Bradford VTS Online Resources:
Practice Management
Teamwork
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path: TEAMWORK
Does everyone need to build skills for team work?
Some people love working in teams and others naturally prefer to work alone and relatively independently. Which are you?
Even if you see your role as highly independent and you perform most of it remotely or alone, you’ll still need to communicate with others about what you’ve done, and understand why you’re doing it in the context of the organisation as a whole.
And you cannot do that if you don’t have teamwork skills. Everyone needs to build their skills in team work. If you’re the type of person who likes to work alone – you might be surprised at how teamwork might inject a bit of life into your day-to-day working.
Effective Teamwork
The 4 elements to effective teamwork:
- Commitment: including shared objectives
- Communication: including keeping others informed of what they are doing and sharing other information
- Contribution: including everyone pulling their weight and playing to their strengths
- Collaboration: including sharing expertise and working flexibly to achieve joint goals
Source: CIPD (2015)
Team dynamics
Team’s don’t just gel; it doesn’t just happen – it takes time. The Tuckman model outlines the stages of team development:
- Forming — where you bring a team of people together
- Storming — where they test each other’s boundaries; some arguments may happen at this stage
- Norming — things start to settle down, everyone knows their roles, people get along
- Performing — the results of the team work start to pay off
