Teams & Groups

What is a team?

A team is a group of individuals working together to achieve a common goal. In most cases, the task is split into parts appropriate to each individual's talents. Each member of the team has a shared responsibility for getting the job done, and therefore their cooperation is essential to the overall success of the group.

Why work in a team?

There are many reasons for working in teams within an organisation. Team effort produces better results when tackling unfamiliar problems by combining the knowledge and skills of each individual. The team provides an environment in which each individual has the opportunity to maximise their input to the task.

Some of the advantages of teamwork are:

Typically informal atmosphere

If the group meets on a regular basis, the members should start to feel at ease with each other and hence feel free to state their opinions openly.

Rapid commmunication

With all the members of the team being in the same establishment, there is no delay in exchanging information and opinions between members. This makes it by far the most productive means of fulfilling the desired objective.

Fast decision-making

This results from rapid communication and good leadership management. A group can frequently make the right decision quickly.

Instantaneous feedback

As a group meeting is a real-time face-to-face situation, opinions, thoughts and decisions from each member can be given straight away.

Wide range of skills

The larger the group, the more extensive the variety of knowledge and skills which can be pooled together.

Increases responsibility

Each individual's responsibilities can be increased. They can be given the responsibility for getting a specific task completed.

Higher quality results

Groups have the advantage of receiving mutual feedback between members; each individual's contribution is analysed by the other members of the team. By using the resources available and constantly improving the way in which the tasks are approached, higher quality and increased productivity can be achieved.

Synergy

The drive and motivation realised within a group as a whole is greater than the sum of each individual's within the group.

Roles within a group

When a number of people are gathered in one place, interacting with one another, and working as a team, different people will assume different roles. Three general roles have been identified:

Doers

People performing this role may be initiating ideas or taking leadership of the group. They will concentrate on the actions required and be willing to make decisions.

Thinkers

Perhaps less dominant members of the group, thinkers will digest all the informantion and ideas before coming to a conclusion. They fulfil an evaluation role and take time to reflect upon different ideas.

Carers

These people want to ensure that the task is performed correctly and will consider logistical issues associated with the implementation of any ideas. They may also assume the role of "finisher" and speed up the decision making process so that the task is completed on time.

The fulfillment of all the different roles in the group can be considered to be necessary if the task is to be completed in the most successful manner.

Problems within groups

Bringing together a number of people with different personalities, skills, experiences and opinions to form a team can affect their ability to achieve a common goal. Problems can arise from the social interaction between members or through poor team management. Some of the main factors affecting the group performance are:

Domination

Strong personalities can seriously affect the group's initial line of thinking and stifle innovative ideas from less dominant members. A group having a number of dominant personalities may transform their meetings into monologues between themselves - defeating the purpose of forming the group.

Quiet members

Those who do not feel involved in the discussion or those with a quiet personality may actually come up with the best suggestions and be the most experienced in a particular area.

Distractions

Caused by an unsual setting, a windowed meeting-room or side conversations. Can affect the communication betweeen members and the flow of the decision-making process.

Over-management

If the team leader controls the meeting too tightly, only a couple of opinions will be discussed; and group members will not feel free to make innovative suggestions. Individuals could suffer from a lack of motivation linked to not being responsible for decisions relating to their tasks.

Personality clashes

Are a major and difficult problem to solve. In some cases this may result in suggestions constantly being ridiculed or arguments developing about insignificant or irrelevant points. Communication and cooperation between team members will suffer and affect group morale and performance.

Unclear roles and responsibilities

If some roles within the team are unfilled or team members are not sure of what they are responsible for, some tasks will not be completed and the work coordination of the team will suffer.

Communication problems

If a team member has difficulties explaining what he/she means, this can result in misinterpreted points or suggestions. If he/she misunderstands their delegated task, this can, in the worst case, result in the final task not meeting the specification. In any case, valuable time will be wasted towards the completion of the task.

Lack of clarity

During meetings and delegation of tasks, objectives that are not sufficiently explained and decisions that are not clear and concise may result in the completed task not meeting the specification. The team member may feel less motivated because they do not know exactly what is happening within the group.

Time management

It is important that the time available for a meeting is used as effectively as possible. Time costs money, and it is thus vital that meetings do not overrun. Therefore, it is vital that some control is placed on the time allocated to each part of the meeting - the team leader must accept this responsibility.

Lack of background knowledge

There is no point in delegating a task to a team member if he/she does not possess the knowledge or ability to carry out the task.