Effective Team Development

There’s more to effective team development than making up the numbers, or even the skill set required to achieve a desired outcome - Charisse Gray looks at ways to motivate people, rather than robots, to work together effectively and happily.

So many tasks in business need to be tackled by teams, and a crucial part of effective management is knowing how to build an effective team. Or, how to choose the right outsider to do that, based on a clear understanding of what you want to achieve.

People are not automatically compatible, even when they have a common goal. In a business environment, an individual doesn’t always have a choice as to which team he is on. Normally a manager will group individuals together to form a team in order to achieve a specific goal. It can be difficult when you have diverse members made up of male and female, different cultural backgrounds and ages, maturity and experience. If you get the people dynamics wrong it can impact on productivity and profit. You may experience competition rather than cooperation, and there may be a clash of personalities, ethics and values.

The dynamics of good teams vary. You can’t just pull together a group of employees, call them a team and expect them to come up with the results. You need to consider the dynamics required of the specific team, and choose members with skills and experience that will work well together and who can individually bring something worthwhile to the table.

Typically, you will include the Doers, who make sure the job gets done and give the team drive; the Thinkers, who have good ideas and reject bad ones; and the Carers, who keep the team together, ease tensions, promote harmony, and are sensitive to relationships within the team.

You will need to give each team a strong leader, one who can communicate well, is highly organised, demonstrates concern for the task and the process, and can create a supportive atmosphere.

Teamwork may still not be successful unless you implement and foster a motivated, productive ‘team-building culture’ from the top of the organisation down, enabling cohesion and innovation. Each team needs to feel they have the capacity to create new ideas, initiatives and strategies, as well as the authority to do so.

Only then will effective team building occur.

When a team meets, their energies are usually directed towards problem-solving. They want to ensure they are carrying out the tasks effectively, and making use of all members’ resources efficiently. During this process, team building can be facilitated as members evaluate their working relationship and then develop guidelines for moving forward.