People have always lived together.

It makes you feel more secure and gives you

a better chance of both surviving and thriving, but it mostly makes you feel like you belong.
We're always better when we work together, no matter what kind of group we're in. It's
this way that we look at teams and teamwork:

TEAM is defined as two or more people working together to achieve a shared goal.
TEAMWORK is a process of bringing individuals together and joining their efforts
and talents collaboratively to achieve a goal or a mission for a cause; an attitude and
sense that individuals can support each other so that their strengths combine to enhance
what they do.

How do we assess Teamwork?

• Trust among members • Acceptance of goals and tasks
• Feedback mechanisms • Valuing diversity
• Open communications • Member cohesiveness
• Approach to decisions • Support for each other
• Leadership sharing • Performance norms

Development Stages of a Team

1. Forming – in this stage, group members are very much occupied with their own
emotions and doubts like uncertainty about whether they will find their place in
the group, what will the other members be like, what to expect from others, etc.
“I-thinking” is the predominant attitude. In their search for safety and structure,
the group members try to become oriented, look for a safe place, search for
sympathetic members, and expect help from the leader.
2. Storming – members try to find their place in the group. There are many
discussions, subgroups are made to represent one’s interests, and lots of
competition. Many people talking simultaneously and nobody listening to each
other is a clear indicator that the group is in the storming stage. Failure or
 success in this stage will largely determine how open or closed participants will
be later in the process and how well they deal with conflicts and emotions.
3. Norming – members have established principles and procedures for achieving
results and creating a positive atmosphere. Participants have found their place
and feel safe in the group. People feel a part of the group, “I-thinking” is
replaced by “We-thinking”. It has become easier to communicate and
collaborate.
4. Performing – this is the highest point a group can accomplish. The result is
similar to two people being in love – participants feel proud to belong to this
group. They believe that nothing is too complicated for them, and interaction is
based on complete trust and openness. Objectively, such a group is also highly
productive. Most groups never reach this stage because it requires strong
motivation, common goals, great emotional input, and strong commitment from
the participants.
5. Adjourning/ Reframing – a group is established to accomplish specific
objectives. When these tasks have been accomplished, the group reaches a
natural end to its existence or sets itself new tasks – in this case, the group
development processes start again from the start. Work and processes are
reflected upon, and objectives are readjusted. If the team stops existing after
intensive cooperation, participants need time to tie up loose ends and become
familiar with the idea that the end is near. The stronger the relationships
develop, the more emotional the parting process will be.

Creating an Effective Team

How do we maximize the capabilities of the team? For any team to accomplish
their goal, they need to work together and as one. Here are some steps in building an
effective team:
a. Whether you are the leader of the team or just a member – help your team
define a vision and a purpose of what they do. Members often lack a sense of
purpose because, all too often, they don’t have all the information to allow them
 to understand how their efforts contribute to the bigger picture and move the
world forward. As a result, some may be focused solely on getting the job done.
Always give your team members enough information to realize the importance
of their contribution.
b. When forming a new team, it is essential to have a varied set of skills within the
team. Identify which skills and expertise you’re looking for. Then ask everyone
to state their strengths, what they can do best, and skills they want to master.
c. Create a habit of regular honest communication between teammates. This way,
the team can have updates or progress meetings to ask for help. If they don’t
know how to handle a task, they can ask for advice. Trust and communication
bring the teammates together.

Maintaining Effective Teamwork

Like a well-functioning car engine, teams should be checked and maintained to
provide maximum performance and achieve the goals efficiently and effectively. Here are
some things that can be done to sustain the productivity of a team:
a. Keeping the team’s motivation high is a big hassle, but it’s not impossible. The
best way to maintain a high level of motivation is to enable the team members
to align their personal development goals with their growth goals. We all want
to believe we can put the team’s interests ahead of our interests. Still, if team
members don’t feel they can grow and thrive within their teams, they will end
up leaving for a better environment or simply being unengaged and
unproductive.
b. Share weekly updates. Update each other about general progress; milestones
hit, plans for the upcoming week. The updates should be informative and serve
as an opportunity to recognize progress and keep everyone in the loop about
what has been done, who is doing what, and what needs to be done.
c. Nurture a sense of accountability among team members. When each member
is aware of the bigger picture, they know how being accountable for getting
their part of the job done allows the group milestone to be achieved.
Celebrating Success
A good motivation in working as a team recognizes the team's success,
acknowledges the different members that contribute to the achievement, and enforces a
productive atmosphere by reinforcing good and providing solutions to the challenges
encountered.
• It is important to celebrate even the little successes when your team succeeds.
Recognize the efforts made by each member of the team. Make it a regular
tradition to observe whenever a milestone is reached, whether it is over a meal
or a treat.
• When your team fails to reach the objective, still recognize the effort of each
member, but have everyone talk about their own mistakes and what they could
have done better. Don’t point any finger or blame others. Involve everyone in
planning improvements. This reassures team members that they have each
other’s backs and focuses on continuous improvements.

