Teamworking
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"No one can rule others if they do not know how to govern themselves." Confucio
Definition of teamworking:
1. Listening: “First understanding and later being understood”
2. Respect (one of the pillars of TPS)
3. Hope
4. Empowerment
For what?
5. Covey recommends winning the hearts of your team
6. Everyone must participate and feel involved in the company.
7. “Nemahashi”: taking decisions by consensus. All options must be considered.
How? With…
8. Patience
9. Empathy
10. Humility, we can learn from everyone
11. Brainstorming sessions (with feedback and feedforward)
12. Sharing your time with others
13. Real win-win agreements
14. Group dynamics
15. Activities outside work
16. Assertive communication
We should sense in the relations among our team:
· admiration feelings
· inferiority and superiority complexes
· defensive attitudes
· aggressive attitudes
· feelings of envy
· shyness and fear of looking ridiculous
and in consequence acting according to the demand of each member of the group.
The goal of teamworking in the long term is to create synergies among (1) workers, (2) partners, (3) suppliers and (4) customers.
Communication is essential among teams. Sometimes body language is more important than the message you want to give. A good leader knows this and tries to find out the root of this bad communication. It´s important to observe the reactions of others when we talk so as to get more effectiveness from our words. Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) has demonstrated its value as an approach for improving our communication around the world.
A leader has two purposes:
1. Ensuring everyone rows in the same direction
· common goals and values
· establishing kaizen habit in your team
· changing pessimism into optimism
· solving problems by consensus
· respect
2. Giving the right north to the team: “The trees don’t let to see the sun”. It´s vital to be proactive.
And with a balance between the needs of the workers and the goals of the corporation.
These two roles of a leader are not easy to develop. By that reason, some companies use the concept “Distributed Leadership” (Nike, BP, Morgan Stanley, Obama´s campaign, etc.). It´s about finding a group of people in the company that perform the role of a leader. They are called X-Teams. Check this link by Professor Deborah Ancona of MIT.
It´s really interesting to read the Intentional Change theory of Richard Boyatzis, the seven and eight habits by Stephen Covey, the approach of Jim Collins and the powerful message of Tony Robbins.
Peter Senge, author of the book “The Fifth Discipline” defines a learning organization as:
"A place where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together".