Team Building in the Workplace

Working as a team is essential for any organization. The success of any institution is based on its people working as a team in order to accomplish their goal and mission. Team building comprises of a wide range of activities that are focused on improving the team performance. The main aim of a team is to bring out the best in them by ensuring self-development, leadership skills, improved communication skills and the ability to work together in order to solve a problem. People working, as a team is usually very critical as it brings the minds together, thus making it easier for them to come up with a solution to any issue. Organizations work hard to ensure that their employees are able to work together in order to stimulate productivity, service delivery, and profitability. Working together as a team is a philosophy in a job design in which employees are supposed to work together as a team but not as individual workers. At workplaces, the individual targets and personal goals are recognized, but with a good team, the employees are united and work together towards the same goal thus generating quality results. Thus, it is imperative to discuss the effectiveness of teams in the workplace environment.

A team comprises a group of individuals who work together in order to achieve a common goal. Thus, it is crucial for organizations to ensure that they build a team amongst the employees in order to ensure that they work together and achieve the desired results. Team building is the process of making a group of individuals work together to reach their intended goals (Gardener 249). The process involves identification of the objective, obstacles to the achievement of the goals, identification of the challenges and creating a good environment to achieve the goals. Teamwork amongst people plays a crucial role and it is effective in achieving the organization’s intended goal. Teamwork allows each member to make their own individual contribution, but they all have the same objective (Hackman 55). Since teamwork is a collective work of every individual, there is no person who can claim to have done all the work since the outcome of the work is a reflection of the best thoughts. Thus, the team is effective for each person feels that his or her contribution has been accounted for and well represented.

Need for Team Building

Every organization needs to work as a team and it is important for them to build a well-organized team to achieve their greater goal. According to Hackman, the need to have worked as a team may be due to a number of factors, which include lack of involvement amongst member or employees, reduced productivity, low-quality service provision, lack of innovation, and routine way of solving issues (53). Therefore, in order to ensure that all the staff members can work together, it is important for the leadership to bring together the employees so that they can achieve the goal and reduce the conflicts between them. Additionally, team building will play a key role in improving the relationship between the employees and the people they serve. Thus, it is effective, for people to work together as this will decrease the conflicts and increase productivity.

Team Development

Building an effective team is a process that comes with its own challenges. However, there are several stages involved while creating a team. Firstly, is the forming process where individuals come together in order to achieve a given purpose. Secondly, is the storming stage where the people in the team disagree about several issues and the members get to know each other better and realize each other’s strengths and weaknesses (Suprapto 23). However, at this stage, the relationships are strained and experience many conflicts. Thirdly, is the “norming” stage where the team, which was formed forms working relations and consciously or unconsciously start working on the team’s goals. The fourth is the performing stage where the team’s effectiveness and ability to work together come into play. The main objective at this stage is to bring up a well-functioning team. Lastly, is the transforming stage in which the team is doing very well and they are seen as the most successful team since they have accomplished their set mission and goals (Suprapto 25). Thus, whenever forming a team, it is expected that the members will at some point experience rough times as they try to settle down, but in the end, they will work together and efficiently deliver to their level best.

Effective Teams

Creating an effective team needs time, choosing individuals who can work together, train the members, empowering them, and develop the shared goals. Effective teams in workplaces are carefully selected. The successful teams are comprised of people who are experienced, have the capability of problem-solving, and action-oriented. In addition, the success of the team greatly relies on the team’s ability to give and receive feedback. The leader of the team is also a key component in creating an effective team (Gardener 252). A good leader is focused on the goal and ensures the members can collaborate with each other, and the leader is also able to create confidence among the members and this makes everyone comfortable and confident.

Projections of Teamwork

The projections of the team may be different depending on the organizations. Empowering teams ensure that they get the best results. It is important to empower the staff more than providing the tools and the process. Teams give the organizations increased participation and make them have a sense of ownership, despite the outcomes of the decisions made. Teamwork allows the members to decide the right channels to follow whenever they are given a task and this encourages openness, participation, and innovation. Thus, by allowing people to make their own independent decisions, they are able to deliver the best results possible that are satisfactory to everyone (Hackman 60). Working as a team promotes job satisfaction, increases employee motivation and commitment since they have a responsibility of delivering on a given task.

Challenges facing Teamwork

The main aim formation and implementation of a team in an organization are usually to bring change and development. Hence, the teams may be faced with a number of challenges, which may take place during the organizing process. For instance, the employees may resist change, especially when they are required to work with other people whom they do not know or are not used to. Forming a new team, it breaks up the already existing social relationships (Hackman 62). However, to overcome this it requires team building. A new team may not be as effective as expected since they face challenges in making and settling on some of the decisions. In addition, the team may not have a clear set of goals and therefore they may face a challenge, as they are not aware of what exactly they are supposed to do. Therefore, it is critical for the members define the goals in the initial stages of the team formation in order to ensure efficiency. Moreover, due to pressure to conform, there may be problems and conflicts when it comes to decision-making (Suprapto 25). Team building may play a key role in solving most of these issues as it improves performance by reducing conflicts, improving communication, and enhancing communication.

Working a steam is critical in any organization. From the discussion, it is clear that teamwork plays a critical role in improving human effectiveness, especially in workplaces. Thus, it is crucial for organizations to build teams that have the capability of working together or those have the same goals. However, as much as teamwork is effective in any organization, it is faced with a number of challenges that have been stipulated above. Nonetheless, these issues can be overcome through team building, empowering the teams and educating the members. It is also critical to provide the individuals with the right tools and environment in which they can accomplish their set goals. Some people find it hard to adapt to change and they may resist, especially when they are required to work with individuals they are unfamiliar with. Nevertheless, with training and definition of the goals and purposes of any team, it is easy to come to a common ground and agree on the way forward. Thus, for an organization to achieve its set goals and mission it is important for it to come up with strategies to ensure that all the employees can work together as a team and improve the effectiveness of each individual.

Works Cited

Gardner Aimee ”Setting Goals, Not Just Roles: Improving Teamwork through Goal-Focused Debriefing.” The American Journal of Surgery, vol. 213, no. 2, 2017, pp. 249–252.

Hackman, J. ”New Rules for Team Building.” Optimize, 2002, pp. 50–62.

Widjojo Suprapto. ”The Influence Of Individual Knowledge And Work Team Development To The Manufacturing Company Performance Of In East Java.” Jurnal Manajemen Dan Wirausaha, vol. 19, no. 1, 2017, pp. 22–27.