Essay On Working As A Team

Everybody knows what it is like to be on a team, whether you have been involved with sports in school or at work. Although teams can be found everywhere, they all vary in their unique ways. Larson and LaFasto created a coherent model which illustrates and describes eight characteristics of excellence to a team. Last semester our school team organized itself in a way that allowed us to utilize each of our talents so as to complete the project. As a team, we decided that we could each write our performance goals that we had earlier agreed upon while taking into account equal responsibility and accountability. We chose our analysis of a healthcare team at a local oral surgeon’s office which is about a quarter a kilometer from our school. The business’s name is Wisdom Teeth only. Throughout the project, it was a necessity for our team to work skillfully while engaging one another since every member had certain skills which were fundamental to our project’s success.
We began by gathering data and later process and organize it in an analytical way that would allow us all to establish our team’s level of excellence at Wisdom Teeth Only. Notably, our team is based on eight distinct characteristics of team excellence by Larson and LaFasto. ‘A clear elevated goal’ is the first characteristic which is defined by Larson and LaFasto. We started our project reflecting on this characteristic realizing that for us to succeed as a team; we had to clearly understand the key goal of our team, secondly, every team member feels that it is indeed worthy to achieve the goal. In our first section of the survey, the data we collected showed 85% of the health team believed that there is a goal clearly defined and that needs to be achieved. All members of the team felt that clearly, the team’s goal was significant. All systems go; we proceeded to the next level with a clear goal that was elevated in one sense. This goal made us all feel that as a team, we had a sense of purpose because we would be learning certain ways to work dependently as a high performing team so as to pass the class.
The next characteristic of our analysis was ‘a results-driven structure’ as Larson and LaFasto claim. As the structure of the team, it is a critical aspect differentiating low and high success teams. Using this characteristic, our data survey suggested that the oral health care team was a results-driven structure. Eight out of ten members felt that the team’s design is entirely determined by the results needed to be achieved and not by irrelevant considerations. Every member consented that the relationship of each member of the team was in terms of role accountability and clarity. Secondly most of the members of the team agreed that there was a need for an established method for proving feedback and monitoring performance. Our observations were that the oral health care team specially designed in a way that could attend to many patients within a short time so as to maximize profits. The organization structure was conducive from our analysis. As we proceeded with our project, we could be characterized as a ‘problem-resolution team’. To resolve the problems we had, we had to establish honesty and trusting relationships between our members. This design was more influenced by the need for good results and not other issues.
‘Competent team members’ was the next theoretical characteristic which is suggested by Larson and LaFasto. It suggests that teams have an obligation of selecting best equipped persons to help achieve the objectives of the team. In order to achieve this, team members must have a strong desire to contribute to success of the team and also have essential abilities and skills which will enable them to achieve the goal of the team. All members of our team agreed that all members possessed the essential abilities and skills to accomplish our mission. Data extracted from the research showed that every individual demonstrated strong desire to make coherent contributions to the success of the team. From our observation, it was evident that our team had competent members who possessed necessary skills geared towards our success in the project.
The fourth characteristic of team excellence is ‘unified commitment’. This idea was addressed by the survey we administered. This characteristic asks if achieving the goal of the team is a higher characteristic than objects of an individual. This was well received and over 80% of the health team felt that the goal of the team was indeed of much importance than anyone else’s. As we made observations of the extract wisdom teeth, we observed that every member of our team works hard to ensure that the team met its objectives. In addition, while at the oral surgeon’s office, we observed that trust is a key theme of our success. Seemingly, trust unified us in a special way that kept us as a team working at a high level.
The next area of our analysis would be defined by ‘standards of excellence’. Regarding team success, setting the bar higher can be of paramount importance. As suggested by Larson and LaFasto, teams are quite likely to have very high standards. Our data gave suggestions that the oral surgeon’s team has excellent standards. Through standards of excellence, the team had established coherent ways in which every member was expected to live up to. Mostly, our team’s standards of excellence were mostly provided through the class structure. ‘External support and guidance’ was the idea that our team was initially given the resources that it needed to succeed and that it was recognized and supported by outside influences. These influences are able to make contributions to the success of the team. When analyzing the excellence of the oral surgeon’s team, it appeared that the external recognition and support were a critical aspect where each member agreed that the team is provided with the resources needed to get all tasks carried out. As a team, we felt that we had recognition and external support that enabled us proceed pretty well with our study.
Lastly, using Larson and LaFasto’s ‘Principle leadership’ was in a good position to make strides in our project. We were lucky enough to have a caring and ethical leader. We responded in a positive manner towards the leader in all survey questions. Shane our team leader was of much help to us, every one of us felt that he was fair and didn’t play any favorites among our team. We also observed that the leader was given a greater level of respect and every member listened carefully to his remarks. From our observations, we found that principled leadership had great influence on the success of the oral surgeon’s team. Larson and LaFasto’s model of team excellence is quite an outstanding method for keenly and professionally analyzing a team’s excellence. It was by use of their model that we were able to fully and successfully analyze the excellence of the oral surgeon’s team and our team as well. Through analyzing the team using Larson and LaFasto’s model, we ensured the efficacy of the data that we collected and it is from this model that we succeeded in our study.