Proposal preparation is a complex process that involves undertaking several measures and steps. One of the pillars of effective proposal preparation is the interaction with team members as it can ensure the effective functioning of the team. It is important to engage people and encourage them to become active team players who are committed to achieving the goals set (Katz and Miller 51). Once the groups of people working on the project are assigned, it is crucial to have some consultations with team members.
These consultations should be well-thought and properly designed. Writing meeting minutes will help the team leader when developing the action plan and communication plan (Gutmann 83). When writing meeting minutes, it is essential to address such points as the topic, team members’ responsibilities, gap analysis, as well as questions raised and answered (Butterfield 109). As for the responsibilities, General Manager will supervise the work of the team and coordinate the process; Sales Manager will develop a marketing strategy for the potential clients. Finance Manager will create a preliminary budget with the focus on benefits for the potential clients. Automotive Engineer and Workshop Manager will be responsible for the description of technical features of the products offered. After Sales Manager will develop plans for the collaboration and provision of the associated services. The meeting minutes will include the following sections: topic, goals set, responsibilities discussed, questions asked, answers provided, unresolved issues, timeline.
The consultations will also help in developing performance plans for the team members mentioned above. These plans will include such sections as responsibilities, KPIs, competencies needed to fulfill tasks, and career development plans (Parmenter 11). The major responsibilities of the team members have been discussed above. The other sections of the performance plan are shaped by these responsibilities (see table 1). It can be important to focus on such areas as communication skills in terms of career development
Table 1. Major Points in Performance Plans for the Team Players.
KPI
Competencies
Career Development
General Manager
Communication Plan developed within 2 weeks after the start of the project.
Proposals developed by the deadline.
Two luxury brands are chosen by the Hotel.
Leadership skills.
Time management.
Conflict management.
Proposal development skills.
Conflict management.
Communication plan development.
Sales Manager
Proposals for 5 brands are crafted.
Sales of three brands increased by 5%.
Positive feedback from the Hotel is obtained.
Proposal development skills.
Negotiation skills.
Time management.
Proposal development skills.
Problem-solving skills.
Finance Manager
Budgets for the contract are developed.
Particular financial plans are designed.
Estimates of the potential collaboration are provided.
Communication skills.
Budgeting.
Financial analysis.
Time management.
Proposal development.
Automotive Engineer
Major technical features are described.
Quality control is improved, and 80% of detected flaws are eliminated.
Technical competency.
Time management.
Communication skills.
Proposal development.
Conflict management.
Workshop Manager
All the necessary machinery is described.
The Hotel’s facilities and the cars’ functions are properly analyzed.
Technical competency.
Communication skills.
Teamwork.
Time management.
After Sales Manager
The timeline of services provided is designed.
Special offers are developed (in collaboration with Finance Manager).
Budgeting.
Communication skills.
Proposal development.
Conflict management.
Some of the major issues associated with meeting KPIs is associated with time management, communication skills, and conflict management. People often focus on their specific tasks and forget about the major goal and the need to collaborate (Levi 137). The development of an effective communication plan can contribute to solving these issues. It can also be effective to conduct some teambuilding activities and have more group discussions and individual consultations when necessary.
The communication policy that can help in crafting an effective proposal should be based on the following principles: respect, diversity, proactive criticism, ethics. Respect is the cornerstone of the effective teamwork, which needs no further discussion or justification (Viscuso 163). The team members should, however, remember that diversity and plurality are keys to success. Therefore, they should share ideas and come up with innovative ideas and ways. It is also vital to understand and explain if needed that criticism is helpful when it is proactive. In other words, it is important to identify flaws but do it in a respectful way and encourage the person whose ideas are being criticized. As for the procedure, each team member addresses the supervisor via corporate telephone communication, email, or instant messenger. The group will have a chat room within the corporate messenger that will be devoted to the proposal writing. Team members will initiate discussions and consultations through the channels mentioned above.
The developed performance plans can be enhanced with the provision of particular instructions to major tasks. For example, the documents provided by the team members (proposals, budgets, presentations) should be brief but contain all the major points. The employees should use the formats and standards existing in the company (or major business standards). All the reports provided should be accompanied by brief memos. All the reports and documents should be delivered to all the stakeholders.
As has been mentioned above, communication is one of the most important aspects of the project. Therefore, every meeting should be conducted in terms of the developed communication policy. When the team members are ready with their portions, it is important to distribute these parts of the future proposal to all the stakeholders. Members of the team should meet and discuss the work completed. Employees will share their ideas on each other’s projects and suggests some ways to eliminate errors or enhance the documents. One of the results of this meeting will be a meeting minute that will be used to develop a corrective action plan. This document might have the description of new responsibilities as well as different types of collaboration within the team (Levi 55). It is possible to create pairs or groups of three that will collaborate and unite their portions of work into a preliminary proposal draft.
In conclusion, it is necessary to note that the development of a proposal will require strong leadership. Therefore, the leader of the group should be inspirational and effective. My contribution as a leader will be mainly associated with mentoring and problem-solving. I will help team members to communicate effectively and collaborate in the most efficient way. I will participate in all the processes and will make sure I have the most recent information concerning the project. I will communicate with every team member and encourage them to share their views on proposal development, their performance, and other people involved in the project. I will try to make the groups of people working on the project feel they are a part of the team. Each member of this team will feel empowered and motivated.
Works Cited
Butterfield, Jeff. Illustrated Course Guides: Teamwork & Team Building – Soft Skills for a Digital Workplace. 2nd ed., Cengage Learning, 2016.
