3
Creating Teams
Many times a day I realize how much of my own outer and inner life is built upon the labours of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received. (Albert Einstein)
Key Learning Points
- In creating teams, it is important to focus on task-related skills
- The ability of team members is a good predictor of team performance
- The complex relationships between functional, personality and demographic mixes and teamwork processes and outcomes
- The skills for working in teams and how they affect team processes and performance
- How to benefit from diversity in teams
When you play in a great team, it doesn’t matter how good the players are individually, it’s how well you play together and understand each other’s styles and moves. It’s really about intuitive ways of playing off each other.
The talent in the team is amazing. Individually they are outstanding but for some reason they just can’t make it happen together. I think there are maybe too many prima donnas in the team.
It’s about finding the magic mix, that blend of skills and experience that combines maturity, energy, determination and creativity. It’s like a ballet when it happens. Beautiful to behold!
These quotations from players in sports teams could come as easily from members of work teams and they show we must think carefully about how we create teams. Team members are often recruited to the team because they work in the same location ...
