Team building is the process of identifying the potential the team possesses, therefore, necessitating the adoption of practices that seek to improve the performance of the team (Dyer, 2007). Two videos were used in accessing and try to understand what qualifies a competent team. The video promoted the concepts that entail team building, besides highlighting the dysfunctions of team building practices in the videos used. The videos were able to show different techniques which were used in the enhancement of the enhancement of team performance. Such methods included collaboration, motivation and effective communication in the team building exercise. The techniques used in the activities displayed in the videos are applicable in an organization setting which aims to increase the output, and customer satisfaction through team building concepts (Dyer, 2007). The two videos promote almost the same ideas in team building activities, although, the ideas portrayed were not entirely similar as the first video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3C6yzYuVC0 ) was on building the learning culture in a team, the second video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vts7vU0rOvQ ) was on hiring and team building. The two team building techniques from the video above were then assessed and picked by the approach used in making their teamwork successfully. My company may seek to adopt the techniques of the first group which uses the hybrid approach, as they seem relevant and practical to the running of any organization (Dyer, 2007). There is not much which will be changed, but only make slight changes like including leadership skills in the teamwork to ensure a genuine relationship exists among the participants ( Mumford et al., 2000) . Team building is an essential concept that organizations should adopt for the smooth working of the departments and the benefit of the organization.
Team building involves undertaking activities that help a teamwork cohesively to achieve the best interest of the outlined project and eventually bring out the best performance. Team building can also be termed to be a science as it involves the formation of a team, and its development through stages (Brown & Harvey, 2011). The videos identified to promote the concept of team building by addressing the ability to classify individuals depending on their strengths and weaknesses to create a team. The videos provide the basis to which organizations have to approach in developing a team. The videos concur that to build successful teams in organizations; there has to be a suitable decision-making mechanism that is focused on bringing the best judgments. There also has to be an elaborate customer centricity outline as they are the backbone of the organization. A great design has to be employed to conceptualize the path to be followed by the organization. The videos promote the idea that, for teamwork to be effective at the workplace members have to show positivity and aim to develop their strengths. This is because yesterday’s assumptions may not apply in today’s setting. Hence, every team building activity has to structure itself on maximizing strengths while minimizing weaknesses.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Various reasons can make the team dysfunctional. This is mainly because everybody in a teamwork has different attributes. The videos identified point out dysfunctions that they seek to address. They do this by conceptualizing a behavior that they aim to have in their team (Ammeter, & Dukerich, 2002). They discuss the dysfunction where during team building process, teamwork has a large group of participants. This, they say is not the best practice as it might not encourage effective communication. The videos campaign for the small team of around six to eight individuals where people can efficiently interact in e place sitting close, and discussing to each other to produce the best results at the shortest time possible. Being able to identify problems, and come up with strategies to resolve a problem can go a long way in coming up with solutions to the issues that affect an organization. Another dysfunction addressed is emphasizing on the standard issue instead of focusing on differences among the participants may drag the team activities behind (Ammeter, & Dukerich, 2002). Highlighting and solving dysfunctions in a team building activities is prudent as it will teach positivity which may have an impact in achieving the desired results.
Employing the best techniques is an essential practice for improving the team performance and enhance the output of an organization. The videos gathered from YouTube employ techniques which can increase team performance when put into practice. The teams use the technique of collaboration; where every participant contributes an idea which will be interpreted by the team and taken advantage of for the maximization of the teamwork. The techniques were essential, in that, the groups advocate for maximizing the learning and the productivity of teams in an effort of doing everything possible to build the best potential products for the team and eventually benefit the organization (Francis & Young, 1979). The teams in the two videos employ the technique of celebrating small wins, which act as an inspiration to the team which makes the participants feel their contributions are being appreciated. Effective communication was also employed as a technique in enhancing team performance (Salas et al., 1999). This technique is essential as it achieves an efficient communicating system in the teamwork. The videos stressed the importance of creating a quick and flowing line of communication in a team to enhance productivity (Wellins, 1991). The teams in the video also emphasized for the spirit of collaboration, which requires every team member to develop a good relationship where everyone will be there for each other for the good of the team building activity. The techniques employed in these videos qualify the idea that for a team to perform well, specific procedures have to be taken into consideration to enhance efficiency which will result to increased productivity (Wellins, 1991) and satisfaction in team building exercises.
Most organization employ the concept of team building as an approach to improving the output. The videos picked in this research used techniques that have been experienced in the most organizations in the world over. Making sound decisions is one of the methods that has been experienced in organizations. Decision-making process in team building activities entails selecting the best minds who can make a sound decision which will be beneficial to the organization. The first video talked about making decisions by understanding the market. The video says that yesterday’s assumptions about the market behavior may not be the same now, and it will not be the same in the future. It calls for sobriety in the team and makes critical decisions that navigate around customer centricity. This technique was employed in my organization, where at first it faced hurdles in different groups as most team members were not ready for an extra task. To make the work easier, a framework was designed through software which made it possible to relay customer feedback within the shortest time possible thereby helping in understanding the customer needs. This type of team building technique proved vital as all the details which were applied played a key role in reducing costs while increasing output in the organization.
