
Introduction
To gain a better understanding of any organisation - be it profit
or non-profit, governmental or non-governmental - it should be looked
upon as a system. Modern management treats a manufacturing or service
organisation as a system. A hospital is a system, an educational
institution is a system, a voluntary organisation is a system, so
is a spiritual organisation. Each system is made up of different
components, interlinked with one another. An educational institution
has teaching staff, students, curricula, support staff and proper
facilities among its components. A business organisation has departments
like production, marketing, finance, personnel, sales and purchase
among its components. The components of a system are interdependent.
Each component is busy with its functional roles to meet the targets,
but at the same time it strives to achieve the corporate goal, the
organisational goal. In a system approach, no component is supposed
to display the behaviour which is in conflict with the organisational
goal. All these components or sub-systems are manned by people,
even if the entire system is either automated or computerised. Therefore,
any organisation is essentially made up of people working at different
levels, with different roles. Their job assignments and roles are
interdependent. Their individual knowledge and skills have to be
integrated to achieve the common goal. It is, therefore, imperative
for them to work as a team or teams. They have to generate an attitude
that constantly reminds them that the success of the organisation
requires that they cooperate with each other. In other words, they
work as a team.
John R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith, in their work entitled
The Wisdom of Teams: Creating The High-Performance Organisation
(Harvard Business School Press, 1993), defines a team as, "A
small number of people with complementary skills who are committed
to a common purpose, performance goals and approach for which they
hold themselves mutually accountable."
Basic Skills
for Teamwork
Merely getting people together in the organisation does not create
a team. They have to remain together for a common goal, and for
that they should have different skills.
(a) Interpersonal
Skills
Anywhere in any organisation, we have to deal with people: people
of varying temperaments, varying intellectual levels and varying
status. The team members should have an ability to get along with
each other. The lack of personal-interpersonal skills on the part
of even a single member would prove costly for the organisation,
as it disrupts and distracts the energies of the whole team.
(b) Functional
Skills
Team members should have enough knowledge and experience for the
work assigned to them. For example, any team involved in developing
CDs and VCDs for different events should have technical skills.
(c) Communication
Skills
Team members should be able to encode and transmit the message via
face-to-face communication or telephone or e-mail/voice mail or
letter or the video conference, that facilitates the interaction
between the sender and receiver, resulting into shared understanding
and cooperation.
(d) Decision-Making
Skills
They should have the ability to collectively identify the different
courses of action possible and through open discussion, arrive at
the optimal course of action. They can take help of certain techniques
like brainstorming and multivoting to sharpen the decision-making
process.
(e)
Problem Solving Skills
Problems are inherent in any organisation. Team members should have
the capability of identifying the problem, defining it, identifying
the probable causes, thinking of alternative actions to eliminate
the causes, selecting the best alternative and implementing it.
Values for Teamwork
Unless the team holds certain values, it develops blame-game and
faultfinding strategies that ultimately destroy the team and frustrate
the goal. Some basic values for teams are as follows:
(i) Togetherness
With a strong feeling of togetherness, if something goes wrong,
no one will blame anyone. Rather, the team members would jointly
mull over the problem and try to identify the pitfalls and correct
them. If they succeed the honour is shared and everyone earns praise
and recognition.
(ii) Equality
For any system to function it is imperative that some hierarchy
be defined. Some members of the team perform the supervisory roles,
whereas some work as subordinates. But the attitude, by and large,
should be of equality. The designations should not be barriers to
the work to be accomplished by the team. Such attitude of equality
facilitates the upward and downward communication and generates
cohesiveness.
(iii) Empathy
Empathy is a step beyond sympathy. Having empathy means seeing the
world proactively, from the viewpoints of others. You have an appreciation
for their problems, pains and perplexities. Any situation is evaluated
by putting yourself into their position and seeing from their viewpoint.
Showing empathy for your teammates earns their empathy for you.
This value strengthens the bonds amongst team members, who, with
double the vigour, join hands to achieve the common goal.
Once a name of a companion sadhu (jod) was to be suggested. The
co-ordinator sadhu of that region suggested one name to Pramukh
Swami Maharaj, who had the name of another sadhu in mind. The co-ordinator
sadhu, in utmost good faith, thought that the sadhu suggested by
Swamiji would prove more useful for some other region. And therefore,
very humbly, he sought Swamiji's guidance. Swamiji said, "Look,
we should think from that sadhu's angle as to what sort of help
and support he thinks he would expect from the companion sadhu.
We define the suitability or capability of somebody in our own way,
ignoring his preference for and expectation from a companion sadhu,
to better accomplish his work." Pramukh Swami Maharaj is empathetic.
Typology of
The Teams
There are different types of teams:
(1) Action
Team
As its name suggests, this team is supposed to take action under
the direction of top management, to modify the old work processes
to redesign or re-engineer them, or install new work processes.
The evaluation is concurrent to action. Therefore these teams take
periodic reviews of the actions undertaken, evaluate them, receive
feedback, and re-engineer the procedures and processes. The action
teams have a very strong 'can do' attitude.
(2) Policy
Framing Team
These teams exist at the higher levels of management of the organisation.
The policies formulated and framed by them have an impact on the
entire organisation.
(3) Problem
Solving Team
These teams first try to dissect the problem into sub-problems,
prioritize them, analyse them and then recommend appropriate action
to higher management. The members of such teams should be creative
enough to generate ideas and insights. They should be able to conduct
brainstorming sessions.
(4) Functional
Team
The teammates of a functional team work together in a single section
or a department or a functional area to generate some output. The
functional team is employed in the section or department where specific
skill or work knowledge is required. Compared to other individuals,
they ensure more efficiency and output.
