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Basics of Team Building

shijina asked:

A team may be defined as a group of people who come to achieve a common purpose. The word team is derived from the use of oxens or bullocks shackled together to create a focused, shared force for transporting heavy materials. Although there is no magic formula to build team efforts effectively however there can be a concentrated effort as to how a team works and this in turn would yield you with greater capability to help you building great and effective teams.

Team building, a word used most frequently these days. Almost all corporate companies whether big or small have realized the need and importance of team building. Because of the different personality traits it is always important for the companies to build strategies that could enhance the productivity of the employees in a team. So many companies have now adopted many team building practices and efforts to create a more motivated team workforce and develop an atmosphere an atmosphere where people support each other as a team and to foster organizational learning. The task of building teams is not as easy; however there are many techniques, methods, principles which can be applied to create highly effective teams. One of the many methods of building effective team building based on the stages of group development viz., Tuckman model is explained below:

Stages of Group Development:

Dr. Bruce Tuckman in 1965 developed a model on the basis of stages in the group development called the Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing theory. The Tuckman’s model explains that as a group matures; establish relationships the leadership style also varies. In the initial stages the leadership style followed is directive in nature, as the relationship progresses the style changes to coaching, this leadership style would be followed by participative leadership where in both of them work together and the leader also participates in the activities delegated to the follower. As this progress the style changes to delegation.

However he has split the explanation into four stages and the features of each of the stage are explained:

Forming:

There is high dependence of the team on the leader. There would be little agreement in the team other than the instructions received from the leader. There will not be much clarity on the team’s objectives, purpose, role and the individual responsibilities. The leader in this stage usually follows directive approach and   has to answer many queries.

Storming:

The decisions do not come easily in a group. There would prevail a scenario for clashes as the group members make an attempt to establish relationship. There might be power struggles and the knowledge about the purpose and existence of the group increases. In this stage the team needs to be focused on its goals and the leader needs to make sure that they do not deviate and become distracted by relationships and emotional issues. There would be a requirement of compromise to enable progress.

Norming:

This is the stage where the team comes to terms and there is feature of agreement and consensus prevailing in the group. There is complete clarity of roles and responsibilities. In this stage the team can engage in fun activities. The team discusses the working style and there would be prevalence of complete respect for the team leader.

Performing:

The team at this stage is more strategically developed and there is complete knowledge within the team of what the team is doing. There is shared vision and at this stage the team can manage all its affairs without the interference of the team. There is a high degree of autonomy within the team and even if there are disputes, they would be resolved within the team positively. Here the leader merely delegates and merely oversees the work.

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