WORKING TRENDZ
Foster idea-sharing concept in teams for better output
When different people come together to form a team, initially they look like a motley group. It takes a while for the benefits of team-based work to actually develop. Coming from different backgrounds, first of all these people must learn to work together. Therefore while managing a team you must create a climate that promotes quick adaptation through rapid learning. It is only through continuous learning that workplace teams develop the interpersonal coordination and also add new skills that make them more effective. With passage of time the team members discover the strengths and weaknesses of each other and learn to coordinate their activities skilfully.
Team members often take cues from their supervisors while trying to acquire the desired behaviours to operate as a team. In order to set the right precedence you must:
Be available: You must be readily accessible and remain easily approachable to let the team members understand that you value and welcome their opinions. By encouraging people to share new ideas and thoughts you help them to develop a broader perspective and also discover new ways of doing things.
Active participation: You should explicitly seek active participation of the team while solving the day-to-day issues to reinforce the idea-sharing concept and facilitate learning in the process.
Mistakes occur: Team members in general hesitate to admit any mistakes they have made for the fear of ridicule. If you admit your own shortcomings when things go wrong, they will understand that they can also discuss their errors without fear. Thus you will foster a better learning environment.
Knowledge sharing: While the team members work together, observe the quality and quantity of data being shared by them. It is common to find that some of the team members know something, which would be useful to other team mates but they do not intend to share it. Reluctance to share information and knowledge is often a chronic problem among teams.
To facilitate effective learning you must ensure that the team members volunteer all relevant information to each other. Make it mandatory for all the team members to give inputs and also conduct peer-training sessions to spread knowledge across the team. Linking this exercise to performance evaluation will make it even more effective.
Experiment: While observing the team processes help the team members draw important lessons from every experience. Also give them an opportunity to try out new knowledge.
Conduct periodic project debriefing sessions to identify what went right and what went wrong and how this knowledge can be used profitably in future.
Learning process: The level of individual participation, communication within the team, collaboration, documentation of learning as well as application of lesson learnt should form important parameters for individual and team performance evaluation.
This will prompt the individuals to play a more active role and also acquire and apply knowledge more vigorously.
While managing a team, paying close attention to the processes through which members collaborate, share information and get the work done will take you closer to success as these are the means that endorse learning. Also you must be wary of dysfunctional processes, which derail the process of learning. These include groupthink, domination of one group over the other, information and withholding.
However through regular, informal team discussions you can monitor the team’s functioning and fix issues that impede learning. This will help you to reap the fruits of teamwork soon enough.
N. PURNIMA SRIKRISHNA
faqs@cnkonline.com
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