Think of a highly effective team you have been a part of home or work–what made it effective?

Think of a highly effective team you have been a part of–home or work–what made it effective? Look at the figure in your text that speaks about the keys to effective work teams and figure out what really made the difference for your team example.

Keys to effective work teams have many useful points to make about the factors that make a team actually work in an efficient manner. I brainstormed different occasions I have been a part of as a team member or manager. One occasion that comes to my mind is that of my cousin’s marriage. Back in my home country marriages are celebrated over several day and there are hundreds of guests who attend a marriage. In my family, we divided different tasks and I was made the manager of the team (my other cousins and relatives included) of 8 people who were responsible for the dinner for the night when the bridegroom’s side were coming to our place to take the bride (she is my cousin) with them. In the following discussion I would like to reflect on the keys to effective work teams that contributed to the effective functioning of the team I headed.

As a manager, I was the one who had to remove the barriers and roadblocks. The potential barriers to the smooth functioning of the dinner party were arranging catering services. I contacted a few of my friends and with their help I chose one of the best catering services provider. Then, with the collaboration of the team members, we decided a suitable open area for the guests to set in and eat their dinner. I set down with the team members and divided duties and provided an orientation to them about their exact duties. All the team members agreed to their respective duties e.g. duties like welcoming guests, leading guests to the dining area, being present on the dining floor to assist guests if they needed help with something during the dinner etc. Each member of the team was welcomed to show their concern about related thing. As a manager, I tried my best to reach on a consensus decision and if not reached consensus, I made a decision on the suggestion of the majority. Conflicts did arise due to the arrangement of seats and the food items that were to be presented to the guests. But all of us knew that this was a special occasion for the whole family and especially the bride. That is why we did not make any conflict get out of proportion and resolved them in a healthy manner.

At the end of the dinner party, all of us were happy with what the way we responded to our duties. The whole team members enjoyed their duties and all of them were proud of making our cousin (bride) happy.