthen the rationale for the team's approach, through questioning and refining, adapting and improving. The teamwork glue that keeps the identity of a team strong is communication- the more open, participative and often- the better.
Communication is the glue that keeps the team identity strong
Teamwork means that there is a team leader who leads, guiding the efforts of the entire team as a whole, while working with each individual to support them in doing their best. The top down, autocratic, directive leader is the last one to inspire support of team members. Effective team leadership means staying in close touch with a team's capabilities, and working to help them grow through more delegation, self direction, and involvement of each team member. Fostering the appropriate culture of participation and performance is the key to getting the best out of each team member and to maintaining the highest performance level possible. This kind of artful management of a group is a true skill set that is the fundamental reason for team leadership training.
One effective team leader can influence an incredible level of organizational performance if they are good at it. Teamwork has many dimensions, all of which can be measured. Using an instrument such as The Teamwork Survey, to anonymously measure the impression of teamwork from the members of the team themselves is imperative so you can pinpoint issues, concerns and areas where any teamwork shortfalls or skills can be reinforced. Atmosphere, skills, leadership, synergy, commitment, and coordination are just a few of the areas which can be measured. Team members are not always forthcoming about their gripes and concerns so a method to extract these opinions, without putting anyone on the spot, is a good idea. Measuring teamwork means that you have a baseline to measure improvements against, to tie customer satisfaction data to, and to use in gauging improvements as the team evolves over time. Finally, teamwork requires measurement of the progress on its goals and objectives. If the goals of a team require involvement of everyone, they need to know how they are doing, and if they are indeed, being effective together. With accomplishment and success come more motivation and commitment, and a stronger team identity. When teams are loosely structured, communication is poor, goals are not achieved, and members are not kept informed, team members may simply check out- physically, or at least psychologically, yielding little in the way of performance or productivity.
Bart Allen Berry Consulting & Training
Staying focused on goals and objectives and keeping in touch with their progress is critical to the purpose and necessity of forming and maintaining a team to begin with. Keep the teamwork basics in mind, as new teams are formed, or old ones are re-examined for their effectiveness and it will be relatively easy to see where the gaps can be filled, and where an investment of energy and attention needs to be focused to get teams on track and perform at their best. Bart Allen Berry Bart Allen Berry is an internationally recognized team work expert who has trained more than 200,000 managers and employees, and worked with hundreds of companies from the fortune 500 and government to international firms and entrepreneurial start-ups. Bart is an author and speaker and trainer and also operates an experiential learning center in Baja Mexico. Find Out More About Teamwork and Team Building Programs: Bart Allen Berry Consulting Website
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Bart Allen Berry Consulting & Training