Effective Teams

Effective Teams

When setting up a team, the most important ingredient is the people. If the team is to function effectively, all the necessary skills and experience should be present and the people should have the authority to act on their own. When a team starts working, it will need time and facilities to start their development and agree how they are going to operate. The purpose of the team must be clearly stated and written down in a document or manual.

The type of team in the simulation is a Cross-Functional Task Force. I chose the Cross Functional Team because this will be a group of people working toward a common goal and made of people with different functional expertise. Matching the top five candidates according to which roles they would play was not difficult at all. I read each candidates background and personal interest first. I decided that Petra Diodorus would be good for the Linker and Producer role because she is a good verbal communicator and effective communication methods are necessary for the team. If there are poor communicators on the team, there will be a lot of team members left in the dark, confused and misunderstood. John Marsh will be a great creator. John background information supports his knowledge of being creative. He has 15 years experience managing automotive development and manufacturing. Also he likes to share his knowledge with others, so he will be a great team member to work with. I did choose Maria de Grassa because I felt that she is more into the human resource department and making sure she hires the right employees to work at Luxurion Auto. I chose Amrita Choudhury for the Assessor and Adviser role and realized that she would be better for the Creator role because of her six years experience as a junior designer, so I think she is more suitable for the Creator role, and John Marsh background will also be good for the Creator role, however he will probably do a better job as the Assessor and Advisor role. I also think that Harvey Tang would be a great Creator; however two people will not make the cut. Janice Luikens is creative and single-minded, as well as excited, so she will be a good Promoter and Maintainer. I chose Marcell Collins for the Linker and Producer role. He seems to be a great team player and I also liked the compliments his colleagues gave him about keeping them from getting off track and helping them to maintain their focus. This is a very important, because all team members should be focus and on task.

To manage my team effectively, I considered the candidates belonging to relevant partner's organizations of the project, candidates with different abilities, people with technical expertise and skills, people with problem solving and decision making skills, and people with interpersonal and communication skills. (Donald J. Bowell, 1996) states that "a good team should include someone who will bring a fresh perspective and outlook to the team and you need the best and brightest on the team, but even they must work well together for the project to succeed". When selecting team members, prefer persons who are interest and committed with the common purpose and the common purpose is to discover the most desirable luxury car design features and innovations through industry research and benchmarking.

One conflict arise when other team members is complaining about John and Amrita. The two team members are not getting along and I chose to use training and contingent goal completion. (Creating and Managing Effective teams) stated that the right thing to do is to "enroll the two combating team members in a negotiation class to eliminate dysfunctional conflict". John and Amrita is in a dysfunctional conflict and participants in a dysfunctional conflict see each other as opponents. "Participants in a dysfunctional conflict accentuate differences, act on biases, and underestimate commonalities shared with the other person". (Yancey M. Work Teams, 2001) In dysfunctional conflicts the participants rely on power. One common power dynamic is coercion. (Webster Dictionary) "Coercion is the use of force or the threat to use force to get one's way or to force compliance on the part of others". Force can come in many guises: physical, social emotional financial and blackmail.

My team was very effective. I had knowledgeable people from all relevant departments, an open, pleasant environment, and a clear purpose. I think that I use the team process and its stages, which included orientation, trust building, goal/role clarification, commitment, implementation, and high performance. The team members got to know each other on multiple levels and to depend on each other and understood their individual roles. The members was committed to the team, had a positive contribution to the team process and goals. They was very enthusiasm, and energetic. The factors that made up a successful team included commitment to people and a desire to support and serve. Great team members are also servant minded: seeking to serve others before their own needs.

Team members don't only want their leader to inspire and motivate them, having other team members who are also able to play this role is seen as very positive by most team members. Having a team structure which allows individual expertise and gifts to be understood and productively used by the team is very affirming to team members, and in turn, encourages their contribution, It's not only the team leader who has responsibility for developing that kind of team structure. Effective teams operate in an environment in which two