Understanding How Teams Work

Working Together
Remember that each member has something to add to your team. Analyzing Team Tasks Formulate team objectives carefully, and always take seriously. Achieving Team Potential Remember that team members must support each other. Knowing Team Goals Break long-term aims into short-term projects Allocate a clear deadline for each of your project.

Matching Team To Task

Formal Teams : Cross functional executive team. Informal Teams: formed on adhoc basis Temporary Project Club etc. Decide early on what style of team is appropriate for your objectives. Try to form strong bonds with other team members of formal & informal teams. Find a sponsor a senior individual who can promote the teams work.

Matching Team To Task 2..

Remind members that they are all team participants. Fix goals that are measurable to keep your team focused. Make use of the great power of friendship to strengthen a team.

Analyzing Team Roles

Assessing Leadership Qualities Always choose Leaders on merit regardless of other considerations. Look for strong team commitment from a Leader. Leading a Team Facilitate Inspire Implement

Always reward merit; but never let errors go unnoticed. Dividing up Roles Team Leader, Critic, Implementor, External Contact Co-ordinator, Idea Person, Inspector. Remember that everyone in a team thinks in a different way.

Balancing Skills within a Team

Finding the Right Balance of Skills Maintaining the Right Balance of Skills When recruiting people for a team, look for their growth potential. Pay close attention to lack of relevant experience in group members. Take people out of the team if they do not perform. Find people with a good level of personal skills, and help develop them.

Setting Goals General & Specific

Building a Consensus Set challenging goals that are still realistic in view of your deadlines. Analyzing Goals Consider the aims of individual team members when vetting targets. Harnessing Motivation Do not let failure of one part of a project jeopardize its overall success.

Providing Support for a Team

Providing Basic Support
Providing Support from within an organisation: Sales, Administration, Accounts, Specialised help and support of management. Insist on having IT support that gives you exactly what you want. Setting up Links with Management Treat external consultants as team members Keep your team sponsor informed of progress

Establishing Team Trust

Learning to Delegate Keep tasks to yourself only if you know that no one else can do them. Do not delegate any unnecessary work scrap it. Give your team the freedom to make its own decisions. Encourage positive contributions from team members encouraging ideas. Reorganise Interdependence.

Maximising Performance
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Sharing Responsibility Awarding Responsibility Tell each member of a team which measurements set the standards

Ensuring Peak Performance Ensure that all improvements & new targets are maintained. Being flexible -- Acknowledge, Publicise & Celebrate all team successes. -- Find an easily assessable way of displaying team progress daily. Combine Tasks, Team & Individual into a Unifying Performing Team.

Improving Team Efficiency

Encouraging Team Work -- Help your team find a way to change obstructive group behaviour. Never make personal attacks on individuals during reviews. Understanding Team Development -- Look for ways to use conflict constructively -- Remember that relationships will change overtime. -- Avoid the trap of minimising or ignoring bad news.

Improving Team Efficiency2..

Dealing with stages in the life of a Team:

Forming

Storming

Norming

Performing

Using Managing Tactics

Always conduct a through, open analysis when projects go wrong. Have an open door policy if you want to be accessible. Ask people who bring you problems to bring solutions. Resolving Conflict Meet informally as well as formally to discuss your teams progress. Use dispassionate fact finding as the best method of defusing conflict. Use your counseling skills in resolving conflicts.

Communicating effectively
Ensuring Accessibility Keep the team members in close proximity to ease communication. Set aside areas in which people can meet and talk informally. Communication Methods Encourage the free flow of communication between colleagues. Invest in the most appropriate technology, and keep it up-to-date. E-mail, software packages, video-conferences, video-links, a good telephone system with facility for conferences etc.

Running Team Meetings

Change the Chairperson at each meeting to involve everybody. -- Matrix type of Team Try to delegate as much as possible to other members of the team. Distribute agendas in advance of the meeting to give your team time to prepare. Meeting types: Team Meetings, Focus Group, Progress Meeting, One to One, Workout Meeting, Reporting Meeting.

Networking a Team
Understanding the need for support Finding sponsors Removing Work-Related Problems Dealing with Problem Individuals -- Cultivate all relationships that may be useful to the team. -- Try to keep all team relationships on even keel. -- Make sure that good news is heard & clearly understood by all the relevant people. -- If trouble is brewing in any team relationships, deal with it quickly.

Sharing Information outside a team

Communicating from Inside -- Arrange social contacts with other parts of the organisation. Maintaining Contact -- Keep a record of contacts with valuable people you meet outside the team or office. Cascading Information
-- Passing Information down the line is the cascade.

More the layers the greater the chance of distortion, lack of comprehension and perception. Hold large meetings, if necessary to avoid this.

Thinking Creatively
Encourage Creativity -- Generating New Ideas -- Look for the good points in an idea & never criticise ideas in public. -- Look for people with experience when seeking problem solves. -- Never dismiss brainstormed ideas out of hand that is disheartening & stops the flow of creativity. -- Resort to Brain storming group action thinking

Dealing with Problems

Treat everyone in the team equally to avoid causing any resentment. Regard disruptive team members as innocent until they are proven guilty. Telling individuals they are doing a good job will build team morale. Always treat team members with respect, even those who may be creating problems for you. Avoid direct conflict with team members. Remember to be tough on the problems, not on the people. Ensure that the whole team is able to learn from solving problems.

Improving Standards in a Team

Any systematic approach to improving performance needs to change existingb ways of working. Improving systems Ensure that team members know about other roles within the group. Build significant improvement targets into every budget & every team action plan. A team without stretch goals will under perform one that has them. Challenge common Assumptions Quality applies only to products. Apply quality to every service and process in which your team is involved. Involve everybody in target-setting to foster team-work & consensus.

Training a Team
Training helps to improve the technical skills of team members & develop the managerial & interpersonal relations within a team. Find the best & best equipped training facilities. Use consultants to develop in-house Training courses. Listen to the feedback given by trainees about training courses. Despite the expense involved in training, it is cheaper than the cost of persisting without it, which will be damaging to performance.

Adapting to Change
The pace of change is accelerating as markets become more global & technological innovation increases. Ensure that teams adapt to external changes. Appoint someone to monitor any relevant changes in the market. Anticipating change. Be prepared to change even the most fundamental elements of a plan. Remember that some people are afraid of change. Look for team members who can advance change.

Rewarding Performance
The object of successful reward system is to motivate teams to improve their overall performance. Calculate rewards with care & choose the most appropriate types. Financial & incentive-based-schemes- or a combination of both are popular. Pay rise, Bonus Payment, Profit sharing, Share Ownership, Recognition-Rewards & Composite Rewards. Allow your staff to have a say when it comes to setting reward levels. Conduct personal career progress appraisals at regular intervals.