My First Essay

TEAMWORK & TEAMS

Teamwork ... Collaboration vs Competition

o Synergy is the highest activity of life; it creates new untapped alternatives; it values and exploits the mental, emotional, and psychological differences between people (7H)

o Reich, in HBR, 1987: "To the extent that we continue to celebrate the traditional myth of the entrepreneurial hero, we slow the progress of change and adaptation that is essential to our economic success. If we are to compete effectively in today's work, we must begin to celebrate collective entrepreneurship, endeavours in which the whole of the effort is greater than the sum of the individual contributions. We need to honor our teams more, our aggressive leaders and maverick geniuses less" (DSWT)

o "In superior teams, the synergistic effect is apparent. One plus one equals a lot more than three." (DSWT)

o "Teamwork has been shown to be the single consistent strategy for continuous improvement in quality and for increased competitiveness" (DSWT)

o Foster collaboration; Strengthen others (TLC)

o "In team-oriented cooperative environments, innovation flourishes" (CHNG)

o The key participation question: "Would you rather work as part of an outstanding group, or be a part of a group of outstanding individuals?" (ART)

o "Integrating both a move from competition and individualism toward cooperation and wholeness is what I mean by transforming teamwork. There is no more important task for third-wave managers." (PW)

o "The key elements in the art of working together are how to deal with change, how to deal with conflict, and how to reach our potential ... the needs of the team are best met when we meet the needs of individual persons" (ART)

o Cylinder 7: Team Skills (FOAC)

o "Girls' games teach them the importance of preserving and enhancing relationships - long-term focus - while boys' games teach them to preserve and enhance their own feelings of self-worth at the expense of the relationships - a competitive focus that is of necessity short-term" (FEM)

o "'Closed Loop Cells' are self-contained, multifunctional, self-scheduling sub-organizations empowered to perform the key activities required to meet explicit objectives" (CAT)

o Cylinder 10: Team Tactics ... even having customers on the teams (FOAC)

o Feelings of intragroup amity simply do not require intergroup enmity (BRI)

o Cooperative learning has been shown in literally hundreds of studies to enhance achievement regardless of subject matter or age level (BRI)

o Marrow: "We all need continuous help from each other. Interdependence is the greatest challenge" (PW)

o "When human beings work together, they can produce a piece of work that is superior to the work of individuals toiling alone (ABIL)

o Optimal productivity not only does not require competition, it appears to require its absence. The ideal amount of competition in your company is none at all. Competition makes no sense from the perspective of the bottom line. It holds people back from doing their best. It closes off the possibility of sharing ideas and resources with others in the company. (Kohn, INC, 11/87)

o "Excellence in our society is less a product of conflict and hostility than of collaboration" (TIGR)

o "The competitive energies of wolves are mostly directed toward outsiders. This makes wolves more effective team members than many other animals, where there is frequently as much competition within teams as between them" (TIGR)

o Law of Leadership: A successful team with 100 members has 100 leaders (TIGR)

o "The ratio of We's to I's is the best indicator of the development of a team" (Lewis Elgen, Exec VP, University Research Corp)

o "Great people don't equal great teams' (Tom Peters)

o "Rewards should go to teams as a whole" (Tom Peters)

o "Team learning is vital because teams, not individuals, are the fundamental learning unit ... they become the microcosm for learning throughout the organization" (5D)

o "The fundamental characteristic of the relatively unaligned team is wasted energy" (5D)

Teams and Organizational Culture

o "Sometimes being a team-player goes counter to the corporate culture. If the organizational norm is 'do your own thing', then working together may not be valued and certainly not recognized and rewarded" (TPT)

o "Superior work teams recognize that consistently high performance can be built not on rules but only on values" (DSWT)

o Current Methods of Developing a Team-Player Culture: (TPT)

„X Public statements by Top Management

„X Important assignments

„X Training and Development

„X Promotion

o Recommended Methods of Developing a Team-Player Culture: (TPT)

„X Promotion ... let everyone know that it was because the person was a team player

„X Upper Management as Team Player models

„X Performance Appraisal ... 'team player' is in performance plan in more specific terms

o "Rating and ranking systems that pit employees against each other in the annual performance review process tend to work against the development of teamwork. A ranking system that includes a requirement for a bell-shaped-curve distribution further emphasizes competition over cooperation." (TPT)

o "In some competitive environments, team players withhold technical information from their colleagues because they fear loss of an 'edge' in annual performance appraisals" (TPT)

Characteristics of Effective Teams

o "A group of people is not a team. A team is group of people with a high degree of interdependence geared toward the