Effective Team Building Strategies For Organizations

Team Purpose

Discuss about the Strategies for the building effective virtual team.

Team purpose: For the team, it is important that the members share a common goal. Without a common goal or purpose, it can be difficult for team members, to work together to attain the common goals of an organisation.

Roles: The roles played by each member need to complement one another so that each member feels the importance of the roles that they have been assigned (Barnwell et al., 2014)

Responsibilities: The responsibilities delegated need to be done equally to avoid any extra pressure on any one of the employees.

Accountabilities: Every team member needs to be accountable for the actions that they perform.

According to DuBois et al. (2015), performance plan is used to achieve desired goals throughout the year. The plan is chalked out keeping in mind the overall objectives of the organisation. It needs to include both long-term as well as short-term goals for the betterment of an organisation. As such, a performance plan must contain information about the employee, important dates such as date of joining, description about performance and action plan. These criteria need to align with the type of job that is being done in the organisation and the current position in which the organisation has in the market.

The duty of the team leader is to ensure that during meetings regarding expected outcomes, the team members are provided with proper motivation. They need to be trained well so that they can face the meeting in a positive manner and ensure that they get their queries solved in the process. The team leader also needs to lead from the front and accompany the members in the meeting to provide them moral support. However, as stated by Freedman (2016) some meetings take place between the team members and the managers with the exclusion of the leaders. In cases like this, prior motivation and training need to be provided to the members.

According to Reiter-Palmon and Royston (2017), team members need to be involved in decision making so that they can get an idea about the thoughts of the managers. The team members are the people that contribute heavily to the cause of a team by playing different roles and taking up different responsibilities. Hence, involving them in the decision-making process can help them to be more creative and innovative. Moreover, they can suggest changes that may be good for the organisation. Apart from this, such involvement acts as a huge motivational factor for the team members.

The policy and procedures of an organisation need to be clear about the ways to work in the particular establishment. Hence, it is necessary that the team members take responsibility for the work they conduct in the organisation. This is mainly because poor performance from the members will lead to poor results in the organisation. Hence, the policies and procedures of an organisation make sure that every employee is responsible for himself as well as one another. In a team, it is needed that the team members coordinate with one another to meet the goals (Lee, Choi & Kim, 2017). This coordination includes assisting one another in critical times. Hence, the policies and procedures need to be precise about the type of assistance being provided and the responsibility that is shared.

Roles

Providing feedback to team members can have a positive effect on the performance of the members. This is mainly because of the fact that with the feedbacks, the team members can understand their strengths and weaknesses. The feedbacks also motivate an individual in performing efficient work. Ford, Piccolo and Ford (2017) stated that one way of providing feedbacks is by conducting a performance appraisal analysis. In this test, the result of the employees is clearly mentioned that may get to motivate an individual or the team members. However, due to the length of time required for the completion of the appraisal, most organisations prefer to provide direct and instant feedback.

According to Levi (2015), group dynamics refers to the manner in which every member of a group coordinate with one another to meet the target of the team. Tuckman suggested that group dynamics could be formed after five stages. These stages include:

Forming: This is the initial stage of building up a team. At this stage, team members are introduced to another.

Storming: At this stage, conflict among the individuals takes place usually because of the various cultural backgrounds to which they belong.

Norming: At this stage, tasks are delegated to each team member based on the skills and talents they possess.

Performing: This is the stage in which members work together to attain the goal. The performance of the team is measured by the outcome it has in the organisation.

Adjourning: At this stage, the team is broken down and a new team is formed for the betterment of an organisation.

The benefits of working in a group are that ideas and thoughts can be shared. These ideas and thoughts can come from different people with various backgrounds and as a result, versatility and diversity can take place in the workplace. However, it is important to choose a particular leader and assign roles to every member for the better efficiency.

