Teamwork Research Paper

Teamwork

All of us have worked in teams at some point in our lives, and we all can recall a time we had interacting with others to meet team objectives. Communication is the way we get through our daily life, both personally and professionally. There are team units in our lives that we chose to be in, and then there are those that we are simply put in without a choice. It is usually these groups that have we will have the most conflict. I have had the ability to view a lot of different team settings through my work and family life. Being part of a team brings to my mind many things, both the good and bad experiences that I went through while working with team members and others in my life.

There are many questions that I have asked
myself after many meetings. Some are as follows:
How did I perform? Was I able to lead the team to meet its objectives? What did other team members feel about my presence in the team? Were my interactions positive or negative? Did I learn anything from my interactions within and outside the team?

As I look back into my own life, I find myself dwelling on these points, was I able to come up with hither to unnoticed aspects about my personality and work that will qualify me as a valuable member of the management team at work, in which we meet every Tuesday morning at 8 am. This is when we get together to discuss any open cases, client concerns, upcoming training, what is working for us in regards to recruiting and much more. I truly love being part of my management team at work. I find myself looking forward to our Tuesday morning management meetings. In these meetings is where I find support, guidance and a true sense of camaraderie. If I have an issue I have been struggling with all week, it is here that others know what I am experiencing and help me through it.

In order for this team to be established and work as effectively as it does, our support comes from the top. Our upper management, who actually directs the meetings, has a whole team outside of this team, which is just to support us as Sales Managers. Sometimes they give us an inspirational book to read and then we get come together and discuss it. Other times, they actually need our advice on some issues in the agency or just want to give us ideas on how to be more profitable.

I always leave these meetings, knowing I received so much from these fine people, and have walked away a better person. I do realize that it also takes my individual contribution to the team as well; I always try to exceed my normal limits when asked to complete a goal for this team. In our management team, moreover, there is a mutual accountability and togetherness amongst all the members, whether it is from the most experienced manager down to the brand new manager with little or no experience. There is never any rank pulling. We always seem to pull together and help each other work through issues of the utmost importance in assuring that our organization runs smoothly, productively and effectively. It is wonderful to have such a variety of experience in the room, because you know that they have been through exactly what you may be going through.

As an individual, we realize that we might not be able to complete everything needed to be done, but, as we come together as a team, we are a well organized, close knit, problem solving machine. We have one basic premise among us which is that our individual contributions are always our best nothing less. This is what makes us working together a team a benefit.

Teams can take a while to form as you get to know each other and find out how each other works. So when we were first established, we came together to and had to get to know one another, even though some members have worked together for many years, there was an adjustment phase that we went through. We realized that working as a team could be very frustrating at times. There are many times that we have had to come to a compromise. We have learned to negotiate and to trust the fact that the others will do a task to the high standard that we have always set for ourselves.

Now as I look back at my experiences, with this team over the last year, I find that this team enables me to do more then I could do on my own. I try to totally understand my team members, realizing that each of them has a different personality; I appreciate them and make the most of each of their special skills and abilities. I have learned that good team players place team objectives ahead of their own personal goals.

This is not to say that I may sometimes disagree with one of the members, or that they may disagree with each other, there are times of true conflict. But to call it conflict would be too negative a term for this team. My dictionary defines conflict as "a struggle to resist or overcome; a contest of opposing forces; strife; battle; a state or condition of opposition; antagonism; discord; clash; collision." This is never the case amongst us. There may be a slight battle of opinion, but never to the extreme of the definition above.

We realize that while conflict seems to be ever-present in our lives, it is how we learn to handle it is our fate. The possibility of conflict looms anytime two or more people convene. In many team settings, I have heard the people say that "conflict" is good for teams, and so sometimes it is encouraged. What I think they mean is that "disagreement" is good for teams because it causes topics and opinions to be brought up that might not have been displayed. Conflict has an emotional component that tends to be destructive, whereas disagreement is a non-emotional presentation of differing viewpoints between teammates which can be very positive, yet competitive in nature. When we are competing for the same goal, we make sure that it is just that, friendly competition. We make sure that what ever happens during the meeting, that when it is over, we leave always on a positive note. We realize that while competition may place a negative impact others, we are opposed to taking this competition to the extreme and having others leave with many negative feelings.

