{"id":78,"date":"2017-01-11T11:54:59","date_gmt":"2017-01-11T11:54:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/i3works.bluetree.uk\/news\/?p=78"},"modified":"2019-12-08T21:39:56","modified_gmt":"2019-12-08T21:39:56","slug":"is-team-work-and-collaboration-a-trend-in-companies-nowadays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/2017\/01\/is-team-work-and-collaboration-a-trend-in-companies-nowadays\/","title":{"rendered":"Is team work and collaboration a trend in companies nowadays?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Every project needs teamwork and \ncollaboration, and in bigger and more complex projects additional role \ntypes exist and more professionals are involved. Those human resources \nhave to be not only co-ordinated but must work as a team with clear (or \nsometimes not so clear) goals to deliver the desired outputs, product or\n service for the client. Is this kind of work truly practised nowadays?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author: Paula Castrillo Ferrer at i3Works Ltd<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Every project needs teamwork and collaboration, and in bigger and \nmore complex projects additional role types exist and more professionals\n are involved. Those human resources have to be not only co-ordinated \nbut must work as a team with clear (or sometimes not so clear) goals to \ndeliver the desired outputs, product or service for the client.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no doubt on this. What I am not so sure about is the idea of\n \u201creal\u201d teamwork and collaboration when we work in a project. Is this \nkind of work truly practised nowadays? Are we, 21st<\/sup> century \nprofessionals, able to work in teams properly and generate real \ncollaboration when we work in any project, whether it is big or small, \nlong or short?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On one hand, if we look at some emerging trends in the project \nmanagement industry such as the Agile and Scrum approaches these seem to\n clearly be going in that direction: a team with specific roles is \nclearly defined from the beginning of the project and have a very open \nand collaborative work atmosphere as well as iterative and ongoing \nmeetings to discuss progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, we all have our own roles in the team and our own \ntasks to complete. People can often work on their own task independently\n then slot it into the big picture and call it teamwork. Whilst too many\n meetings and interruptions are not good for productivity too few are \narguably more damaging \u2013 leading to misunderstandings, duplications of \neffort or misalignment to the business aims or vision. There are ways to\n avoid this way of working, and this brings to attention the importance \nof personality traits in a team, can you throw any group of people \ntogether in a team or do they need to be picked based on the type of \npeople they are?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are lots of different ways people can be classified: \nintrovert\/extrovert, active\/passive, assertive\/shy, curious, ambitious, \ncreative, perfectionist, charming, enthusiastic\u2026 etc, even \nclassifications based on the signs of the Zodiac, and through other \nsystems such as the SDI index or Belbin Team Index (explained in more \ndetail below). It makes sense to look at the members of the team in this\n way because you need a good mix of personalities to aid group dynamics \nto get the best out of everyone and enable the project to succeed. \nAccording to Belbin\u2019s studies \u201cFor a team to be successful it needs to \nhave access to each of the 9 Belbin Team Roles. Typically, most people \nhave two or three Team Roles that they are most comfortable with; a few \nothers that they can manage to cover if they need to; and finally the \nrest that they prefer not to adopt at all.\u201d (Belbin Associates, 2012 \u2013 \n2015)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Belbin Team Role Inventory: there are 9 different types of roles \nwhich anticipate a natural behaviour or approach to work. A Team Role is\n defined as “a tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with \nothers in a particular way” (Ambler,2005- 2012). In the Belbin test we \nfound those differentiated roles: co-ordinator (leader), implementer \n(practical, strategic, action person), team worker (cooperative and \ndiplomatic), plant (creative, free-thinker), investigator (enthusiastic,\n explorer), specialist (in knowledge and skills), shaper (dynamic, \novercome obstacles), monitor evaluator (act like a judge, logical \nthinker) and finally, completer finisher (polishes and perfects).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SDI Test (Strength Deployment Inventory) is where 7 different \nkind of roles are identified: red, blue or green people, and different \ncombinations of these.<\/p>\n\n\n\n