Consensus decision making is a dramatic way in which every team member reaches a common agreement. The members of the group obtain a common solution, by developing strategies that can help the team members in achieving the goals (Seely, 2016). It can be said to gain consensus it is necessary that team members quickly resolve any type of conflict that may take place within the team. This can be done by ensuring that conducting interactive sessions that may help the team to build trust among one another.

Discussion: Discussion can help bring out various thoughts and ideas regarding solving a conflict. Group discussion is said to be the best method for coming to a common and stable decision.

Written communication: Written communication can keep a record of the conversation that has taken place among the individuals.  This can prove useful as the individuals can refer back to the conversation during the time of conflict.

Mediation: Dunn et al. (2015) stated that mediation is one of the best ways to solve issues in the workplace. The involvement of a third party can provide a neutral perspective on the issue at hand. This is mainly because a neutral party will not hold any biases on the members.

Responsibilities

Compromise: It is a situation where one party makes compromises to restore the peace within the organisation. They have to remain content with the requirements provided to them so that the productivity of the organisation is not hampered.

Voting: Voting can be considered as a traditional manner in resolving conflicts. Each member of an organisation cases their beliefs and thoughts in the form of supporting a party in a unanimous manner.

The two factors that led to the problems in the marketing team include the lack of time provided to the team members so that they can come to terms with the departure of Carly. The second factor includes the division that existed between the group members in terms of gender. This indicates that despite working together and producing good results, an underlying tension remained that made the people mistrust one another. The departure of Carly indicates that the team needs a senior member to help them to succeed.

After analysing the scenario, it can be said that the marketing team have regressed to the storming stage in Tuckman’s group development model. This is the second stage at which team members are in constant denial with one another. This normally happens due to a difference of opinion and attitude of doing work (Peterson, 2016). This stage can lead to the breaking of the team and a new team can be formed in lieu of the activities that take place during this stage. Despite its success, certain decisions have led the team to go back at its initial phrase.

In the case of the occurrence of the issue again, Greg can adopt the method of mediation as a means of resolving a conflict. According to Burke and Barron (2014), mediation is a dynamic conflict resolution process wherein a neutral person can interact with the people of both parties and come to a proper conclusion. In this case, it is necessary that Greg remains neutral about the problems that are faced by the team members. He needs to focus on the requirements of the employees and make effort to fulfil them. In this regard, it is necessary for Greg to use various techniques so that he can help the parties find an appropriate solution. Greg needs to abstain from threatening the employees about the loss of jobs and instead encourage them to refrain from the current activities. He needs to make sure that blames are not thrown around among team members.

To help the team come out of the crisis, it is necessary that Greg follow certain steps. One such step includes opportunities to be a mentor or coach. Greg needs to provide the team members with an opportunity to coach the team. This can provide an extra motivational factor for the team members and they can develop their talents as future team leaders like Carly. Another step that can be taken includes building strategies to address the issues that arise during the performance. The performance of the team took a steep low after the departure of Carly. Greg needs to continuously motivate the employees and provide the members with an opportunity for improvement. To do so Greg can adopt a benchmarking strategy. This strategy can help the team member to understand the level of performance that they need to have. The strategy can be such that it provides some of the best performance of the team members into the limelight. A third step that Greg can use is to apply strategies to gain consensus from the team members. This may be challenging for the employees particularly after the recent storming session. The agreement of all the team members can be achieved by conducting group sessions and pointing out the advantages as well as the disadvantages of the decisions.

Accountabilities

To: The team members

Subject: Importance of meeting team goals

This e-mail has been sent to you to make you aware of the importance of team goals in the organisation. While working as a team it is necessary to complement one another and ensure that the problems of the team members are shared. This is important as the sharing of burden can release the stress on one particular team member. Working as a team can help in gaining knowledge regarding varieties of things. These things include understanding the culture of each person along with personalities, habits and perception. It helps in broadening the aspects of learning and makes the employees more efficient. Furthermore, it increases the productivity of an organisation. The reason for dividing people into teams is because the organisation wants to fulfil its mission and vision by following legal protocols and policies set forth at the initial stage. This includes the goals set for the team as well. Working together builds a sense of trust among individuals and develops a sense of responsibility to achieve the goals provided to them.