Divergent positions lead to people on a team or in an organization pulling in different directions. Therefore, it is often assumed that an organization performs well when employees or team members are reading from the same script. However, in-group formation and related cohesive thinking aimed at maintaining the status quo does not develop or improve the performance of a team.
This kind of approach to issues is referred to as groupthink. Groupthink is characterized by team members, in a blanket like way, accepting others’ ideas without analyzing or critically evaluating them. This kind of unreflective approach to others’ ideas is driven by a desire to be nice and supportive of in-group cohesion. This kind of disposition develops out of fear of being the odd one out.
Groupthink is a big threat to project development because team members do not realistically evaluate project ideas. Instead of members individually evaluating project alternatives, they just second ideas of group leaders or group members so as not to be seen to derail the team. The key consideration by members is how to remain in the comfort zone as not to be sidelined by other members. The focus is not on project ideas or alternatives’ merit but group cohesion.
For example, individuals may have valid reservations about a given course of action; however, they unanimously support the course of action because it is the perceived comfortable position in the group.
Consequently, such a team is disposed to making irrational or hasty conclusions because individuals do not take arguments to a logical conclusion. If an alternative is seen to contradict general feelings in the group, members shy from associating with it. As a result, members tend towards biased positions and the group does not fully investigate issues by considering all facts relevant to the given issues.
Groupthink can easily be avoided if team leaders or project managers take pro-active steps or measures towards preventing the same (Kowert, 2002, p. 100). First, project managers or supervisors have to avoid taking a stance upfront on any issues that are to be debated on by the project team or group. If they take or show that they are inclined towards a given position, they directly influence group deliberations.
In organizations where power is centralized, subordinates tend to be inclined towards their up line manager’s point of view. Therefore, if subordinates are to think independently, managers have to show indifference on issues that are to be deliberated on by the group. Moreover, if they are also engaged in deliberation processes, they have to be receptive of all positions taken by group members during group deliberations.
Secondly, project managers have to encourage creativity and independence in thought. They should not be seen to favor conformists or individuals who don’t think out of known stipulations. Project managers have to encourage members towards separating Individual’s opinions from individuals i.e. all members have to appreciate that individuals are not their opinions.
Thirdly, in a brainstorming session, the leader should urge for an exhaustive enumeration of alternatives and each alternative has to be discussed exhaustively. For each alternative, members have to be objective as to look at demerits and merits.
Fourthly, project members can discourage groupthink by designing project team composition properly. If a group is composed of independent-minded individuals who are authorities in their field, discussion on given alternatives is more likely to be professional and objective than otherwise.
Finally, experts and consultants or ‘outsiders’ can be engaged in group deliberations as facilitators or participants (Kowert, 2002, p. 125). These independent individuals are likely to push the group towards other options. If the consulting facilitators are experts at facilitation, they are likely to urge or lead the team into thinking outside the box.
Research List
Kowert, P. (2002). Groupthink or Deadlock: When do Leaders learn from their Advisors? New York: SUNY Press.
Teamwork is a powerful concept that empowers employees to add value to the targeted customers. Companies that embrace the power of teamwork find it easier to realize their goals. The purpose of this study was to examine the major strategies used by companies to build effective teams (Sohmen, 2013). The insights obtained from the study can be implemented in different firms that want to boost employee morale and commitment. The concept of team building is therefore important because it influences some of the best behaviors that can transform many companies.
Literature Review
Within the past two decades, many firms have been embracing the importance of teams in their respective departments. Sohmen (2013) argues that modern corporations have been fostering team building in their workplaces. Teamwork is supported by past studies because it has the potential to promote customer satisfaction. Performance indicators (PIs) show conclusively that “effective teams have increased chances of outperforming employees working individually” (Sulaiman, Mahbob, & Hassan, 2012, p. 31). High-pressure working environments or situations can benefit significantly from effective teams. Some tasks can be completed successfully by individuals working as teams.
Arrey (2014) indicates that building effective teams and making them part of an organization is not always easy. This is the case because the input of every organizational leader dictates the nature of teams formed in a given firm. Team building skills are required by managers who want to benefit from the combined efforts of their followers. Individuals who create successful teams find it easier to deliver results within a short period (Matthews & McLees, 2015). Productivity is usually higher in firms that embrace the power of teamwork.
Tuckman’s theory has been embraced in many companies since the year 1965 (Arrey, 2014). This model is appropriate for firms that want to build effective teams (Arrey, 2014). According to the model, functional teams will not emerge immediately. Several developmental stages should be embraced in order to create task-focused, sustainable, and cohesive teams. The theory outlines four stages that should be “completed before creating a performing team” (Sulaiman et al., 2012, p. 32). These stages include “forming, storming, norming, and performing” (Arrey, 2014, p. 3). The use of this theory supports the concept of building effective teams that can drive performance.
Primary Research
A face-to-face interview was conducted in order to come up with the intended information. One of the Regional Marketing Managers at Proctor and Gamble (P&G) was interviewed in an attempt to understand the strategies embraced by the company whenever building sustainable teams. The interviewee was advised not to disclose his name. This decision was made in order to ensure the study was ethical. The main purpose of the study was to identify evidence-based strategies that can be used to develop effective teams (Sulaiman et al., 2012).
Discussion
The interview presented useful findings that can be used by leaders to create cohesive teams in their respective firms. The respondent identified five key steps embraced at P&G to build desirable teams. The interviewee indicated that it was appropriate for managers to establish effective leadership. The manager should go further to develop positive relationships with his or her workers. Collaboration should then be encouraged using proper communication and trust (Sohmen, 2013). The leader should go further to attract likeminded individuals. The participants should be allowed to present their views and ideas. Finally, the right rules should be set to guide the new team.
