In recent years, work organization have evolved from being of individual nature to involving and interaction of two or more workers to effectively achieve common goals. In order to carry out the different processes and tasks, collaboration and cooperation is necessary from several members of the company, who participate and communicate among them, forming a work team.

Working as a team requires the mobilization of resources, diversity of skills and abilities, high levels of knowledge and adaptability of members in different situations. However, in certain cases there will be some elements that could hamper the team and their achievement of objectives, ideally, each worker should contribute their part to obtain the best results.

Teams are not successful by accident. The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) indicates that doing things right from the beginning substantially increases the chances that your team will accomplish the task for which it was set up. Similarly, CCL explains that there are five critical areas that help shape a successful work team.

1. Clearly define the course: every team must have a common purpose that offers members a context within which they can understand the reason for the formation of the team and its operation. Also, it is important to clarify the role of each member and the transcendence of their functions for the accomplishment of objectives.
2. Generate institutional support: work teams are more productive when they have the explicit support of their organization and have access to resources to support their efforts.
3. Create a structure that empowers team members: identify the skills, abilities and competencies of each team member to organize individual and common tasks or actions. Assertive communication between members is essential at this stage because it helps to achieve team goals.
4. Identify key relationships: relationships with people of external value should be established, so as to obtain the best access to the resources needed by the team.
5. Monitor external factors: collecting and analyzing information about the circumstances of the external environment that could affect the objectives of your team will allow you to make timely adjustments.

Most of the problems faced by work teams are not only predictable but also preventable. The obstacles that can be presented can be solved from the beginning, investing a great effort in the selection of the members of the team, in the definition of the purpose and in the possible identification external factors that affect the work and harmony of the members.

Source: Center for Creative Leadership