Download Team Development 1 Team Development: The Importance of

Team Development
Team Development:
The Importance of Development, Communication, and Learning in Teams
Faisal Al-Dossary
ID# 201001549
Leadership and Teamwork
Dr. Simon Palmer
March 16, 2013
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Introduction
Working as groups has been going on for thousands of years. The human nature
tends to need the group power to do sorts of things, that can’t be done as an individual.
The importance of this report lies in demonstrating the understanding of team development, and the understanding of effective teams, to determine the five stages of team development, as well as the communication styles and types within teams. But what is the real
understanding of teams and teamwork? How teams develop? And how to lead and enhance
teams within the different stages of team development to reach the level of effective productivity?
This report will shed the light on the importance of team development, the effective training principles, the five stages in team development, communication in teams, and finally, team learning.
• Cannon, Mark D. and Griffith, Brian A. “Effective Groups” 2008
• Rees, Fran “Teamwork from Start to Finish” 1997
• Morrison, Emily Kittle “Leadership Skills” 1994
Importance of Team Development
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Team development is such an important factor for working in groups, and without development, obstacles can take over. There are so many areas that can be touched by
the development of teams and raise the bar to a better quality, for example quality of decision making, as the team development can generate multiple ideas from the members of a
team than anyone individual, therefore, it has the choice of many possibilities before it,
which will lead to a better quality of decisions than those an individual can make. Risk taking is also one area the team development has an impact on, team development creates
confidence to take greater, yet measured risks, an individual wouldn’t have such confidence to go to that area. Team development also enhances motivation to perform effectively at a higher level. Team development in general has always been the number one factor to
capitalize and increase the strength of a group, as well as minimizing their weaknesses.
• Cannon, Mark D. and Griffith, Brian A. “Effective Groups” 2008
• Rees, Fran “Teamwork from Start to Finish” 1997
• Morrison, Emily Kittle “Leadership Skills” 1994
Effective Training Principles
The first principle of effective training is the relevancy and usefulness the information and conceptual content of the program to the trainees. For instance, a training
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program of how to reconstruct a car engine should be given to mechanical engineer
groups, which is totally useful for their major, and not to be given to civil engineer groups.
The clear demonstration of the knowledge, skills, and abilities that trainees are supposed
to learn, for example, the skill of reconstruction the engine and the knowledge of all the
parts and pieces of the engine should be determined clearly to trainees. Also, trainees
should be given the opportunity to practice using the knowledge, skills, and abilities that
they are learning by participating in so many different activities. And finally, developmental feedback should be given to trainees both during and after the training in order to fix
any mistakes, avoid them in the future and learn from them.
• Cannon, Mark D. and Griffith, Brian A. “Effective Groups” 2008
• Rees, Fran “Teamwork from Start to Finish” 1997
• Morrison, Emily Kittle “Leadership Skills” 1994
Stages in Team Development
There are five main stages of team development. First stage is forming, which
takes place when the team members meet each other for the first time. In this meeting, team members are introduced to one another and they share information about their backgrounds, interests and
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experience and form first impressions of each other. They learn about the project they will be working on, discuss the project's objectives and goals and start to think about what role they will play on
the project team. An example to that is the gather of the new Shura council female members to join
their fellow council members in front of the King of Saudi Arabia. Second stage is storming, in this
stage, which is not avoidable, the members of the team compete against each other to accept one
another’s ideas. Lots of ideas are put on the table on what should be done and how it should be done
which causes conflict among the team members. This stage happened during the process of developing a learning assessment chapter summary group presentation, students got conflicted on who’s
going to present and who’s going to summarize. Third stage is the norming stage, and in this stage
the team starts to work more effectively, as the members are no longer focused on their individual
goals, but rather are focused on developing a way to work together. Example of the same learning
assessment presentation group, after understanding each one’s mission, they started respecting and
understanding their opinions, and they built a greater since of direction. Performing is the fourth
sage, in which the team is functioning at the highest level, and the focus is on reaching the goal of
the whole group. The learning assessment group worked on their presentation smoothly putting
ahead their desire of getting the high score all together as a team, as well as making sure the summary is simple, clear, and understandable. The fifth and final stage is adjourning, which is the end
of the project, and the members are moving into different directions. The example is when the
presentation has been done at the learning assessment class, the group members are done with their
project, and moving forwards individually.
Communication in Teams
Teams usually communicate whether orally, or by written communication. Orally can
happen through multiple meetings to discuss tasks and missions, and in writing by letters, emails
and instant texting. Communication is the gateway for achieving. Communication in teams is so
important because without it there will be confusion, misunderstanding, and angry group members.
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Through group communication, members can express themselves and ideas freely. Communication
within a group creates an environment of comfort and security. If a member feels the freedom of
speaking out his opinion, he will feel safe in that group. For an example, the oral communication
group who have given the task to do an informative presentation are communicating by meeting
everyday for an hour at the library and discuss the task and the plan they’re going to follow, they
take notes, write down ideas, and send each other information via email and instant texts.
• Cannon, Mark D. and Griffith, Brian A. “Effective Groups” 2008
• Rees, Fran “Teamwork from Start to Finish” 1997
• Morrison, Emily Kittle “Leadership Skills” 1994
Team Learning
Team learning can be more effective than individual learning. When working with fellow
group members in a group, group members are encouraged to articulate their ideas and question the
ideas of others. And when it happens, this leads to a social process of building ideas and developing
possible solutions to problems. The team learning is totally different than individual learning, since
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teams can observe and reflect on each other’s behavior and opinion, and can provide each other
with feedback.
• Cannon, Mark D. and Griffith, Brian A. “Effective Groups” 2008
• Rees, Fran “Teamwork from Start to Finish” 1997
• Morrison, Emily Kittle “Leadership Skills” 1994
Conclusion
Team development can touch so many areas with enhancements for teamwork, such as
motivation, quality of decision making, and also risk taking. This report has touched on the
importance of team development, the effective training principles, the five stages in team
development, communication in teams, and finally team learning.
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References
Kavanaugh, Colin. “Best Practices for Group Learning” April, 2012
http://www.hanoverresearch.com/2012/04/best-practices-for-group-learning-in-highereducation/
Michaelsen, Larry K. “Building Learning Teams”
http://teaching.uncc.edu/articles-books/best-practice-articles/instructionalmethods/building-learning-teams
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Nguyen, Tanh. “The Importance of Group Communication”
http://www.juniata.edu/life/blogs/wp/campusopinions/2010/12/13/the-importance-ofgroup-communication/
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