TYPES OF TEAMS -STRUCTURE AND ESSENCE
We all been discussing about the team and the teamwork in our daily workplaces, but have we ever given a thought on the basics of the team , why it is formed or it genuinely arises from circumstances or is it a common effort group formed for a specific task. We need to understand this in deep sense and this detailing will actually define our strategies towards the team and its functions
Let us first understand the formation of a team or constitution of a team before we go further on the requisites or team building, I categorize the team formation as under and its formation describes the type of team formed and then comes the training and team building exercises needed to be implemented .Basically the team can be broadly categorized as under
WORKING GROUP
This is basically the set of people put together under an organizational umbrella, they share common space and common environment and interact mainly to share information to make common decisions, they are independent from the other members accountability. Such a a group of people is there to set the goals –not necessarily common to all and delegate the tasks as per the expertise. None of the members are interdependent on the performance and are accountable for individual performance.
PSUEDO TEAM
As the name indicates it’s a false team –pseudo means false. A team which is formed by circumstances, like people deployed on a project, all having individual accountability but working for a project, there is no inter dependency and each one is responsible for its own function. They may be having a common objective but different individual functions. These teams are generally formed on a process involving different specializations towards common objectives. These teams are not real and hence need the balancing of the time frame to work on a objective, individual appraisals are followed and need a broader coordination to be established for better functioning.
Though there is significant gain seen but this type of team is not focused towards the collective efforts, generally these type of teams are not formed by choice and is at the lowest level of the performance curve, but the potential to develop towards potential team or real team cannot be ruled out under proper professional training and guidance.
POTENTIAL TEAM
It can be defined as a team which has a potential to perform, the members are skilled in different tasks and are working hard towards achieving the common goals and has potential to deliver the results but lack in coordination, trust and timings of the other members. These teams commonly exist in the organisations and have undefined accountability. Possibly the lack of motivation and lack of single leadership approach does not allow the team to perform to the highest levels with common accountability. The Potential teams are incremental and can perform if they are guided well and accountability is embedded in the process.
REAL TEAM
This is the most productive form of a team, the REAL team is a set of people from different or common skill gathered towards achieving the common objective. This team is responsive to its other team members and is accountable for common goals. The members here are self motivated and generally form formal and informal coordination techniques to attain maximum results.
The performance index of a REAL team is much higher than the working group or the pseudo team or the potential teams and these teams generally grow up to the high performance teams. Comprehending each other’s tasks well and shouldering the responsibility levels is the unique characteristics of such a team.
Real team members are often acquainted with the competency levels of the other team members and are aware of the joint responsibility. There is no division of area of performance in them.
HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAM
REAL team FORM with increased personal commitments and greater self motivation forms a high performance team. The real team which is committed to perform and establish stronger communication and coordination with or without formal code of language , sign or whatever. These teams are highly result oriented.
With all the above narration of the teams we can summarize that for any team formation it has to cross the five stage process [we shall study this in later post], but strong leadership is essential as an effective needs effective leadership to drive the results. To establish the common agenda or goal , set up the steps towards it in defined manner , develop trust among the team members , training and orientation towards performance and finally measuring the result. Alongside this process a leader also establishes the high levels of trust and respect of one another in the team despite race, religion ,crede or language barriers.
4 Comments