People in organizations often deal with the interaction between teams and leaders, triggered by various occasions such as market changes, performance improvements and organizational changes. The goal is to optimally align value creation with the market and provide a suitable framework for employees to do so. The interaction of leadership and teams plays a central role in this.
What is a team versus a group?
A team has common goals and complements each other with the individual skills needed to achieve them, whereas a group acts simultaneously but does not necessarily work toward a common goal or complement each other. Thus, in a team there is true collaboration and focus on the common goals.
The 4 basic conditions for cooperation
The emergence of a successful team cannot be forced, especially outside the team. Rather, the external conditions must encourage its emergence. Therefore, it is important to consider the influence of the current organizational design on the following four basic conditions for successful cooperation:
- Convergence of goals and interests
- Absence of competition
- Recognition of capabilities
- Clarified relationships and roles
Creating a framework for team development
For successful teamwork, it is important that the team has a clear purpose where collaboration is meaningful and actionable. Members should have a shared understanding of goals and objectives and focus on the team's value-added task without multitasking or multiteaming. It is also beneficial to eliminate structures that might foster competition within the team.
What IT teams can learn from executive teams
Good teamwork is essential to the success of a business. IT team collaboration can be inspired by the model nature of functioning executive teams. A shared vision, clear goals, open communication and a positive discussion culture are important factors here. Continuous development and self-reflection also promote the team's success.
There are many similarities between managers and IT employees, as they often only differ in their formal status. In a group or team, individual skills, characters and sensitivities are relevant and can be influenced by clear framework conditions.
Decision-makers can help their employees to recognize their options for action and limits to successfully overcome challenges. Sharing experiences in team development can also help them to classify their own expectations and learning experiences in order to make the best use of the team's potential.
To conclude: A successful team requires clear goals, mutual trust, clarified roles and relationships and an absence of rivalry. Leadership teams can contribute to team development through their own experiences and impulses. However, the team development process is individual for each team and cannot be copied. Optimal conditions for team building result from the given context of the organization; the development of teams happens within it through the teams themselves.