This is my thought paper about team management after taking a relevant class.
In my experience, what contributed to effective teamwork?
First, each team member should highly commit to the project with a shared goal. If someone is slack in work, the others will be influenced negatively. Second, the roles and responsibilities should be assigned clearly, and everyone should trust each other. Third, the values, norms and rules should be established, and performance should be evaluated. Last, communications and interactions should be encouraged, and an environment where people feel free to bring new ideas should be established.
What factors are most important in terms of team design?
There are three important factors: goal defining, team selecting, and process selecting. The team should towards a shared-goal. Therefore, the goal defining is very important. Several considerations such as whether it focus more on ends rather than means, whether it is learning-oriented or performance oriented, whether it is promotion goals or preventions goals, or whether it carries too much time pressure. Also, the type of team can be defined that whether it is a tactical team, a problem solving team, and a creative team. Moreover, team members should be selected very carefully. It should be guaranteed that the team size is appropriate, necessary skills and attributes are included, basic team roles can be performed, and team diversity is considered. Furthermore, the structure and process of the whole team should be well-established. The interdependencies should be considered, and the specialized roles and routines should be defined and clarified. In addition, the norms should be established so that people can share a similar value working together. Sometimes, a coaching or learning system is also important for the team to operate successfully.
Beyond effective team design, what factors contribute to effective team productivity?
There are three factors: expertise inclusion, engagement & motivation, and effective execution. To perform to the tasks, expertise is a necessity. Team members should have skills for conflict resolution, problem solving, communication, goal setting, performance management, planning, and coordination. However, skills are not enough and people should be willing do the tasks and be fully engaged in the team. Therefore, psychological factors should be considered and all causes for free riding should be avoided. To make it possible, team identification should be built, reward system & performance feedback should be set, and team cohesion should be established. Furthermore, this team should also execute the tasks in a right way, and learn to collaborate efficiently with each other. Therefore, training, communication, and clear standards should be built.
Core concepts or tactics related to communication that resonated with me
Thinking of communication from two phases – sending and receiving – is really useful. However, I haven’t thought them in this way before. When sending the information, the forms should be carefully considered. For example, when using verbal form, both the content and the tone play an important role. For non-verbal expression, the body language and facial expressions matter. However, for most of times, I only pay attention to the content, but neglect my tone and body language. Also, both the content and tone should be considered when writing something. Besides tone, one should monitor oneself well and express clearly when sending the information. In the receiving phase, the person should check the assumption of the sender, and assume he or she has a good intent to send the information. In addition, he or she should listen to that information carefully.
How to incorporate them in real life?
Aware of communication forms and sending & receiving phases, I could better manage the communication with others not only within teamwork, but only in every daily communication. For example, when I say something to others, I should first think of the common information we shared, and the situation we had. Then, I should choose an appropriate tone and manner to express. Also, I should make sure that the content is clear enough for them to understand. When listening to others, I should pay attention to the content more. Also, sometimes, I may come across common information problems. For example, the shared information of different team members is different, which may cause misunderstanding and bias. In this case, I should record what has been mentioned from the information sender and redirect the team to focus on unshared information. Then, rank and choose the alternative we should have.
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