Above is a model that demonstrates these different components that combined form an effective and high performance team. All parts of the model are necessary in order for it to be successful (Kirby, Davis, Dubin, Wesson).
Main Essay
In today’s world, teamwork and cooperation amongst employees is gaining emphasis. Although all businesses strive to understand how to form effective, high performance teams, few truly understand the steps that must be taken to reach this. It seems simple, but with a variety of ideas and personalities between co-workers this simple task becomes complicated and sensitive. There are several factors involved and strategies used to build an effective, high performance. Through a balance of these strategies, businesses can learn to build a strong and successful team.
The first factor that is necessary for a team to be effective is commitment. According to Harvey Dubin in the article “Building High Performance Teams”, everything starts with commitment. As Dubin explains it, when a team is challenged in a way that requires commitment and extra effort, a high-performance team can be something that is the result, based on how the team members respond to the demands of the task (Dubin, 48). In other words, within commitment a team cannot be effective and have high-performance. However, commitment is something that is usually not present from the beginning, but must be built and gained through experience. As teams progress and become more successful, the amount of commitment demanded of the members increases, and this leads to the members either adapting and adjusting accordingly, or falling out of sync with the other group members. Another part of commitment is realizing what that some people do not have the same level of commitment as others do. In order to build an effective team and gain the level of commitment required, some group members will have to be chosen over others. Team dynamic is very important, and therefore the selection of members is something that must not be taken lightly (Dubin, 51). Although this is not ideal, Dubin explains that this is a crucial component to creating the basis for a successful team. If the team members are unavoidable, then expectations and hypothetic consequences must be outlined. If members of the team feel that they will be held accountable for certain parts of a challenge, they are more likely to commit to those parts in order to serve their own status. Through this technique, although it is not ideal, commitment is achieved.
The second factor towards building an effective team is being organized. There are several different parts of teams that must be organized. The main one of these is that each person within the group understands their role and place within the team and organization (Wesson, 334). This applies mainly to tasks and challenges. Teams must divide up the components of a challenge and distribute responsibilities based on skills of members. According to the article called “Toward a Theory of High Performance” by Julia Kirby, teams must constantly learn from one another, and respect differences. The differences between members are strategically organized and compiled to face the challenges presented to the team. Another part of the importance of teams to be organized is with tasks and challenges. Although creative energy is necessary and welcome, members need to be able to keep things on schedule and task (Kirby, 33). Structure is one of the largest components to succeeding in a task. With structure, members understand what to do if something does not go as planned, and can react and make fast decisions in informed ways. As explained by Dubin in the article “Building High Performance Teams” high performance challenges are what form high performance teams. In order for teams to respond to these challenges in a high performance way, they must organize the work and use the “divide and conquer” technique (Dubin, 46). This will bring teams to be more effective, and find success through organization.
Another of the main aspects for creating an effective, high performance team is trust between members of a team. Trust is something that is built, and any team will run into hardships in this area. Being hesitant to trust without reason is common in team settings, because actions of one member can bring consequence to the whole team. According to the article “Toward a Theory of High Performance” by Julia Kirby, teams must emphasize collective decision-making. Through this process of witnessing team members making decisions, members get a sense for one another’s values and how rational each member is. Through this process, members naturally team up with people who have similar styles of decision making to themselves. This is how the process of trust can be built within teams (Kirby, 31). Another component of trust amongst team members is confidentiality, and trusting team members to be good to their word. According to the Organizational Behavior textbook, trust is defined as “ The willingness to be vulnerable to an authority based on positive expectations about the authority’s actions and intentions”(Wesson, 328). This definition relates to this side of trust. Without people maintaining positive expectations, trust will not be gained amongst members, and the team will fail to be fully effective. This means that team members must both have trustworthy actions and intentions themselves, as well as expect that other members have trustworthy actions and intentions. If members are not open minded to trusting one another, trust will also never be gained, leading to failure as a team (Kirby, 35). However, if team members can be open to trusting, and demonstrate ethical and moral actions and intentions, trust will come easily with time and experience, and the team will become more effective and reach a higher performance level.
Another part of the process of creating an effective team is team members sharing a common goal. There are two sides of this component. First off, team members must be on the same page with challenges and tasks. In order to do this, while introducing a task or challenge, the team must determine clear expectations and goals. This way, all members are contributing towards the decision. If all members contribute to the goals, then no one member will stray from that goal for personal satisfaction. This component to creating an effective team relates to the goal setting theory that is mentioned in Organizational Behavior. This theory views goals as “the primary drivers of intensity and persistence of effort”(Wesson, 242). This also relates to group goal setting, because the more invested that members of a team are in a goal, the more commitment and intensity they will have to work towards it. With teams, this theory is actually brought to a new level, because members of the teams can also motivate each other, and build drive and intensity towards reaching the goals. The other side of sharing a common goal amongst team members is not related to specific challenges or tasks. Instead, in order for team members to really trust one another and be on the same page, they must have common goals in general (Kirby, 33). These goals may be ethical standards, values, and ways in which they will strive to function as a team. When a team sets standards and has a common goal in what the team should stand for, there is a sense of unity that is created. This unity then leads to more trust and better cooperation. In this way, sharing a common goal affects the other components that are also involved in making an effective team. Because of this, the emphasis of sharing common goals between team members both for tasks, and in general is greater than the other components.
