examine various team building strategies

Teamwork is working together to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the whole department. Many employees like working in a team because of the unified approach to projects and for the shared workload and responsibility. Teamwork provides a natural vehicle for employees to collaborate, share ideas, and implement improvements.

Managers can form the best teams by looking at these aspects:

• Size: a team that is too large may struggle with cohesiveness. At the same time, a large group can offer the benefit of diverse perspectives.

• Time: some teams may be formed to work on a specific problem or a project within a short time frame, while others may work together for more extended time periods on everyday tasks.

• Status: a team that is formally created by a company may be required to provide progress reports and updates, and it often has access to company resources. Less formal groups may need to take the initiative in maintaining lines of communication.

Team building is used to increase cohesiveness, cooperation, and identification with the group. The following guidelines describe team-building procedures that can be used alone or in various combinations that are relevant for the current situation.

• Emphasize common interests and values: collective identifications with a group is stronger when the members agree about objectives, values, priorities.

• Use ceremonies and rituals: ceremonies and rituals can be used to increase identification with a group and make membership appear unique.

• Use symbols to develop identification with the group: symbols of a group’s identity such as a team name, slogan, logo, or emblem which may be displayed on flags, banners, clothing.

Promote and facilitate social interaction: In an effort to develop a cohesive group, provide a way for the members to interact socially so that the members can get to know each other on a personal basis.

Inform group members of activities and achievements: Everyone likes to feel that they are a part of a team or department; so that they do not feel alienated from the group and/or unappreciated try to provide everyone information about the plans, activities and accomplishments of their respective team or department.

• Conduct process analysis session: process analysis sessions involve frank and open discussion of interpersonal relationships and group processes to improve them.

• Conduct alignment sessions: there are less mutual trust and acceptance among people who view each other regarding negative stereotypes and attributions

• Increase incentives for cooperation: Incentives based on individual performance encourage team members to compete with each other whereas incentives based on group performance promote participation.

Competency

Examine various team-building strategies.

Scenario

You are the owner of a small neighborhood coffee shop. You generally have quite a turnover of employees in a given year since the positions are part-time. You have two long-time employees who generally are at the cash register, a manager on duty, and a barista, who are full-time, with 4 other employees who are part-time.

Instructions

You have decided to make a presentation to all of your employees on teamwork. You need to incorporate guidelines not only on the definitions of the coffee drinks, the bakery items, and breakfast/lunch sandwiches but also on how to work together as a team when serving the customers.

• Define the term customer service within your coffee shop’s environment.

Analyze guidelines on team building procedures and detail how each guideline could be used for each employee. (Cashier, Barista, Manager, Full-time, Part-time)

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