In the ongoing and very progressive discussions on the importance of teamwork, I have come to experience a number of practical issues, some of which I would like to share in this article.

Organizations often put together small or even large multi disciplinary teams to carry out certain tasks and it has proved to be both efficient and effective. Whereas one of the defining characteristics of such teams is the diversity that is inherent, I have come to learn that there are some critical aspects that should also be pronounced about the team.

Those characteristics require a unified understanding and approach for the team to be able to collectively deliver on the task at hand. By way of analogy in a choral ensemble, the same song is sung in different tones and pitches by different members of the choir to produce one amazing and uplifting song…agreed? For instance, the approach towards the principle of collaboration in the team requires a common understanding.

In my view, collaboration is one of means to the end which is delivery. It entails that team members must not only recognize things like timelines within which the collaboration should take place but also respect those critical success factors.

Timely and relevant feedback on respective action or indeed inaction is one critical collaboration activity. Have you ever found yourself feeling too “chatty” in your team because you are giving constant updates and reminders? Before you admonish yourself, you might want to ask yourself whether the reason you are doing that is perhaps because you are living by the agreed “culture”.

Team members who do not give status reports or timely feedback until they have completed their contribution into the team (regardless of whether they have deprived the team of of the benefit of intervention that could have increased the rate of performance or whether they have delivered outside the agreed timelines) have got something more to learn about how a functional team works! There is nothing worse than reporting a challenge which permeated the process of delivery, after the fact, when it could have been addressed easily had it been reported expeditiously. This would probably mean that time (a diminishing resource which has no possibility of being recreated), would have been lost and in this case, negatively impacted the achievement of the goal/s of the team.

Team members need to be operating in the same place, albeit with different roles and contributions.

Are you in the same place with your fellow team members?

Let’s share!