Guidelines:  How to manage Teams

Communication and Impact Oriented Programme Management

           Effective managers take groups of people and turn them into real teams, and turn the members into team players. To do so they help team members:

1.      Build a trusting relationships with the other members;

2.      Understand the need for communicating and discussing ideas and plans;

3.      Appreciate the diversity and importance of all individuals and their unique skills;

4.      Clarify what roles each member will fulfill;

5.      Feel comfortable contributing their own ideas and insights;

6.      Feel comfortable listening and being open to others’ ideas and insights;          

7.      Develop pride in being part of their team.

Effective managers use whatever is available to help turn strangers into teams.

 

Seven Steps To Building A Team in the meeting   (see Leading Meetings vs. Managing Meetings  )

            An effective meeting consists of a group of people who work together as a team toward achieving common goals and objectives. Here are some tips to build the cohesiveness a meeting needs in order to become a team. While this is aimed at continuing meetings and long-term projects, many of these techniques can also be adapted for short-term projects:

  1. Identify all present—all the participants, including yourself—as a group, and show that you are part of that group. Say “We,” not “I.”
  2. Build a group tradition. That can be something a small as starting each meeting with bagels and cream cheese or chocolate cupcakes, to having team shirts, ties, or notebooks.
  3. Stress teamwork.
  4. Get the group to recognize good work, and applaud it.
  5. Set clear and obtainable group goals. If the final goal will take time to achieve, set a series of intermediate goals that will serve as measurable steps on the way to achieving that final goal.
  6. Give rewards to the group. It can be praise, a special dessert, a team jacket, certificate, a toy or keepsake. Whatever it is, it has to have special meaning within the group.
  7. Treat members like people, not machines. Each member is an individual. They are not interchangeable. Let each one know how special and important they are to the group and the ultimate goal.

Organizing the work Motivating the Project Team

See also Job Satisfaction  -   Motivation  -  Information overload -   The Knowledge-Based Organization: Managing Its Human Resources Characteristics of a "learning organization"