Creating Cross Functional Teams For A Functional Team

Teams are very important aspects of business. If a team can perform well then the business will thrive and perform more efficiently. It is therefore important to know how to build cohesive teams that perform well.

Teamwork cannot be demanded. Everyone involved must discuss and understand what the goal is and what is required of them. Teams should have traits such as goals and objectives, empowerment, trust, authentic participation, innovation, creativity, risk taking and leadership. (Temme and Katzel, 1995)

A successful team can be represented by various characteristics which include respect for one another, a sense of purpose, commitment to the aims of the team which are demonstrated every day by each team member and regular communication between team members.

There are many factors altering group behavior and effectiveness, such as decision- making, cohesion and communication (Crocker, 2016). The later has also shown a positive relationship with group task cohesion (Smith et al., 2013), and methods of enhancing intrateam

Cross-functional teams give a wide range of ideas, viewpoints, opinions, and knowledge, which increases the likelihood of coming up with effective solutions or successful product development. Because of these teams, solutions for new product or business venture are very will reasoned and the organization is well informed. These teams also increase workplace dynamics, and when employees work across functions they develop a better appreciation for the company

I will be talking about the different types of teams and the benefits organisation have in when working in a team.

Teams are an integral component of organizational success. They take on many forms and functions and can have various structures. Teams also conduct a wide variety of projects with goals of innovation or mitigation. An example, from my experience, of a project that required the execution from a team was the establishment of a finished goods inventory program within a paper manufacturing company. A project of this magnitude required that a diverse and multifaceted team be assembled.

Team – a small number of people (ideally six to ten individuals) whose members share a common purpose, hold themselves individually and collectively responsible for goals, and have complementary skills and agreed-on processes for working together.

Teams are when people working together in a group to perform efforts and communicate with each other to combine efforts.

Part of being a manager for a company is managing teams. These teams can be created for many different reasons and can have various goals put upon them. Companies want managers that are capable of constructing teams that can effectively meet goals and set standards. The four types of work teams most commonly found in organizations are: problem-solving, self-managed, cross-functional, and virtual. In completing the simulation for this course, I will use cross-functional work teams as a foundation for my investigation of effective team management.

Reid Hastie, in his book “Wiser,” discusses many of the common points of how groups succeed and fail mainly due to group think. Throughout his years of research, he found a number of attributes that effective teams have in common. From his book, we have extracted ten important lessons that we believe are the most important for teams to learn and implement to be high performing. These findings also relate to the “5 Dysfunctions of a Team” that are outlined by Patrick Lencioni. Teachings taken from “Wiser” are symptoms, or indicators, of dysfunctions within a team, and many of his solutions help teams to overcome certain dysfunctions.

The term cross-functional team is new to me, however, after grasping a better understanding of the concept, I realize I have been part of one of these types of teams. However, the cross-functional team I was on, was not related to logistics or the supply chain. Instead, it was the way law enforcement coordinates certain units with specific skills to carry out an operation together. Recently, our agency experienced organization change to place employees with unique skills in other units to improve coordination and flow of communications between two or more units that would seldom speak with each other. This change has been welcoming and has improved the dissemination of information immensely.

You also have to protect the company’s identity and the self-esteem of its people. Those two goals – making change and safeguarding identity – can easily come into conflict; pursuing them both entails a difficult and sometimes precarious balancing act.” Also, emotional bonds get created throughout the cross functional teams because they are no longer dealing with employees from just their departments. You learn from and about employees from all different levels and statuses.

The science of team building is an art. The uncontrollable variables are people. Just putting a group of talented individuals together for the sole purpose of goal achievement can be met with disastrous results. It can leave individuals left feeling unfulfilled and lead to costly mistakes in the long run. While team building can be considered an art, there are some methods and approaches that can assist with successful builds. While no approach is full proof, taking time to acclimate oneself with human

To fully discuss this topic, we must start with a simple definition of a team. Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith define a team in their best-selling book The Wisdom of Teams (Harper Business Essentials 1994), as