It is my request to the team members to put aside the differences and not let one failure hinder any opportunities to achieve the overall goals.

Thanking You

Greg

To: The team members

Subject: Indulging in discrimination

This e-mail is sent to make you aware of the consequences of indulging in discrimination within the organisation. By the policy led down by the organisation, it is clear that people making any comments regarding the ethnicity, culture, colour or gender of a person is subject to face consequences. Despite this, it has been noted that during the conflict comments regarding discrimination had been made by the women. It is to be understood that such discrimination is not a legal thing in the organisation. Hence, it needs to be kept in mind that comments that point to discrimination must not be made. While working in a team, the success and failure of the team need to be the responsibility of every member. It is unfair to judge only one individual or in this case a particular gender for the failure that the team have faced. Hence, it is necessary that for every member to stop making comments that create more discrimination within the team and in the process harm its productivity.

Hoping that such actions will not be repeated again in the future and every member will enjoy success as well as a failure as a complete team.

Thanking You

Greg

According to van der Burg, Valverde and Torres (2017), trust is one of the most important elements that every individual must develop while working in a team. Without trust, a team cannot function properly and provide the required quality as expected from them. Thus, it can be said that it is necessary for Greg to develop an activity that would help in bringing back the trust among the members. The activities can be in the form of fun and games such as night trail. In this activity, obstacles are kept in paths and the employees are blindfolded. A rope is provided with the instructions to grab onto the rope and navigate through the obstacles. People are allowed to talk so, both trust and leadership skills can be built. Creating such an activity will be within the budget limit of the company, as the main component required here is the rope.

Performance Plan

Having analysed the condition of the team it can be said that it is topmost priority to contain the degradation of the team performance.  To do so, it is necessary to bring the team together by conducting sessions such as group discussion and playful activities. It has already been mentioned that to increase the trust of the team members, it is necessary that Greg indulge the team in playful activities. Apart from this, the group discussion sessions can help the group to understand one another. One of the biggest disadvantages of the group is that they had to deal with the departure of one their best performers. Hence, it is necessary that the senior members of the group take up the responsibility for completing the work in an efficient manner. The team need to be given small goals so that they can gain the confidence by achieving it and build up the aim to achieve higher goals. These goals can be related to the organisation or personal goals related to the team. Hence, it can be said that such tactics can help Greg’s team to gain back the success it had lost after the departure of Carly. It is also essential to find out potential leaders in the team so that the team can be guided in a proper manner. This responsibility needs to be taken by the senior members of the team.

Task
	Success criteria	Timeframe	Responsible person
Develop team efficiency	Monitor performance of the team	3 months	Team leader
Delegate roles and responsibilities	Efficiency of the team	1 month	Team leader
Develop balance between the team members	Coordination among team members	1 month	Team members
Develop effective task managing skills	Increased success rate	2 months	Team leader
Find alternative solutions	Mitigate risks of failure	3 months	Manager
Expected outcomes
	Success criteria	Timeframe	Responsible person
Good coordination between team members	Increased efficiency of work	4 months	Team members and team leader
Proper management of teams	Proper work was done by the team	3 months	Manager
Key Performance Indicator
	Success criteria	Timeframe	Responsible person
Managing milestones	Getting work done in a systematic manner	2 months	Team members
Completing work within budget	Manages to save finances	Length of task	Team members, manager and team leader
Rate of engaging members	Brings out success criteria	2 months	Team leader
Goals
	Success criteria	Timeframe	Responsible person
Develop an efficient team	Achieve team goals	1 month	Team leader
Maintain coordination between members	Achieve desired results	1 month	Team leader
Understand roles and responsibilities	Effective performance	2 months	Team members

