TEAM-BUILDING

‘’Two heads are better than one’’ - John Heywood

Team building is now viewed one of the core strategies for achieving administrative & organizational efficiency. A modern government is a macro team; its ministries, division, department are macro-teams. Infect, teams are the building blocks of a dynamic public management system. Team-Building is a process, not an event. Examples of teams are musical Orchestra, surgical team, quality circle, Cricket team etc.

What is Team?

Team is a set of individuals who freely & openly communicate with another to generate ideas & energies for the accomplishment of specific goals to which the members are aligned. All teams are groups but all groups are not team. Initially individuals mobilize themselves & then from collectivist; they get converted into a group; and from a group, they are transformed into a team by gaining power. Synergy & cohesion are two basic source of the power which converted a group into a team.

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Benefits of Teamwork

Teamwork is based on democratic value that every individual is important and has resource that can be used for common benefit. Every member of a team brings with him or her energies, skills, ideas, information, knowledge, experience, views and talents. Moreover, every individual has such positive emotions as cooperation, self-confidence, compassion, patience, creativity, tolerance, trust, empathy & hum –ours. These emotions are resource that can be best explored and used in a team work. But the success of the exercise relies heavily on the team leadership. It is the team leader who manages members, negative emotions like anger, jealousy, hesitancy, prejudice, hostility, distrust, fear & anxiety; he tries to convert them into positive energies through motivation & counselling. Communication skills, verbal and non-verbal are the basic requirements for performing these motivational & counseling functions. It should be remembered, in a teamwork leadership is not merely a rank or designation, it is both an additional administration which does not encourage teamwork has little opportunity to use these valuable human resources. Moreover, teams create a cross-training environment in which the team members learn from one another by sharing ideas, knowledge, experiences and then achieve common goal which would not otherwise be possible or available.?One supplements the deficiencies of the other & improves poor performance. Thus, Supplementation of energy, ideas and cross-training are the direct dividends of teamwork.

The term team may be used as an acronym each letter of which contain the core ingredients of the concept: T stand for Trust; E for Equality; A for Aim & M for Motivation.

T: Trust – Trust is the core element to build cohesiveness is in the fact the heart of team building. Team cohesiveness can be promoted by exploring & responding to members needs and interests. Trust and support are the core ingredients of building cohesiveness. But how to build trust? Free and open communication is one of the ways of build trust. Communication should be based on dialogues & not on monologues. Dialogue is the basic tool for pooling ideas & exploring others views. A climate open dialogue and discussion is itself a source of motivation for the team members. Asking relevant questions, answering them to the point and listening with empathy facilitate the process of trust building, dialogue and communication.

E: Equality – Members of a team should be treated as equal partners and the leader of the team is first among the equals. They are equal or almost equal in Competence & Commitment. The members collaborate with one another to achieve common goals as colleagues. No one is superior to the other, rather all are complementary to one another. In a team, responsibility is more important than rank. The responsibility of achieving the set goal is shared by the partners depending on ability & aptitude.

A: Aim – Team members operate to achieve the common aim or purpose the determine, common agenda they set. Aim is common when it is shared by the members. Aim is the concertized form the common vision. It always ask WHY? Aiming calls for imagination, institution & insight. In fact, goal sharing is a stepping stone to build trust in and bond among the members.

M: Motivation – One of the responsibilities of the team leader is to motivate the members so that they perform their assigned task with satisfaction. Leasers need help and cooperation from them to achieve the set goal. But cooperation cannot be commanded: members have to be motivation so that they extend cooperation spontaneously. Leaders can best motivate the team members when they create a climate of trust and environment where they can express their ideas freely. Members can also be motivated by giving them due recognition for their contribution and respect for their qualities.??

?A Balance Team – The Work of Belbin

The research work on Raymond Meredith Belbin was an attempt to find what type of grouping of different individual would make an ideal team. The rationale behind this was that the search for individual based solely on their personal attribute was not necessarily an enterprise’s most efficient use of time and energy. The search for successful management has been almost exclusively as the search for the right individual. However, the ideal individual for a given job can rarely be found. No one is both dynamic and patient, forceful and sensitive, decisive and reflective, a great communicator and a good listener. The right team though can display all these qualities. The context of a given individual’s relation to the whole team needs to be considered. Individual skill is one thing but from an enterprise’s perspective an individual’s effectiveness might be better gauged by his/her contribution to the team.

Studying the results of the performance of many management groups in a business game over a period of seven years, Dr. Belbin was able to use this wealth of data to formulate what different types of individual combine to form the perfect team. He listed nine team types which together make up this team-

1.????Coordinator – These have a dominant, stable, and extrovert character. They are people who preside over the team and co-ordinate its efforts. Their approach is disciplined and authoritative but in no way domineering. They are naturally trusting, good communicators and set the agenda for the team. A natural per-occupation with objectives makes them people who attempt to combine the team’s human resources as effectively as possible. When a decision needs to be taken, the coordinator will take it but will be fair and consider all views.

2.????Sharpe – Sharpers are dominant, anxious and extrovert. They can be considered as the task leader of the team. The sharper is full of nervous energy. They are outgoing and emotional, impulsive and impatient something edgy and equally frustrated. Their principal function is to try to shape the application of the team efforts, uniting ideas, objectives and practical considerations into a single feasible project.

