Jarlath Duffy - Change from Within

For a team to be effective, the following fundamentals must be developed:

• Trust - Team members must learn not be wary of each other. Lack of trust is an obstacle to flexibility and information flow.
• Involvement - Every team member's participation counts and people are dependent on each other, regardless of where they fit into the hierarchy.
• Emphasis on strengths not weaknesses -Team members must look for ways to complement, rather than compete with, each other.
• Persuasive and non-paternalistic leadership - Managers must become good listeners and be willing to involve others in decision making. Everyone must take personal responsibility for completing the task.
• Precise objectives - Members need to have clearly defined, precise goals and specific deadlines.

Increasing Collaboration among Team members

The ability to work together is a prerequisite for team functioning. Facilitating collaboration can be a major challenge for team leaders. A key step to achieving collaboration is the creation of the culture that supports it. Such a culture rewards honesty, integrity, willingness to share, receptivity to information and ideas, consistency and respect for others. Trust is a particularly important ingredient, it allows members to remain focussed on the problem, encourages better communication and coordination, improves the quality of the results of collaboration, and encourages team members to pick up the slack for one another and consequently to improve overall team performance.

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