What is a team?
TITLE: Unit 01 What is a team?
Overview
What is a team?
Why teams form
What are your experiences of a team?
Strategies for supporting teams
Types of teams
Stages of team development
Summary
Overview
This topic introduces you to the concept of teams. You will learn about why teams occur, their characteristics, what makes them effective and the types that you’ll encounter in the workplace or community.
Before you do this topic
Think about your experiences with a team or group and what made them effective.
Inside this topic
- What is a team to you?
- Groups and teams
- Becoming a team
- What are your experiences of a team?
- Why do people join teams?
- Strategies for supporting teams
- Types of teams
- Stages of team development
- Characteristics of team development
What is a team?
/ Activity 1Your team experienceThink of a group or a team you’ve been involved with. Was it:
- a work team
- a sporting team
- a club
- another type of team (please describe it).
______
What did you like about it?
Tick the things you liked / I had good company
We got the job done fast
We learnt a lot from each other
We had fun
We shared the work
Add any other things you liked when you worked in this team.
What did you not like about it? Tick the things you didn’t like.
I didn’t like the fact that: / There were fights
We weren’t all treated the same
Too many people thought they were in charge
I had to do what other people wanted, not what I wanted
I was scared to share my ideas—I didn’t want to sound silly
Any other reasons? Write them here:
Would you like to be part of this team again?YesNo
If you could go back in time and be part of that team again, would you do anything differently? If so, what?
______
______
Why teams form
People come together in groups for many reasons but not all groups work together or form a team. Some reasons groups form include:
- Work mates meeting regularly for lunch or a drink after work
- Residents protesting against their local council’s plans for traffic zoning
- Readers of science fiction joining a discussion group
- Parents volunteering to clean up the school grounds
- Shoppers gathering at the market place before opening time
These groups began as individuals coming together for a common interest. Some of these could develop into a team. Before we can begin to develop skills in team participation, it is important to think about what a team is.
/ Activity 2: What features does a team have?Tick the box or boxes to select the features you agree with.
A team:
- is an energetic group of people
- is when we all work well together
- is a team when it produces high quality results
- has a shared purpose
- is when we work together to achieve a common goal
Add any other features you can think of.
______
______
Comment
There are many different types of teams but members of teams always share goals, tasks, resources and ideas.
What are your experiences of a team?
Some groups develop into teams because they see the benefit of working together to achieve mutual goals. Other groups fail to develop into teams because their interests are short term and they do not want to share ideas or resources.
We achieve a better outcome if we use the skills and contributions of all team members. In a team a broad range of skills can be used to achieve a high quality outcome and provide a valuable opportunity to learn from others.
The following are some comments people have made about their experiences as members of teams.
‘We didn’t have a clear goal.’
‘I’m not sure of what each member has to do.’
‘The leader didn’t share, but kept things to herself.’
‘We were slow to get started.’
‘Motivation was at low levels half way through the project.’
‘Team members were unable to reach agreement.’
‘It’s good to be working together.’
‘I enjoy sharing achievements.’
‘If someone had a problem, we’d try and help them out!’
/ Activity 3: Review your team experienceIt’s easy to see that being a member of a team has both good and bad moments. Think about teams that you have been involved in or you have observed. Use the space below to record some of your experiences.
What I liked about being a team memberWhat I didn’t like about being a team member
Things the team did well
Areas for improvement
Comment
There may seem to be more challenges than benefits in joining a team, especially at the beginning of team development. As the team learns to work together, the benefits start to become more evident. Team members begin to contribute ideas and give feedback. This motivates other team members to join in.
Strategies for supporting teams
Organisations value the positive attitude created by teams. Just because you bring together a group of people to work on a project, or complete a task, that isn’t enough to ensure the project or task will be completed. Teams need support and guidance.
Managers use a variety of strategies to support teams. These can have both positive and negative effects. Some examples follow.
- Letting the team do what it wants—this can gives an early sense of freedom, but can cause conflict when there is no structure
- Provide drinks at the end of the week—this does help the team to celebrate success and get to know each other informally. Remember to ensure you consider the cultural or social views people may have about serving or drinking alcohol.
- Make the process of selection for team membership challenging—this can make members feel more important but can make non-members feel left out.
- Get the team to do everything together—the intention is good, but this can isolate others in the workplace.
- Remove a person who doesn’t fit in with the group—this is a very dramatic solution. It is far better to create a situation where team members work together to resolve problems.
Types of teams
Teams vary in many ways. They may:
- be continuing—in order to deal with daily or routine work
- have a set timeframe-for a specific project or task
- be self-managed or led by a manager
- be made up of people with different expertise.
Different types of work teams may be identified by purpose, membership, timelines and duration. For example, a sales team might meet weekly to discuss targets, strategies and problems. Membership would probably include the sales staff and the sales manager.
An informal team might be operate for an unlimited time and work to provide communication links between various parts of an organisation, such as an occupational health and safety committee.
Project teams are set up for a specific purpose to achieve a clearly identifiable goal such as to co-ordinate an office move. Membership of this team would include people involved in the move.
Stages of team development
Teams continue to change and develop after they are established. The team’s goals, ways of communicating and achievements all contribute to the change.
There are five distinct stages recognised in this development process. The five stages are awareness, conflict, co-operation, productivity and separation.
Each stage can be identified by a number of characteristics and occurs in sequence. If changes occur such as new members joining the team, allocation of new roles, assigning additional tasks or setting new goals teams may need to go back to an earlier stage of development and incorporate these changes in order to continue to operate effectively.
/ Activity 4Stages of team developmentRead the brief descriptions of the stages of team development in the left hand column of the table. Keep this sheet handy and jot down examples of these behaviours if you recognise them in your team.
Stages / Examples from my teamForming (also known as awareness)
Members develop an awareness of each other and the team’s environment, purpose and goals. They develop commitment to the team and its outcomes. They establish working relationships with other team members.
Storming (aka Conflict)
Members begin to challenge the process as information emerges and they start work on team tasks. The team leader and members can use this stage to help clarify goals and the roles of team members.
Norming (aka Co-operation)
Members show support for each other, by sharing information & developing individual trust and stronger business relationships. Members focus on team goals. The team leader’s role is to ensure members have the skills, resources and opportunities to work co-operatively.
Performing (aka Productivity)
The team reaches this stage if team co-operation has developed, planning was well done and members knowtheir team goals. Feedback and rewards are critical at this stage and the leader and members must know how to give and receive these.
Separation
If members felt the process was worthwhile, they will be inclined to feel good about working with each other again & to respect the leader in other team situations. Members from successful teams demonstrate tolerance, respect and praise toward other team members.
Comment
When teams develop an open communication style, they are likely to increase the level of participation, amount of trust, sense of purpose and they develop a clearer decision making process. Becoming an effective team takes time and requires contributions from each team member.
Summary
This topic has explored the idea of a team by looking at:
- what makes teams
- how they compare with groups
- the challenges and benefits of working in teams
- profiles of types of teams
- stages of team development
- patterns of interaction in teams.
By completing the activities you should be more familiar with the purpose and develops of teams formed at work and in the community.
Team participation skills1