Effective Teamwork Questionnaire Essay

Answer each question in 200 to 300 words, using specific information from the text, â€Å"Helping Annie†, â€Å"Team Building†, and â€Å"Building a Team of Talent† videos, and your research and experience. 1. What are the characteristics of effective teams? How will you ensure your collaborative team works effectively? Effective team are important, and their functions crucial to their success. I have found that clear goals, relaxed environment, open communication, and freedom to express ideas and feelings are great ways to ensure success. In the video â€Å"Helping Annie†, the dynamics of the team were lost due to lack of information, who was right and who could be trustworthy. When team members meet, they should feel as though they blend in with the group. They should feel a commitment to the goals and achievements to the group. What I know about groups are, that having valued diversity, defined roles, balanced participation, and cooperative relationships help with moving the group to a positive outcome. As a participative leader, as it is said in our eBook Working In Groups, â€Å"there is a balance of primary roles and when team members know their roles, work to their strengths, and actively manage weaknesses.† (Engleberg, 2013, p. 55). I will commit myself to ensuring I respect commitments, consistent communication to the group, collaborate, and contribute to the group’s goals and ideas with valuable information that helps in the decisions. I will also be aware of the group’s diversity, talents and dynamics. I bring knowledge of how to deal with problems, planning techniques and ways to improve myself within the group. 2. How will you deal with behavior that hurts your team’s objectives? With conflict in a group environment, I would handle it with respect, recognition, focused on accountability and be aware of unfulfilled needs of that particular team member. I would not reward the difficult behavior nor would I encourage the disruptive behavior. I believe that if you ignore it or â€Å"sweep it under the mat† it takes time, energy away from the group, and I  would want the group to resolve it quickly. I would make sure that I/we do not citizen or â€Å"brand† that person as a trouble maker. I would work together with the group and the individual and encourage each other to focus on the group’s interests and not individual’s position. It is also important to look for opportunities that encourage and empower each team member in the group. I would express a sensitive listening ear to uncover the root of the problem. Listing out the objectives to the individual and the group and reminding them why we are here and how to accomplish them Practicing direct communications, body language and clarifying questions helps resolve the situation and gives the group clarity to the behavior. In dealing with behavior that is disruptive to the group can be a challenge in itself, however it can be resolved with patients and a good listener. 3. What are your proactive processes to keep a team member up to date if he or she misses a meeting? What are your backup plans if things are not working on your team? There are several great ways to keep a team member up to date. Develop and cultivate easy ways to stay connected with those that miss. Face-to-Face and computer-mediated communications are great ways to reconnect and share ideas, goals and feelings. Face-to-Face provide excellent results in effectiveness, comprehension, and gives opportunities to be educated on the use of technology. It builds up respect, inclusion and grows your professional relationship with the team member and group. Update through venues such as emails, skyping, this can be challenging to coordinate, this provides another source of information. This can save time, money and bring the meeting/information to others that live far away. When things do not work out as they are supposed to, I chose to take a moment and find out where things went areaway. Encourage others to share and discuss what happened and create new plans, goals that incorporate processes that help us stay on track. Back up plans help in always being prepared for when things don’t just right. When setting up your backup plans, tap into the group and find team members that have knowledge and expertise in planning. As I use this, it will set up the entire team in a supportive and positive atmosphere. 4. How will you use technology to support your team’s efforts? What are some  questions you should ask? Working with technology has made it easier to communicate, track the individuals / groups progress and increasing productivity. With using an assortment of media platforms such as emails, Skype, video conferencing,instant messaging, and facetalk. These software programs can assist in better group communication, making decisions, and discussing issues easily. I will educate, create a â€Å"how to† of resources that will include information on each media platform. I would bring the group together in collaboration to see where they are with technology and create a smaller group to assist in the training. As new technology is made available, have continued training and education of the group as to stay current with technology. As with new technology always assessing the software, cell phones, computers, servers and other products are current. This will produce a group that is collaborating, productive, which will benefit the company and group. Asking questions is a great way to understand and know your group. With technology, it is important to find out what media platforms the group are already using. I would also ask how can we stay on task with these different media platforms and which ones work best for the group. Stay consistent with the goal/ objective and have a group that through technology use, becomes one unit! 5. Is your team more task-focused or relationship-focused? Why? What are the implications to your team? I find that our group is a mixture of both task-focused and relationship-focused. I have seen just in the last class that we all want to succeed and grow from each others experience. With having the mixture of the two, the work is defined, and roles expected. There are structures in place; a plan devised and we are organized to meet our tasks. As the group continues to work together, there is a supportive, motivating, and collaborating group. We are concerned with each person ideas, thoughts and actions. With these two types of people in the group, we can be productive, accomplish a lot and have a good time in doing it. Although with task-focused or relationship-focused, set up activities and follow up and follow through. With tasks, you can do it with encouragement and empower each team member to always do their best. Through the recommendations from our text this week, have an agenda, plan out your tasks, involve each team member, listen, and encourage them. By engaging  your team, you can meet the challenges of business head on and with seasoned team members involved you can pull from their experiences and knowledge. They will become confident, learning new skills and lead successful change. REFERENCES Engleberg, Isa. (2013). WorkinWorking in Groups: Communication Principles and Strategies, Sixth Edition, by Isa N. Engleberg and Dianna R. Wynn. Published by Pearson.g in Groups: Communication Principles and Strategies, Sixth Edition, by Isa N. Engleberg and Dianna R. Wynn. Published by Pearson. (6th ed.). : Pearson.