Building Effective Teams

In the article Building Effective Teams in Real Time, Garfield and Stanton (2005) share helpful tools to follow for efficient team building. This article is addressed to managers who may need tips on how to bring better communication to their employees. They discuss six ideas in an approach they call rapid team building. I agree with the authors in the importance of getting to know the team members, and learning about their past successes. While being an employee, I have observed a lack of vison and substandard communication within management. Getting to know who you are working with seems to have great benefits. The first tool that Garfield and Stanton (2005) mention is sharing personal background information. This would involve a discussion among the team where individuals share what types of projects they have participated in, and what some of their biggest challenges were. This will allow all the participants to understand their colleagues and know more of what to expect from them. I have yet to manage a group of employees, however, the Building Effective Teams in Real Time article demonstrates great strategies, and tips on how to make your team feel valued. Perhaps we have all had an experience where we worked somewhere that seemed something of the sort of organized chaos, or maybe just plan disorder. I have noticed that when one …show more content…
The last point that the authors make is to ensure free flow of information. This includes the multiple ways of distributing vital information, and how to deliver feedback. If there is a lack of communication concerning enforcements or deadlines, this could lead to unfavorable things in the workforce such as micro-management and slacking. The article points out that for quality improvement, negative feedback should be given with out hatred. It is also effective for the manager himself to accept negative feedback with grace thus being a humble