The fifth part of creating an effective and high performance team is understanding boundaries. There are two ways in which this component should be applied in order to bring teams to success. The first way is by understanding personal boundaries that people have. Every person has had their own upbringing, and holds their own values and beliefs. Although team members must be on the same page and must be working towards a common goal, differences between members are welcomed, and should not be discouraged. If all members of a team think the same, the potential of the team is very small. However, when combining different people, and how they all think together, teams can reach higher goals. According to the article called “What Makes High Performance Teams” by Lisa J. Daniel and Charles R. Davis, difference in personalities and thinking patterns are completely essential to the making of an effective team. It is the basis of creative energy, and without it the team is going to be faced with much frustration (Davis, 42). The other way that understanding boundaries should be applied to teams is when there is a task at hand. Creativity is welcome, but team members need to understand limits and boundaries within tasks and challenges. It is important that all team members are on the same page about what can and cannot be done in order to accomplish a task. By team members establishing these boundaries early on in the task phase, teams will avoid late problems and issues due to constraints (Davis, 40). By understanding limits, teams will learn to be creative in an effective way, that is both “out of the box” and realistic. In return, these teams will be much more equipped to handle more difficult tasks. With being able to handle challenging tasks, the team will grow and improve. This will lead to a more effective and comprehensive team.
The final component to creating an effective team is creativity. Creativity in a team setting refers to being able to brainstorm and come up with fresh ideas. If a team is diverse and well rounded, ideas will be logical and realistic yet out of the box. According to the article “Toward a Theory of High Performance” by Julia Kirby, one of the main aspects of creativity within teams is entrepreneurship and innovation (Kirby, 34). Although it is important to be realistic and logical with ideas, being open minded and able to create fresh ideas is a crucial part of creating an effective team. On the other hand, members of teams also have to be creative in execution of tasks that are set within specific parameters. Thinking of ways to execute simple challenges in ways that have not yet been thought of is one of the most important things with developing a successful team. Team members also learn to be creative off of the ideas of others. In order for creativity to be stretched to the fullest within teams, members must abandon pride, and always strive for the best solution, even if they do not specifically agree. By members of teams being able to create fresh and innovative ideas within parameters, and work together to push the limits, a team will become effective and have high performance (Kirby, 34-36).
Main Essay
In today’s world, teamwork and cooperation amongst employees is gaining emphasis. Although all businesses strive to understand how to form effective, high performance teams, few truly understand the steps that must be taken to reach this. It seems simple, but with a variety of ideas and personalities between co-workers this simple task becomes complicated and sensitive. There are several factors involved and strategies used to build an effective, high performance. Through a balance of these strategies, businesses can learn to build a strong and successful team.
The first factor that is necessary for a team to be effective is commitment. According to Harvey Dubin in the article “Building High Performance Teams”, everything starts with commitment. As Dubin explains it, when a team is challenged in a way that requires commitment and extra effort, a high-performance team can be something that is the result, based on how the team members respond to the demands of the task (Dubin, 48). In other words, within commitment a team cannot be effective and have high-performance. However, commitment is something that is usually not present from the beginning, but must be built and gained through experience. As teams progress and become more successful, the amount of commitment demanded of the members increases, and this leads to the members either adapting and adjusting accordingly, or falling out of sync with the other group members. Another part of commitment is realizing what that some people do not have the same level of commitment as others do. In order to build an effective team and gain the level of commitment required, some group members will have to be chosen over others. Team dynamic is very important, and therefore the selection of members is something that must not be taken lightly (Dubin, 51). Although this is not ideal, Dubin explains that this is a crucial component to creating the basis for a successful team. If the team members are unavoidable, then expectations and hypothetic consequences must be outlined. If members of the team feel that they will be held accountable for certain parts of a challenge, they are more likely to commit to those parts in order to serve their own status. Through this technique, although it is not ideal, commitment is achieved.
The second factor towards building an effective team is being organized. There are several different parts of teams that must be organized. The main one of these is that each person within the group understands their role and place within the team and organization (Wesson, 334). This applies mainly to tasks and challenges. Teams must divide up the components of a challenge and distribute responsibilities based on skills of members. According to the article called “Toward a Theory of High Performance” by Julia Kirby, teams must constantly learn from one another, and respect differences. The differences between members are strategically organized and compiled to face the challenges presented to the team. Another part of the importance of teams to be organized is with tasks and challenges. Although creative energy is necessary and welcome, members need to be able to keep things on schedule and task (Kirby, 33). Structure is one of the largest components to succeeding in a task. With structure, members understand what to do if something does not go as planned, and can react and make fast decisions in informed ways. As explained by Dubin in the article “Building High Performance Teams” high performance challenges are what form high performance teams. In order for teams to respond to these challenges in a high performance way, they must organize the work and use the “divide and conquer” technique (Dubin, 46). This will bring teams to be more effective, and find success through organization.
