Team to Team, Which Is

¶ … team to team, which is consistent with the points mentioned in Chapter 9 of the book. The teams that are the most trustworthy and that make everyone feel welcome and valued, while also seeking to excel at their jobs and have fun, are the most popular in the company. These teams are highly sought-after because there is a high degree of task autonomy and focus associated with each project.

The level of trust is so strong that projects actually gather momentum and people sense what they need to do before it is actually needed. In short, there is a high level of role-based activity and focus in these most popular teams. Second, these teams deliberately reach out to ensure that members of virtual teams also feel and are involved in each meeting, discussion and decision.

In this way a team that is the most popular, to work with also is focused on alleviating potential conflicts before they fester and become larger problems. They do this by concentrating on the needs of virtual team members through electronic brainstorming as well. All of these factors contribute to reduce groupthink and while there is conflict in the team, it is aimed at constructive, not destructive communication and direction.

Overall, this is one of the best teams to work with because they also know when to force the issue of honesty and tell each other when a given task needs to be improved or strengthened over time. Like many, I am most engaged when I work with this team more than any other because the sense of accomplishment is so high when a project is completed with them. How would you improve the communication process at your work? Please use concepts from chapters 8, 9, and 11.

The single greatest detriment and liability to communication in the company I work for right now is trust. No one trusts members of cross-functional teams because they take ideas and often present them as their own in larger staff meetings or cross-functional discussions with other departments. This has happened regularly in engineering and in marketing. As a result, communication is starting to come to a standstill in terms of brainstorming.

The exception is the business development team, which everyone wants to work with, as they regularly win awards for performance, are positive, look out for each other, and are very inclusive in terms of working with virtual teams. In effect, the business development team needs to be a model for the rest of the company. To alleviate the lack of trust in the company outside of business development, I would also concentrate on creating more effective task interdependence to force greater transparency and trust.