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Creating Effective Teams
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. (Margaret Mead)
Key Learning Points
- The basic conditions for effective teamwork
- The conditions for outstanding teamwork
- Team reflexivity and its importance in team functioning
- The two dimensions of team functioning – task and social reflexivity
- The five elements of team effectiveness
- The relationship of team reflexivity to team effectiveness
- The application of the reflexivity questionnaire to real teams
Our societies and communities face the fundamental challenge of how to enable people to combine their efforts and imaginations to work in ways that enhance quality of life through the achievement of our shared goals. The major challenges that face our species today require us to cooperate effectively in order to maximize the quality of life for all people while, at the same time, sustaining the resources offered by the planet? For thousands of years the most potent solution we have found has been teamwork. So why the need for a book on teamwork if we have been working in teams successfully for so long? Because the landscape of teamwork has changed fundamentally in the last 200 years. The growth of modern organizations has created a context in which teams no longer work in isolation. Teams must work together with other teams and with organizational systems and processes to achieve the goals we aspire to and overcome ...
