Effecetive Teamwork

What are the characterisctics of effective teams?
Teamwork is characterized by having a sense of purpose to achieve a clear, specific goal that all members believe is important to attain. A team can be assigned to carry out a specific project, such as seeking ways to improve profitability in a small business. A team could also be assembled to find the right candidate for a job opening. All teams should consist of members who are capable of contributing to the achievement of the goal based on their level of knowledge or expertise. If a team is assigned the task of development of an expense budget, but one or more of the members has little or no budgeting experience, the whole team will suffer as a result. A successful team contains a spirit of cooperation. All members need to work together to achieve the specific goal.

This can be difficult, especially if some members possess strong personalities or are highly opinionated. Successful teams tend to have strong leaders who can keep everybody on the same page while keeping the petty bickering to a minimum. Teams should also have a set of rules that determines its operating procedures. These rules help to keep the team on track and eliminate ambiguities. For example, a team might have a rule that all team members must agree on a decision before it can be implemented. This would require that the team deliberate, much in the way of a trial jury, until a consensus is reached.

How do roles, needs, and diversity affect teamwork? Provide specific examples. When it comes to roles, each person has a role in the group. If a person is not following through or does not feel comfortable in their role as a leader or doing a certain part in contributing, this can cause problems within the group. Every time there is a new group with different goals and people, there are different needs within the group. If it is in a work setting compared to a school setting, there are different needs that could be addressed. Generally speaking, though, each group needs to find what the need is in the group and follow through with that.

Some people in the group may have different needs compared to others so knowing your team Competitive energies, communication skills and even the respective levels of commitment to the project are factors that affect how effectively team members can work together. The main one is diversity and this can put a strain on a team’s work. With people having different backgrounds, thoughts and ways of doing things, putting people in a group can cause issues. For example, if one person in the group is against an idea because it is against their religion but another person wants to do it because it is what they believe in, there becomes issues that arise and need to be handled properly.

What are components of group diversity?
Components of group diversity is not only race, religion, gender or ethnicity, but also thoughts and views on topics or even something such as education level. When we get in groups or teams, there is always difference in people in the groups, but what matters is how we can respect people we are working with and learn to focus on the team assignment rather than personal feelings. Everyone is different but that does not mean we should not respect them and their thoughts.

You can disagree, but find a median between the two thoughts or ideas. The different components could be race such as American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, Asian-American, African American, or Hispanic. Gender could be boy or girl, or even diversity regarding partner preferences such as lesbians or gays. There are so many different components that go into working together with groups. You have to go into the group open minded and respectful of others, their beliefs, and thoughts. When people respect others and what they have to say, it makes for better communication and working together as a team run a lot smoother. Everyone’s ideas and thoughts, whether you agree or not, may add some different ideas to the group.