Team Communication

Aspects of Team Com*mu*ni*ca*tion

The usage of teams is timeless. A team is simply a group of three or more people brought together for a single purpose. Sounds so easy that way ,but when analyzed slightly more deeper teamwork hinges on a single aspect. Communication. Webster's Dictionary (2007) defines communications as "Com*mu*ni*ca*tion a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior."

The history of communication according to Wikipedia states (2007).

History

Communication can range from very subtle processes of exchange, to full conversations and mass communication. Human communication was revolutionized with speech about 200,000 years ago. Symbols were developed about 30,000 years ago, and writing about 7,000. On a much shorter scale, there have been major developments in the field of telecommunication in the past few centuries.

The old saying says that, "there is no I in team." That followed closely behind with the all too witty "but there is a Me." Funny as it sounds, a grain of truth does exist in this statement. Is teamwork good for companies The "proper" implementation of teams in the workplace is becoming all to common place in businesses today. This being said, I'm sure that not all management is providing the employee teams the proper foundation in order to be successful.

Members

"Rome was not built in a day;" everyone has heard that saying. The same is true with a successful team. Team dynamics play a major part in their aspect of team building. The foundation of the team must be a strong, sturdy structure to build upon it in later steps. With this in mind, teams should be chosen from people who compliments each other. Everyone's skill set is different. Everyone has different learning styles. Howard Gardner suggests that "each individual manifests varying levels of these different intelligences, and thus each person has a unique cognitive profile." Team members should be a strong unit of people who can all work individually, and work as a team. Situations will arise where it is necessary to do both. Finding something that one person is good at, doesn't exactly mean that all the members will be the same. That's what makes teamwork so diverse. In this initial phase a leader will most likely emerge or is some cases be chosen. As William Shakespeare's the "Twelfth Night" said "Be not afraid of greatness: some men are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them."

Leadership

This brings us to leadership. Team leadership comes from a careful assessment of the possible team members. Once a single person begins to demonstrate certain leadership characteristics. The United States Army Field Manual 6-22 states leadership by using the BE, KNOW, DO.

Army leadership begins with what the leader must BE, the values and attributes that shape a leader's character. Your skills are those things you KNOW how to do, your competence in everything from the technical side of your job to the people skills a leader requires. But character and knowledge--while absolutely necessary--are not enough. You cannot be effective, you cannot be a leader, until you apply what you know, until you act and DO what you must.

Direction

Once you have chosen the teams members and leaders the next step would be to examine the direction the team need to go in order to achieve it's objectives. This is the step that will have the most upper management involvement. This is the phase where the team is told what the purpose in life is. With no purpose, the team functions just become an added work load for the members of that team. Once this purpose is communicated to the team leader from management, through the chain of communication, the leader can truly take charge and be in control. At this time the team leader must be given the direction.2LT Michael stated "It is the officer's responsibility to provide the "What" it is the NCO's (Non Commissioned Officer) responsibility to provide the "How" to accomplish any mission" (personal communication, November 20, 2007). What is the plan? What do, the team members need to be doing? What is our time limit? What is the standard that must be met? Other questions that the team members will want to know it the Infamous question of Why? Why does the team need to do this? What is the purpose of it all. These types of questions will allow the leader to demonstrate to the team members the big picture. This allows each member to know how the contribute to that big picture. This information in turn automatically provides the team member with the motivation to succeed and perform to the best of there ability. These are all questions and answers that the team leader needs to comprehend and understand before addressing his or her team, about the project.

Leader Responsibilities

The leader also needs to know each