effective team building

FACULTY OF NURSING AND ALLIED HEALTH SCIENCES

NBBS 1104MANAGEMENT & MEDICO LEGAL STUDIES B

SEPTEMBER 2012

ASSIGNMENT TITLE : Critically discuss how you are going to utilize the key components of effective team building for the health screening project by emphasizing the significance of each components..

Name: MAIZATUL AKMAR BT IBRAHIM

Matric number: 720618145398001

NRIC: 720618145398

Telephone number: 0123817871

E-mail address: [email protected]

Tutor’s name: Puan Manicka Valli A/P Ramasendran

Learning Centre: JOHOR BAHRU

MAY 2012 Semester

CONTENT

1.0 INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………………page 2

2.0 TEAM BUILDING.........................................................................................................page 3

3.0 KEY COMPONENTS OF EFFECTIVE TEAMS……………………………………page 4 – page 8

4.0 CONCLUSION……………………....................................................................................page 9

REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………………………page 10

MAIZATUL AKMAR IBRAHIM/ KP 720618145398/ NBBS 1104 Page 1

1.0 INTRODUCTION

A team is made up of a group of people working together to achieve a common

goal. An effective team has certain characteristics that allow the team members to function more

effectively and productively. A team can make important contributions to development of the

organization, wield strong influence on individual work attitudes and behavior, and gain the

commitment of its members by being participative and consequently facilitating implementation.

Most people are inclined to believe that they are part of a team environment in the work place.

Yulk (2006) defines a team as a small task group in which the members have a common purpose,

interdependent role, and complementary skills.

Tuckman and Jensen (1977) and Lacoursier (1980) identified five stages of team

process; forming, storming, performing and adjourning are all stages of group development.

Robbins and Judge (2007) explain these stages: The forming stage is the beginning stage where

everyone identifies their surroundings and to carefully identify what the tasks are and how it

should get started on the task. Everyone is nice and polite, and some bonds are made to disclose

personal insights. Also there are early efforts made to gaining power and building influence

within the team. The storming stage has confrontation and questioning of the direction of the

team and resistance to task assignments. The norming stage gives agreement regarding each

individual’s responsibilities and gives a sense of new cooperation. The performing stage gives

openness among team members and willingness of team members to monitor their own

performance and make necessary changes. The adjourning stage is a stage that only occurs with

temporary committees, task force and similar team that have limited tasks to perform.

Permanent work team end with the performing stage. This stage prepares the team for

disbandment, and wrapping up the project.


2.0 TEAM BUILDING

Myers Briggs (1995) states “in the latter part of the 20 th century, team building

become recognized by many companies as important factor in providing a quality service and

remaining competitive. Yet as we move into the 21st century, the term team building can still

sometimes seem a little bit obscure. People often know that they need it, but aren’t quite sure

what it is”. Robbins and Judge (2007) states “team building is the high interaction among team

members to increase trust and openness. Team building is a process that works best in a climate

that encourages and values the contributions of its members”. The definition of true team

building according to Max Wideman (2001) is “the process of planned and deliberate

encouragement of effective working practices, while diminishing difficulties and obstacles which

interfere with the team’s ability to perform” (Wideman, 2001, Project Team Building, slide 2).

Max Wideman (2001) also states “investing time in developing an effective team brings many

benefits. Benefits include commitment to a project, the project manager and other team

members. Other benefit include a sense of purpose and camaraderie, improved communications,

better conflict resolution, and increased team member job satisfaction” (Wideman, 2001, Project

Team Building, slide 12). Once the culture of excellence and a clear concise standard of

behavior and clear concise goals and objectives are developed, the high interactions and trust

will come forth. The willingness to overcome obstacles will be easier and no barriers will be

present. The excellence that team members feel that they are apart of will inhibit any barriers

from forming and will allow those who are not feeling as committed to become more committed

or move out of the team.

Hodgetts and Hegar (2008) states twelve characteristics of team building: “There

is a high level of interdependence among team members, the team leader has good people skills

and is committed to a team approach, each team member is willing to contribute, the team

develops a relaxed climate for communication, the team develops and mutual trust, the team and

individuals are prepared to take risks, the team is clear about goals and establishes targets, team

member roles are defined, the team can examine personal and team errors without personal

attacks, team efforts devoted to the achievement of results, the team has capacity to create new

ideas, and each team member knows he or she can influence the team agenda.