The interview revealed valuable ideas that can guide leaders to form effective teams. For instance, managers should implement powerful leadership styles in order to support the team building process (Matthews & McLees, 2015). This information echoes the ideas learned in the course. The presented findings also support the steps outlined under the Tuckman’s theory. Leadership should be the best guiding factor throughout the process (Sulaiman et al., 2012). My recommendation, therefore, is that managers should use their leadership competencies to bring together different followers in order to develop effective teams.
Conclusion
The completed study has answered the question outlined at the very beginning. The research has presented a powerful model that can be embraced by business leaders who want to create cohesive teams in their organizations. The analysis has supported the power of effective communication and mentorship whenever creating new teams (Sohmen, 2013). The use of goals and rules can dictate the performance of every team. The success of P&G is therefore attributable to the effectiveness of its team building initiatives.
References
Arrey, O. (2014). Team building as an organization development strategy. Global Journal of Management and business research: A Administration and Management, 14(3), 1-5. Web.
Matthews, R., & McLees, J. (2015). Building effective projects teams and teamwork. Journal of IT and Economic Development, 6(2), 20-30. Web.
Sulaiman, W., Mahbob, M., & Hassan, B. (2012). An analysis on the effectiveness of team building: The impact on human resources. Asian Social Science, 8(5), 29-37. Web.
Teamwork is a very important and relevant contributor to the success of any business around the world and this is why top business executives are paid a lot of money to utilize the skills of teams and make important business decisions that are critical to business performance (Brayden, Teppo & Whetten 2010, 1-20).
The success of an organization does not only depend on how good a team leader is but also how good the various teams that consist of employees are able to come together and integrate their skills and talent for the benefit of their organization.
The success or failure of a business usually depends on how good employees who are part of a team are able to come together develop ideas play their part and additionally how good managers or organizational leaders are able to make quick and relevant decisions resulting from the input of the team to increase positive outcome (Taylor, 2010).
Today’s business environment is very volatile and therefore it is imperative that both leadership and employees work together hand in hand in order to ensure that organization can successfully peruse their mission and vision while at the same time compete with other competing companies.
Thus, by acknowledging and building consensus that business environment is highly dynamic and volatile, it demands organizational leaders to come up with mechanisms that allow the company to quickly embrace change and this is attained by dividing the staff into teams and assigning them duties that will ensure that decision making capability of leaders is maximized (Shah 2008).
New trends emerge in the business world and may either present themselves as either problems or opportunities depending on how personnel within the organization respond.
From that rationale, the creation of value and satisfaction, which consumers demand end up pushing companies to develop strategies that govern their marketing mix and overall business strategy and go a step further to create general corporate strategies that will preside over their whole business processes to make sure they succeed in today’s fickle business ambiance (Campbell, Stonehouse & Huston 2002, 177-184).
Trends should not be seen as not threats but rather frontiers of new business possibilities and it is the duty of organizational leaders and their staff to work together as a team to make decision making for managers more certain and free of risk.
It is with the same intent that the manager intended to use the help of his team to launch a new division that manufactures liquid soap brands for the market by using the potential of the entire team and the rational decision making process to make critical marketing business decision. The liquid soap division will consist of brands that will cater to the needs of consumers who require liquid soap for both the kitchen and bathroom.
Decision making approaches and impact on strategy
A participatory approach was used and the entire the team was required to fully participate by being part of the problem solving process but the last decision was left to the team leader/manager to carry out (Jones 2010, 44).
Such a technique of team work and decision making is known as consensus building whereby subordinates who are part of a team come up with multiple ideas and discuss their viability together with the team leader but leave the last decision to the team leader.
The way in which groups interact whether informal or formal will obviously impinge on the way a business functions and the way strategic choices are made in both the short and long-run. Successful companies like Google and Apple focus their development efforts by encouraging groups and teams to brainstorm and develop ideas that form a basis for the decisions which are made by top management (Koontz & Weihrich 2009, 58).
Following this premise, the companies have adopted quite aggressive business models because managers are able to make quick decisions simply because the groups usually supply them with all relevant knowledge and information that allows the managers to quickly evaluate the pros and cons of each strategic choice to choose the best action.
It is as a consequence true to assert that the way groups and managers interact and the different approaches of making decisions within organizations can ultimately affect the future of an organization.
Marketing companies, for example are required to be quite flexible due to the volatile nature of consumers and competitors and thus, this is why many marketing companies have their staff working in groups simply because the conception of ideas and the need for quick decision making is quite critical for the success of a company in the market.
According to Kotler and Keller (2011, 144), the most important aspect of teamwork and decision making in a marketing environment is simply to ensure that all decisions and team work efforts are made with the consumer on mind. Additionally, it is important that there is a very clear channel of communication between the team members to ensure that each member is up to speed and is armed with relevant information.
The consumers are the pivot of all decisions and ideas that a business comes up with in the course of doing business. Keeping this aspect in mind, the team leader ensured that the team clearly knew that the customer is the goal and the main criteria of measuring how effective the teams efforts and decision making process was (Jones 2010, 135).
This is whereby the team leader empowers his team to use their knowledge, skills and talent to in order to gather factual options that will assist in the decision making process.
When employees explain all their options and contingent plans, the team leader him/herself is then expected to use his managerial skills to choose the best option that emanates from the output of his/her team.
Considering that the company division is a newly born venture it is necessary for the team leader to be vigilant and aggressive to ensure that the whole team’s shares one vision and that the expectations of the entire team are in tandem with that of the team leader and the organizations corporate, business and functional goals.
