What is a team? What are the factors of an effective team?

A team starts as a group of two or more freely interacting individuals that collectively share norms and goals, and operate under a common identity. For a team to develop, it must go through 5 stages according to Tuckman's Theory ( Group Dynamics, Chapter 12, 2003). Which states that, the group must form in the beginning (coming together), then the storming stage of development, where members brainstorm and test each other's limits (bringing what they have to the table). The third stage in group development is performing, where effective communication and co-operation help the different members of the group get things done and work as one. The fourth stage is norming where the group faces its issues, conflicts, power and leadership openly and directly. The fifth and final stage is adjourning where the members of the group go in their own way. This paper tackles the communication aspect of the team that helps the performance of the group.

Communication

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For a group to achieve high performance the members must commit themselves to quality and dedicate their combined efforts to producing the best outcome possible and achieving the group goals. As a team leader the primary goal that one must strive to achieve is encouraging the group to evolve into a motivated goal oriented successful team, and that can only be done by effective communication skills. For example in NZ Business article it states key attributes that a team leader needs to communicate effectively and they are "You need a great goal" meaning that you have to have the passion and commitment to achieve the SAME goal. "Build a great team around you", to make sure you have the right people working towards the common goal. (NZ Business, 2007).

To list a few strategies to encourage team communication as shown by...