Any leader strives to create a well-coordinated and well-functioning team. To do this, you need to be able to correctly place emphasis, smooth out conflicts, and plan events correctly. It is believed that teamwork on a project can bring more profit than activity alone. Meanwhile, it is the first one in practice that causes many fears and a negative reaction. This is mainly due to the inability to properly organize such activities. Consider the principles of teamwork.
General information
What is teamwork? It is worth saying that not every group of specialists can become a friendly and highly professional team. A team is a small number of employees who have complementary skills, are connected by a common goal, striving for common goals and bearing equal responsibility for their implementation. In such a collective, individual interests are relegated to the background. Each member of the group must have a high professional level, the ability to make decisions and interact with the rest of its members. Teamwork involves the dependence of specialists on each other. In this regard, a constant exchange of information is carried out within the group.
Organization specifics
Well-coordinated teamwork is the result of competent management activities. The team must go through several stages:
- Adaptation. At this stage, mutual informing and assessment of tasks is carried out. Group members communicate with each other carefully, triplets or pairs are formed. In the process of adaptation, people in some way check each other, determine mutually acceptable patterns of behavior. The effectiveness of teamwork at this stage is very low.
- Grouping. At this stage, people agree on interests and sympathies. In this case, discrepancies in individual motivation and the goals of team work are revealed. Group members may oppose the requirements. This determines the degree of permissible emotional reaction. For example, a secretary throws papers and assesses the reaction of others to this action.
- Cooperation. At this stage, the group members are aware of the desire to work on the task. Constructive and open communication begins, the first pronoun “we” appears.
- Rationing work. At this stage, teamwork patterns are created. At this stage, trust appears, and interpersonal communication moves to a higher level.
- Functioning. At this stage, constructive decisions are made regarding the task. Each participant has a role. The team openly displays and eliminates conflicts. At this point, true teamwork begins. A favorable climate is forming within the group. All participants understand the value of planned indicators, take actions aimed at achieving them. Teamwork at this stage is considered the most successful.
The phenomena
Psychologists describe some effects that occur when working in a team. Among them it is worth noting:
- The phenomenon of volume. The result of teamwork will depend on the number of members in the group.
- The phenomenon of quality composition. The tasks of teamwork will be realized most successfully if the members of the group are of different age and gender, but with almost the same social characteristics.
- Conformism. A change in the beliefs or behavior of the participants is determined by the imaginary or real pressure of the group. The value of public opinion is high enough for each member. Accordingly, all participants respect the norms worked out jointly.
- Deindividualization. It involves the loss of self-awareness and the emergence of a fear of evaluation in conditions of anonymity, not focusing on a specific person.
- Risk shift effect. The group takes the least or most risky decisions in comparison with those that would be developed by the participants individually.
- Rounding thinking. The group members are looking for a solution that would suit everyone. At the same time, pretty realistic options are discarded.
- Public laziness. With the division of responsibility equally on all participants, they begin to worsen their performance together.
Signs
Teamwork involves continuous discussion between the participants. It aims to improve collaboration. All professionals feel part of the working community. They feel their competence, perform certain actions on their own and are responsible for the consequences. Each participant freely offers ideas that have appeared and criticizes the rest. Members of the group are aware of the tasks of others; they have a certain idea of the abilities and talents of each. This means the presence of mutual respect and interest of all participants. At the same time, all members of the group seek an open dialogue. Information quickly, constantly and purposefully moves from one participant to another.
Common mistakes
Teamwork skills are developed over time. You cannot immediately create a successful and friendly team from a group of specialists. A special role in this belongs to the leader. It is from him that the effectiveness of the team depends to a greater extent. Meanwhile, in practice, leaders make serious mistakes in organizing collective activities. They significantly reduce work efficiency. Among the most common, the following can be distinguished:
- Inconsistency between the leader, the team and the type of task assigned to people.
- Bad choice of specialists to create a group.
- Lack of a clearly defined goal or criteria for its implementation.
- Adverse socio-psychological climate.
conclusions
All of these errors can be avoided. Almost every person is motivated to work by three components: payment, interest and social significance. The first two components are given in practice quite a lot of attention. At the same time, the social significance of a person is often forgotten. Meanwhile, members of the group must be sure that they are implementing an important project that will bring profit to the enterprise.
Team leader
He has a special role. In addition to direct leadership, planning and control, the leader needs to be able to motivate and organize the team, to develop the foundations of self-government in it. Due to the action of the human factor in practice, realizing these tasks can be quite difficult. The key criterion for choosing a leader is his idea of organizing the activities of the team. Positive and negative feedback will be the main tool of influence. Effective teamwork will largely depend on the personal qualities of a leader. He will represent the team in interaction with others, remove external obstacles.
Conflict Reduction
As mentioned above, in the initial stages, teamwork is accompanied by a certain tension. Often conflicts arise. The head of the enterprise must take into account their likelihood and relate to group members during this period with a certain degree of loyalty. You can reduce tension by using different trainings, working on creative tasks, during which the group will feel like one organism. In addition, it is important to pay attention to the development of clear rules of conduct. Moreover, they should be formulated and adopted directly by the members of the group. It is also necessary to affirm responsibility for their violations.
Nuances
Usually a team feels like a team when it reaches its first success. This must be taken into account by the head of the enterprise. The first task for the team should be difficult, but at the same time quite feasible in a relatively short period. In some cases, it happens that the group is overly immersed in its activities and loses touch with the real world. This can have negative consequences. To prevent this phenomenon, the leader should organize the flow of external information to the participants and the outflow of information from them. This helps to maintain the tone of the team. To learn and apply all the subtleties of the process is impossible. Any team work involves weaknesses. For successful teams, they are compensated by the strengths of the participants.