Skip to main content

What People Don’t Tell You about Teams

It doesn’t matter your industry, working in a team is part of the way work is structured in our society. An individual’s experience and opinion of team work can depend largely on how great his experience as a team member has been. As many experts have written on the subject, it is still a hot topic of conversation. From my observations, there are a couple of things all the experts are missing.
 
 
Team building is a myth. It is a big fat lie to make people feel good. A team is not a house. You do not build it. People do not fit together like bricks. Teams are more like puzzles. Each unique piece fits together to make the picture whole. If you are missing a piece, you do not have a picture. Also, you can’t make pieces fit where they don’t belong. This means that in order to have a great team, you need the right pieces and not just any piece will do. The mix of people with their personality and skill set is what makes the team whole.
 
Teams are like families, functional and dysfunctional families. When assembled together, a team is like a supportive family, committed to the success of the family and supportive of the members. When teams are dysfunctional, not only is support absent, but a sense of mission and vision is absent. Production crawls or stops all together.  In a great family, not only does everyone have a clear role, but the members respect the roles of the members.  Committed teams, like families, are more successful. The members are more successful. The commitment is not only to the team, but to the individual members.
 
In my experience, the concept of team is the most misunderstood idea about work. Even in workforce development, where we are the experts about work, we need to focus on creating an environment supportive of teams. It sounds great. Take a bunch of people, put them in a room and tell them they are a team. Unfortunately, it is never that simple. It is time to really understand the pieces that make up the team to really achieve our purpose.
 
 ~Karen Cirincione
Twitter: @kcirincione

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How do you Birthday?

Another year in my life has passed. It’s time for another birthday. Each year as the day approaches, I take the time to reflect on my past year, my accomplishments, and my goals for the year. My birthday is like my personal New Years’ celebration with another opportunity to have the best year ever.   I am not afraid of a birthday. Age is just a number, but each year is what you make of it. Each year I have seen the sun rise, the rain fall, and the snow melt, I have been given a gift from the universe. Many people do not get to see another birthday. I owe myself the opportunity to set goals and feel proud as I work towards achieving them. Sometimes these goals have been born from unhappy feelings and bad situations, but growth brings wisdom.   In my working life, and especially as a workforce professional, I know some of my growth must be professionally. Having experience working with job seekers looking for jobs, I understand how crucial professional growth is...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Authentic You

Authenticity is not something we think or talk about every day. It is something we all need for ourselves and to truly connect and have meaningful interactions with others. Anyone on the #improve2019 journey is looking to either improve themselves or to be the guiding light for another person on the journey. Without authenticity, the fruits of labor are bitter. They are not satisfying, but meaningless. The fruits grow are wants in the world, but are not what we truly need.   Authenticity starts with the self. It means we are first to be honest with ourselves, good or bad. It means taking a hard look in the mirror and owning our faults. Are we trying too hard or not enough? Are we speaking and not acting? Do our actions match our intentions?   These are the questions we need to ask ourselves and to really ponder. After we have truly done the recognition and have taken the steps we need to improve, we can really look to helping others doing the same.   Auth...
Post a Comment
Read more

Great Questions=Great Answers! The Pieces to the Puzzle are revealed!

Newbies in workforce development sometimes ask me how to work with a customer or how do you know why someone cannot get a job.   The answer is really simple. Ask the right questions, and then listen for the answer.    It’s not a secret. You can’t just look at person or their job seeking documents and just know. You need the person to open his mouth and speak.   You need the narrative.   Why narrative? First, you will get the information to help you help the customer.   That is if you ask the right question.   Secondly, it helps you establish rapport and trust with your customer. Someone is not going to open up if he does not trust you. This is very important.   Remember digging a hole to China as a child.   Quickly you found out that you could not find China with one shovel full of dirt.   The digger must unearth many layers to get to China! A child will quickly find out that he can’t shovel his way to China, but may find neat ...
1 comment
Read more