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Effective Team Building: When to Team
By harveyrobbins | January 6, 2003
If you are absolutely sure that a team is what you need, then you must map the team out. This means deciding who the right core and resource team members are, actually forming the team, and following the process of clarifying goals, roles, barriers to success, personality differences, etc. etc.
Even at this stage it’s still not too late to give up on the team approach. You don’t need teams when:
1. Decisions are best made by one person
2. Decisions are predetermined
3. The outcome is not critical to company, division, or department success (like what color toilet paper to buy)
4. Time is of the essence (a decision by tomorrow)
5. The project is either “back-burner” or a low priority
Teams are best used when they are formed to address short-term, high-priority, perhaps cross-functional, single-focused, action-oriented outcomes. You need teams when:
1. The wider the input the better the output
2. The issue is cross-functional or multidirectional in nature
3. The outcome/decision has potential high impact for department, division, or company
Don’t feel pressured to form a team because it’s the thing to do now. If it doesn’t feel right, the heck with it. Form teams only when they make sense, and the team output will be greater than the sum of the individual members’ inputs.
Topics: Team Building At Work |