3.0 KEY COMPONENTS OF EFFECTIVE TEAMS

The value of team building is to enhance functioning in any one or all the

process: the establishment of goals and objectives, the allocation of the work to be performed,

the manner in which a group works; its process, norms, decision-making process and

communication patterns, and the relationship among the people doing the work (Herman &

Reichelt, 1998). In a health screening project, individuals from different areas come together to

care for patients. Therefore, team building in today’s healthcare environment is important to

improve morale and staff retention. The key components of effective team building for the

health screening project that we use are:

a) Clear Stated Team Purpose

The team leader must establish objectives together, defines performance

objectives with the team, and make sure that all team members understand the objectives and

what action will need to be taken to achieve those objectives. The team members need to know

the purpose of the team, the goal and the targets for accomplishment. The leader must make sure

everyone in the health screening project understand the task and perform the correct procedures.

A successfully built team involves clarifying the collective goals, identifying the problems that

are barriers a team from those goals and removing those barriers, putting in place a team leader

that assist the team, and finally, measure, evaluate and monitor progress so that set goals and

objectives become realities. As stated before, there are multiple goals that are set to be

achieved. Although each person has their own goal, they are kept focused on the ultimate goal

through effective communication of set goal by management. They are aware that there is bigger

picture to accomplish than just their own set goals. The success of any team project is that must

be a clear single goal. Many teams fail when there are multiple agendas. Teams and

organizations that succeed are those that have communicated a common purpose and goal.

The goal-setting approach (Beer, 1976) is based on the assumption that a goal

influences not only individual and group behavior but also direction, coordination and extent of

team effort. If problems of the team are identified through interviews with team members, they

can be handled by team solutions. Based on these solution, the team could set goals. Goal setting


creates commitment and a feeling of involvement. The goal of health screening project team is

to optimize the use information, people, and resources to achieve the best clinical outcomes for

the patients. In order to meet this goal, teams must have four key characteristics: effective

leadership, positive attitudes, successful collaboration, and efficient communication. Team

consisting of these key components create an atmosphere of mutual trust and expertise. A

cohesive team will have effective communication, successful collaboration, and mutual support

for each member. A distinguished team within a health screening setting should also have a

competent leader.

b) Team Composition

The leader should recruit and hire talented people. The hiring process is most

important task a team leader has. By including staff in the interviewing process, applicants will

know if they will fit in the work environment. Teamwork and staff development are essential. A

goal of staff development in team building as health screening project are all members of the

same team. The staff of a project need to be able to work together to handle the changes and

stresses present in healthcare today. One component of staff development is coaching. Coaching

includes mentoring, challenging, and active listening to team members. Coaching also involves

developing a shared vision among all team members. The staff of the health screening project

should be actively involved in developing the vision of the project. A vision builds trust,

collaboration, interdependence, motivation, and creates a mutual responsibility for success. By

clarifying a vision of where the health screening project need to be, a culture conductive to

change can be created, and staff members will become empowered to work together as a team.

Team members should use their basic knowledge and experience working in different areas and

applied the skills to the health screening project. The team leader must organize the team

members with define roles and responsibilities together in the health screening project. If

everyone has a clear role, individual will be less likely to become frustrated and will be more

willing to work together. Agree on who will assume leadership roles for different team

activities. The team know that they are there to provide very good healthcare to the public. Each

team knows what they have to do personally but each team member steps outside of their roles,

when needed to accomplish this goal. There is no question as to who is in charge of what job

and who to go to if there is a concern or conflict. Even though each person has a particular job


description, it is still clearly stated that in order to reach the ultimate goal of providing very

good healthcare, each person must aid in an area to accomplish this goal.

c) Effective Communication

Clear communication between team members can resolve conflict that might

occur. Efficient communication is crucial to teams. Communication is accurately defined as an

exchange of information among team members. Communication and supportive interpersonal

relationships have been consistently linked with positive attitudes toward the work environment

leading to job satisfaction, improved job performance, and increased staff retention. A team

leader must have impeccable listening and communication skills. Communication skills

permeate every team interaction and every team intervention. The team leader must be able to

read the daily situations the health screening project team members are involved in, and pick up

on nonverbal cues and behaviors of the team members. By using listening and communication

skills, a team leader will be able to progress through day to day team management. Team

members should listen to each other. They should be able to freely express their ideas and

opinions, including those relating to team performance. With all communication clarity is a must.

