Although this is a dated article (17 years old) I found it made really interesting reading. I think Beck & Yeager offer lots of practical advice for working in a successful team. I did a lot of nodding when reading about the four stages of group development, especially when they explained that it's not a good idea to skip Stage 2. This is the stage when discussions about how people will communicate and solve problems take place. I believe this stage is easily bypassed as many of us just want to get on with the job and reach our goal.
Communication seems to be the key factor to managing a successful team. Communicating everything from expectations, directions, concerns, the goal of the team and also offering ongoing feedback. To make a team work it needs "a leader who actively facilitates communication to build the trust". Also, it's important to create opportunities for the team to socialise and chill out together, and to celebrate successes.
Showing posts with label Teamwork and Collaboration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Teamwork and Collaboration. Show all posts
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Law, S. & Glover, D. (2000). Leading effective teams
Law & Glover tell us that teams work best when they share a common purpose, when they have a sense of team-identification and when they have interconnecting and interdependent functions. When these three elements are present, the team is likely to be coherent and striving to reach a common goal. The team is unlikely to pull in different directions because the members share a common purpose.
The authors quote Belbin who says that people have an intuitive way of acting when working in a team. For a team to be successful, members need to complement each other and possess a range of skills, abilities and behaviours.
It was interesting to find my "type" in Belbin's Table of "Useful people to have in teams". I believe that I am part Resource investigator and part Team-worker. Looking through the table, I was able to identify the characteristics the other people in my current library team possess. Having a variety of these types in a team is a positive thing as we can each bring different strengths and interests, which in turn will (hopefully) make for an interesting patchwork of productivity.
The authors quote Belbin who says that people have an intuitive way of acting when working in a team. For a team to be successful, members need to complement each other and possess a range of skills, abilities and behaviours.
It was interesting to find my "type" in Belbin's Table of "Useful people to have in teams". I believe that I am part Resource investigator and part Team-worker. Looking through the table, I was able to identify the characteristics the other people in my current library team possess. Having a variety of these types in a team is a positive thing as we can each bring different strengths and interests, which in turn will (hopefully) make for an interesting patchwork of productivity.
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