(5) Cross-Functional
Team
The members of a cross-functional team, drawn from different functional
areas of an organisation, strive to work for common goals. Because
of the unique combination of experience, background, knowledge and
skills, these teams bring innovations, simplify processes and help
solve complicated problems.
(6) Self-Directed
Work Team
The members of a self-directed work team are often cross-trained
in multiple skills, so much so that they can carry out one another's
job efficiently. The self-directed teams are supposed to do all
managerial functions i.e. planning, organising, coordinating, implementing
and controlling the project assigned to them. Big business organisations
benefit from their self-directed work teams in terms of cost-reduction
and higher productivity. These teams enjoy absolute autonomy; they
have very strong esprit de corps (sense of belonging and loyalty).
Team Building
Teams do not abruptly become the most efficient or high-performing
teams. A fair amount of time and effort goes into the learning process
for the members of a team. Before attaining the status of a high-performing
team, it has to be trained in various areas. Tuckman and Jensen,
the renowned psychologists, have identified five phases of team
evolution:
(a) Forming
It is the preliminary stage of a team. Here the members of a team
are like strangers in an elevator. They start to feel one another
out, get to know each other. No one is sure who is going to do what.
Goals are ill-defined and unclear. They ask questions about what
their task is and how they would organise their efforts to achieve
it. This forming stage is very important because if the team can
articulate a clear sense of purpose for itself, it would serve as
a sound basis for the rest of the stages to follow. Some experts
in organisational structure term it as the 'dependency stage'.
(b) Storming
At this stage, they begin to have a feel of their tasks. They begin
to realise that it is not all smooth sailing to achieve the tasks
and therefore they become a little defensive. It is like a learning
stage in golf. You are introduced to the game and now you want to
play around - sometimes hitting it squarely and straight and sometimes
not. You enter into skirmishes also, because the two members would
like to work on the same task or they disagree on goals. They try
to stick to their own views, without listening to what others have
to say. In the beginning, though they do not adjust much, slowly
and gradually they move a little forward in knowing more about each
other. This stage is termed by some organisational behaviour scientists
as the 'counterdependency' stage. This stage may persist for a long
period. The team members have to have patience.
(c)
Norming
Team members at this stage have become mature enough to accept each
other, their role and their norms. They start behaving in a manner
that everyone in a group admits it as appropriate. They start interacting
with each other and helping each other. The progress towards achieving
the common goal now is visible and measurable. They come closer
and start thinking as a team, as a whole and not as individuals.
This is known as the stage of 'cohesion'.
(d) Performing
Now at this stage the members behave like mature people. They are
comfortable with each other. They interact effectively with each
other and communicate. They offer their own views, but at the same
time they patiently listen to the views of others. There is synergy
in the team now; wherein they, as a team, accomplish far more than
they can as individuals. The team performs at an optimum level.
In order that the performing teams remain continually progressive,
the organisation should have a set of values and a supportive culture,
in the absence of which, in the longer run, the teams may become
complacent and cease to grow or even decline. The performing stage
is also described as the 'stage of interdependency'.
(5)
Adjourning
Some teams in the organisation, depending on their roles, may never
adjourn. But the teams like Action Teams or Problem Solving Teams,
having fulfilled their tasks, must be adjourned. The services of
these teams, should, of course, be duly appreciated and recognised
by the top management by felicitating them or arranging a thanks-giving
function. Such a gesture would strengthen their bonds with the organisation.
Conclusion
Team members always look up to the team leader. The team leader
has to be a facilitator, inspirer, motivator, counsellor, conflict
resolver and a communicator. He has to be a role model for the members
of the team. If a team is compared to a tree, the mutual trust and
faith are its roots. The leader pours his unmixed love to the roots
and nurtures the tree. The leader has equal regard for his team,
task and individual and strives hard to see to it that all of them
flourish. The leader does not say, "Do this, Do that."
He says, "Let us do this."
The leader has to often deal tactfully with dissenters and naysayers.
He has to sometimes deal with the talented mavericks, who simply
refuse to march in the teamwork parade.
The true leader has great appreciation and recognition for team
members and teamwork. Once the late Ex-Finance Minister of India
Shri H.M. Patel, admiring Pramukh Swami Maharaj's achievements said,
"Swamiji, the kind of work that you have been accomplishing
is simply amazing." With utmost humility, Swamiji replied,
"The entire planning is done by our learned sadhus. I simply
adorn the chair, the real work is put in by our sadhus and devotees."
The task of conducting a meeting of the teammates makes a team leader
wear a cap of facilitator, monitor, motivator, guide, evaluator,
inspirer and summarizer - all at the same time. He directs the discussion,
listens to everyone, at times suppresses secondary discussion or
'noise', and wraps up the things effectively, giving the feeling
of 'a productive meeting' to all the teammates.
In one meeting of BAPS accountants, Pramukh Swami Maharaj cleared
65 items within 60 minutes, to the utmost satisfaction of all participants!
Prior to any meeting, Pramukh Swami Maharaj invariably reads the
minutes of the previous meeting. Pointedly he asks about the works
accomplished within the stipulated period and the works not yet
accomplished. He would enquire about the reasons for the delay and
then offer wonderful counselling, particularly on matters related
to accounting, administration, law, construction projects and planning.
Higher productivity, higher efficiency, economy, inculcating a sense
of belonging and building up a corporate image are some of the fruits
of teamwork for any organisation. Rightly, someone said, "TEAM
means Together Everyone Achieves More." Truly, as 'truth triumphs',
teamwork also triumphs.
Dr.
A.C. Brahmabhatt