Teams and their collaboration
Robert Bosch once said: "Every job is important, even the smallest one. No one should imagine that his work is superior to that of his coworker. Everyone should contribute to the good of the whole."
And he's absolutely right about that. But getting the team to work together as a "whole" is not that easy. There are different types of teams. They differ in terms of their performance and cohesion (see Paul Watzlawick).
According to Watzlawick, the respective characteristics of the factual and relationship levels differ.
Lone fighter group
In a lone wolf group, there is hardly any emotional cohesion and no professional cooperation. Therefore, managers in such a constellation must work in parallel to improve the factual and relationship levels in the team.
Social group
In the "sociable group", too much time is spent on cultivating relationships and power struggles. It is therefore the task of the manager to encourage the team to strengthen the factual level.
ExpertGroup
In the expert group, the factual level is high, but the relationship level is low. Performance is often quickly impaired in difficult situations. This is because team members only support each other in personal matters to a very limited extent due to a lack of emotional cohesion.
Real teams
In a "real" team, the factual and relationship levels are highly pronounced . The manager's task here is to keep the team flexible. In this way, the status of a "real" team can be maintained.
"If everyone moves forward together,
then success
will come of its own accord." - Henry Ford
The life cycle concept of teams
The life cycle concept of teams is based on the assumption that newly formed teams are not immediately fully effective. Instead, they go through various phases in which effectiveness and productivity gradually develop (Tuckman 1965, p. 384). The four different phases each focus on different things.
Forming phase
The focus here is on building relationships and thus the relationship level between the team members. It takes a relatively long time to get to know each other and build relationships. The working or factual level is therefore initially of secondary importance.
The team needs a relationship manager.
Storming phase
In this phase of a team, the focus remains on the relationship level, because it is all about the distribution of roles.
The team now needs an arbitrator.
Norming phase
Expectations are set for the team members and the effectiveness of the team increases noticeably because the factual level gains weight and the relationship level loses it.
Help your team with good coordination.
Performing phase
Finally, in the Performing phase of teamwork, all the necessary group dynamic processes have been completed and the team can work together effectively. The factual and relationship levels are in balance.
Provide your team with a coach.
META helps you in every team phase
One approach for successful collaboration in project teams is Scrum, for example. The development team is a small group of specialists who work together in a self-organized manner. This ability to work together as a team works in individual and multiple development teams.
META can help you!
