University of PhoenixIn the corporate world, teams have become a vital role in a successfully functioning organization as well as profiting from ideas and opinions evolving from team results. However, the success of a team is determined on how well the team communicates, deals with conflicts, and the ability of the team members to perform their tasks on time. Communication is the key element of any team for without it, the ability to deal with the other aspects of a successful team would ultimately be impossible. Effective team communication enables encouragement of team sharing of ideas and opinions, promotes understanding of what the goals and tasks are of an assignment, identifies possible team conflicts and their resolutions, and helps keep teams on an agreed schedule.
Setting Team Guidelines. One of the first exercises that must be accomplished in order to establish good team communication is to set guidelines for the team.
Communication
Team Building (Align)
Adkins, Texas, USA Single Family Home For SaleThis sets the tone for the group as all team members participate in setting these guidelines. Ben Adkins stated "When helping teams work more effectively together, I have found it is beneficial to develop team communication guidelines. Teams that have guidelines work more productively together" (Adkins, 2005, p.30). Mr. Adkins has developed a checklist that has been successful when setting team guidelines as shown in Table 1. He states that it isn't necessary to fit all of these checklist items into the team guidelines, but choose the ones that fit the best (Adkins, 2005). Rob Waldman says "Great communication doesn't just happen. You build a framework tbat ensures it. You train for it, and then you hold everyone accountable to it" (Waldman, 2007, p.1). Members shouldn't walk into a team meeting and expect good communication. A sturdy set of rules or guidelines need to be agreed upon by every...