Teamwork is defined as efforts done by a group of people to achieve a common goal. In essence, each team member leaves his/her individual priorities aside for a larger cause and works together. A strong team is one in which the strengths and skills of individual team members are combined in an efficient and effective manner to achieve the goals.
“The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime.”
Crossing the Valley exercise is a situation in which three individuals want to cross a valley wider than the individuals. While they achieve their target, we shall try to learn a concept or two from what they did. So, how does the team of three cross a valley that is wider than a step and narrower than 2 steps put together? Answer: Step by Step. The three individuals hold the rod together with the gap of one footstep between each two of them and they simply walk by. The picture below demonstrates it.
Risk Analysis for each step is as following:-
Although half risky can be considered as safe because it is not risky at all. Standing at the edge is not risky. It was just your fear which could let you fell.
Following characteristics of teamwork can be observed on completing the task:
1) Purpose: A clear goal should be present before initiating the task. This helps team members to prioritize their tasks and work efficiently towards achieving the targets. Just like in the task above, the goal was clearly defined to cross from left block to right block.
2)Responsibility:Everybody in the organization is equally responsible, no matter if he/she is the higher manager, manager or the engineer/ worker. Because if suppose engineer will not be able to do his job properly then not only he will be in the risk but there is the chance that the manager and the higher manager will be also be in the risk. And finally the task will not be completed.
3)Coordination: In today’s world, there are at times huge teams working together to achieve the common goal. This often leads to inter-dependency among team members. To avoid any conflicting situation members should approach each other without hesitation and provide status of their tasks and any related information. Members should coordinate properly so that nobody lags behind in their task as it will affect the team’s goal also.
4)Team Leadership: It is important to have leaders who can help in boosting the morale of team during bad times. They should try to facilitate communication among members if it lacks and promote cooperation and sense of responsibility among the team members.
5) Trust : The organization cannot be successful if there is no element of trust in it. As in the case of valley problem, persons can take the risk to cross the valley only since they trust the other two. Similarly for the organization to be successful, managers and workers have to follow the Theory X which tells the people or managers have trust on the other people or employees.
6) Individual Role: Roles should be well defined among team members. This helps them in understanding their responsibilities and synchronizing their day to day activities with the team goals. Tasks should be evenly divided among team members to avoid overload on one member. Roles need to be defined based on the strengths and skills of individual team members.
In the task above, all the persons had to do the same task and move in similar way to avoid any overwork.
