Teamwork: essence, motivation, achievements and development

Any manager wants to create a well-coordinated and well-functioning team. To do this, you need to be able to correctly place the emphasis, smooth conflicts, and plan events correctly. It is believed that teamwork on the project can bring more profit than activity alone. Meanwhile, it is the first in practice that causes many fears and a negative reaction. This is mainly due to the inability to properly organize such activities. Next, consider the principles of teamwork.

General information

What is teamwork? It is worth saying that not every group of specialists can become a friendly and highly professional team. The team refers to a small number of employees who have complementary skills, connected with a common plan, striving for common goals and having equal responsibility for their implementation. In such a collective individual interests are relegated to the background. Each member of the group must have a high professional level, the ability to make decisions and interact with the rest of its members. Teamwork involves the dependence of experts on each other. In this regard, a constant exchange of information is carried out within the group.

Specificity of the organization

Well-coordinated team work is the result of competent management activities. The team must go through several stages:

1. Adaptation. At this stage, mutual information and evaluation of tasks are carried out. Participants of the group communicate with each other carefully, three or pairs are formed. In the process of adaptation, people in some way check each other, determine mutually acceptable patterns of behavior. The effectiveness of teamwork at this stage is very low.
2. Grouping. At this stage, people converge on interests and sympathies. At the same time, there are discrepancies between individual motivation and the goals of teamwork. Members of the group can counteract the requirements. This determines the degree of permissible emotional reaction. For example, the secretary throws papers and assesses the reaction of the others to this action.
3. Cooperation. At this stage, the group members are aware of the desire to work on the task at hand. Constructive and open communication begins, for the first time the pronoun "we" appears.
4. Rationing work. At this stage, schemes of interaction in the team are created. At this stage, there is trust, and interpersonal communication goes to a higher level.
5. Operation. At this stage, constructive decisions are made about the task. Each participant has a role. The collective openly manifests and eliminates conflicts. At this stage, the true team work begins. Within the group a favorable climate is formed. All participants understand the value of planned indicators, take actions aimed at achieving them. Teamwork at this stage is considered the most successful.

Phenomena

Psychologists describe some of the effects that arise when working in a team. Among them is worth noting:

1. The phenomenon of volume. The result of teamwork will depend on the number of participants in the group.
2. Phenomenon of qualitative composition. The tasks of teamwork will be realized most successfully if the members of the group are of different ages and gender, but with almost identical social characteristics.
3. Conformism. Changes in the beliefs or behavior of participants are caused by the imagined or real pressure of the group. The value of public opinion is high enough for each member. Accordingly, all participants respect the norms worked out together.
4. Deindividualization. It involves the loss of self-awareness and the emergence of a fear of evaluation in conditions of anonymity, not focusing on a particular person.
5. The effect of the shift in risk. The group accepts the least or most risky decisions in comparison with those that would be developed by the participants separately.
6. Rounding thinking. Members of the group are engaged in finding a solution that would suit everyone. In this case, quite realistic variants are discarded.
7. Public laziness. If the responsibility is divided equally for all participants, they begin to deteriorate their performance all together.

Symptoms

Teamwork involves a continuous discussion between the participants. It is aimed at improving cooperation. All specialists feel part of the working community. They feel their competence, perform certain actions independently and are responsible for the consequences. Each participant freely offers ideas emerging from him and criticizes others. The members of the group are aware of the tasks of others, they have a certain idea of the abilities and talents of each. This means having mutual respect and interest of all participants. In this case, all members of the group tend to open dialogue. Information quickly, constantly and purposefully passes from one participant to another.

Common Errors

Teamwork skills are developed over a period of time. It is impossible to create a successful and friendly team from a group of specialists. A special role belongs to the leader. It is from him that the effectiveness of the team depends to a greater extent. Meanwhile, in practice, managers make serious mistakes in the organization of collective activities. They significantly reduce the efficiency of work. Among the most common are the following:

1. The discrepancy between the leader, the team and the type of task assigned to the people.
2. Unsuccessful choice of specialists to create a group.
3. The absence of a clearly defined goal or criteria for its implementation.
4. Unfavorable socio-psychological climate.

conclusions

All these errors can be avoided. Almost every person is motivated to work with three components: payment, interest and social significance. The first two components are given enough attention in practice. At the same time, people often forget about the social significance of a person. Meanwhile, the members of the group should be sure that they are implementing an important project that will bring profit to the enterprise.

Leader of the collective

He has a special role. In addition to direct leadership, planning and control, the leader must be able to motivate and organize the team, develop the basis of self-government in it. Due to the human factor in practice, it is quite difficult to implement these tasks. The key criterion for choosing a leader is his idea of the organization of the collective. Positive and negative feedback will act as the main instrument of influence. Effective teamwork will largely depend on the personal qualities of the leader. He will represent the team in interaction with others, eliminate external obstacles.

Reducing the number of conflicts

As was said above, in the initial stages, teamwork is accompanied by a certain tension. Conflicts often arise. The head of the company must take into account their likelihood and with a certain degree of loyalty to treat the group members during this period. Reduce tension by using different trainings, work on creative assignments, during which the group will feel like one organism. In addition, it is important to pay attention to the development of clear rules of conduct. At the same time, they should be formulated and accepted directly by the group members themselves. It is also necessary to assert responsibility for their violation.

Nuances

Usually a team feels like a team when it reaches its first success. This must necessarily be taken into account by the head of the enterprise. The first task for the team should be difficult, but it is quite realizable in a relatively short period. In some cases, it happens that the group is immersed in its activities and loses its connection with the real world. This can have negative consequences. To prevent such a phenomenon, the leader should organize the flow of external information to the participants and the outflow of information from them. This helps maintain the tone of the team. To learn and apply all the subtleties of the process is impossible. Any teamwork assumes the presence of weaknesses. Successful teams are compensated by the strengths of the participants.