The advantages associated with participatory type of teamwork approach is that the organization and the manager can collect many ideas and develop many strategic options that are likely to increase positive outcome within the organization. Additionally the process of decision making is made simpler by the fact that consensus building takes place prior to the final decision being made.
Team Working approaches and impact on strategy
A participatory approach was used and the entire the team was required to fully participate by being part of the problem solving process, According to Buchanan and Huczynski (2010, 131), it is vital that a team leader ensures that the vision of the entire organization is clearly known by the entire team/staff from the initial stage because any ambiguity may become a future source of conflict and discomfort amongst the team members in the future and may henceforth compromise the chances of success for the new division and affect the decision making process.
Consumers are driven by needs, wants and desires and hence their consuming behavior can be attributed to these. Companies that define consumer needs and motives with a high degree of accuracy usually end up being the market leaders and enjoy a huge market share and revenue streams (Michael, Yasemin & Joseph 2009, 123).
Managers are often aware of how important consumer motives are and therefore ensure that their brightest minds who make up the team come together and create ideas that will further the performance of the company.
Being the team leader, communication was made clear that all other team members collectively come together so that the process of problem identification and problem solving can start using the rational decision making process.
The rational decision making process is a problem solving technique that allows managers and the respective teams to carefully and sequentially make decisions based on facts that present themselves as a result of the problem solving process (Koontz & Weihrich 2009 69).
Business executives in working with the leading companies are usually trained to use logic and facts in the process of making decisions by identifying problems and opportunities and creating multiple solutions/strategies to tackle the problem. Managers/ team leaders thereby use the rational decision model to reduce the number of risks and uncertainty because this process is highly factual and logical in nature.
Figure 1: The Steps involved in the Rational Decision making process.
By bringing together the skills and talents of all individuals of the team, the team leader expected that it would be possible for the team to create a good marketing strategy that would allow the new company to effectively price, place, and promote its products to compete with other existing companies (David, Cindy & Masco 2008, 5).
As a result, the five members of the team were each assigned to deal with each facet of marketing and gather relevant intelligence on pricing, product, and promotion and distribution trends of related liquid sap product within the industry. The data that would result from this process would prove crucial in the rational decision making process.
The launch of a new product is not easy at all and for new products/ new divisions to succeed in selling products as soon as they enter the market it is important for the managers and their teams to ensure that all relevant data is gathered. Knowing this the team was to gather competitive intelligence that would be used to finalize the marketing mix of the new liquid soap.
With the task of each and every team member already clarified the group was given a time frame of one week to bring back their feedback. Every suggestion of product design, price, placing and promotion strategy was to be backed by tangible evidence of pros and cons to justify why team members so it as the best alternative.
This will therefore require every team member to identify problems and opportunities that present themselves, gather all the relevant data pertaining to either the problem or opportunity, critically analyze the volume of information that was gathered and then using the information to develop options that are most suitable.
According to Kotler and Keller (2006, 415), it is important for business executives to create numerous options so that management can make more informed choices. After the numerous options are made the rational decision making process requires that the numerous options that were developed are analyzed and that actions which are weak or unsuitable are filtered and eliminated.
It is at this process the managers/team leader to become an effective decision maker and use his/her skills to choose the best decision.
The team was required to sit together and analyze the various options but this process was slowed down due to the fact that one team member left the tem before she had a chance to finish carrying out her research on pricing. Being an effective team leader the team leader quickly decided to split the remaining task of gathering pricing data from the market.
As soon as all the relevant data was gathered, each group member was required to analyze data clearly explain the implications of the data which was collected. According to Buchanan and Huczynski (2010, 122), it is the duty of the team to bring to the table all alternate options and ensure that there is full disclosure of facts so that the team leader can make the relevant decisions.
The team, therefore went ahead and shared information and data which they gathered and presented to the team leader all the relevant data necessary for creating marketing mix for the brands falling under the liquid soap division.
The entire problem solving process took the team one whole week and the team presented multiple solutions to the team leader and consensus building took place but the final decision making process was left to the manager.
Effectiveness of the team
The team’s effectiveness is highly commendable because each and every member of the team was in tandem with the vision of the division at the beginning of the practice. With the vision of the division in mind, the team operated with utmost openness and trust that was enabled by clear lines of communication (Lancaster & Withey 2006, 94).
Decision making at the lower level was left to the team members themselves thus saving time, the ability to meet regularly in the one week during afternoons made it possible to analyze the data gathered by the team members.
It is at these sessions that all team members communicated and exchanged notes making every team member fully aware of the facts and relevant information in respect to the whole project and with every team member well informed it was easier to brief the manager (Koontz & Weihrich 2009, 73).
The level of skill and talent together with operation of the team is also commendable because the competitor intelligence which they gathered made it quite simple to compare currently existing liquid soap brands overall industry trends and thus use it in the final marketing mix of the brands that were to be developed by our new division.
In summary the company’s brands will be better designed and packaged, priced, promoted and distributed to compete with the current market leader.
The only shortcoming of the team is that the level of competition and hostility between the members trying to outshine each other got on the way of achieving the mission but after the leader made it clear that such behavior is injurious to the group and not appropriate the team members apologized to each other.
Conclusion
Team work is a very important aspect in organization for the reason that organizational output depends on talent, skills and knowledge of the staff. The output of teams usually contributes to the quality of decisions that managers make. If a team is ineffective in operation then most probably a manager will have fewer facts to support the kind of decisions that he/she makes.
When poor decisions are made then this may affect future revenue streams, market share, costs and efficiency of the organization.