When our conflicts arise, and yes they do arise, we admit it, learn from it and move on. Our conflicts, usually, arise from a multitude of different sources and issues that reflect our differences in personality, experience, values, ideologies, religion, culture, race, and behavior. Conflicts are usually are brought up from simple requests and arise from simple misunderstandings. As I have said before, this management team is made up of many different people from many different places in their life. Some of us have had a few years of experience in the financial sales field, and, some are veterans in financial sales for many years. Being that there may be an age, gender or value issue at times, we make sure to bring an open mind to all meetings. We always make sure that when we come together, there is an unsaid set of steps used to resolve the conflict that may be brought to hand.

If and when we do have some issues that cause conflict, we know that allowing this conflict to linger, it will definitely break down our team synergy and that our work productivity will slip. If there is a conflict going on in the agency, we tend not be able to concentrate and understand the task and goals that are in front of us, therefore causing us to fall behind in our work and sales productivity. This is why; we know resolution is necessary when conflict is presented.

When we enter into discussions that lead us into uncharted waters, we know that a conflict between one and more of the members may occur.
But because we have an agenda to follow in the meeting, the meeting will continue to flow. We always have a set topic or agenda at our meetings that upper management has for us to discuss. I cannot imagine one of our meetings without an agenda, they would definitely go astray and allowing issues to get brought up that are not necessary to be discussed. There are many times that we just do not understand why we are being asked to do or discuss something or that we just do not understand why or how to do it? It is our leaders of the meetings that help us all by being there for us, allowing us to ask questions and receive the help we need from either them, or other
teammates.

As I continue along this journey with my fellow teammates, I am finding more and more that one person alone can and may have worked along side one another for many years, and yet never "knew" them until they were on a team together.
Unfortunately, it is usually when we begin to know and find out what unearthing deeply held beliefs that our teammates bring that we can truly begin to understand and can work with them. Reaching consensus when such differences are present is frequently difficult, and if not handled correctly, conflict can almost be certain. This is why, the getting to know each other stage is extremely important. I think the reason most people struggle with conflict resolution is that our past and present issues we bring with us as we enter a team setting. I call this our luggage or baggage, each and every one of us, brings some of this baggage with us in all of our relationships and communication settings. Sometimes it takes us seeing that our other teammate's interpretations are as plausible as our own. This is when the light will go on, and we can finally understand that other team member's views might just be as good as our own. This is when you come together and are truly formed as a
team.

This concept did not come easy in the beginning for our team, this being a team of sales managers, we are in a very competitive field, and we are very competitive people. So when you bring ten of us in one room, the emotions are usually high, as are the egos. We had to learn quickly to check our ego at the door and bring an open mind instead.

When my team had a conflict about which sales tools we were to use in a client presentation, we turned this conflict into an important lesson. We made sure that the conflict became a powerful lesson of learning to trust and depend on one another. This became a true lesson on how our beliefs, which had been shaped by our own unique history, are simply one interpretation of reality. We were using competitive strategies to overcome the issue at hand, and we were not thinking about clients well being, we were just concerned with the results. A lot of members of the team were very assertive and needed to try and win the vote of the group, they were less concerned with saving friendships or work relations. Our leader was there and had to stop the meeting immediately due too many hurt feelings might have been developed. We were to leave for one hour and calm down and then come together again when we were not using our emotions to discuss the issue at hand.

Stated in Fast Company magazine, "If a work relationship goes awry, teammates need to explore what's going on. Go through a list of questions established at the beginning of the relationship addressing why people feel tense or disconnected, whether the collaboration is meeting expectations, what partners need from each other, and what's really behind the disagreement." We assume everyone basically works the same way we do. If I tell you how I tend to act when things are difficult, you might help me get out of a stressful situation rather than make things worse.
So when we were brought back together, one person made a list of all the issues from each person as they said them on the board. We then took each concern and discussed it, if there were more then one person who agreed we left it up on the board until the next round of deliberations. We were only allowed to use one presentation and two different materials or tools when we went to see the client. So when there were only four concerns left, we decided to take a vote. We then decided on ground rules for future meetings, such as not to speak when someone else is speaking. To always have a leader in the group that will conduct the sessions and meetings? And that we should always bring an open mind.

We also learned that to resolve these differences and others that may come our way, that they will take the time to talk it out and we needed to listen carefully for each others opinion. We all learned that we all have equally valid points of view to share and keeping an open mind, helps us to hear those points, enabling us to learn from one another.

In closing, there are many theories and research that we could have used to complete this meeting. In our case the conflict resolution was more like a discussion that had gone astray. Using compromise and collaboration we arrived at a solution. Maybe it was not the solution that we all wanted, but it was a solution to say the least. We will never leave our meetings totally undone now that we have a system in place for our discussions. We make sure that our meetings are open, respectful and that we are a team.