Strategies of Teamwork

 Strategies of Teamwork

Effective management, which focuses on teamwork among employees is paramount for the success of any business. Global business leaders today embrace collaboration because of its various benefits, which bring about success. The implication of workforce diversity requires comprehensive approaches, which foster teamwork. Working together as a team can be challenging in a diverse workforce. Every person holds different opinions as per their culture and norms. Distinct personalities also have different goals, work ethics, and characters. For many years since the onset of the industrial revolution, teamwork has been broadly used in many business firms, and organizations. One of the goals of teamwork is to translate organizational values into specific principles to allow the team members to manage themselves with the organizational goals. Working as a team in an organization tends to give options for the solution of problems such organizations faces by ending bureaucratic control. Teamwork allows for the exchange of ideas, which perhaps may save the company form outsourcing expenditures. Collaboration is an avenue for socialization, and thus a platform for exchanging ideas. Effective teamwork strategies integrate the various sectors of an organization into a practical course, which brings about successful outcomes.

Literature Review

According to West (2012), a team is a small number of individuals with complementary skills, and is committed to a common purpose of the set goals. These members hold themselves mutually responsible and accountable for the achievement or failure to achieve various performance goals. A team is a special group because it is composed of members who have shared focus in all aspects to shape a meaningful purpose (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). A team can be self-managing because they have the authority to regulate themselves throughout the task. Various business management toady use teamwork to solve inflexible structural problems, and alleged inefficient bureaucratic control. Nadler links effective teamwork strategies to effective communication. For effective teamwork to be achieved, there have to be good communication strategies, which involves not only talking but also listening skillfully and responding (Nadler, 2011). Teamwork is essential because it makes projects that seem insurmountable achievable by assigning responsibilities. Teamwork is also vital in strategic management because it harnesses the conflicting points of view, which can cause a company to stall their work.     

The Forbes magazine of 2012 explains that collaboration is the core of effective teamwork. Most teams in various organizations do not know how to collaborate because they depend on the methods of compliance and cooperation (West, 2012). Real collaboration is challenging because the members of the team must change their mindsets to see the positives in each interaction, and find common ground for behavioral approaches. The theories developed by the sociologists claim that teamwork is a tool for improving employee motivation and satisfaction by improving discretion. Teams can be depicted in terms of philosophies and theoretical frameworks. However, a team-based philosophy in organizations is becoming popular. In the United Kingdom, for example, more than 80 per cent of the organizations and industries have reportedly used team-based approaches for the last decade. Massie and Ali (2016) assert that the use of teams in the organizations has fostered tremendous changes in many industries (Massie & Ali, 2016). Groups are converted into teams when they develop a sense of shared commitment and strive for synergy among the members.

Teamwork is essential for any sized business to take on the challenges and execute the strategic tasks. According to Goetsch and Davis (2014), elements for effective teamwork involve trust and commitment, communication, adaptability, and creative freedom. The ability of the team members to think freely open avenues for divergent views hence increased innovations. Courtenay et al (2013) assert that an attempt to have new ideas in place without the fear of consequences constitutes the ideal teamwork. The congruence of cognition has also been identified as the core performance indicators for a team. West (2012) explains that the common cognition among the team members is highly associated with higher team efficiencies, and is important in training members of an organization (West, 2012). Nadler classifies teams into various subcategories. They include, self-managed teams, virtual teams, high-performance teams, and the virtual high-performance teams (Nadler, 2011). All these categories employ effective strategies in ensuring the goals of various organizations are achieved.

Strategies of teamwork

Different originations use different strategies in managing teamwork depending on nature, and the goals of the organization. Strategies are meant to foster the achievement of the organizational goals. In strategic management, teamwork together with strategy is equivalent to success. Every management conforms to the fact that every employee is unique in his ways, and has different abilities. The following are the strategies used for teamwork in organizations.

Start a culture committee to promote collaboration

Companies consist of workers of different cultures from various departments. For the success of such an organization, all departments need to be on board through effective management strategies to promote the overall well-being and the objectives of the company (West, 2011). The representatives from the departments need to be in a committee that advocates for the culture of the company. The composition of such a committee will enable the team to exemplify company culture and inculcate it in others. The activities of the committee culture will depend on the unique culture of the organization (Nadler, 2011). The committee will plan events, which bring the departments together. It will also cheer up the team members in difficult times. Starting the committee to promote the desired collaboration will involve asking volunteers to be recruited for the same purpose. Team building process requires volunteers. After getting the volunteers, hold a board meeting to define your company’s culture if it does not exist in writing (Massie & Ali, 2016). Then the team should develop the culture goal, and establish the culture virtues in the promotion plan. The committee will thus decide on the actions to prioritize on to best cultivate the identified culture(s). Establishing the performance indicators will monitor the progress of the cultivation of the culture.

