How Teams are the Key to Success
Last Updated May 28, 2019
Teamwork is becoming the preferred way for today’s business organizations to accomplish their objectives. Teams can help businesses respond more quickly because they are empowered to make decisions, can see things from multiple perspectives and can accomplish more with fewer resources.
What is a Team?
Teams typically are formed with specific goals and tasked with the responsibility of meeting those goals. Teams allow members to focus their diverse skills toward solving complex tasks and achieving common goals. Teams also utilize the strengths of each member, which can make problem-solving faster and smoother.
Four Types of Teams
1. Work Group
A work group is an idea team. Workgroups are typically made up of associates within a single department, such as a sales team. Rather than forming to address a particular problem, they work together on a consistent basis, as a permanent part of the department. Workgroups or idea teams are involved in decision making and goal setting. They also identify potential problems that need to be solved or avoided. An organization may have one or dozens of work groups.
A work group at a marketing agency might use analytics and research to determine how to expand product marketing to a new demographic.
2. Action Group
Action group teams work on the first steps of quality improvement projects. They typically include associates from different departments affected by a common problem or challenge that needs to be solved. For example, if a challenge is being addressed by a supply chain organization, an action group might include those who purchase products from the vendor along with those who distribute it. In this way, action groups are cross-functional.
3. Quality Improvement
A quality improvement team may include middle management-level personnel, sales department supervisors and idea team leaders. This team takes the ideas from action groups, develops suggestions for quality improvement and presents them to an organization’s senior management team. They may also appoint action groups to address specific quality improvement challenges. A quality improvement team recognizes and rewards achievements in quality management, approves ideas and projects, and monitors quality improvement through measurement and analysis.
In a distribution center, a quality improvement team might devise procedures to ensure orders are packed and delivered promptly, thus looking at areas to improve efficiency.
4. Senior Quality Improvement
The fourth type of team is the senior quality improvement team, which defines policies and procedures for quality management in daily operations. This team directs, coordinates, refines and improves recommendations in the continuous quality improvement process.
How Teams are the Key to Success
Teams are only as strong as their members. To achieve full participation and cooperation, team members must be motivated and encouraged. Motivation occurs when each individual’s values and vision connect to those of the team and the organization. Facilitating an understanding of team members’ unique roles and contributions, along with the desired results and the team’s overall direction, can be accomplished by establishing clear goals.
Additional team-building guidelines include:
- Recognizing commitment and acknowledging achievement
- Treating team members as we would like to be treated
- Realizing that others are doing their best
- Committing to each other’s success
- Working toward a common goal
Management can create successful, self-directed teams that know how to improve quality and then make it happen. If team members’ visions and values are well-connected to the organization, great things can happen and negative issues can be eliminated.