Great communication keeps team members from aborting the core of the project due to lack of

understanding of the overall purpose . Frequent communication of the purpose can be vital in

keeping the team on track. Not only is communication of the project goal vital, but frequent

updates of the task is important. With multiple tools such as email, mobile phone, and project

management software, to not communicate is a sure sign of lack of commitment from team

members. An effective team leader clearly communicates what needs to be accomplished in the

job and focus on what needs to be done, not on how. Communication with team members should

be open and honest. The team leader should be respectful and professional, and listen intently to

team members. Standards performance should be communicated clearly along with

consequences for good and bad outcomes.

d) Active Participation

The team leader should ensure that each members participates and contributes

especially in a discussion or brainstorming session. At health screening project team, multiple

steps has been taken in order to ensure that a team is in place and its effective. Every role is laid


out in a very descriptive job description. Also there are team meetings frequently in order to

ensure that the ultimate goal is being met. These meetings not only ensure that progress in being

made in order to achieve the ultimate goal, they also ensure each team member is satisfied with

their surroundings through effective communication. Team members meeting times should be

planned and positive, and constructive feedback given. Effective teams will have open-ended

meetings and develop active problem-solving strategies that go beyond discussing, deciding, and

delegating what to do; they do real work together. When necessary, individuals in a team will

set aside their own work to assist other members of the team. In a well-functioning team,

performance is based not on an individual member’s ability to influence other members, but

rather is assessed directly by measuring the work products of the whole team’s effort help

underscore the importance of team responsibility. Define objectives for having all team

members actively contribute to the meeting. Introduce team members to the ways in which they

can participate. The team leader should map out any conflict to define the issues needed to solve

the problem and develop option for solution with team members. Successful team can anticipate

what others will do and how they will respond. This can only happen by being together. Any

person that is responsible for building teams will factor in the importance of spending time

together both on projects or in non-working events. Encourage members of the health screening

project team to take responsibility for completing specific tasks and to solve problems as a team.

Introduce rewards only if the entire team meets objective.

e) Active Plan

Effective team building can occur in any organization. It must planned and

deliberate, and there must be a plan put in place in order to achieve this atmosphere. In this

active plan, a culture of excellence and a standard of behavior must be included. This will

ensure the barriers and conflicts are few and resolvable. There must be an overall set of clear

and concise goals that are known by all team members. The plan that everyone should agree on

and feedback by the team members and others affected by the team’s decision in necessary to

keep focus. Planning action in the team meeting process is to formulate an action plan and

assign specific responsibilities to individual members of the team. Every team meeting should

conclude with some plan of action to implement the decisions made. Similarly, every team

meeting should start by objectively reviewing progress in implementing the decision approved in


previous meeting. Follow-up action is necessary when planning and reviewing. Health screening

project team has developed a clear and concise plan in order to develop team building techniques

and an overall team. Schedule when and how each team member will devote time to teamwork.

Determine if teamwork will require other staff to take on extra work, and if so, discuss this with

all team member and obtain their commitment. Monitor actual time versus planned time

carefully and clarify all adjustments in schedule. Team members are constantly recognized and

rewarded for steps taken to achieve the ultimate goal.

f) Ongoing Assessment and Evaluation

Outcomes have to be consistent and up to the expectations. The excellent staff

will be rewarded and special coaching and reinforcement will be given to overcome weakness.

After reviewing the implementation or performance, a team leader has to provide reinforcement.

Obviously, positive reinforcements are given to those who have contributed to progress and

performed well. Negative reinforcement is for those who fell short in their performance. in the

team setting, positive reinforcement is effective in encouraging the good performer to continued

with good, or even improved, performance. Simultaneously, it also motivates slow performers

toward better efforts in the hope of receiving positive reinforcement later on, when they have

improved their performance. A team leader should use negative reinforcement only after

exhausting other means. Initially, negative reinforcement should be mild so as not to demotivate

poor performers. The aim should be to motivate toward better performance. During team

meetings, appropriate reinforcement aims at solving problems so as to make team members

more productive. An imaginative and creative problem-solving is crucial to good team

performance. It provides an opportunity for positive interactions between team members and is

increasing team productivities. Studer (2008) states “to achieve good results at last, leaders

must be constantly and consistently trained to developed the skill they need to drive the

achievement of organizational goal and improve their own individual leadership performance”.

These implications are that leadership should be evaluated in order to ensure that each team

leader is providing quality encouragement to team members that align with the behaviors that

have been set by the organization. If the team leader is not getting the job done, team members

cannot be expected to follow the guidelines correctly without correct leadership.


4.0 CONCLUSION

Effective team building can clearly enhance a healthcare practice. As a practice

management issue, building a successful team is essential for staff development within a health

screening setting. The team leader must recognizes the presence of conflict and need to have

some general approaches to conflict negotiation and resolution. These strategies are

interconnected, and build upon each other. The critical nature of effective leadership, positive

attitudes, successful collaboration and efficient communication is emphasized. A quality team

within a healthcare practice can increase staff satisfaction and reduce turnover while improving

quality of care, patient satisfaction, and patient outcomes.

Words 3,043


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(2012 Nov 11)

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