Lead by Example

Most companies in today’s world of business require leaders, and employees of character. Leadership in an organization is pivotal for the realization of the set objectives (Nadler, 2011). Team leaders work in unison with the mismanagement to chat the ways forward for the benefit of the organization. Leadership roles are bestowed upon every individual, but the powers to lead are for the selected few. Teamwork requires not only leadership but exemplary leadership styles (Courtenay et al, 2013). If the team has a chosen team leader, the leader must ensure effective communication is adhered to by every member. For a team to communicate with other teams or within the structures of the team itself, the leader must lead by example in working hard, producing strong results, and keeping the business moving in the right direction, and at a right pace. A leader who leads by example treats his roles equally, and the relationship with the others being a worker-worker relationship rather than a worker-employer. In so doing, the team members will be able to communicate their ideas freely to the team leader, thus enhancing effective communication. Leading by example also builds trust and respect (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). Companies need mutual trust and respect among the employees and the management. Otherwise, nothing is going to be done within a team as a whole. Team members must trust each other in their roles and responsibilities. They must treat the coworkers the similar way they would wish others to treat them.

Set a protocol for resolving conflicts

Conflicts are bound to happen in any company regardless of the culture type. On the other hand, no one would like to anticipate the unpleasantness of conflicts. Effective conflict resolutions are key to the continuity of a company (Nadler, 2011). In many instances, we have witnessed companies which struggle to achieve conflict resolution, and most of their cases end up in the judicial arms. There are more consequences as such organizations may be forced to split management through a legal process in law courts. One way of conflict management is to have some conflict resolution protocols, which all members of a team deliberate upon. This protocol is relayed to everyone in the group.

Inspire the big picture thinking

A capable team is that team with vision and mission. All members must thus focus their concerted efforts towards achieving the mission and vision of the team. Teamwork implies everyone is working towards a common course objective. Teamwork requires the frameworks for the bigger picture plan. When every member of the organization does different things, it is easier to forget to share the overall mission of the company (Nadler, 2011). A meeting strategy, which calls for annual summits to discuss the way forward for the team is thus needed for such purposes. A dedicated yearly summit will provide the platform to focus on the overall company missions and goals. The summit nurtures teamwork and efficient collaboration by bringing the entire company together, and reconnect it to the original aims.

Adopt the Buddy System

A buddy system is a knowledge sharing platform, and onboarding method to orient the new employees. When a new employee joins the organization, he or she is assigned a new buddy preferably, a veteran in the company (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). The buddies help the new employees with the onboarding process. The buddies will tend to answer the questions from the new hires, questions which do not merit the boss’s attention, yet essential. Additionally, buddies help the new hires adopt, and embrace the company’s culture. In the process of developing a team, ask for voluntary buddies. Then send the new hires to the buddies for a brief personality test so that the process can help in pairing up the most compatible. The buddy system forges bonds, which researchers have established to exist beyond the onboarding period. Through the buddy system, most buddies get to know each other’s culture, and work experience (West, 2012). The pairs can grow into exemplary collaborators, which promote the overall goal of teamwork. The buddy system works wonders for internal communication. Some of the buddies are peers, and this means they can share information which they may not freely tell the boss.

Develop a concrete plan for building trust

One of the most difficult but very important processes in the effective strategies for teamwork is building trust. As mentioned before, the workforce diversity brought with it challenges such that it becomes difficult to trust somebody of different ideology, or race (West, 2012). People in the workforce tend to align themselves to peers or persons of the same thoughts, and culture. Building trust among people of different cultures is thus an important strategy in teamwork. Teamwork requires vulnerability-based trust (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). Vulnerability-based trust is the trust and goodwill that grows within a team with vulnerable members. If every member of a team admits they do not know certain things, that they need help, the team trust will increase. Vulnerability helps in the teamwork by helping each other out. Trust and strong bonding can thus be built from this perspective to build solid value-based teamwork.

Conclusion

Strategies for teamwork may vary depending on the culture of the organization. Nonetheless, they serve a similar purpose of driving the organization’s goals and missions. Effective teamwork strategies bring together various departments of an organization into an effective course of action, which brings about successful outcomes. Some of the strategies for teamwork include forming a culture committee to promote collaboration, having leaders giving examples of how certain things are to be done in the organization. Setting the protocol to resolve conflicts will ensure teamwork, which is focused on achieving the best outcomes. The selected team members need the inspiration of the big picture thinking so that the aims, and the objectives of an organization can be preserved. The buddy system will help in assuring the new employee’s good teamwork. However, the new hires must develop the habit of sharing through their peers and buddies. This aim can only be achieved if they build trust in their buddies. Thus, developing a concrete plan for building trust is also a strategy that will foster good-spirited teamwork.

References

Courtenay, M., Nancarrow, S., & Dawson, D. (2013). Interprofessional teamwork in the trauma setting: a scoping review. Human resources for health, 11(1), 57.

Goetsch, D. L., & Davis, S. B. (2014). Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.

Massie, J., & Ali, J. M. (2016). Workplace-based assessment: a review of user perceptions and strategies to address the identified shortcomings. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 21(2), 455-473.

Nadler, R. S. (2011). Leading with emotional intelligence: Hands-on strategies for building confident and collaborative star performers. McGraw-Hill.

West, M. A. (2012). Effective teamwork: Practical lessons from organizational research. John Wiley & Sons.