“A team-leader is someone who steps back from the entire system and tries to build a more collaborative, more innovative team that will work over the long term.” – Robert B. Reich American Politician and Writer The above statement suggest the synergy that managers can create by using more collaborative and participatory approaches that are rational to work together with teams to guide their decision making process.
References
Brayden, K. G., Teppo, F. & Whetten D. A., 2010. “Perspective—Finding the Organization in Organizational Theory: A Meta-Theory of the Organization as a Social Actor.” Journal of organization science volume 21 issue 1, 1-20.
Buchanan, D. A. & Huczynski, A. A., 2010. Organizational Behavior 7th ed. New York: Trans-Atlantic Publications.
Campbell, D., Stonehouse, G. & Huston, B., 2002. Business Strategy an Introduction 2nd edn. Linacre House, Banbury Rd: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Charles, W. et al., 2002. Essentials of Marketing. Natorp Boulevard: South Western Cengage Learning.
David, A. J., Cindy F. R., & Masco, C. J., 2008. “Personality predictors of teamwork behaviors and decision-making style.” Review of Business Research, 1-5.
Jones, G., 2010. Organizational theory, design, and change. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Koontz, H. & Weihrich, H., 2009. Essence of Management an International Perspective. New Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill.
Kotler, P. & Keller, K., 2011. Marketing Management 13th edn. New York: Prentice Hall.
Lancaster, G. & Withey, F., 2006. Marketing Fundamentals. London: Butterworth-Heimann.
Michael P. L., Yasemin K.Y. & Joseph M. T., 2009. “A theory of change in turbulent environments: the sequencing of dynamic capabilities following industry deregulation.” International Journal of Strategic Management, Volume 1, Number 3, 186-211.
Shah. K., 2008. “Decision Making.” Submityourarticle.com. Web.
One of the most challenging obligations of any enterprise is the ability to manage change and globalization. Globalization and rapid change in the business world lead to competition hence each enterprise works hard to overcome the two since customers will now emphasize on quality and honesty (Bacal 1).
Since this has been a difficult task to be handled by an individual most organizations have resulted to team work that coordinate to make sure that the organizational objectives are achieved at the same time overcoming the rapidly changing environment. Teams work by improving on quality, productivity and organizational performance, hence team building is the process of arranging people with related or common skills together so that they can work together to achieve the set goals of the enterprise.
The need of team building
Teams in organizations are developed because of different reasons of which the most important reason is that of improving output and achieving goals of the organization. Teams may be built to resolve issues and challenges that may have risen up in the organization and cannot be resolved by an individual alone.
Other reasons that may need team work may be in cases where there are constant conflicts, complaints, grievances and hostility between members. This creates the need for team building so as to teach the employees how to relate with each other in the work environment.
The process of team building
In most organizations the work of developing teams is accorded to the Human Resource manager since this the person who works closely with the personnel in the company. It is only in very few instances that the top management comes in to form teams and in most cases this happens if the issue at hand to be solved is very delicate and important to the survival of the organization (Heathfield 1). The process of team building is not as easy as it may seem since there are factors to be considered if the goals of developing the team are to be achieved. One should consider if the team members are able to prioritize the tasks allocated to them. Factors like if the skills required to complete a certain task are available within the members of the team is also important since this determines the final outcome of the teamwork. Therefore the stages involved in team building will include first elucidating the goals and objectives then identification of any obstructers before putting in place assistants to enable them work and lastly monitoring and measuring the progress to make sure the objectives are met.
Team building Issues
Any problems or indifferences that may arise among members of a team may have negative impacts on the specific individuals and hence the whole team. It is therefore advised that any problems are solved as early as possible before the impact is felt. Some of the team building issues that must be considered include; unity, communication, interdependence, goal specification and the role of each member of the team (Heathfield 1).
Unity is as a result of the cohesiveness between members in the way they interact and share their skills and abilities to better the performance. The members must have the same goal specification hence some sessions during the team building consist of clarification of the goals and objectives to be achieved.
Team building solutions
The solutions to be made so as to achieve goals of a team are to majorly avoid the common blunders people make during team building. Most organizations may decide to form teams without having a model. Lack of a model for the team leads to ineffective functioning since the team members will lack vision and goals to achieve.
In this case every organization must have a model which will be geared towards achieving its objectives. Lack of leadership is another problem that should be put into consideration since some organizations form teams and forget to assign the responsibility to the leader. The team’s leader is known to be the most influential person in the whole team since this the person who has been delegated the duty of organizing the team.
Recommendation
Team building is recommended for most organizational duties and functions because of the many benefits it has to the organization. This is because increase in the input will eventually lead to fast making of quality decisions and ideas hence the output generated will be of high quality(Bacal 1).
There will be very high chances of creation of new ideas as information will be freely shared among the members of the team. The organization will also have a chance to compensate weaknesses of an individual within a team. Team work provides security to the organization as well assisting the individuals to develop interpersonal relationships hence team building is recommended for its mutual benefits.
Conclusion
Effective teams lead to the success of the organization as the goals and objectives will be achieved. Hence the right leader for the team should be appointed who will guide the team through the whole process. The leader makes sure that as much output is obtained from every member of the team.
The management of any organization should be in a position to monitor the team’s activities and progress through the team leader. This is important as it ensures only the right things are done and any deviation is noticed early before critical damage occurs.
Works Cited
Bacal, Robert. “The Six Deadly Sins of Team Building.” 1999. Web.
Heathfield, Susan. “How to Build Successful Work Teams.” 2010. Web.
The team building activity under discussion was tailored to integrate a synergetic model in enhancing communication between the patient and health care professional in the provision of healthcare services to the patient. The team building activity involved identifying the rationale to establish the team and the consequent benefits of effective teamwork.
The team building activity was completed by creating a compensation plan that integrated the aspect of teamwork as a critical component, a strategy supported in the arguments of (Grazier, 1998) and (Prebble & Frederick, 2007).
The main objective of the team building activity was to enhance and improve communication between healthcare service providers and the patients to better understand patient needs to improve service delivery as a team synergetic benefit.
The aim was to improve the effectiveness of team participants, strategically aiming at achieving the spelt down objective, ensuring that strengths of team members were effectively used to overcome members’ weaknesses, and ensure that all team members contributed to the laid down team building plan (Prebble & Frederick, 2007).
The participants, who were healthcare professionals, were formed into groups of four members in each of the three groups forming the team. The team members consisted of health care professional from different categories. These categories included physicians, nurses, administrators, and doctors, among other members in the profession.
The team building activity included identifying the purpose of the team, the needs of the team, composition of team members, the time the team was likely to last, and the benefits to the designate individuals to be affected by the team members, specifically the patient. In the hypothetical groups, each of the members was given a piece of paper to write a personal evaluation of self and the problems encountered in communicating with patients.
Then each of the papers describing self was mixed together from the number of groups that were formed. Each of the team members could then be rotated and other team members could evaluate the other group on their effectiveness in communicating with the patients. The process went on until all the groups were fully involved in evaluating the other group members.
At the completion stage, all team members could identify critical communicating element and each member’s weaknesses and suggest the possible solutions to the communication problem faced (Prebble & Frederick, 2007).
Why it would be Effective
The team was projected to be effective due to a number of components critically defining it. Each of the team members could address the technical healthcare needs of patients through an improved communication plan. To address the human needs of patients, improved interpersonal relationships between healthcare professional and the patients could also be achieved (Crother-Laurin, 2006).
Crother-Laurin (2006) argues that to ensure that the team is effective in the fulfillment of its objective, team members were required to balance their technical and human interaction skills, while inculcating the element of fellowship in each of the team members.
Each of the team members was required to be the team steward and be loyal, besides each member being responsible for personal decision making and motivate each of the members.
To sustain motivation, members could embrace a learning environment to cultivate newly acquired skills and other skills improvement opportunities. That could be catalyzed by good leadership approaches by employing good leadership skills (Crother-Laurin, 2006).
The leadership could provide stimulus for team members to be self actualized through a typical compensation plan. Therefore, a complete understanding of the team members could understand and endeavor to improve their productivity (Miller, 2008).
References
Crother-Laurin, C. (2006). Effective Teams: A Symptom of Healthy Leadership. The Journal for Quality and Participation, 29(3), 4. Web.
Grazier, P. (1998). Team Motivation. Web.
Miller, B. (2008). Quick activities to improve your team. The Journal for Quality and Participation, 31(2), 19-20. Web.
This paper deals with assignment 4 we have completed and its evaluation. To analyze any event, it is helpful to use Gibbs’s reflective cycle (Jasper 2003). This framework helps focus on the major aspects of any event and project. Thus, I will provide a brief description of the work. I will reveal my feelings and evaluate the teamwork and my work within the team. The paper includes an analysis of the work and I will draw some conclusions.
I will develop a specific personal action plan to develop certain skills which will help me in my future career. In this paper, I will reflect on the experience of teamwork and the way it affected me. This paper also includes a description of certain challenges our team had to face. Finally, I will also speculate on the way teamwork affected my attitude towards accreditation.
Description
For this assignment, the class was divided into groups. I was in group three with four other students. We had three meetings where we dealt with crucial issues. The first meeting was an introductory meeting and the members of our team introduced themselves. Admittedly, learning more about each member of the team is essential for efficient work (Belbin 1982). It turned out that the members of our team were involved in different fields related to healthcare.
The second meeting was devoted to discussion of the subject and sharing ideas. Each member of the group made a presentation on the matter. The last meeting was devoted to planning. Admittedly, any team must have specific goals and a concise plan to reach the goals (Covey 1994). It is also crucial to distribute roles among the team members (Berkun 2005). Thus, we distributed roles and chose the leader of the group. We also worked out our schedule. We decided to use online sessions for further meetings and updates on the project.
Feelings
I had never worked in a team, so I was worried about the project. I did not know what to do and I had doubts concerning the effectiveness of our team’s work. I was also worried as I was not sure that I could be an effective member of the team for I had not had any experience in accreditation. It was a great relief for me to find out that one member of our team had some experience in accreditation. It was quite stressful to find out that the team members had opposing views on the matter as some were strongly against accreditation while others supported this idea. Eventually, we managed to come to a single conclusion and set deadlines. However, I was really upset when I read the first draft after we had joined all the parts. The parts were written by different people who had different styles. It was challenging to make the paper a complete whole.
Evaluation
Though it was quite challenging, I find this experience beneficial for me as I have learned a lot about working in a team. Now, I can listen to myself and self-develop, which is the most important for a person (Butler 1981). Experiential learning is seen as one of the most effective ways to gain experience (Kolb 1984). I agree with this now as I learned a lot while working in a team. I know how to exchange ideas and collaborate with people of different personality types.
The work was efficient as each member of the group contributed equally to the success of the entire group. Some members helped organize ideas and others helped manage time, etc. As for the most serious challenges, we had certain problems with the process of decision-making. I believe the team spent too much time planning and discussing things, which is ineffective and can jeopardize the project (Arden 2003). It was also difficult for me to accept other people’s views. Nevertheless, I am sure that teamwork needs to be able to find compromises or even accept others’ viewpoints.
Analysis
It was rather difficult to work out a unified point of view on the matter as members of the team had different opinions. Moreover, the members of the team had quite different personality types. It is essential to understand a personality type of a partner as it helps predict his/her behavior and reactions (Rollinson 2008). At the same time, Brain (2002) states that a team where members have different personality types can be also beneficial. I agree with that as I witnessed the benefits of collaboration with people of different personality types. Thus, extroverts in our team helped come to an agreement and effectively share ideas, while introverts helped create the schedule and accumulate data.
Conclusion
In general, this was a beneficial experience for me as I met new people with different backgrounds and personality types. I also learned to collaborate with them efficiently. I will be able to employ this experience in the future. I understand that people differ in terms of their personality types. While working in the team, I changed my attitude towards accreditation. Now, I know that it is difficult to introduce accreditation to any organization. On top of that, it is essential to work out the culture of the organization and train teamwork before introducing accreditation to this organization.
Action Plan
As has been mentioned above, I learned a lot. Nonetheless, I also need to work on my communication skills. Covey (1989) notes that it is essential to be able to listen correctly and react properly. I have to learn to listen carefully. I should also learn to make sure I understand everything clearly. I have to learn how to make the right questions to avoid any misunderstanding and extract the information I need. It can be also helpful for me to learn how to articulate ideas properly to be able to support my opinion. Therefore, I will have to improve my skills to work within a team effectively.
Reference List
Arden, P 2003, It’s not how good you are, it’s how good you want to be, Phaidon, New York.
Belbin, M 1982, Management teams why the succeed or fail, Butterworth-Heinemann, London.
Berkun, S 2005, The art of project management, O’Reilly Media Inc., Sebastopol, CA.
Brain, C 2002, Advanced psychology: applications, issues and perspectives, Nelson Thornes, London.
Butler, PE 1981, Talking to yourself: learning the language of self-support, Harper and Row, San Francisco.
Covey, S 1989, The seven habits of highly effective people – powerful lessons in personal change, Simon & Schuster, New York.
Covey, S 1994, First things first, Simon & Schuster, New York.
Jasper, M 2003, Beginning reflective practice, Nelson Thornes, London.
Kolb, D 1984, Experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development, FT Press, London.
Rollinson, D 2008, Organisational behaviour and analysis: an integrated approach, Pearson Education, Essex.
The team building activity under discussion was tailored to integrate a synergetic model in enhancing communication between the patient and health care professional in the provision of healthcare services to the patient. The team building activity involved identifying the rationale to establish the team and the consequent benefits of effective teamwork.
The team building activity was completed by creating a compensation plan that integrated the aspect of teamwork as a critical component, a strategy supported in the arguments of (Grazier, 1998) and (Prebble & Frederick, 2007).
The main objective of the team building activity was to enhance and improve communication between healthcare service providers and the patients to better understand patient needs to improve service delivery as a team synergetic benefit.
The aim was to improve the effectiveness of team participants, strategically aiming at achieving the spelt down objective, ensuring that strengths of team members were effectively used to overcome members’ weaknesses, and ensure that all team members contributed to the laid down team building plan (Prebble & Frederick, 2007).
The participants, who were healthcare professionals, were formed into groups of four members in each of the three groups forming the team. The team members consisted of health care professional from different categories. These categories included physicians, nurses, administrators, and doctors, among other members in the profession.
The team building activity included identifying the purpose of the team, the needs of the team, composition of team members, the time the team was likely to last, and the benefits to the designate individuals to be affected by the team members, specifically the patient. In the hypothetical groups, each of the members was given a piece of paper to write a personal evaluation of self and the problems encountered in communicating with patients.
Then each of the papers describing self was mixed together from the number of groups that were formed. Each of the team members could then be rotated and other team members could evaluate the other group on their effectiveness in communicating with the patients. The process went on until all the groups were fully involved in evaluating the other group members.
At the completion stage, all team members could identify critical communicating element and each member’s weaknesses and suggest the possible solutions to the communication problem faced (Prebble & Frederick, 2007).
Why it would be Effective
The team was projected to be effective due to a number of components critically defining it. Each of the team members could address the technical healthcare needs of patients through an improved communication plan. To address the human needs of patients, improved interpersonal relationships between healthcare professional and the patients could also be achieved (Crother-Laurin, 2006).
Crother-Laurin (2006) argues that to ensure that the team is effective in the fulfillment of its objective, team members were required to balance their technical and human interaction skills, while inculcating the element of fellowship in each of the team members.
Each of the team members was required to be the team steward and be loyal, besides each member being responsible for personal decision making and motivate each of the members.
To sustain motivation, members could embrace a learning environment to cultivate newly acquired skills and other skills improvement opportunities. That could be catalyzed by good leadership approaches by employing good leadership skills (Crother-Laurin, 2006).
The leadership could provide stimulus for team members to be self actualized through a typical compensation plan. Therefore, a complete understanding of the team members could understand and endeavor to improve their productivity (Miller, 2008).
References
Crother-Laurin, C. (2006). Effective Teams: A Symptom of Healthy Leadership. The Journal for Quality and Participation, 29(3), 4. Web.
Grazier, P. (1998). Team Motivation. Web.
Miller, B. (2008). Quick activities to improve your team. The Journal for Quality and Participation, 31(2), 19-20. Web.
The success of research done by a group of people depends so much on the contribution that each member inputs to the project. This is where management skills acquired theoretically are put into practice or tested. The process of solving conflicts that emerge in a group should be succinct and clear. Each member’s point of view must be taken into consideration to harness success.
