group

Definitions (2)
1. A collection of individuals who have regular contact and frequent interaction, mutual influence, common feeling of camaraderie, and who work together to achieve a common set of goals.

What is a Team?
A team is a group of people coming together to collaborate. This collaboration is to reach a shared goal or task for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. A group of people is not necessarily a team. A team is a group of people with a high degree of interdependence geared towards the achievement of a common goal or completion of a task rather than just a group for administrative convenience. A group, by definition, is a number of individuals having some unifying relationship. Team members are deeply committed to each other's personal growth and success. That commitment usually transcends the team. A team outperforms a group and outperforms all reasonable expectations given to its individual members. That is, a team has a synergistic effectone plus one equals a lot more than two.

Shared Mental Models

Team members not only cooperate in all aspects of their tasks and goals, they share in what are traditionally thought of as management functions, such as planning, organizing, setting performance goals, assessing the team's performance, developing their own strategies to manage change, and securing their own resources.

These shared mental models or knowledge structures allows each teammate to generate predictions and expectations about their teammates' roles and task demands, which in turn, allow them to make adjustments in order to maintain effective team performance (Cannon-Bowers, Salas, & Converse, 1993).

Major Benefits of Teams

1. Teams maximizes the organization's human resources. Each member of the team is coached, helped, and led by all the other members of the team. A success or failure is felt by all members, not just the individual. Failures are not blamed on individual members, which gives them the courage to take chances. Successes are felt by every team member, this helps them to set and achieve bigger and better successes. In addition, failure is perceived as a learning lesson. 2. A Team's output is superior, even when the odds are not in its favor. This is due to the synergistic effect of a teama team can normally outperform a group of individuals. 3. There is continuous improvement. No one knows the job, tasks, and goals better than the individual team members. To get real change, you need their knowledge, skills, and abilities. When they pull together as a team, they will not be afraid to show what they can do. Personal motives will be pushed to the side to allow the team motive to succeed.
TEAM WORK

Teamwork is work performed by a team towards a common goal. In a business setting accounting techniques may be used to provide financial measures of the benefits of teamwork which are useful for justifying the concept.[1] In health care teamwork has been defined as: a dynamic process involving two or more healthcare professionals with complementary backgrounds and skills, sharing common health goals and exercising concerted physical and mental effort in assessing, planning, or evaluating patient care.[2] Teamwork is increasingly advocated by health care policy makers as a means of assuring quality and safety in the delivery of services.[3]

[edit] Teamwork activities

A challenge for leaders of groups of people, such as in a work department, is to get everyone to pull together and function as a team instead of going in separate directions. One way to foster teamwork is to engage the members in activities that require them to work together. Activities can be physical in nature or require the use of team brain power to solve a problem. Fun activities such as sports or games can allow the team members to relax and enjoy working with one another.

Social Activities: Part of the challenge of developing teamwork is to get team members to become comfortable with each other. Informal social activities allow the team members to relax and have fun while developing the rapport necessary to function as a unit. Examples of social activities include team sports such as volleyball or bowling or a group picnic, where everyone is responsible for a task such as bringing food or planning a game. Charitable Endeavours: Working together for a charitable cause builds teamwork and gives the participants a good feeling from working together. An example of a team charitable activity is planning and organizing an event like a walk or run to raise money or a bake sale that promotes a cause. Workplace Activities: Because teamwork is important to a productive and healthy work environment, teamwork activities should be a part of the workplace. Possible activities include job swapping, where workers swap jobs with each other to develop empathy. It also requires workers to help each other to learn the jobs. Another idea is to start a team newsletter that provides the latest information on activities and accomplishments of the team members. Projects: Projects require that team members work together to achieve a common goal. Projects can involve activities like putting puzzles together or cleaning up or rebuilding a property. Projects typically involve assigning each team member a specific task that he is responsible for completing, which helps to develop trust within the team. Outdoor Activities: If members of the team are relatively fit, outdoor activities are a way for the team to get away from the "normal" environment. Activities such as camping, hiking, mountain biking or whitewater rafting allow the team members to relax while enjoying the fresh air, and the sense of being "away from it all" can lead to bonding within the team. What is Teamwork? Teamwork is defined in Webster's New World Dictionary as "a joint action by a group of people, in which each person subordinates his or her individual interests and opinions to the unity and efficiency of the group." This does not mean that the individual is no longer important; however, it does mean that effective and efficient teamwork goes beyond individual accomplishments. The most effective teamwork is produced when all the individuals involved harmonize their contributions and work towards a common goal.

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Advantage: - more information and knowledge is focused on the issue - A greater number and diversity of alternatives can be developed - better understanding and acceptance of the final decision - members develop knowledge and skills for future use - shared responsibility - willing to take more risks Disadvantage:

- time consuming - disagreements may delay decisions and cause hard feelings - one or two group members may dominate discussion - many ideas may be forgotten if no note taking. Anonymous