Operability of work teams

"The most developed societies are characterized by the marked growth of 'social capital', which is the ability to build common goals." F. Cobayashi.

A list of useful ideas to build a functional and successful team:

I. Teamwork precedes its success

According to Machiavelli, the great ability of human beings is to dominate their own interests so that together they achieve better results. In other words, working as a team suits us. Take, for example, ants. A lone ant will never build a shelter, nor can it store food; You need to organize with the other ants to have and maintain an anthill, and ensure its survival.

Success is built on others, an undeniable truth even for leaders. The president of a country cannot be considered a great statesman if his country does not grow under his administration, he cannot administer without his secretaries, governors, judges, magistrates, houses of representatives, etc.; A soccer player alone cannot occupy all positions, defend, advance and take care of the opposing team's goal, he needs the work of the entire team.

A work team that has abandoned the negative conditions of leadership, of unnecessary competitiveness, and learns to complement each other, will meet the common objectives more quickly and efficiently than if each of them acted separately.

II: A work team is many voices with the same vision

You have undoubtedly heard the phrase and "two minds are better than one" over and over again. And it is true. And more true that three think better than two, four than three, etc.That is synergy, the result of the whole is superior to that of the components. The team needs to share a philosophy that motivates them to achieve common goals, without necessarily having to respond creatively in exactly the same way; On the contrary, in a group the diversity of personalities is useful for brainstorming, everyone can express their opinion about the problem or mission they face, and their proposals for solutions, the more proposals, the more likely they will find the right one, once arrived To a consensus, the common vision helps everyone understand how to put it into practice even if it was an individual approach in the beginning. It is not about extrapolating an individual thought to impose it on the group,but to train in recognizing and knowing how to take advantage of both similarities and differences between team members to combine them for the common good.

III. The leader's inspiration is the energy resource for the team

The energy of a true leader is remarkable, his strength comes from within and he knows how to channel it outside; and it is easy to recognize it because they not only think, but live as such; They are not afraid of hard work or new challenges, they are willing to take risks, they are tenacious, constant and consistent until they achieve their goals; When there are problems, they face them with courage and security, and if there are doubts, as is natural in every human being, they quickly overcome them, because they understand the importance of putting solutions on time, so they are not afraid to make decisions, even if they are drastic; Something very remarkable is that they do not hide behind false pride when they need help, they ask for it with simplicity and humility, and they work shoulder to shoulder with the one who gives them help, they are grateful and know how to recognize the efforts of others.They seem to be everywhere at once and take care of endless things. They are truthful. These actions alone, without the need for speeches, motivate action. People like that are inspiring dreams and energy is contagious. There is nothing like seeing a good example and the good results of that example to make you want to work. Imagine that all of these qualities can be learned when working with a true leader. WhyImagine that all of these qualities can be learned when working with a true leader. WhyImagine that all of these qualities can be learned when working with a true leader. WhyA true leader teaches his group what he knows, he does not hoard information as a source of power, he knows that if the team members grow, the whole company will grow. Then, each one of the members of the group can be, within the scope of their competence, a leader as well.

IV. That each result counts for the team and recognizes it, it is necessary to reinforce the good individual results as a group

Kant says that we work as a team to obtain recognition, because alone it is impossible to obtain it.

And this should not be misunderstood as feeding the ego of the team members, mentioning the word ego almost always carries negative connotations. No, as has already been explained before, the human being is gregarious by nature and is only truly human living in the middle of the group; When, in colloquial language, we say, "this is very human," without a doubt we are referring to some positive quality or characteristic, generally exercised for the benefit of others. Let's take generosity for example. How can anyone be generous when alone? If you have no one around to whom to give something generously? How, in the complementary case, would gratitude exist, if nobody does anything for us?The human being only manifests and expresses himself in his totality in the presence of others, and of course, he needs the acceptance, recognition and validation of those others when he has done something well, it is nothing more than natural that he needs those witnesses to build your self esteem. Because we want to or not, we live with and for others in all aspects of our lives. In family and work relationships and all the variations of social interaction. And in addition, man responds to conditioning. If you do something well and are recognized and celebrated, you will certainly do it again, and you will try to do better as well. That is what we entrepreneurs optimally wish from all the collaborators of our business, that each time they work better.

Developing team people determines the difference between success and failure

We have already talked about the absurd and damaging competitiveness of those who do not want to train and grow their team members so that they do not threaten their position or their leading figure. Error. We have already talked about the success of instructing, training, infusing the team with philosophy and business vision, making them feel appreciated and secure so that they progress more and more in their integral development; undoubtedly, the collective benefit will be greater, since they will work considerably better.

What happens when a member of the work team is limited, never allowed to be purposeful or reach their full potential, assigning them over and over the same tasks that they have already overcome? One of two situations, the first, very frequent, is that, unmotivated, he does not put any additional effort to the minimum in fulfilling his tasks, he becomes convinced of the uselessness of the effort, because it does not achieve results, and he stops trying. Do you know the barracuda experiment published in National Geographic magazine? Some scientists carried out the following experiment: they built a pond divided into two parts by a completely transparent glass wall. On one side they placed the barracuda, and on the other side many small fish. Logically, the barracuda lunged to try to eat them, but collided with the glass.Yet he tried repeatedly, until he hurt himself. After a while she gave up. The glass was then removed and the small fish swam freely around the barracuda. This, convinced by her previous frustration that it was impossible to eat them, no longer tried to hunt them and died of hunger.