Self effectiveness and other team members
I organized the group. In essence, I can term myself as the pioneer of the foundation of our group. In the first place, I am the one that got the people in the group together. The initial meeting of group members was done by me.
The success of our group depended on the effectiveness of contribution to the project by each member of the group. The division of project parts to each member of the group was the best idea we could come up with. The reason that favored the division of project parts among us was to ensure that each member of the group would give his best input with respect to research concerning the assigned part. The approach to tackle the assignment from the perspective of components-to-whole also was to ensure that the timeline given by our lecturer was to be met before its elapse.
Dynamically, the group was well organized in the beginning. If the initial agreement had been pursued, the results would have been better, besides no one in the group would have felt that much of the work was done by self. The only mistake that the group made was it did not elect an interim leadership to oversee the effectiveness of each member of the group. Since the group’s decisions were made based majority basis, they should also have elected leaders to run the project completion. Reduction in conflicts could have been reduced with the introduction of a discipline committee, to deal with members who showed laxity concerning the progress. In my opinion, these would have been more effective than orally making resolutions that did not have a discipline tag attached.
For the future application of individual learning, I realized that in a learning environment and process, a group requires a correct choice of people willing to share and one another’s point of view. In a group, individual knowledge requires total acceptance from an intended audience, with participation notwithstanding.
Project evaluation versus outcomes
In the event of problem-solving, discussions in the group did not yield much. Each member was given a chance to air out feedback. The feedback could not be approved with total certainty since it emerged that group members only stuck to the assigned parts. It was also evident that the discussions were not taken with a resolute critique from the members showed little commitment.
Decision-making process
Decisions concerning issues emergent in the group were made by the majority. As it was turning out, I was an international student with a communication problem since I could not speak or write the English language with acceptable standards, I felt left out. Most of the decisions were done with an edge of countering my contribution to the project. In most cases, acceptance of a resolution was reached after a lengthy discussion, the resolutions were reached at jus for the sake of agreement, but not because they were applicable.
Research methodology
It was not a bad idea to use questionnaires and interviews. However, the lack of participation by my members was a rather disappointing factor. As mentioned, I contacted interviews and questionnaires being sent to the audience at PGL. PGL is a freight company whose market is the pacific islands although it’s expanding globally (Pacific Gate Logistics, 2010). This was an engagingly hard task for me. Nevertheless, I did it for the sake of completing the course work besides trying by all means to beat the timelines given by the lecturer; which carried a risk of losing all the marks. Also, I used these research methods but their effectiveness I did not ascertain. In the first place, there was a language barrier between my audience.
Documents like the project we were undertaking are highly sensitive such that their acceptance by the target company was important to us. The validity of the methods that we used was questionable. Our research design was not familiar to other group members. As a result, it may have reduced their participation in the design of these methods as well as their application to data collection. As a consequence, data collected was limited to one person. The direct implication of this was that only one person collecting information did not have enough time, the number of audience for interviewing was small.
Project management
On average, the project was not managed well. The management style we employed lacked some organization. If we had employed some committee to manage the progress of the project, we would have frequent conflicts in the group. We had resources at our disposal. The resource that was badly mismanaged was time. It resulted from a lack of communication from the group members. Each one of us went their own way. They refused to answer my e-mails. In general, the group was not centrally managed and it is like we did not know each other in the group. This explained the lack of total commitment from the other members. The management of conflicts, solutions, meeting days, research feedback was all not effectively adopted.
Management concepts application
From the perspective of the management of the group, there was no relationship between theoretical management concepts and their application as seen in the group. Each one of us was doing everything according to the self-drive. Cohesion in the group was not there. They were not acting on one accord as a group. In conclusion, we did not apply management concepts in our project
Project process improvement
It was noted that there was diversity in opinions in the group concerning the management and handling of the parts that were assigned to different group members. However, this did not help improve the situation. In fact, it only aggravated the conflicts. This can be justified by the further distance that was experienced in the last stages of the project. Each one of us had taken his own direction, and perhaps, perspective concerning the project.
I recommended that in the future, proper vetting during the selection should be done to determine the right group members. Furthermore, each group member needs to be given time to express his views concerning his point. Pertaining management, a select opinion analyzing committee should have been formed. Each time a member airs an opinion, one of the select members from the committee writes them down. After writing, analysis is done as an after process whereby each opinion is analyzed as an entity. Its validity is agreed upon by the majority rather random airing of opinion that leads to no common resolution.
Secondly, the outcomes of the project were not satisfactorily achieved. In the first place, group members did not have a common voice. Each part of the project was given as an assignment. It is evident that each group member did not achieve the highest level of output as expected. Whatever we presented can be termed as the work of one person. The research process is an intensive involvement, requiring a high degree of professionalism.
In our case, we needed to put to practice management concepts acquired in theory. What was achieved did not reflect professionalism and commitment. The whole process was characterized by dishonesty, self-motivation, and frequent inter-member conflicts. The use of consultative means from the other classmates was good.
However, it should not only have taken place during a conflict solution but also during the research process itself. This is a healthy process for the information collected by the group members. Comparisons about the collection of information, management of the group by other groups formed by the classmates; in terms of problem solution and project management. On the overall, the project was not satisfactorily done due to the reasons mentioned above, with the conflict factor being the main.
On the overall, I can say that I took up a management role that was neglected by others. I had information from the company that we used in our project required for our project.
Concussion
In conclusion, the project that was undertaken by the group was not taken and completed satisfactorily. The members seemed to rather doing a project on conflicts than PGM.
Reference
Pacific Gate Logistics. (2010). Pacific Gate Logistics Australia & New Zealand. Web.
