Challenges_of_Groups_and_Teams

Introduction The intent of this paper is to present the challenges and benefits of groups and teams, which are addressed during a development of a training plan, which can increase the effectiveness of groups and team. The paper also discusses how the implementation of the training plan would have avoided the failure of a team project. Background People join in teams and groups to work in association and collaboration. The purpose of assigning individuals in teams and groups is to take advantage of the potentials, visions, ideas and skills of different individuals and to perform in a harmonious and collaborative manner, and accomplish a task or a project in an organized, effective and successful way. Teams are complex dynamic systems that exist in a context, develop as members interact over time, and evolve and adapt as situational demands unfold (Kozlowski, Ilgen, 2006). The training plan provides the knowledge, understanding, concepts and skills to the individuals for working in groups and teams. Team A developed a training program based on the consideration of benefits and challenges of groups and teams. Team Effectiveness Team effectiveness (i.e., performance evaluated by others, member satisfaction, viability) is an emergent result that unfolds across levels (individual to dyadic to team) and over time. This perspective on team processes is clearly dynamic, but it is also the case that the repeated interactions among individuals that constitute processes tend to regularize, such that shared structures and emergent states crystallize and then serve to guide subsequent process interactions (Kozlowski, Ilgen 2006). The concept of group or team learning refers to the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and performance capabilities of an interdependent set of individuals through interaction and experience. Team learning is fundamentally based on individual learning, but when viewed as more than a mere pooling of individual knowledge it can be distinguished as a team-level property that captures the collective knowledge pool, potential synergies among team members, and unique individual contributions. Training Plan A training plan to increase the effectiveness of groups and teams requires that the team members must acquire the knowledge and necessary skills to work in a team. In order for a training plan to be successful, it must always need to address the following key points: 1. Team Communication 2. Team collaboration 3. Team Conflict Management Team Communication Team communication is essential in increasing the effectiveness of teams and groups, which depends on the ability of team members to communicate effectively and transfer the required information to other members. Communication on individual basis consists of three parts (InterLink). a) First part is the information which include the perception of information both verbally and nonverbally, processing of the information and emotional response generated by the individual, which could be rational or irrational. It also depends on the ability of individual to handle the information. The individuals are required to be open about their response and interpretation of the information, and should be able to manage their feelings. b) Barriers to effective communication: These result from the inability of team members to distinguish the difference among facts, individual feelings, personal values and opinions. A fact is something, which truly happened without any emotional reference. Feelings are the emotional reaction of individuals regarding the situation, values are personal believes for their behavior and opinions are believes based on what seems true to one’s own mind. c) Feedback is the process by which team members share their feelings or perceptions about other members’ behavior, action and words. Feedback provides the opportunity to learn new behaviors and assess the impact of behaviors on other members. Feedback reduces uncertainty, solves problems, improves the relationships and quality of work and develops trust among team members. The feedback must be specific, descriptive, honest, and straightforward and should be provided on an on-going basis. The feedback must be received openly and honestly, and must be used for personal analysis and improvement. Team Collaboration The team collaboration provide the basis for combining the knowledge, experiences and skills of the team members for the contribution in the development of team project more effectively. The challenges faced during collaboration by the members of teams and groups include compromising on the part of individual, hurting of feelings, and loss of perspective, inefficient communication and difficulties in identifying challenges. Its healthy for members of teams and groups to identify challenges, develop skills and participate in team building activities. For an effective collaboration the individual members must be able to compromise in a skillful manner their ideas and feelings, which will help in the decision making process of the teams and groups. Team Conflicts and Management “Conflict arises from the clash of perceptions, goals, or values in an arena where people care about the outcome" (Alessandra, 1993, p. 92). The conflicts among members can be disruptive but at same time can also provide a perceptive for creativity and challenge. According to Thomas K. Capozolli: Constructive conflicts exists when… 1. People change and grow personally from the conflict 2. The conflict results in a solution to a problem 3. It increase involvement of everyone affected by the conflict 4. It builds cohesiveness among the members of the team Destructive conflicts exists when… 1. No decision is reached