Let's get metaphorical. Validation is the worker's food, and if he runs into the barrier of indifference that limits and hurts him, he will stop trying.

Case number two, sooner or later the relegated member of the team will tire and migrate with their qualities to where they are appreciated. And if many members of the group feel the same, the undesirable phenomenon of the temporary workforce appears, new employees arrive, after a while they realize that they have no opportunity for intellectual or human growth in that position and resign.. Others come and also leave. Optimal operational stability and functionality of a team is never achieved if its members are constantly fluctuating. Who resents this? Customers stop buying or consuming the product or service because they are not given adequate and consistent care or product. And immediately afterwards come the inexorable financial problems resulting from the lack of sales. Even bankruptcy.

A team must work together but not dependently; you have to know the strengths and weaknesses of each team member

… Or the members will never make high-risk decisions. Or just decisions, if they are not all together. All team members must be duly valued and recognized, but they do not have to be essential. The importance of knowing in depth the members of a team, their behaviors, virtues, qualities, abilities, and also their shortcomings, helps greatly so that in the event that due to the circumstances they leave, they are absent, another or all the others Team members can absorb the tasks that correspond to the absentee promptly and efficiently, especially since the information of what she is doing and how must be exposed and available at all times. No one should work on their individual assignments in secret. And if a decision needs to be made in this absence, everyone will feel confident and secure to move on and act. The key is interdependence, not dependence on one another.

The importance of the culture of cooperation and not of competition, of unity and not of individuality

Confidence in the work environment and among team members is invaluable. Nobody can work well and give his best effort when he feels that he has to take care of his partner's back. What if they flatter the boss and earn an extra commission. That if they steal ideas and use them in their own tasks without giving credit to whoever generated them. What if they are looking for promotion at all costs, even if they have to trample their group up. It is amazing how modern culture has extolled this pattern of fierce competition, for example in movies and on television. And these unethical individuals are revered as achievers. But if they did not know how to develop a basic virtue, an essential social skill: teamwork. «Real bunkers and areas of power are created,relationships and work meetings turn into real struggles (…) »Mario Borghino.

To obtain positive results and achieve the proposed objectives, especially the long-term ones, the collaboration of all team members is necessary. Competing destroys the relationship and motivation of the team. We must be more intelligent and think about the well-being of the common future instead of the immediate personal satisfaction that an ephemeral victory brings over a competitor, who was not even a competitor, but a partner, with whom the opportunist had to be supportive and has not. been, consequently, he will lose his solidarity as well and little by little he will be isolated until the group expels him, since they do not trust him.

Build the code of conduct that the team must respect, the discipline of your group begins with respect

Discipline means organization, chain of command, and logistics. Sun Tzu in the art of war.

This is very clear, but of course respect has to be reciprocal, the company, of course, owes respect to its work group. An employee has obligations as well as rights, and one of these obligations is to observe the internal regulations of the company, regarding the use of equipment and facilities, even the dress code or behavior, which of course must include dignified treatment and respectful among team members, no matter how deep the camaraderie and affection between them. Personal conflicts for offenses are detrimental to the interests of the company, that is, of all.

Exceptions should never be made that exempt a team member from the rules, so as not to arouse resentment from others; hierarchies must be respected, they cannot "jump" up the organizational structure, or "down". That is, the accounts are rendered to whom they should be rendered, and to whom they should be turned for help. Nobody usurps the position of anybody, even if he is willing to replace it temporarily in case of absence; Above all, the work plans and strategies established by the management cannot be changed. Of course , participation and new proposals must be encouraged, but there must be a suitable way and time for this, and they must be submitted to the approval of the managers. This guarantees the internal order of the company, and its smooth operation.

Encourage engagement

"The path means inducing the people to have the same objective as their leaders so that they can share life and death without fear of danger"

Again a quote from Sun Tzu.

This undoubtedly sounds exaggerated, no employee is asked to follow his company until death, but to share a good life together with common goals: development and growth. "Death" symbolizes the very high degree of commitment that a loyal employee can feel.

The book The Art of War continues to be used to this day, not so much for planning military strategies, but for business strategies. And the thing is that his sentences have great common sense, coherence and logic; his translators argue that his words contained important symbolisms. Tomas Cleary, for example, indicates that "the way" means humanity and justice, since Sun Tzu had expressed: "Humanity and justice are the means to govern properly, people feel close and do not mind dying for he".

The interpretation is very simple: company, treat your employees well, with respect for their human rights and condition, grant fair wages, recognition and security conditions, and you will obtain loyalty and commitment.

Finally, something very clear and concise:

The four keys to teamwork:

A. Share strategy all the time and in all ways.

B. Confirm that the task has been clear about what and how.

C. Build a discipline of execution.

D. Make sure resources are available for people to use.

Conclusions

-When a group works together, it achieves that its results are greater than the contribution of each member.

- The mission of a leader is to teach his team to fish.

-Team members who work well with each other will treat the customer well.

-If someone is negatively competitive, you cannot expect a climate of trust in the team, or good results.

Self appraisal: