Team is defined as a group of people working together to achieve a

common goal. Team members are mutually responsible for reaching the goal
toward which they are working. Team building is a process meant to improve
the performance of the team and involves activities designed to foster
communication and encourage cooperation. Additionally, the objective is to avoid
potential disputes and problems and to keep the morale of team members high.
Many different industries and organizations use teams to accomplish goals,
because people working together can often achieve more than they could
individually. How do you know if you need a team to complete a project? Ask
yourself the following questions: Can I achieve this goal by myself? Do I have the
resources and time to undertake this project? Can other people or a team of other
people be more effective than I would be in achieving this goal? If your answers
favor the involvement of others, its time to consider forming a team.
In an increasingly complex environment, organizations are using a team
approach to bring a diverse set of skills and perspectives into play. An effective use
of teams often draws upon a creative approach of bringing together specialists who
combine their efforts and develop intra-team synergies to meet the challenges of
their often complex organizational environment.
An example of an industry that often uses teamwork is the construction
industry. A successful construction project cannot take place without the formation
of teams. A design team will be formed at the beginning of the project and is made
up of architects, engineers, and project consultants. The design team alone,
however, will not be able to complete the project. They will also need to form a
team with the owner of the project and the contractor.
Team building is an ongoing process that helps a work group evolve
into a cohesive unit. The team members not only share expectations for
accomplishing group tasks, but trust and support one another and respect one
another's individual differences. Your role as a team builder is to lead your team
toward cohesiveness and productivity. A team takes on a life of its own and you
have to regularly nurture and maintain it, just as you do for individual employees.
Team building in an office helps to foster better and open communication between
the employees themselves, as well as between the employees and the higher
management. It goes a long way in improving professional relations, understanding
and co-operation, and this is very much reflected in the quality of work being done.
Team building in the workplace significantly contributes towards employee
motivation and building trust among the employees, thereby ensuring better
productivity.
Team building can lead to:

Good communications with participants as team members and individuals

Increased department productivity and creativity

Team members motivated to achieve goals

A climate of cooperation and collaborative problem-solving
Higher levels of job satisfaction and commitment
Higher levels of trust and support
Diverse co-workers working well together
Clear work objectives
Better operating policies and procedures

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TEAM AND GROUP

What is the difference between a group of employees and a team? A group is
a collection of individuals who coordinate their individual efforts. On the other hand,
at team is a group of people who share a common team purpose and a number of
challenging goals. Members of the team are mutually committed to the goals and to
each other. This mutual commitment also creates joint accountability which creates
a strong bond and a strong motivation to perform.
Table 1. Difference between Work groups and Teams
WORK GROUPS

TEAMS

Individual accountability

Individual and mutual accountability

Come together to share information

Frequently come together for

and perspectives

discussion, decision making, problem

solving, and planning.

Focus on individual goals

Focus on team goals

Produce individual work products

Produce collective work products

Define individual roles, responsibilities,

Define individual roles, responsibilities,

and tasks

and tasks to help team do its work;

often share and rotate them

Concern with one's own outcome and

Concern with outcomes of everyone

challenges

and challenges the team faces

Purpose, goals, approach to work

Purpose, goals, approach to work

shaped by manager

shaped by team leader with team

members

12 CS OF TEAMWORK
Executives, managers and organization staff members universally explore
ways to improve business results and profitability. Many view team-based,
horizontal, organization structures as the best design for involving all employees in
creating business success.
No matter what you call your team-based improvement effort: continuous
improvement, total quality, lean manufacturing or self-directed work teams, you are
striving to improve results for customers. Few organizations, however, are totally
pleased with the results their team improvement efforts produce. If your team
improvement efforts are not living up to your expectations, this self-diagnosing
checklist may tell you why. Successful team building, that creates effective, focused
work teams, requires attention to each of the following:

Clear Expectations
Has executive leadership clearly communicated its expectations for the teams
performance and expected outcomes? Do team members understand why the team
was created? Is the organization demonstrating constancy of purpose in supporting
the team with resources of people, time and money? Does the work of the team
receive sufficient emphasis as a priority in terms of the time, discussion, attention
and interest directed its way by executive leaders?

Context
Do team members understand why they are participating on the team? Do they
understand how the strategy of using teams will help the organization attain its
communicated business goals? Can team members define their teams importance
to the accomplishment of corporate goals? Does the team understand where its
work fits in the total context of the organizations goals, principles, vision and
values?

Commitment
Do team members want to participate on the team? Do team members feel the
team mission is important? Are members committed to accomplishing the team
mission and expected outcomes? Do team members perceive their service as
valuable to the organization and to their own careers? Do team members anticipate
recognition for their contributions? Do team members expect their skills to grow and
develop on the team? Are team members excited and challenged by the team
opportunity?

Competence
Does the team feel that it has the appropriate people participating? (As an example,
in a process improvement, is each step of the process represented on the team?)
Does the team feel that its members have the knowledge, skill and capability to
address the issues for which the team was formed? If not, does the team have

access to the help it needs? Does the team feel it has the resources, strategies and
support needed to accomplish its mission?

