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More and more businesses are turning to work teams to improve their products, processes, and services--and for good reason. When work teams work well, they are more likely to produce creative breakthroughs and practical solutions than when employees labor alone.
There are several types of teams. A cross-functional team typically assembles to achieve a specific and significant improvement and then disbands. A standing team that represents a natural work group aims for continuous improvement by pursuing a series of related goals.
Members of teams may include senior vice-presidents, managers, supervisors, hourly workers--and even suppliers and customers.
Regardless of a team's composition and purpose, most successful teams share the common denominator of high-quality facilitation.
Because effective work teams can be a valuable asset to a firm, people who can successfully facilitate team interactions play an increasingly critical role in organizations in many industries and in many countries around the world.
The ability to facilitate comprises a collection of skills. Expert facilitators do the following tasks:
* manage meetings
* help teams agree on clear goals, roles, and procedures
* ensure that all team members contribute
* discourage disruptive behaviors
* manage conflict
* guide teams' decision-making processes
* communicate clearly with all team members
* observe and accurately interpret group dynamics.
No matter what job a person holds, he or she can benefit from developing effective facilitation skills.
Most people can learn to facilitate well. Learning to facilitate is especially important for
* team leaders and other people who run team meetings
* internal project coordinators
* first-line supervisors, managers and steering-committee members.
Content and processes
To achieve their goals, teams must carry out both content tasks and group processes. Content refers to tasks such as drawing and analyzing flowcharts and using problem-solving techniques that directly address a team's goal. Group processes address the way members function as a team: Do all team members participate? How do the team members behave toward each other? How does the team make decisions and solve conflicts? Some team refer to group processes as "maintenance behaviors."
Facilitation focuses mainly on group processes. All members of a team share responsibility for demonstrating the maintenance behaviors that keep the team on track. Teams that overlook group-process issues tend to fail or to...