Working Teams

Work Team Dynamics The subject task force is in need of direction and basic understanding of the goals they were assigned to accomplish. In today's fast-paced business environment, work is best done in teams. Yet, many organizations consider teams a waste of time, effort, and resources. Dueling egos, scapegoating, hidden agendas, and barely hidden conflict can derail teams. As companies are forced to rely more heavily on teamwork to compete, capabilities in building and leading teams have become crucial to success. Is our team able to identify with the task or even as a team? As a consultant, I will need to provide them the perspectives, skills, and tools to assess what is going right and wrong in our group. I would accomplish this by implementing training immediately. Training will teach the team how to plan a strategy so the group can work in unison. The training would encompass two areas. The first would address the issue of how to achieve team dynamics. If they understand the dimensions such as identification, interdependence, power use, social closeness, conflict management and negotiation. For example, Eric doesn't seem to care about the identification process or anything else other than "just getting down to it". Paul uses the "I" instead of "we" expression quite a bit; indicating that he does not feel part of the team. The second issue that needs to be addressed is for the team to have the group better understand the value of performance appraisals. This should also be accomplished by training. Performance appraisals can be extremely beneficial if they are properly utilized and honestly filled out. Training and educating the group is the only way that they can successfully accomplish their task. I would like to encourage the group to do as much research on their own and then share with the other members. However, Paul seemed to be doing a great deal of research but was not receiving the cooperation from other members. This was probably because they did not have a clear understanding of how the team is supposed to function. By getting an understanding on how the proper steps will help the group become more cohesive; they will also be able to get the task completed in a shorter period of time. During the training process we will address some of the following issues: domination by a few loud voices, problem-solving techniques that become bogged down, members who don't listen or who don't feel heard, unwillingness to deal with conflict and differences so that unresolved issues remain simmering just beneath the surface, power conflicts, poorly designed meetings that waste valuable time and resources, lack of trust among members. This will allow us to form strategies for resolving conflicts and bringing together diverse points of view. While at times, the learning