and problem still exists 2. It diverts energy away from more value-add activities 3. It destroys the morale of the team members 4. It polarizes or divides the team The management of conflicts includes the identification of issue and reason for conflict through awareness and collaboration. All the information and facts must be collected and analyzed to understand the issues. The best solution for the conflict can be reached through brainstorming of ideas and proposals of the members. During the conflict management, the team members may be required to compromise as is sometimes impossible to represent the interest of all the parties involved in the conflict. The members may have to accommodate according to the situation to protect the overall interest of the team. Sometimes its more appropriate to install then rushing to a hasty situation. Failed Project During my internship, we were assigned a research project, a study on stroke patients. We were assigned teams, and in my team were two people, the team leader and myself. We were required to work as a team through support, communication and sharing of work. I presented my proposal regarding the topic and method to be used for the study. The leader was very critical and objected on the topic and method, and asked me to revise the whole project. The team leader instructed me to bring the revised changes for final approval after two weeks. During that time I truly worked hard by myself to revise and rewrite the whole project. After two weeks, I contacted the team leader for the meeting. He asked me to come back later as was busy but then he said we would after two weeks. We met after with team leader after three weeks. The leader was again very critical, would not provide any suggestion nor did any work which was supposed to be done by him. He submitted the proposal for final approval by the program director. He was required to inform me about the approval, which he failed to do and I found about the approval by myself form the director’s office. The leader asked me to review the patients’ records and collect data, for which he did not offer any assistance. The records department would not allow me to review them without the request for the review of records from the team leader. I told the leader about the request which he finally accomplished. During the review process I had problem identifying the records and obtaining the information. I requested him to assist me but he said that gathering information is my job and have to figure out the way by myself to extract information. I struggled through the records for six months without any assistance, instead only critique from the leader, who would always find something wrong. Finally, I became frustrated and talked to my program director, and explained the situation. I explained to program director that I could not work with the leader as he was very arrogant, uncooperative and very demoralizing. My program director was very understanding and helpful, and the project was cancelled. Reasons For Failure of the Project The project failed due to following reasons: 1. Team leader lacked integrity 2. Lack of Trust among team members 3. Lack of positive feedback 4. Lack of support for other members 5. Lack of proper communication 6. Lack of collaborative work Evaluation of Failure of Team Project The failure of the project can be analyzed in the light of the training plan to increase the effectiveness of the groups and teams. If the team had been provided the training, the results would definitely have been different. The training would have helped the members to identify the roles and expectations for each individual for the accomplishment of the project. The leader would have known the ways to provide the vision, ideas and guidance in an honest style with integrity. The team members could have the knowledge and style of implementing the essential tools of communication, collaboration and conflict management for the team effectiveness. Members should have collaborated in a manner that would have assigned the different duties of each member. The members were required to communicate effectively with each other regarding the approaches for data collection, assisting other members in the problems they were facing in an open and timely manner. The members should have communicated the ideas to each other in a collaborative manner, which would have increased the motivation and satisfaction of the team members. The providing of the negative feedback instead of positive encouragement also contributed to the ineffective communication and loss of trust. The knowledge of the conflict management would have helped to identify the issues and problems, and the proper procedure to address and resolve the conflict without causing undue psychological stress and emergence of negative feelings due to lack of communication, collaboration, lack of trust failure of performance of individually assigned work. The project would have conducted in a professional manner and had resulted in the accomplishment of the task. References: 1. Alessandra, Tony Ph.D. & Hunsaker, Phil Ph.D. (1993) Communicating at Work. New York: Fireside Publishers 2. Cappozzoli, Thomas K. (1995, Dec). Resolving conflict within teams. Journal for Quality and Participation. v18n7, p. 28-30. 3. How to Develop Collaboration Skills. eHow Business Editor. eHow- How To Do Just About Everything 4. Interlink.Training and Coaching LLC. Achieving Effectiveness Through Team Communication. www.interlinktc.com/public_html/achieving.html 5. Steve W.J. Kozlowski, Daniel R. Ilgen. Enhancing the Effectiveness of Work Groups and Teams. Psychological Science in the public Interest, Association of Psychological Science. 2006. volume 7- number 3.