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A strong team is the backbone of excellent service! This interactive module explores the importance of teamwork in a fast-paced work environment, helping employees communicate better, solve problems efficiently, and support each other to create a positive and productive workplace.<br><br>Through engaging activities and real-world scenarios, associates will learn how to build trust, stay motivated, and work together seamlesslyu2014ensuring both team success and outstanding customer service.
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Purpose • This module is designed to help you better understand the stages involved in forming a team as well as the roles of each team member in creating a strong team. • To highlight the importance of team work simultaneously showing the benefits. • To show the various roles team members assume in building a strong team.
Objectives At the end of this module you will be able to: • Understand the stages involved in team formation. • Appreciate the role of each team player in a team. • Create more effective teams.
WIIFM-What’s in it for me? • Gain better understanding of the stages involved in forming a team. • Understand the role of a leader at each stage of team formation. • Be in a position to create more balanced teams. • Be in a position to align team members more effectively.
What is teamwork? • Teamwork is an essential part of workplace success. • It is when people try to cooperate using their individual skills and providing constructive feedback, despite any personal conflict between individuals. • Organisations look for people who not only know how to work well with others ,but who understand that not every player on the team can or will be the one that gets the ball. • When everyone in the workplace works together to accomplish goals, everyone achieves more.
Psychologist Bruce Tuckman first came up with the memorable words ‘forming, storming, norming and performing back in 1965 to describe the path to team formation that most teams follow. • A fifth stage called ‘adjourning’ which others often call ‘mourning’ was later on added.
Forming • Teams initially go through a forming stage in which members are positive and polite. • Some members are anxious as they have not yet worked out exactly what work the team will involve and others are simply excited about the task ahead. • As a leader, you therefore play a dominant role at this stage as other members’ roles and responsibilities are less clear.
Forming • This stage is fairly short, and may last for a single meeting at which people are introduced to one another. • At this stage, there may be discussions about how the team will work, which can be frustrating for some members who simply want to get on with the team task.
Storming • This is the stage at which reality sets in and your authority as a leader may be challenged as others jockey for position as their roles are clarified. • The ways of working start to be defined and as the leader you must be aware that some members may feel overwhelmed by how much there is to do ,or uncomfortable with the approach being used.
Storming • Therefore some will react by questioning how worthwhile the goal of the team is and might resist taking on tasks. • This is the stage where many teams fail and even those who stick with it feel that they are on an emotional roller coaster as they try to focus on the job in hand without the support of established processes or relationships with their colleagues.
Norming • Gradually the team moves into a Norming stage. • This is where team members come to respect your authority as leader ,and others show leadership in specific areas. • Now the team members know each other better and they may be socialising together ,are able to ask each other for help and provide constructive criticism.
Norming • At this stage, the team develops a strong commitment to the team goal and you start to see good progress towards it. • There is however a prolonged overlap between storming and norming behaviour as new tasks come up as the team may lapse back into typical storming stage behaviour, but this eventually dies out.
Performing • When the team reaches performing stage hard work leads directly to progress towards the shared vision of their goal, supported by the structures and processes which have been set up. • At this stage ,individual team members may join or leave the team without affecting the performance culture.
Performing • As a leader you are able to successfully delegate much of the work and can concentrate on developing team members and being part of the team at this stage feels ‘easy’ as compared to earlier on. • As a team leader, your concern is both for the team’s goal and team members wellbeing.
Mourning • This is the final stage and usually the hardest and it can be stressful as you break up the team. • It is also a very important stage in reaching both team goals and personal conclusions and the break up of the team can be particularly hard for members who like routine or have developed close working relationships with other team members particularly if their future roles or even jobs look uncertain.
Points to note • Remember that you have to go through the ‘forming’, ‘storming’, ‘norming’ stages before the team starts ‘performing’. • Teams are formed because they can achieve far more than their individual members can on their own, and while being part of a high performing team can be fun, it also takes patience and professionalism to get to that stage.
Belbin’s team roles • When a team is performing at its best you will usually find that each team member has clear responsibilities. • Just as importantly you will normally see that every role needed to achieve the team’s goal is being performed fully well.