Collaboration is a critical tenet in team building which involves two or more groups of people who work together by sharing ideas and thoughts to achieve a set target (Francis & Young, 1979. The selected videos for this study used collaboration skills which have proved to be a productive way of accomplishing things. This type of team building has been adopted in my organization, and it worked efficiently, although it was met with resistance during its conceptualization. Most team members, especially those with exceptional abilities, did not want to be merged with those who had limited capabilities. They felt it was draining to them since they were the ones contributing a lot. As time went by, they appreciated the value of collaboration as they realized there are specific specs they lacked (Holton, 2001). This was because everyone’s skills and abilities were involved and created room for sharing of knowledge and work and developing skills that were beneficial to them such as operational and negotiation skills. Entirely the videos were of great importance to my organization, and can still be used for future reference when called needed.
After exploring the techniques of the two teams, it was prudent that they are analyzed and assessed through comparing and contrasting. There was not much difference in their outline, but only regarding approach used. The first team used a hybrid model based on consensus while the second group used a traditional management approach. The first team used a bottom-up while the second team used a top-down style. The first team performed better regarding outcome than the second team which used the traditional approach. The first team advocated for competency where the top management tolerated their teams with the pace in which they received information thereby valuing their contribution which in turn increased the output of the teams in the organization. While the second team which used the traditional approach which managers give orders without understanding the situation which the teams were in did not perform better. This is because it encompasses taking orders depending on the level a team is without questioning. At first, it seemed to work, but it was not effective overall as most members of the organization quit. The hybrid approach technique is better than the traditional approaches it gives room for the adoption of a roadmap which stipulates the schedule of events and how and when the tasks need to be completed. It is not easy to pick out one technique over the other because they all have their differences and similarities which define them to work in an organization effectively. One analogy that is brought out is their effort to learn and continually develop new strategies which are based on the learning structure which is hypothesized and experimented. Although the two techniques are challenging to outweigh each other, if one was to choose a technique, then the first techniques are better as it has an explicit elaboration of how teams should work in the dynamic nature of organizations.
One of the most critical technique to team building is the ability to come up with a team. It is how the team is built that will determine the results to be achieved. The techniques to be formulated will vary depending on the objective of team building in my organization. One of the methods to be employed would be collaboration, which takes which will take different shapes, for example in defining the anatomy of the team. The first step would be developing a stable leadership structure. This strategy will work efficiently in my organization since the team members will be able to play their roles in a collaboration exercise with minimal supervision. In adopting this technique, there is not much that will be changed, only that team leaders in my organization will be inculcated with leadership skills which will address the shortcomings of the second team in the video which uses a traditional approach which asserts much authority to the teams. Instead, the team leaders will adopt honesty and transparency in carrying out their roles ( Morgeson et al., 2005) . This will play an important role in collaboration technique as it will foster a long-lasting relationship through an elaborate communication channel (Holton, 2001). Another change that will be made is promoting the aspect of teamwork among the members which the first team seemed to lack. Through adoption of team building techniques from the first team in the video, and making slight changes, my organization is expected to soar to greater heights regarding profits and output.
Conclusion
Team building is an important aspect that defines the direction an organization will take. It involves not only the managers, but also the employees who are tasked to interpret and implement the work at hand. Therefore, team building helps in simplifying work which would instead have taken a long while to solve. Through collaboration, teamwork can address an issue by brainstorming and come up with solutions. Team building also teaches values such as honesty, supporting, and trusting each other. Two videos were used in assessing team building techniques where one team used the hybrid approach of bottom-up while the other used the traditional top-down approach in team building activities. The two approaches can work in any team framework, but the techniques of the first team seem more ideal for my organization. There will be slight changes that shall be made to ensure the technique works efficiently in my organization. It is undeniable that team building has a vital role in organizations, and it is up to organizations to realize this and adopt team building strategies if they want to achieve the best performance and creating a harmonious relationship in their organizations.
References
Ammeter, A. P., & Dukerich, J. M. (2002). Leadership, team building, and team member characteristics in high performance project teams. Engineering Management Journal , 14 (4), 3-10.
Brown, D. R., & Harvey, D. F. (2011). An experiential approach to organization development.
Dyer, W. G. (2007). Team building . John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Francis, D., & Young, D. (1979). Improving work groups, a practical manual for team building . University Associates.
Holton, J. A. (2001). Building trust and collaboration in a virtual team. Team performance management: an international journal , 7 (3/4), 36-47.
Morgeson, F. P., Reider, M. H., & Campion, M. A. (2005). Selecting individuals in team settings: The importance of social skills, personality characteristics, and teamwork knowledge. Personnel psychology , 58 (3), 583-611.
Mumford, M. D., Zaccaro, S. J., Harding, F. D., Jacobs, T. O., & Fleishman, E. A. (2000). Leadership skills for a changing world: Solving complex social problems. The Leadership Quarterly , 11 (1), 11-35.
Salas, E., Rozell, D., Mullen, B., & Driskell, J. E. (1999). The effect of team building on performance: An integration. Small group research , 30 (3), 309-329.
Wellins, R. S. (1991). Empowered teams: Creating self-directed work groups that improve quality, productivity, and participation . Jossey-Bass Inc., 350 Sansome Street, San Francisco, CA 94104-1310.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3C6yzYuVC0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vts7vU0rOvQ
