The goals for this report are to formulate a team strategy plan that would address the creation of a functional team for Riordan Marketing, identify the best strategy to employ when building a team, identify possible barriers or pitfalls in the process of building a team and coming up with action plans or measures that should be put in place for a successful team performance evaluation.
Team Strategy Plan
Strategies to address the creation of teams at Riordan Manufacturing:
1. Make sure you have a COMMON (single) GOAL
Strengths:
- Once properly communicated, this would ensure that the goals set for the teams you are creating are clearly understood by the members.
- Ensures that the team is steering towards the same direction which is achieving the goals.
Weaknesses:
- Having multiple agendas might be a create confusion as to which goals are more important thus leading to the failure of the whole team.
2. Create an Organizational structure that encourage the participation of all team members
Strengths:
- Enables all team members to feel equally important.
- Makes them feel at ease and welcome to participate in all levels of decision making, planning and setting indicators to measure quality performance.
- Having an equal share of responsibilities builds ownership and having equality builds the commitment of each member to accomplish goals.
Weaknesses:
- Failing to acknowledge the contributions and positive accomplishments of each team member only fosters jealousy.
- Failure to facilitate this strategy properly would only lead to the team’s downfall.
- Inability to show confidence and conviction that you truly believe in each and every member’s efforts, skills and abilities would only cast doubt among the members if they have the right person leading them.
3. Communicate / Effective Team Communication Skills
Strengths:
- Team communication is the number one strategy to molding an outstanding working group.
- Fosters positive spirit, consideration and mutual respect among team members.
- Fosters transparency when it comes to the relevance of the information that is being communicated.
Weaknesses:
- Failure to establish a strong communication system may compromise your strategy.
- Failing to communicate with a healthy degree of transparency and openness when it comes to what’s happening to their surroundings and performance also leads to failure in reaching your organizational goals.
4. Provide your team with all the necessary tools needed to ensure success
Strengths:
- Makes them feel that they have your utmost confidence.
- Provides a venue and equal opportunity for all team members to grow.
- Allows superiors to assess and revise each member’s position in relation to their expertise and which allows them to realize their personal career goals.
Weaknesses:
- Overindulging them too much may develop complacency throughout the team.
- May foster an unhealthy level of competition among members.
5. Set expectations and provide a clear context and commitment
Strengths:
- Makes sure that each team member understands why they have been chosen as a part of the team.
- Ensures that each team member is aware of the team’s importance and where they fit in relation to work and in relation to the corporate organizations goals, principles and values.
Weaknesses:
- Not setting clear expectations could lead to team members functioning individually which often lead to having fewer accomplishments.
- Not gaining each member’s commitment to accomplishing a common goal may lead to unfavorable results.
The best team formation strategy that would be most suitable for Riordan Marketing is creating an organizational structure that encourages the participation of all team members. Given a brief outline of the corporate structure and background on each prospective team member shows that they have a tendency to try and outdo or outperform each other for recognition. Although competition is healthy; this could prove to be otherwise for the team. Fostering equality and giving each member a fair share of the responsibilities would only give them a sense of belongingness and the impression that each and every single one of them is as important as the other.
Some of the foreseen barriers to effective team formation are the overlapping of duties and also a negative sense of competition when the goals, expectations and responsibilities are not effectively communicated to all the members. Failure to communicate properly with the team only makes them think that information is being kept from them. It is a must that each member is aware of that they are all equal when it comes to importance, responsibilities and duties.
Some of the effective measures that should be in place to properly evaluate the success and progress of the team is by creating action plans that involve coaching, round table discussions, and performance appraisals on a regular basis. This gives team members a clear foundation on the substructure on how the team is performing, what changes or improvements should be made and also allow them to work on the job related/ performance related aspects that hinders them from achieving 100% success and completion of their goals. This also gives them the opportunity to ask relevant question, communicate their concerns and a chance to provide answers for the most common challenges that the team is facing.
References:
1. Finch D. (2007). 8 Basic Strategies for effective team buiding. 5 August 2007. Retrieved from web. http://www.davidsfinch.com/2007/08/8-basic-strategies-for-effective-team-building.html
2. Management Skills Advisor (2009). Successful team building strategies. Retrieved from web. http://www.managementskillsadvisor.com/team-building-strategies.html
3. Heathfield M. S. (2009). Twelve Tips for team building: How to build successful work teams. Retrieved from web.http://humanresources.about.com/od/involvementteams/a/twelve_tip_team.htm
4. Carnegie A. (2010). Team Building strategies- Remember the five C’s. Retrieved from web. http://www.smartentrepreneur.net/team-building-strategies.html