Best Practices
Here are some ways to develop the best working team:
a. Effective Leadership
Each member should be empowered to be a leader. When you have a team of
accountable leaders, teamwork is highly effective.
b. Encourage Creativity
Value each member’s contribution, leave room for creativity, trying new things, and
iteration.
c. Reward and Recognition
Make it a habit to recognize efforts made by the team to build team spirit.
d. Inter-group Communication
Create a space for teams within each class/department to meet and share their
progress, struggles, challenges, and success. It gives different perspectives and assures
everyone that they’re all working toward the same result.
Benefits of Teamwork
A. Benefits to group or organization
a. Increase productivity. Successful teams often achieve something more
significant than the sum of their parts (Multiplier Effect).
b. Increase quality through collective measures
c. Better morale
d. Better problem-solving. Teams can help to approach problems in new ways.
e. Increase creativity. Fellow team members may raise ideas you may not have
thought of if working independently.
f. Better decisions through collaborative efforts
B. Benefits to individuals
a. Work is less stressful
b. Responsibility is shared
c. Rewards and recognition is shared
d. Members can influence each other
e. All members experience a sense of accomplishment

Helpful and Harmful Behavior in Teamwork

Helpful Behavior Harmful Behavior

Be optimistic Constantly critical

Be on time Dominate/ monopolize
Support one another Be courteous Be manipulative
Be open-minded Be judgmental
Be honest Act bored/ uninterested
Participate Do unrelated things
Be open Sub-conversations
Listen Simply agree with everything
Stay on track Avoid decisions
Share the work Go off on a tangent
Complete your work Name-calling
Present ideas comment clearly Attack people/ideas
Be prepared
 Dysfunctions Presence in Team Absence in Team
Admit weakness and
Conceal their weakness mistakes
and mistakes from one
another Ask for help

Hesitate to ask for help or Accept questions and

provide constructive input about their areas of
feedback responsibility

Hesitate to offer help Give one another the

outside their areas of benefit of the doubt before
Absence of Trust responsibility arriving at a negative
This stems from their conclusion
unwillingness to be Jump to conclusions about
vulnerable within the the intentions and Take a risk in offering
group. Team members aptitudes of others without feedback and assistance
who are not genuinely attempting to clarify them.
open about their mistakes Appreciate the tap into
and weaknesses make it Fail to recognize and tap one another’s skills and
impossible to build a into one another’s skills experiences
foundation for trust. and experience
Focus time and energy on
Waste time and energy important issues, not
managing their behavior politics
for effect
Offer and accept
Hold grudges apologies without
hesitation
Dread meetings and find
reasons to avoid spending Look forward to meetings
time together and other opportunities to
work as a group
Fear of Conflict Have boring meetings Have lively, exciting
Teams that lack trust are meetings
incapable of engaging in Create environments
an unfiltered and where back-channel Extract and exploit the
passionate debate of ideas politics and personal ideas of all team members
and instead attacks
resort to veiled discussions Solve real problems
and Ignore controversial topics quickly
guarded comments. that are critical to team
success Minimize politics

Fail to tap into all the Put critical topics on the

opinions and perspectives table for discussion
of team members

Waste time and energy

with posturing and
interpersonal risk
management
Ensures that poor
performers feel pressure to
improve
Creates resentment
Avoidance of among team members
Identifies potential
Accountability who have different
problems quickly by
Without committing to a standards of performance
questioning one another's
clear plan of action, even
approaches without
the most focused and Encourage mediocrity
hesitation
driven people often
hesitate to call their peers Misses deadlines and key
Establishes respect among
on actions and behaviors deliverables
team members who are
that seem
held to the same standards
counterproductive to the Places an undue burden
team's good. on the team leader as the
Avoid excessive
sole source of discipline
bureaucracy around
performance and
corrective actions
Lack of Commitment Creates ambiguity among Creates clarity around
Without having aired their the team about direction direction and priorities
opinions in the course of and priorities
passionate and open Aligns the entire team
debate, team members Watches windows of around common objectives
rarely, if buy-in and commit opportunity close due to
to decisions, though they excessive analysis and Develops an ability to learn
may show agreement unnecessary delay from mistakes
during meetings.
 Breeds lack of confidence Takes advantage of
and fear of failure opportunities before
competitions do
Revisits discussions and
decisions again and again Moves forward without
hesitation
Encourages second-
guessing among the team Changes direction without
members hesitation or guilt
Retains achievement-
Stagnates/ fails to grow oriented members

Inattention to Results Rarely defeats competitors Minimized individualistic

This occurs when team behaviors
members put their Loses achievements-
individual needs (such as oriented members Enjoys successes as a
ego, career development, team
or recognition) or even the Encourages team
needs of their division members to focus on their Benefits from individuals
above the team's collective careers and individual who conquer their own
goals. goals goals/ interests for the
good of the team
Are easily distracted
Avoid distractions