To understand the role of teamwork within your workplace and work team.

We have a tendency to associate teamwork with sports. However, in today's workplace teamwork is about individuals coming together to accomplish a common set of goals. It can be to improve sales, improve customer satisfaction, create a new product, or a number of other goals.

In our rapidly changing work environment, the need for teamwork has increased. A team environment draws on the skills, knowledge, expertise, and experiences of the individuals that are part of the team. It encourages cooperation and reduces competition amongst the individual members.

Teamwork can be characterized as a pooling of complementary skills. A team environment explores new frameworks and provides a forum for sharing of ideas. It is a group of people who need each other to accomplish a result. Effective teamwork capitalizes on the strengths of the individuals and creates greater success than the sum of all its parts.

What is Teamwork?

Reflect on your own experience of belonging to a team and make a list of what you believe were important characteristics of that team.

(This experience can be within a work context or outside the workplace.)

Considering your list:

• What made it a positive team experience?
• What were some challenges you had in being part of the team?
• How did the purpose of the team formation impact its success?
• How did the size of the team affect your experience?
• What made it "teamwork" as oppose to a group of people working together?

What Makes Teams Work? by Regina Fazio Maruca. (PDF requires Adobe® Acrobat® Reader® to view. To download a copy of the reader from Adobe's website please visit Technical Support).

A Team Is More Than a Group of People by Patricia Fripp.

Visit the Interactive Community and post your thoughts on the characteristics of a successful team in the Discussion Folder Teamwork - Successful Teams.