Management 605 – Managing in Organizations – Week 3

Week 3 – Teamwork

There was a lot here I wanted to unpack and understand. I’ve been a part of several high functioning teams and I wanted to know why. A team forms from a working group by using a common approach, holding each other accountable, and getting everyone to trust each other to accomplish the shared goals. As a team member I didn’t realize the art of role formation and role communication that makes teams so productive and how you need to chose, evaluate, and communicate those roles. I appreciate how teams solve problems but didn’t appreciate how a team can get there. I do recognize the five stages in team building from Tuckman of forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. Norming is probably the most important in my opinion, just getting everyone on the same page can be difficult, but a lot of that too gets ironed out during storming and breaking down any barriers.

Managing a team though seems like a whole new avenue of exploration. Groups can be less effective when there is role conflict on the team whether its through ambiguity or being overloaded. I do believe teams should be smaller, like four members max, in order to dissuade social loafers. Managing personality conflicts is difficult but remember to keep from dragging others into it and get help if it exceeds your abilities. I once managed a team that had deep personality conflicts and with some more experience I most likely could have managed it better, and although the team moved on, it was emotionally taxing on my part, especially as a young person dealing with adults. Finally, I do like Lencioni’s five dysfunctions of a team and would most likely use it when evaluating a team’s disfunctions if they were to arise.