Belbin’s team roles • Dr Meredith Belbin studied teamwork for many years and he famously observed that people in teams tend to assume different ‘team roles’. • He defines a ‘team role’ as tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate to others in a certain way and he named nine such team roles that underlie team success
Belbin’s team roles • Belbin suggested that by understanding your team role within a particular team, you can develop your strengths and manage your weaknesses as a team member, and so improve how you contribute to the team. • Team leaders therefore use Belbin’s team roles to help create more balanced teams as teams can become unbalanced if all team members have similar styles of behaviour or team roles.
Belbin’s team roles • If team members have the same weaknesses, the team as a whole can tend to have that weakness and if team members have the same team work strengths, they may tend to compete (rather that operate) for the team tasks that best suit their natural styles. • Hence the model can be used to ensure that necessary team roles are covered and that potential behavioural tensions or weaknesses are amongst the team members are addressed.
Belbin’s team roles • Dr Belbin identified nine team roles based on observed behaviour and interpersonal styles. • He categorised them into 3 groups namely action oriented, people oriented and thought oriented and each team role is associated with typical behavioural and interpersonal strengths. • Belbin also defined characteristic weaknesses that tend to accompany the team role highlighting that they were areas to be aware of and potentially improve.
Action oriented roles 1. Shaper (SH) • These are people who encourage the team to improve. • They are dynamic and are often extroverted people who enjoy stimulating others, questioning norms, and finding the best approaches to problems. • The shaper is the one who shakes things up to ensure that all possibilities are considered and that the team does not become complacent. • Shapers see obstacles as exciting challenges and they often have the courage to push on when others feel like quitting. Their potential weakness might be that they are argumentative and they may offend other people’s feelings
2. Implementer (IMP) • Implementers are the people who get things done. • They turn the team’s ideas and concepts into practical actions and plans. • They are typically conservative, disciplined people who systematically and efficiently and are very well organised. • These are the people you can count on to get the job done. On the downside ,implementers may be inflexible and somewhat resistant to change
3. Completer-finisher (CF) • These are the people that ensure projects are completed thoroughly. • They ensure that there have been no errors or omissions and they pay attention to the smallest of details. • They are very concerned with deadlines and will push the team to make sure the job is completed on time. • They are described as perfectionists who are orderly, conscientious and anxious. However, a completer-finisher may worry unnecessarily and find it difficult to delegate
People oriented roles 1.Co-ordinator (CO) • These are the people who take on the traditional team leader role and have also been referred to as the chairman. • They are often excellent listeners and are naturally able to recognise the value that each team member brings to the table. • They are calm and good natured and delegate tasks very effectively. Their potential weakness is they may tend to delegate away too much personal responsibility, and may tend to be manipulative
2. Team worker (TW) • Team workers are the people who provide support and ensure that the team is working together. • These people fill in the role of negotiators within the team and they are flexible, diplomatic and deceptive • They tend to be popular people who are very capable in their own right but who prioritize team cohesion and helping people get along Their weaknesses might be a tendency to be indecisive and maintain uncommitted positions during discussions and decision making.
3. Resource investigator (R I ) • Resource investigators are innovative and curious. • They explore available options , develop contacts and negotiate for resources on behalf of the team. • They are enthusiastic team members who identify work with external stakeholders to help the team accomplish its objective. • They are outgoing and very extroverted meaning that others are very receptive to them and their ideas. On the down side they may lose enthusiasm quickly, and are often overly optimism
Thought oriented roles 1. Plant • Plant is the creative innovative who comes up with new ideas and approaches. • They thrive on praise but criticism is especially hard for them to deal with. • Plants are often introverted and prefer to work apart from the team • Because their ideas are so novel, they can be impractical at times and they tend to also be poor communicators
2.Monitor-evaluator • These are best at analysing and evaluating ideas that other people come up with. • These people are shrewd and objective and clearly weigh the pros and cons of all the options before they arrive at a decision. • They are critical thinkers and very strategic in their approach They are often perceived as detached or unemotional
3.Specialist • These are people with specialised skills needed to get the job done. • As a result, they pride themselves on their skills and abilities. • They also work to maintain a professional status and their job within the team is to be an expert in that area . • They commit themselves fully to their field of expertise. This may limit their contribution and lead to a preoccupation with technicalities at the expense of the bigger picture
3 benefits of using Belbin’s team roles • You can use it to think about team balance before a project starts. • You can use it to develop yourself as a team player. • It helps you check the strengths and weaknesses of your team members. NB. Remember, putting too many people with the same role can cause conflict within a team. For example, too many shapers can weaken a team because each shaper wants to pull the team in a different direction.
