Team working – Important to business development

Teams are often defined as two or more individuals who have specific role assignments within an organisation.

It is expected that teams would perform specific tasks, interact and coordinate to achieve a common goal or output. Teams may also have the responsibility of making decisions. They are required to have specialized knowledge and skills to undertake the tasks that have been assigned to them. {{more}}In many businesses teams have large workloads especially if there is limited human resource. In all circumstances individuals must work together in order to achieve the goals of the business.

The use of teams to assist the business in achieving its goals is one that is often encouraged. The form of team working that is adopted by a business would to a large extent depend on that particular enterprise. There are several factors that would help to make this determination. Among them is the nature of the good or service, the structure of the organisation, its organisational culture and employee relations. In any one business there can be several types of teams. Teams are often categorised according to the functions they perform. Functions may range from giving advice or making recommendations to production of goods or provision of services.

Regardless of the category of the team, its performance is seen as critical to both the individuals functioning within that team and the overall business. Teams are expected to achieve the tasks they are assigned. Hence the value of the team to the business would be determined by its ability to produce outcomes. To do so members of the team must possess technical or functional expertise, problem-solving and decision making skills and interpersonal relationship skills. It must be noted that as important as achieving the outcome are the process that is involved and the relationships existing among its members since this can at times not only affect the productivity of the team but its survival as well. Ultimately it is the business that suffers whenever team work fails.

Therefore, the behaviour of the team must reflect the principles of team work. These principles include members of the team monitoring one another’s performance; providing and accepting feedback from one another; communicating effectively and supporting the actions of other team members in relation to the accomplishment of the assigned tasks. Team members must recognise that they bring different skills and experiences to the team and must therefore try to create some degree of balance.

In creating teams, it is recommended that for maximum benefits teams are of the right size. This will certainly depend on the human resource of the business. Team members much have right mix of skills, a team purpose that is specific to the team, strong commitment to work together, willingness to share the workload equally, to be mutually accountable and to accept positive feedback.

In our next article we will continue to look at some other aspects of team working. For more information on how we can assist you contact us at the address below.

• Submitted by the Centre for Enterprise Development Inc. First Floor Methodist Building Granby Street, P.O. Box 2343. Kingstown, St. Vincent. CED is a non-profit company that provides business development services to businesses.