Another of the main aspects for creating an effective, high performance team is trust between members of a team. Trust is something that is built, and any team will run into hardships in this area. Being hesitant to trust without reason is common in team settings, because actions of one member can bring consequence to the whole team. According to the article “Toward a Theory of High Performance” by Julia Kirby, teams must emphasize collective decision-making. Through this process of witnessing team members making decisions, members get a sense for one another’s values and how rational each member is. Through this process, members naturally team up with people who have similar styles of decision making to themselves. This is how the process of trust can be built within teams (Kirby, 31). Another component of trust amongst team members is confidentiality, and trusting team members to be good to their word. According to the Organizational Behavior textbook, trust is defined as “ The willingness to be vulnerable to an authority based on positive expectations about the authority’s actions and intentions”(Wesson, 328). This definition relates to this side of trust. Without people maintaining positive expectations, trust will not be gained amongst members, and the team will fail to be fully effective. This means that team members must both have trustworthy actions and intentions themselves, as well as expect that other members have trustworthy actions and intentions. If members are not open minded to trusting one another, trust will also never be gained, leading to failure as a team (Kirby, 35). However, if team members can be open to trusting, and demonstrate ethical and moral actions and intentions, trust will come easily with time and experience, and the team will become more effective and reach a higher performance level.
Another part of the process of creating an effective team is team members sharing a common goal. There are two sides of this component. First off, team members must be on the same page with challenges and tasks. In order to do this, while introducing a task or challenge, the team must determine clear expectations and goals. This way, all members are contributing towards the decision. If all members contribute to the goals, then no one member will stray from that goal for personal satisfaction. This component to creating an effective team relates to the goal setting theory that is mentioned in Organizational Behavior. This theory views goals as “the primary drivers of intensity and persistence of effort”(Wesson, 242). This also relates to group goal setting, because the more invested that members of a team are in a goal, the more commitment and intensity they will have to work towards it. With teams, this theory is actually brought to a new level, because members of the teams can also motivate each other, and build drive and intensity towards reaching the goals. The other side of sharing a common goal amongst team members is not related to specific challenges or tasks. Instead, in order for team members to really trust one another and be on the same page, they must have common goals in general (Kirby, 33). These goals may be ethical standards, values, and ways in which they will strive to function as a team. When a team sets standards and has a common goal in what the team should stand for, there is a sense of unity that is created. This unity then leads to more trust and better cooperation. In this way, sharing a common goal affects the other components that are also involved in making an effective team. Because of this, the emphasis of sharing common goals between team members both for tasks, and in general is greater than the other components.
The fifth part of creating an effective and high performance team is understanding boundaries. There are two ways in which this component should be applied in order to bring teams to success. The first way is by understanding personal boundaries that people have. Every person has had their own upbringing, and holds their own values and beliefs. Although team members must be on the same page and must be working towards a common goal, differences between members are welcomed, and should not be discouraged. If all members of a team think the same, the potential of the team is very small. However, when combining different people, and how they all think together, teams can reach higher goals. According to the article called “What Makes High Performance Teams” by Lisa J. Daniel and Charles R. Davis, difference in personalities and thinking patterns are completely essential to the making of an effective team. It is the basis of creative energy, and without it the team is going to be faced with much frustration (Davis, 42). The other way that understanding boundaries should be applied to teams is when there is a task at hand. Creativity is welcome, but team members need to understand limits and boundaries within tasks and challenges. It is important that all team members are on the same page about what can and cannot be done in order to accomplish a task. By team members establishing these boundaries early on in the task phase, teams will avoid late problems and issues due to constraints (Davis, 40). By understanding limits, teams will learn to be creative in an effective way, that is both “out of the box” and realistic. In return, these teams will be much more equipped to handle more difficult tasks. With being able to handle challenging tasks, the team will grow and improve. This will lead to a more effective and comprehensive team.
The final component to creating an effective team is creativity. Creativity in a team setting refers to being able to brainstorm and come up with fresh ideas. If a team is diverse and well rounded, ideas will be logical and realistic yet out of the box. According to the article “Toward a Theory of High Performance” by Julia Kirby, one of the main aspects of creativity within teams is entrepreneurship and innovation (Kirby, 34). Although it is important to be realistic and logical with ideas, being open minded and able to create fresh ideas is a crucial part of creating an effective team. On the other hand, members of teams also have to be creative in execution of tasks that are set within specific parameters. Thinking of ways to execute simple challenges in ways that have not yet been thought of is one of the most important things with developing a successful team. Team members also learn to be creative off of the ideas of others. In order for creativity to be stretched to the fullest within teams, members must abandon pride, and always strive for the best solution, even if they do not specifically agree. By members of teams being able to create fresh and innovative ideas within parameters, and work together to push the limits, a team will become effective and have high performance (Kirby, 34-36).
