Team Dynamics on the Job: An Industry Cross Example
February 1st, 2008 posted by: Kevin Quillen Delaware Web Designer of Inclind, Inc
From Wikipedia:
Teamwork is the concept of people working together cooperatively, as in a sports team.
Projects often require that people work together to accomplish a common goal; therefore, teamwork is an important factor in most organizations. Effective collaborative skills are necessary to work well in a team environment. Many businesses attempt to enhance their employees’ collaborative efforts through workshops and cross-training to help people effectively work together and accomplish shared goals.
Every business requires teamwork. It doesn’t matter what field you are in. Music, medical, law, military, web development, even marriage. Nothing is successful without the mutual backing of each other toward the end goal. Support comes from respect, not the requirement thereof based on a job title. Command it, don’t demand it. It starts with you!
There are 4 major factors of an individual that calculates how successful teamwork will be:
- Respect
- Personality
- Commitment
- Communication
When 1 person has these qualities, and you match them with others who do as well, you get solid team chemistry, team dynamics. This creates success.
It’s not about having a group and saying, ‘get this done’. You can’t force people to work together just because you say they have to. Remember when you were assigned group projects in school or college? Didn’t always go so well did it? You’d have a couple people not pulling their weight, another who let someone else do all the work just to pass.
It’s also not about assembling experts and throwing money at them to solve a problem.
Without chemistry and team dynamics, it just won’t work. What you’ll have on your hands is a revolving door environment, people coming in, quickly going out. New hires, quick fires, low morale.
Team dynamics is a team that can play off of each others strengths in order to support each others areas of weakness. What you have then is a tight unit where the rate of failure drops to nearly zero. Look at Google. Everyone there isn’t the best in everything, most of them are good programmers with very creative personalities and commitment to what they do. Even when Google started, Larry Page and Sergey Brin had such a solid foundation that their college project evolved into taking over the world. But Google is good, so thats okay! What I mean here is, think of all the designers who try to program, and all the programmers who try to design. On their own, they usually do great at one, poor at the other. But put them together and focus on each others strong areas (programming and design) and the end product is infinitely greater than what it was before. Each persons weakness is the others strength, together they form a successful unit. Team dynamics are a force multiplier!
Earlier I mentioned that it doesn’t matter what field you are in, that teamwork encompasses any area. So lets draw a parallel with another industry, music.
Off the top of your head, can you think of any bands that have been around a while? Lets see:
- Rolling Stones
- Rush
- Metallica
- AC/DC
- Red Hot Chili Peppers
- The Smashing Pumpkins
- Guns ‘n Roses
- Pearl Jam
- Megadeth
These are some of my favorite bands who have accumulated massive success for the last 20 years, some even more than that. But there are two on the list that don’t have something in common with the rest.
While all bands have had at least 1 lineup change, only two have a revolving door type environment. Guns ‘n Roses and Megadeth have changed their lineups at least every 2 to 3 years since they started. In particular, Axl Rose and Dave Mustaine (both frontmen) keep a stranglehold on everything from writing, playing, mixing, and deciding pay percentages. They don’t really care for the input of the others, and in their mind, they are the star of the show.
So, what happened?
Both Axl and Dave did not respect their bandmates nor attempt to communicate with them on major issues or pending work. The result ended up being band members coming and going. Their poor, controlling, megalomaniacal attitudes brought dreams and careers to an end. Everyone knows that when Slash and Izzy Stradlin quit Guns ‘n Roses, the band was effectively dead. Why? The chemistry had dissolved, you didn’t have passionate, creative people working together anymore, you just had a bunch of guys playing instruments. That just doesn’t work. Sure, you can still see them in concert today, but the only original member is Axl, and its basically just a name and a memory. Same with Megadeth. The chemistry is gone. Imagine how many more albums they could have done if they each possessed the 4 qualities I mentioned at the start of this article!
It’s the same way with web development. You can put anyone on the keyboard and write code, put anyone in front of Photoshop, anyone can give orders. But its just not the same as having a strong team who has a desire to work together.
This is why Inclind is successful at any undertaking and every client is happy with us, why we’re the best web development company in Delaware, and one of the best in the region. We’ve accomplished everything we put our minds to, or asked to do, big projects to small projects to personal things like helping each other outside the office or just hanging out. We aren’t just a face and a title, we’re human beings here to help you and help each other. We don’t just take your money and run, we make it worth your while. Your satisfaction and success is shared by us.
February 1st, 2008 posted by: Kevin Quillen of Inclind, Inc
February 1st, 2008 at 10:27 am
It warms my heart to know I’m a part of such a talented and motivated team. Massive success is surely on the horizon for us, both individually, and collectively as the team that is Inclind…