Table 1: Action plan

(Source: Created by author)

To manage the recommended it is essential that Greg undertake certain actions that may benefit the team as well as the organisation. To ensure that the team members understand their roles and responsibilities it is necessary that Greg question every employee separately. The questions need to be based on the roles that they are playing in the organisation along with the roles that have been delegated to others. In this way, Greg can understand the ways by which every team member is aware of the things that need to be done.  To identify the leader in the group Greg need to develop certain situations where the leadership quality is required. The activity involved with the rope can help Greg to identify the leader and thus begin training the member. It is also important the every member respect one another, hence, Greg needs to ensure that the team members are involved in multiple group sessions that can help them to understand their differences and build a proper interaction with one another. Thus, these implementations can help in ensuring that the recommended tactics are successful and can help in increasing the efficiency of the team.

As a team leader, it is important that the team members are motivated all the time. This can help the team members feel important and they can continue with any creative tactics for the success of the team. The team leader needs to lead by example and carry on tasks that are difficult for the team members. However, as stated by Gardner and Pierce (2016) team leaders need to guide the team members in any difficult situations. This includes providing them ample support regarding the ways to complete a task. The tasks that are delegated to the team members need to be analysed by the team leaders. This can provide the leader with an idea about the difficulties that the team may face. This together with the motivational factor can help in the development of a successful team. It is also essential that the team leaders ensure that peace and unity prevail among the team members.

Team Leader’s Role

Greg needs to motivate the employees about the importance of teamwork. The fact that a proper teamwork can help in the success of the company need to be implemented by Greg. To involve the members in the decision-making process, Greg needs to ensure that the employees are given ample freedom to show their creativity and innovative nature. This can get the members to talk about their thoughts and ideas and participate in the team meeting. This can add a lot of value to the team and the organisation.

According to Miller (2015), it is essential to provide feedback to the team members about their performances to make them understand about their flaws and at the same time motivate them to continue the good work. The feedback needs to be given via email or by conducting a personal session with the employees. The advantage of the persona session is that the team leaders can work on the flaws of the employees and provide them the necessary guidance required for continuing the work. This is another huge motivational factor for the team members.

While working in a team, conflict and complaint may take place within the team members (Schleyer, Moore & Weaver, 2016). This is a natural occurrence due to the varied opinions provided by the members. Hence, it is also necessary for the leaders to maintain a complaint and conflict resolution process. The complaint resolution process includes a systematic filing of complaint. The grieved employee can file a complaint by dropping the message of grievance at the complaint box situated at the office. The message needs to be then taken to the managers wherein the message can be analysed. In this manner, the party sending the complaint and the reason for the complaint being made is analysed. In this regard, it can be said that during conflict resolution, it is essential that the team leaders play the act as a mediator in the organisation. 

Continuous support to a team is essential so that the team members remain motivated. This includes the guiding the team and making sure that the team members get every possible help to complete a project (Katzenbach & Smith, 2015). The managers need to understand the concern of the team from the team leaders and make efforts to mitigate the issue. Apart from this, a mental support is also needed to be provided so that the team members feel encouraged to continue work in a proper environment.

To build a successful team, it is necessary that the managers build a proper communication with the team members (Murray, 2016). Communication helps to maintain every thought and process that needs to be transferred from one department to another. In this case, the communication that needs to be involved between the team members and managers include a direct flow of thoughts, ideas and processes. This can be done by email or by face-to-face conversation. The advantage for such a communication is that any flaw in either of the departments can be understood easily and rectifications can be made in an instant basis. The two way flow of communication can motivate the team members as the support from the managers is essential for effective team performance. The fact that the managers can be approached with grievances can help a team to be effective within the organisation.

