Four C’s

Teams are, in their ideal form, groups of individuals who work cooperatively in pursuit of organizational goals. Inevitably, conflicts arise from time to time. But, as experienced team members can tell you, teams that have withstood stormy disagreements can take full advantage of the cooperative calm that ensues.

There are four C’s that lead to a tightly structured team: conflict, creativity, commitment, and cohesion.  ell-managed conflict can help a group to uncover issues that may be troubling certain members.  onflict, if handled well, helps teams to get things out on the table, to deal with issues honestly, and to experience the solidity that results when fractures have been mended.

Creativity, of course, is vital if teams are to solve problems they have chosen to pursue or the projects that have been assigned to them.  reativity can be nourished by each team member.  embers should be encouraged to realize this, especially if the climate is one that is receptive to innovation and risk taking.  hen employees believe that they can take risks in proposing new ideas, when they believe that they will not be unduly blamed when things go wrong, when they believe that success or failure results from the group’s decision rather than from one person’s, they can willingly contribute more.  in-win scenarios inevitably result.

In time, each member will have an opportunity to assume leadership of a work team.  embers should be encouraged to foster commitment to the team and to the organization, through various means.  uture team leaders can use verbal, psychological, physical, even environmental initiatives to build team rapport.  omething as small as buying “maska buns” for an early-morning meeting, or as simple as saying “thank you” will do wonders in helping team members to feel that their contributions to the team’s efforts are valued.

Although not every team ends up cohesive, the majority do, assuming that all members are truly interested in accomplishing the team’s task.  f struggles for power or prestige cannot be dealt with, the team is likely to remain fractured.  ometimes the hard reality must be faced: not all individuals work best in team situations.  f a given member cannot be persuaded to allow the overall team objective to supersede his or her individual priorities, that member should, probably, be asked to leave the team.  ynergy can be released only if all members of the team can pledge themselves to collaborative interactions.

Interdependence characterizes contemporary business.  n other words, organizational goals are defined in terms of performance of business processes that are partially owned and partially outsourced.  eams, in this context, assume a refreshingly different role… one of customer-supplier partnership.