TEAM stands for: Together Everyone Achieves More

What is Teamwork?
Teamwork can be defined as the ability of team members to work together, communicate effectively,
anticipate and meet each other's demands, and inspire confidence, resulting in a coordinated collective
action. However, a clear and direct answer to 'What is teamwork?' has not been provided. According to
McIntyre and Salas (1995), teamwork is a critical component of team performance and requires an
explanation of how a team behaves. Four key behavioral characteristics compose teamwork: (a)
performance monitoring, (b) feedback, (c) closed-loop communication, and (d) backup behaviors.
The first requirement of teamwork is that team members monitor the performance of others while
carrying out their tasks. Monitoring ensures that members follow procedures correctly and promptly
while also ensuring that operations are working as expected. Performance monitoring is accepted as a
norm to improve the performance of the team and establish a trusting relationship between members.
Next, as a follow-up activity to monitoring, feedback on the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of
performance is passed along to members being monitored. Team members must feel at ease when
providing feedback for teamwork to be effective. No obstacles (i.e., rank, tenure) should stand
between members giving and receiving this vital information. Free-flowing feedback exists in the
highest level of teamwork.
Teamwork involves effective communication between a sender and receiver. Closed-loop
communication describes the information exchange that occurs in successful communication. There is
a sequence of behaviors that are engaged in closed-loop communication: (i) the sender initiates the
message; (ii) the receiver and feedback accept the message is provided to indicate that it has been
received; (iii) the sender double-checks with the receiver to ensure that the intended message was
received. This type of communication is especially apparent in emergencies.
Finally, backup behaviors (i.e., the willingness, preparedness, and liking to back team members during
operations) are required for effective teamwork. Team members must be willing to help when needed
and accept help when needed without feeling they are being perceived as weak. This requires that
members know the expectations of their jobs while also knowing the expectations of others with
whom they are interacting.
These four complex behavioral characteristics—performance monitoring, feedback, closed-loop
communication, and backing-up behaviors—are necessary for effective teamwork. A failure of one of
these aspects could result in ineffective team performance. Next, team training and four training
strategies will be defined.
Making a team goes through four stages: Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing.
The Nature of Effective Teamwork
Teamwork has traditionally been described in classical systems theory, which posits that team inputs,
processes, and outputs are arrayed over time. In particular, team inputs include the characteristics of
the task to be performed, the context in which work occurs, and the attitudes team members bring to a
team situation. The team process constitutes the interaction and coordination required among team
members if the team is to achieve its specific goals. Team outputs consist of the products that result
from team performance (Hackman, 1987; Ilgen, 1999; McGrath, 1984). Thus, teamwork per se occurs
in the process phase, during which team members interact and work together to produce team outputs.
Finally, teamwork does not require team members to work together permanently; it is sustained by a
shared set of teamwork skills, not by permanent assignments that carry over from day-to-day (Morey
et al., 2002). However, simply installing a team structure in an organization does not automatically
result in effective teamwork. Effective team performance requires team members to cooperate for a
shared goal.
Moreover, effective teamwork depends on effective within-team communication and adequate
organizational resources and support. In short, teamwork requires team members to develop a shared
awareness of one another's roles and abilities. Without this awareness, serious but avoidable adverse
outcomes may result from a series of seemingly trivial errors that effective teamwork would have
prevented.
Generally speaking, team competencies are the attributes team members need to engage successfully
in teamwork: As has been suggested, "…It is essential to understand the nature of competencies
required to function in a team as a means to define selection criteria, design and conduct training, and
assess team performance" (Guzzo & Shea, 1992). To clarify this understanding, Cannon-Bowers and
colleagues identified three types of competencies that are critical for effective teamwork: (1)
teamwork-related knowledge, (2) teamwork-related skills, and (3) teamwork-related attitudes.
Teamwork
Teamwork is the bringing together of people who each contribute from complementary specialties. It
is a collective competency that gives the players what they need to get the job done right. The needs
might be information, a service, or a product. A team or teams may be the security group or the
security group with various product suppliers and consultants. Team composition will vary according
to the mission, with each member contributing different skills and abilities. Teamwork calls for
sustained leadership and goal orientation.

Transferable Skills
Teamwork is the key to success in helping researchers acquire funds. Developing applications and
managing funds should be a collective journey. A good team should be put together based on
complementary competencies. Hence a typical team will consist of a leading researcher, a few research
partners inside and outside the host institution, a few PhDs and postdocs, and a research adviser and a
finance officer. Composing such a team, you pick people based on what they are good at. Academic
personnel is experts in the scientific parts of the process, the research adviser and the financial officer
take care of the administrative and economic part. Together they are dynamite.
Adjusting to Change
Teamwork is essential to managing change, and the CSO engenders it via the following:
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It creates an atmosphere that encourages open discussion.
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They are persuading, listening, reflecting, and demonstrating flexibility.
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They ensure that the people who have accepted change-creating tasks possess the requisite
knowledge and skills.
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We empower people to act, give them trust and encouragement, and support them logistically.
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They are helping people improve the performance of their change-creating tasks by affording
developmental opportunities.
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She was addressing conflicts fairly and openly and resolving them with integrity.
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They are allowing people to learn from their mistakes without fear of punishment.
Team confidence is a natural by-product of the constructive exchange of ideas and assurance that
conflicts can be raised and resolved fairly. However, high confidence and high morale are not by
themselves guarantors of good results. Success in managing change requires three attributes. First is
the ability to create a sense of teamwork and functionality. This involves helping team members do
their jobs well and in harmony with one another. It also means delegating authority to make task-
related decisions. A second attribute is the ability to create a high expectation of service delivery
within the team. Excellence is the sole criterion; good work is not good enough. The third is the ability
to evaluate team performance correctly. Note also that feedback from the team to the CSO is helpful.
Security officers, for example, are great conduits for obtaining evaluations from the users of security
officer services. "How are we doing?" is an easy-to-ask question that can produce valuable insights.