“Teamwork involves coordinating the energies and skills of multiple people into a unified effort. A sense of solidarity and cohesion helps the effectiveness of the team. Good teamwork requires trust and willingness on the part of each member to act as part of the team (eg, no one should be too egotistical).”
This interview is reaching out to a broad audience to help me (and you!) get a better understanding of just what people actually think about teamwork and how it impact their lives. I hope you enjoy it and maybe gain an insight or two.
Interviewee Profile
1) What is your official job / position title?
Governmental Affairs Assistant
2) What is your direct supervisor’s official job / position title?
Consul
3) What industry do you work in?
Government / Law
4) How many years have you been in your current industry and job?
5
5) What are 3 to 5 of your most important skills, specialties, or areas of expertise?
Reading, writing, client interfacing, networking, translation
Interviewee Responses
01) Describe (in your own words) what you think ‘teamwork’ means.
Teamwork involves coordinating the energies and skills of multiple people into a unified effort. A sense of solidarity and cohesion helps the effectiveness of the team. Good teamwork requires trust and willingness on the part of each member to act as part of the team (eg, no one should be too egotistical).
02) Think about a person you feel needs team-building training. How do you think this training would help him/her?
This person is lacking in some basic skills. Training, if it goes well, would help this person realize that improvement is needed and help this person identify which skills are needed. Ideally, the training would help that person feel comfortable approaching the other members for advice or help.
03) How do you think teamwork could help a company or business?
Teamwork would help distribute the workload in an organization and perform the tasks more effectively. I have known supervisors who had to micromanage or do everything themselves. In one instance, because the supervisor refused to delegate, the pace of the work became too slow. Also, since everything depended on that one supervisor, it would be very difficult to accomplish anything (at least officially), a change in his schedule would be very disruptive. This supervisor eventually had serious health problems from overwork. The whole situation was a mess that could have been prevented with effective teamwork.
04) Describe a teamwork / team-building exercise or event you’ve been through at your work, school, or during training.
As part of our introduction, we participated in an exercise where we formed a large circle and tossed a stuffed animal back and forth. The person with the toy had to say the name of the person who tossed it to him/her and then the name of the person who would receive the toy next. This was a pretty mundane exercise to learn names, but it happened to bring out the friendly aspects in the people involved (we probably had an especially friendly group).
05) Explain at least 1 thing you’ve learned from a team-building exercise and how it has helped you.
The team-building exercises illustrated to me the range of “bad” groups to “good” groups. They showed me the joy of working in a group in which everyone is cooperative and wants to work together toward a common goal. This experience taught me the value of having such a group and made me more appreciative. I think this attitude helps me come across better to others in teams and helps me stay patient in difficult times at work.
06) Think back to a team-building exercise you did NOT enjoy. What do you feel could have been improved and why?
There was an introductory session of a course. We simply had to state our name, our year in school, and what we hoped to learn from the course, which tended to get monotonous. People didn’t seem that interested or engaged. For one thing, memorizing the names of many people when they could be gone (not in the class anymore) by the next session seemed fruitless. One improvement would have been to have us talk about something more interesting or distinguishing so that we didn’t all blend together.
07) Describe what you like most about team-building efforts and training.
When we’re lucky enough to be part of a team with great members, there’s nothing more rewarding professionally. In these cases, team-building gives us more time to learn about each other’s skills and working styles. The bonding and learning processes are sped up with the team-building efforts, and people are less likely to be left out.
08) What are a few things you like least about team-building efforts and why?
Often, they can feel very “fake” or awkward. You can’t force people to trust each other or like each other enough to work together. In these situations, having a team-building session imposed on us feels counterproductive. Sometimes, there are people who are just too defiant, lazy, combative, hostile, ignorant, etc, to form a productive part of a team.
09) When learning about team-building, would you rather read about it, listen to a trainer, watch training videos, or physically participate in an event? Describe why you feel that way.
I would prefer the physical participation. “Doing” tends to be the most effective way to learn. In addition, if we are trying to build a team, having direct involvement with the members would strengthen the team’s bond and allow the members to get to know each other. The other methods sound too removed or abstract to be very practical or applicable. One exception would be to have a trainer who is particularly engaging or effective.
10) Pretend you are asked to give a quick team-building presentation at work. What are your first couple of steps to get prepared?
First, I would learn as much as possible about the prospective team. For example, I would try to learn about their histories, their personalities, and their attitudes towards each other. This information would help select what information would be the most helpful. Then I would choose a sample activity to demonstrate during the presentation and add applicable data or supporting information.
11) In your opinion, what type or personality of person do you think could benefit most from team-building efforts?
Probably, those who are shy or feel hesitant about expressing themselves would benefit from team-building. Having a formal team-building exercise might provide these people with the chance to participate and become more involved in the process. People who are egotistical or domineering or suspicious of others might also benefit, but perhaps they would resist the team-building efforts.
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