Items	Yes	No
Understanding the purpose of the team	ü
Role and responsibilities of the team members	ü
Support the members	ü

Involvement in Decision Making

Table 2: Checklist

(Source: Created by author)

Question	Yes	No
Do you understand the purpose of the team?	ü
Are you aware of the goals of the team?	ü
What is your role and responsibility in the team?
What is the support that you expect from the team leaders and team members?	ü

Table 3: Questionnaire

(Source: Created by author)

The project that has been given to the team members is to enhance the service level of the call centres. Techniques and processes are required to be identified and analysed so that the improvement of the call centres can be made. It has been clear that the call centre is facing with many complaints that have led to the dissatisfaction of the workers. The report states certain techniques that can be adapted to prevent the dissatisfaction of the team members. The use of verbal and non-communication need to be stated so that team effectiveness can be built and the call centre gets its shares of success.

One of the most effective techniques that can be adopted by the team to coordinate well with one another. It needs to be noted that during the induction process every member belonging to the group can be introduced properly so that they can work together properly. The purpose of forming the team needs to be clear so that goals can be set for its success. The roles and responsibilities of every team member need to be defined clearly. This can help the members to perform specific roles and not overlap the other by doing the same task again. This can help in the quick completion of work.

During the induction, the team members need to be debriefed about the work and the roles that are expected of them. For this, it is necessary that the team members be trained properly so that they can complement one another during any situation. Working together as a team can help the members to identify the strengths and weaknesses of one another and thereby ensure that the effectiveness of the work is obtained. Moreover, it is required that proper communication is made with the members and the manager so that any complaints or ideas can converse easily.

The required outcome for conducting this induction is that the call centres need to be improved. The failure of the call centres is mainly due to the lack of team effort and coordination. It is to be noted that team effectiveness is required in every field while working at a professional level. Hence, the team effective tactics that need to be followed include coordination, communication and trust. The required outcome from such team coordination is that the members can form an effective team and work to meet the goals and objectives of the organisation.

Thus, it can be concluded that the use of verbal as well as non-verbal techniques of communication is important for the effectiveness of ensuring team efficiency. Every team member needs to keep in mind that in order to gain success, it is necessary that the members have a good understanding of the purpose as well as the goals of the team. This can help them to be successful and work towards improving the condition of the call centres. Understanding the roles and responsibilities can help in supporting the team members and enhance the level of coordination between the employees.

Feedback	Yes	No
a. Provide specific feedback and encouragement	ü
b. Ensure that the team members understood that their hard work and achievements have been noticed	ü
c. Ensure the team members felt valued and appreciated		ü
d. Suggest some informal ways to learn more about their work-life balance	ü
e. Use appropriate communication techniques	ü
f. Demonstrate active listening skills		ü
g. Demonstrate effective questioning skills		ü
h. Encourage the team members to give feedback	ü
i. Show support for the team member	ü

Table 4: Feedback checklist

(Source: Created by author)

The video link provides a description of the strategy adopted to recruit people with disability (Youtube.com, 2018). While recruiting people, managers of all organisations need to keep in mind that legal and fair selection of the candidates is done. This means taking into account the Fair Work Act 2009 and the Fair Work Regulations Act 2009. The video agrees with the same and provides a clear insight into the strategies that are generally adapted to accommodate the disabled people.

The new policy can help AIIGO to not be biased about the people that they are recruiting. They can conduct a background check on these people and ensure that fair selection is made based on the requirements and the talents of the candidates. This new policy can help the company provide sufficient professional jobs to the people and ensure that disability does not be an issue for anyone.

The support that AIIGO can provide to their team members is that they can ensure that every team member is given the roles that best suit the people. The disabled members need to be made aware of the policies and the goals of the team. The leaders need to ensure that every team member supports one another by coordinating their actions. The leaders also need to check the tasks and prepare mitigation solutions in case of discrepancy.

During the first twelve months of the operation, a set of KPIs needs to be developed. These include:

• Rate of turnover of employees
• Support provided by the staffs
• Necessary facilities for training and development
• Engagement of employees
• Ways to manage milestones

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