TEAM EFFECTIVENESS

What is the definition of a team? A team is defined as a reasonably small group of people, who bring to the table a set of complementary and appropriate skills, and who hold themselves mutually accountable for achieving a clear and identifiable set of goals.

Teams can be very effective. In many situations teams can achieve more than individuals working on their own. Teams can bring to bear a wider range of skills and experience to solve a problem. Teams also produce better quality decisions. When a team has been working on a problem, and they have a sense of commitment to the common solution

What do we mean by team effectiveness?

A team can be considered to be effective if their output is judged to meet or exceed the expectations of the people who receive the output. Producing a quality output is not enough to judge the effectiveness of the team.
The second criteria, is that the team should still be able function effectively after they have completed their task. It should not be torn apart by dissension.
Finally, effectiveness is judged by whether the team feels satisfied with its efforts. If the team members are pleased with their efforts, if the experience has been a good one, if time spent away from their normal work has been worth the effort, the team has likely been effective.

What then are the factors that contribute towards an effective team?

There are three areas of group behavior that must be addressed for teams to be effective. The team must work hard. The effort that the team puts in to get the job done is dependent on whether the nature of the task motivates the members of the team and whether the goals are challenging.The team must have the right mix of skills to bring to the table. These skills include technical, problem solving and interpersonal skills. The team must be able to develop appropriate approaches to problem solving. This depends on developing a plan of attack and using appropriate techniques for analysis.

The following factors contribute to hard work, skill development and effective problem solving strategies:

The task itself should be motivating.

The task itself should be seen as being worthwhile. It needs to be a whole piece of work with a clear and visible outcome so that people can feel a sense of ownership.
The outcome of the task should be perceived as being important to other people’s lives. It should affect others in the organization or impact on the external customer.
The job should provide the team with an opportunity for self-regulation. They should decide how the work is to be done. Meaningful feedback should be provided on the how well the team is performing.

The team needs challenging goals, which are clearly defined.

When challenging goals are set the team will mobilize its efforts to find innovative ways to achieve feats that may have been considered impossible. Providing a challenging job is the most important motivator to sustain group effort.
Goals provide a sense of direction to the team so that when conflict occurs it is possible to channel the conflict more constructively by returning to the goals for direction.
The team needs to buy in to the goals. They must have the opportunity to buy in and commit to achieving the goals. Goals need to be challenging, but not impossible to achieve. They also need to be measurable so that progress towards achieving them can be monitored and results confirmed.

Rewards are important.

The rewards need to suit the personal characteristics of the people on the team.
Whatever form the reward takes, it is important that group effort be recognized. One should avoid the destructive effect of trying to single out individuals from the group, when there has been a group effort.
Rewards merely reinforce these conditions for fostering group effort.

The team should have the right mix of skills.

The right mix of skills should be brought to the task at hand. It is also a question of carefully reviewing the job to determine what relevant skills is required and selecting staff so that the team has the right balance. Providing relevant training then makes up any shortfall in skills.
Technical skills are required. For teams who are trying to improve a process that cuts across department boundaries, each function should be represented. One should achieve a balance of skills. This means avoiding having a preponderance of skills and experience in one specialized area. Sheer numbers may weigh the solution towards the dominant group.
In the case of permanent work teams it is likely that team members will not have all the task relevant skills at the onset. When the group is new, it is likely that members will bring narrow skills learned in their old roles. They will need to develop broader skills for the new job. To ensure that this is done, training and coaching should be provided.
The members of the team need to have problem solving and decision-making skills as well as technical skills. When a business is making its first venture into team based work, it is likely that people will not have a good grasp of the techniques related to problem analysis and solution.
These relevant skills must be acquired, so it will be necessary to provide training. Over a period of time staff will become experienced in problem solving techniques and the organization will develop a repertoire of skills among the staff so this training will not always be necessary.
Interpersonal skills are also important. This is not as obvious as it may sound. Most people do not listen well. Listening is much more than being quiet when some else is talking. Active listening is required. Many people do not speak to the point but ramble on or go off at a tangent. Most people do not take criticism well and tend to be defensive about their own opinions.

Agree on a code of conduct.

At the beginning of the team project it is important to develop a code of conduct for meetings. The team needs to agree on a set of rules to ensure that their efforts are purposeful and that all members contribute to the work.
The most critical rules pertain to attendance, open discussion, using an analytical approach, not pulling rank over other members, planning the work and sharing work assignments. This will ensure that the work is done well and done on time.

The team must develop effective problem solving strategies.

For the team to be able to develop an appropriate strategy, it must have a clear definition of the problem, know what resources it has available and the limits, and understand the expectations. It must then develop a problem-solving plan, based on the approach suggested in the section on continuous improvement.
When this does not happen, people are passive. Their skills and knowledge are not utilized and they waste their time.

Special teams have special issues. From the perspective of organisational improvement we are interested in three types of teams. One is the problem solving team, another is the work team and then there is the senior management team.Problem solving teams are set up with a clearly defined task to investigate a problem and recommend a solution. Sometimes the same team will go on to implement the solution. When their task is completed the team is disbanded and members go back to their normal organisational duties.

There are two important issues facing these teams. One is getting started and the other is handing over the recommendations for implementation. The key to getting started is to ensure that the team is committed to achieving an agreed set of goals. Goals serve to focus the team’s effort.
Implementation is important. It will not just happen; it must be planned. The implementers must be brought into the solution stage so that they develop a sense of ownership towards the solution and buy into it. The best way to do this is to have the problem solving team do the implementation.
Another approach is to phase the implementers into the team so that the membership changes prior to the implementation. Whatever approach is used one should remember that the idea is to implement a solution and not to produce a report.
Work teams are different in that they are a fixed part of the organization. They have an ongoing function, which is to control a set of activities that make up a discrete operation in the overall business process. They need to focus on the critical factors in their process and to control these factors to ensure a quality product.