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Teamwork Defined
Definition of Effective Teamwork
By Jim Clark, PhD.
Teamwork is about choosing to work together to manage your team's resources and opportunities.
One of the most fundamental dimensions of effective teamwork is about choosing. To begin with, every member of an effective team must believe that they choose to be on the team -every day and in lots of different ways. They buy-in to challenges facing the team, even if not fully agreed on the strategy. If teammates believe or perform like they "have to" be on the team, but don't want to be there, effective teamwork is nearly impossible to achieve.
In addition, members of high performance teams measure their work performance by results, not time spent nor methods used for completing important tasks. They define "success" and establish performance benchmarks that are related to their most important goals and values -- not just in relation to competitor performance. Also, they try to measure progress by indicators they can largely control, as opposed to benchmarks that are completely beyond their control.
High performance teams embrace "togetherness", or judging their performance in light of how well the team does. But in order to help the team be successful, members of effective teams focus not only on task interdependent activities (how well they do on cooperative activities) but also task independent activities (how well they perform individually as part of the team. For example at halftime of a game, teammates discuss not only team functions that can be improved, but also individual assignments that need to be improved. Effective teams learn from their mistakes, both group and individual.
Another aspect of effective teamwork has to do with managing results - continually trying to reduce imperfections in performance that always happen when a group of people try to work together. Teamwork is an on-going trade off in which participants seek individual perfection AND simultaneously accept that group efforts involve some level of imperfection. Effective teams accept that imperfections happen in cooperative work, but that these errors can be minimized.
Effective teams are keenly aware of and sensitive about resources that belong to them, including team member talents and knowledge, the work environment, available cash and inventories, quality of equipment, goodwill and reputation in the marketplace, and other tangible resources. They anticipate the need to replace or replenish resources, and regularly ensure that the resources are functioning properly, and that resources will be sufficient for anticipated changes in market demands.
And last, high performance teams spend time managing opportunities -- all the resources they do not currently own or use. Considerable time is spent focusing not only on where they have been, but also where they might go if additional resources were available.
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