3.????Plant – Plants are dominant, introvert and highly intelligent. They are so called because they scatted the seed which the others nourish until they bear fruit. The plant is the team’s source of inspiration, ideas, suggestions and proposals. While the others have ideas too, what distinguishes plants is the originality and radical nature of their ideas. While plants can provide the spark, they may also be difficult to handle and be dismissive of detail and practicalities.

4.????Monitor Evaluator – The are bright, stable and introverted. By temperament, they are likely to be serious and not very exciting. Their contribution lies in measured and dispassionate analysis rather than creative ideas. While they are unlikely to come up with an original proposal. They are the most likely to stop the team from committing itself to a misguided project. Hardly euphoric or enthusiastic, they can use their calm, sensible, even boring nature to interpret a situation or a problem in a particularly methodical and objective way. The monitor evaluators strengths are their judgement and their weakness is their ability to lower morale by being too negative at the wrong time.

5.????Company Worker – Company workers are stable and controlled. They are the practical ones of the team that turn ideas into manageable tasks. They sort out objectives and pursue them logically. They are noted for their sincerity and integrity. They are efficient and systematic but sometimes a little inflexible. They are close to the team’s point of balance. If anyone dose know what has been decided and what they are supposed to be doing, they will go to the company worker first to find out.

6.????Resource Investigator – They are stable, dominant and extrovert. They are perhaps the most likable members of the group, being relaxed, sociable and outgoing. They are positive and enthusiastic, although they may quickly become bored with one idea and want to move onto the next. They are useful because they will bring ideas to the team from outside their domain. They are the salesmen, diplomats and liaison officers of the team. Always exploring new possibilities in the wider world outside. They are innovative and good improvisers under pressure but may relaxed when the pressure eases off and may fail to follow up their frequent bursts of short-lived enthusiasm.

7.????Team Worker – The team worker is stable, extrovert and low in dominance. They are the worriers of the group, who are aware of the emotional undercurrents within the team. They are likable, loyal but unassertive. They can help cement the group and provide sympathy, understanding and support. Especially when the group is under pressure. Although soft and inductive, the team worker’s strength is in promoting unity and harmony.

8.????Completer Finisher – They are anxious and introvert. The completes are obsessed with checking details and will not relaxed until they are certain that nothing has been overlooked. The completes are preoccupied with order and their relentless follow-through is an important asset. However, their permanent sense of urgency can have a morale-sapping effect on the team. Especially, if they lose sight of the overall objective by getting bogged down in small details.

9.????The Specialist – The specialist tends to confine activity to the area of their own expertise and may not be particularly interested in team outcomes.

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A Balanced Team

The lesson from Belbin’s work is that it is important to have a balanced team. The absence of one of the roles obviously weakens any team but equally the presence of too many of one type produces predictable kinds of failure. For example, with too many plants, many good ideas are produced but never taken up. A team composed entirely of plants and sharps may look brilliant but will be beaten by a combination that is properly furnished with the less conspicuous members who help to compose a full and balanced team.

The team types can be split into two groups. The coordinator, plants, resource, investigator and sharper are outward looking, while the company worker, monitor evaluator, team worker and completer are inward looking. While a balanced team is obviously desirable, it is not of the same importance in every kind of operation. For example, for a group whose principle role is to supervise a more or less steady and continuous process without much change over the years there is not such a great need for a balanced team. However, when a team operates in areas of rapid change and there is need for quick decision making, then having all the different team skills available becomes of paramount importance.

You will not always have or want 9 team members so that some doubling up could be desirable, though not into roles with which people have no natural affinity.

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?Phase of Team – Building Activity

1.????Structural dimension:

(a)?Collection of relevant and competent individuals;

(b)??Selection of team-leader (Competence-based);

(c)???Goal-Setting through consensus;

(d)??Goal clarification to member;

(e)??Role negotiation among members (Role Assignment);

(f)????Role clarification (Clarifying individual role);

(g)??Setting members into action (Action towards problem solving);

(h)??Monitoring progress of task accomplishment;

(i)????Evaluation after task is accomplished.

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2.????Process dimension:

(a)?Climate setting;

(b)??Setting norms & rules;

(c)???Open communication and free interaction.

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Checklist for Assessing Team Performance

The purpose of this checklist is to enable the team members to assess systematically the team performance and adjust or regulate their behaviors.

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1.????Team Structure:

(a)??Are the goals of the team clear to the members?

(b)??Are the tasks they are expected to perform clearly defined and divided/allocated?

(c)???Do they plan before they set to solve the problem/issue?

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2.????Team Process:

(a)?What type of leadership is operating – Supportive/Directive?

(b)??Is the leader communicative and interactive?

(c)???Can the members of the team communicate openly and freely with another and with leader?

(d)??Do the members feel involved in their tasks/goals or they feel alienated?

(e)??Does the feel motivated to work?

(f)????Do the members listen to each other during discussion?

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3.????Team Climate:

(a)?Do the members feel stress, tension and discomfort in problem analysis?

(b)??Is there any sign of conflict?

(c)???Do they perceive conflict as a sign of health or as a sign of sickness?

(d)??Can the members feel free to disagree on certain points?

(e)??Is creatively/innovation encouraged?

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