High Preformance Team

Groups and Teams

MGT 331

Introduction

Ever since there have been managers, there have been groups and teams. Someone has always led groups of people to achieve more than an individual would be able to do alone. Before there were formal teams, employees have always grouped together to form an alliance (Chilli n.d.).

By definition groups are two or more people who work with one another regularly to achieve common goals (Schermerhorn 2005 ch.9). Since the forming of alliances can not be stopped, then maybe it would be a better use of time and effort to encourage people within the company to form as a team, defined as a small group of people with complementary skills who work actively together to achieve a common purpose for which they hold themselves collectively accountable (Schermerhorn 2005 ch.10) designed to work toward a common-corporate goal. To effectively operate with teams, companies must know how to make, use, and keep them.

Becoming a High Performance Team

Teams, whatever their purpose and make-up, go through stages of development during their existence, each of which is characterized by certain behaviors that reflect the team's stage of development. The five stages of development are: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning (Schermerhorn 2005 ch.10).

The forming or formation stage involves the development and selection process of a team. It serves as a way to communicate high standards, create a sense of urgency, make sure members have the right skills, and set the tone of what is expected by the team members in order to get the desired results.

The storming or brainstorming stage requires the collection of data and brainstorming ideas to solve a problem. In the storming phase you must establish clear rules for team behavior, as a leader of the team one will model expected behaviors, find ways to create early success, and continually introduce new information (www.ptcfo.com/teams).

The norming stage will sometimes be perceived by the team as the performing stage which we will discuss later. Norming is when teams have spent time together, when things fall in place, and the team gets comfortable with one another and team members know their jobs and there are no longer the struggles that occurred in the forming and storming stages (Schermerhorn 2005 ch.10).

Performing is when the team does its best work, member's strengths are played upon and weakness avoided or double checked by the team. Feedback is critical in this stage. "Tweaking the system" is usually warranted in this stage as small changes, rather than wholesale changes, allow for acceptance by all parties concerned. Many a team gets excited during this stage, since they may have spent weeks or months in the early stages, and is now on the threshold of a tremendously successful experience (www.ptcfo.com/teams).