Essay My Team Success

Creating Effective Teams: a Guide for Members and Leaders is a book by Wheelan (2013) designed to do as the title states; guiding members and leaders to create effective teams. Wheelan (2013) begins the book by highlighting the reasons that groups are important. Wheelan (2013) states that throughout history, “Groups have played a major role in both the survival of human beings and the development of human culture” (p. 1). The majority of the book is based on 4 stages that create a group of individuals into an effective team. The first stage is called dependency and inclusion. According to Wheelan (2013), the first stage of the group is

At this stage, the group begins to realize the more positive points of individuals within the group, which promotes the development of trust and respect which begins to build group cohesion. The next stage is the performing stage, which is typical of high-performing teams that are able to function as a group and figure out various options to get the job done smoothly and effectively without supervision. The final stage is the adjourning phase, which is the final step in completing tasks and breaking up the team.

The five stages of group/team development are: forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. In the forming stage, the group members get aquainted with one another and figure out what the goals of the group are. In the storming stage, individual personalities within the group emerge and group members start to figure out what their roles will be. In the norming stage, the group begins to find unity and group members resolve their differences. In the performing stage, the group members solve problems and focus on completing their assigned task. In the adjourning stage, the group begins to disband and the members transition out and into other projects.

Wheelan (2013) identifies the four stages of team development and provides detailed explanation of how a group transforms itself from a stage one group of uncertainty into a successful, highly productive stage four team. This requires work and a thorough understanding of the many internal/external influences that can occur during each stage. A team member or leader who is well versed in these stages and who can evolve with each stage will be better equipped to deal with possible obstacles that can hinder group progress and implement practices to help the group successfully work through a

Participating in organized basketball and football for ten years presented me the opportunity to achieve common goals working side-by-side with a variety of different personalities. Playing sports drove home the importance of harnessing different personalities and skill sets as key components to teamwork. Fundamental to teamwork is the ability to encourage others, to pick up new information, to learn from mistakes, to hold oneself accountable and to overcome defeat. Over time I have found that the lessons learned through team sports are broadly applicable tools for success. For instance, this past summer my

The features of effective team performance are set out in Brian Tuckman’s phases of team development theory, ‘Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing.’ This outlines the phases that a team will go through in order to become effective and reach maturity. At the ‘Forming’ stage of team development individual roles and responsibilities are unclear and each member of the team is concerned to avoid conflict with each other. From this point the team will go through the ‘Storming’ phase which is when they start to conflict as individuals put forward ideas which will be challenged by others in a bid to gain power and position over others. After this the ‘Norming’ phase follows and it is at this point that individual roles are defined and accepted

We lean on each other just as much as we strive individually. Together we are stronger and bring out the best in each other. We win together and lose together. We have girls that are our Moms, they keep us under control. Then we have the loud ones, they are the girls that talk when they should and even when they shouldn't. We have the quiet ones who keep to themselves and hardly engage with others. We have the academically talented and the students who can't hand in assignments on time. The one thing we all have in common is our drive and determination towards this team. The second we step over that white line all our lives change. We don't care about anything besides each other in that moment. All of our differences vanish and the one thing that brought us together in the first place takes over. We come

A good team has a shared vision - it knows what it wants to achieve, has members with different strengths, who can make different contributions and includes all members, everybody counts, efforts are made to ensure that nobody feels left out or undervalued. The St. Anthony basketball team is a great example if working together because if it wasn’t for their teamwork then they wouldn’t have been state champs. They had players with different strengths like Derrick Mercer who was a great ball handler and could go inside the paint and had shooters like Sean McCurdy and Marcus Williams. Players with different strength is the reason why the St. Anthony basketball team was undefeated and were state

The recent victory of LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers gives us a clear view into the dynamics of what makes a strong team. The Cavs collectively pulled together when the odds seemed impossible, but their efforts made them victors. A group is a couple of people put together for no apparent reason. The team is like a basketball team; every player has a position. On a team there 's a leader, being the coach, and that leader can choose to disseminate information to the players through the team captain. Everyone is not meant to lead and there are some people that prove that they have the ability to do more than just follow directions. Throughout this course we have learned the importance of team cohesion, communication, conflict resolution, motivation, inclusion, and the importance of diversity. It is important to know the different dynamics between that of a group and that of a team.

The second stage is the Storming stage this is where the team members address the issues at hand. This is when the team members may become argumentative and disagree. I think you will get to use your conclict resolution skills.

As children we are taught to include everyone because it is not nice to leave people out. If this is a practice we are taught from a very early age, why is it okay to change that just to win a sporting event? There is an understanding that when you are in middle/high school, there will be tryouts for a sporting team. The children who are good enough, make the team, those who are not, get cut. With the understanding that some players skill level is higher than others, the playing time may not be the same. With that being said, if you are good enough to make the team, then why would you not be good enough to play for your team at least once every game? We all know the benefits of being on a team, learning to cooperate, working together to achieve a goal, helps improve for communication skills and allows youth to exercise. But what if you make this team and don’t ever get to play, are you still seeing these benefits to being on a team? If you tryout and make a school team, then all players should be allowed to play in and participate in every game.

The team has managed to avoid the Storming phase altogether and I was lucky enough to jump directly from stage one to stage three. That was primarily due to engaging them from the very beginning with the challenges and goals the team needs to achieve. Gradually, the team moved into the Norming stage, when they started to resolve their differences, and work on achieving the

One of the most important aspects is sharing a close relationship with the people one is corresponding with. This does not mean the participants must know all the details of the others’ lives or for that matter have known the person for an extended period of time. Instead, the people working together must be able to comprehend the motives of the other members and take compassion in their individual circumstances. Whether it is a sports team where the players may not all be best friends, but realize that each person will try their hardest and have bad days or if it is a business committee who treat all partners’ opinions with respect and attempt to understand their perspective, recognizing everyone has a unique view that deserves its own weight. Teamwork is more than just working together, but is the process of regarding and acknowledging every comrades’ strengths and weakness and then using this as the framework for achieving the overall goal. Personally, I experienced this important factor of teamwork during my years in gymnastic and dance classes. In the beginning of the year, our class would be shy and uncoordinated; nevertheless, as we took consideration about each member and built a personal relationship with everyone in the class we were able to create a relationship of a higher complexity, a team.

The author examines four stages of group development that allows the emerging member to discern purpose, role, and collective views. In stage one, dependency and inclusion marks a member’s reliance on the leader or other extroverted members. In stage two counter dependency and fighting is expected as members seek liberation from their leader and strive to merge their goals. In stage three, trust and structure begin as clarity of goals and relationship building take root. In stage four, members have surpassed the hindrances of lower team functioning such as dissatisfaction of roles, and have embraced goal achievement and task accomplishment. In this final stage, “teams are highly cohesive and can expect to be successful” (Wheelan, 2016, p. 29). That said, the author informs

"The whole is greater than the sum of its parts." In other words, the near future