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Real Teams Work
There is no hope for creating a better world without a deeper scientific insight in the function of leadership and culture, and of other essentials of group life … (Kurt Lewin, 1943)
Key Learning Points
- The difference between pseudo teams and real teams
- The organizational benefits of team working
- The drawbacks of working in teams – weaker effort, decision making and creativity
- Teams defined and types of teams
- Tasks for teams
- How to build an effective team
- How to measure team performance
Case Study
18 carat or fool’s gold: Team work and patient mortality in health care
The United Kingdom National Health Service employs in the region of 1.4 million staff whose responsibility is to provide high-quality and safe patient care. Every year a staff survey is carried out to elicit their views about their working conditions, their management and leadership, the quality of care they provide and the environment within which they work. They are asked ‘Do you work in a team?’ and typically each year around 90% of staff say ‘yes’ in response. Given the evidence on the importance of teamwork in health care for better patient outcomes, this might seem very encouraging. However, the survey asks three follow-up questions of those who indicate they work in a team: ‘Does your team have clear objectives? Do you work closely together to achieve those objectives? Do you meet regularly to review your performance and how it can be improved?’ These three questions tap the very ...
