A Great Team Work

Over the years working in many different jobs, I find the four Haas & Mortensen (2016) “enabling conditions” very relevant. For instance, as an administrative assistant, the role required my complete understanding of the organization’s goals, missions, and rationale for most managerial decisions that concerned customers. Fortunately, managers ensured a supportive context by inclusion in decision making, organizing educational fairs and benchmark to improve our skills and kept us updated. This avoided adverse implications of lack of support such as poor communication, mistrust, and poor execution of tasks.

Besides, managers ensured we had a shared mindset. They organized weekly and monthly meetings, where we discussed performance and targets. That way, each team member had the clarity of goals and objectives to achieve. The shared mindset created strong collaboration, or as Griffith & Dunham (2014) call it – a team culture. Without a shared mindset, members of a team will seldom collaborate or work towards the main goals and objectives of a team.

The best team structure revealed when working as a nurse assistant at NeoMed clinic. Managers preferred a democratically oriented team structure, where each employee would volunteer to undertake roles in which they are proficient. That freedom for both medical and allied professionals ensured predictability, efficiency, and satisfaction, as affirmed by Griffith & Dunham (2014). Had we worked without a strong structure, the team would have been at risk of broken communication and poor management of human resources, leading to burnouts or conflicts.

I experienced a compelling direction when working as a teacher’s aide. One student had a reading disorder. Nevertheless, together with allied teachers and health practitioners, we were determined to help the student improve their reading capabilities. We learned the best teaching practices and applied them to the letter. Within one year, Polly could read better, and she was happier than ever. Lack of a compelling direction leads to laxity and eventually failure of a team to meet its objectives.

References

Griffith, B., & Dunham, E. (2014). Working in teams. New York: SAGE Publications, Inc.

Haas, M., & Mortensen, M. (2016). The Secrets of Great Teamwork Harvard Business Review. 70-76. Retrieved from https://store.hbr.org/product/the-secrets-of-great-teamwork/R1606E