Charter
Has the team taken its assigned area of responsibility and designed its own mission,
vision and strategies to accomplish the mission. Has the team defined and
communicated its goals; its anticipated outcomes and contributions; its timelines;
and how it will measure both the outcomes of its work and the process the team
followed to accomplish their task? Does the leadership team or other coordinating
group support what the team has designed?

Control
Does the team have enough freedom and empowerment to feel the ownership
necessary to accomplish its charter? At the same time, do team members clearly
understand their boundaries? How far may members go in pursuit of solutions? Are
limitations (i.e. monetary and time resources) defined at the beginning of the
project before the team experiences barriers and rework? Is the teams reporting
relationship and accountability understood by all members of the organization? Has
the organization defined the teams authority? To make recommendations? To
implement its plan? Is there a defined review process so both the team and the
organization are consistently aligned in direction and purpose? Do team members
hold each other accountable for project timelines, commitments and results? Does
the organization have a plan to increase opportunities for self-management among
organization members?

Collaboration
Does the team understand team and group process? Do members understand the
stages of group development? Are team members working together effectively
interpersonally? Do all team members understand the roles and responsibilities of
team members? team leaders? team recorders? Can the team approach problem
solving, process improvement, goal setting and measurement jointly? Do team
members cooperate to accomplish the team charter? Has the team established
group norms or rules of conduct in areas such as conflict resolution, consensus
decision making and meeting management? Is the team using an appropriate
strategy to accomplish its action plan?

Communication
Are team members clear about the priority of their tasks? Is there an established
method for the teams to give feedback and receive honest performance feedback?
Does the organization provide important business information regularly? Do the
teams understand the complete context for their existence? Do team members
communicate clearly and honestly with each other?

Creative Innovation
Is the organization really interested in change? Does it value creative thinking,
unique solutions, and new ideas? Does it reward people who take reasonable risks

to make improvements? Or does it reward the people who fit in and maintain the
status quo? Does it provide the training, education, access to books and films, and
field trips necessary to stimulate new thinking?

Consequences
Do team members feel responsible and accountable for team achievements? Are
rewards and recognition supplied when teams are successful? Is reasonable risk
respected and encouraged in the organization? Do team members fear reprisal? Do
team members spend their time finger pointing rather than resolving problems? Is
the organization designing reward systems that recognize both team and individual
performance? Is the organization planning to share gains and increased profitability
with team and individual contributors? Can contributors see their impact on
increased organization success?

Coordination
Are teams coordinated by a central leadership team that assists the groups to
obtain what they need for success? Have priorities and resource allocation been
planned across departments? Do teams understand the concept of the internal
customerthe next process, anyone to whom they provide a product or a service?
Are cross-functional and multi-department teams common and working together
effectively? Is the organization developing a customer-focused process-focused
orientation and moving away from traditional departmental thinking?

Cultural Change
Does the organization recognize that the team-based, collaborative, empowering,
enabling organizational culture of the future is different than the traditional,
hierarchical organization it may currently be? Is the organization planning to or in
the process of changing how it rewards, recognizes, appraises, hires, develops,
plans with, motivates and manages the people it employs? Does the organization
plan to use failures for learning and support reasonable risk? Does the organization
recognize that the more it can change its climate to support teams, the more it will
receive in pay back from the work of the teams?
Spend time and attention on each of these twelve tips to ensure your work
teams contribute most effectively to your business success. Your team members will
love you, your business will soar, and empowered people will "own" and be
responsible for their work processes. Can your work life get any better than this?

BARRIERS TO TEAMWORK
Efficient teamwork improves the professional bonds between employees and
between the staff and management. Encouraging teamwork raises staff morale and
has a positive impact on productivity. But there are barriers to developing an
effective team atmosphere, and being able to identify the biggest barriers to
teamwork is an important part of being a corporate manager.

Bad Leadership
A team without an effective leader is not going to be a productive team. Leaders
need to establish the policies that govern the team and help the team achieve its
goals. When a leader lacks vision or the ability to effectively manage the team, then
the group loses the motivation and confidence necessary to come together as a
unit.

Poor Goal Planning

For a team to feel effective and relevant, it needs to have well-defined goals to
accomplish. Long-term team goals need to be broken down into smaller milestones
so that the team is able to chart its success or failure and make any necessary
changes to its procedures. When there are no clearly defined goals for the team to
achieve, the team members do not have a way of utilizing their individual talents
and they have no way of pooling those talents toward achieving a common result.

Poor Communication
An effective team has developed an efficient method of communication that
processes incoming information and distributes it to the proper parties. Good team
communication also means that each of the team members feels comfortable and
confident when addressing other members of the group. The group is able to
communicate without egos or personal agendas getting in the way. A team with a
poor communication structure, or no communication structure at all, has no way of
getting information to the team members that need it. A lack of internal
communication does not allow the group members to bond and find ways of solving
the issues that face the team.

Personality Clashes
People who have their own agenda that they are unwilling to compromise for the
good of the group will be some of the biggest barriers to developing an efficient
team. A lack of respect for other members of the team can lead to conflict within
the team and cause people who have personal issues with each other to disrupt the
constructive nature of the group.