Working in service team

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Working in a

Service Team


What is a Team?

It has definable membership

It has a name

Members think as a team, have a sense of unity,

identify with each other

Shared purpose

Interdependence to achieve the team purposes

A team communicates, influences, and has the

ability to act and work as a single unit


Two great influences on teams

Values acquired during formative

years are ‘engraved in stone’

Attitudes fashioned as an adult

are ‘written in sand’


Effective service teams - characteristics

Clear goals

Healthy working relationships

Manage differing viewpoints well

Supportive of each other

High trust and rapport

Want to work together and achieve

Conflicts worked through and resolved

Learn from experience – regular reviews

Supports strong and weak personalities

Good relationships with other groups/teams


A well developed team

Becomes genuinely proud

Receives recognition

Team members value being part of

Self protect from threat – ‘family well-

being’

Team competence and resourcefulness

grows

Membership has real significance


A well developed team

If we want to build a team we must do it together and hold it together …

… Over a significant period


Important points about teams

Teams rarely stand in isolation

Families form tribes

Teams, families and tribes have

territories/boundaries …not always well

defined

Know your team/ family/ tribe


Other Tribes / Families / Teams

Who are they?

What do they do?

What contact do you have with them?

Do you know their territorial boundaries?

Where is there an overlap?


Trouble and strife

Jealousies, rivalries, relationships,

perceptions, attitudes etc.

If not sorted out can rip a team apart


Family Feuds

Feuds can be over many things including:

Shift wars

Inter-team rivalry

Jealousy and resentment

Original causes often forgotten

Feuds are ‘knock for knock’ and can

escalate

Feuds can involve sabotage and worse


Tribes and teams need

A hierarchy

A leader

A role

Goals and objectives

ALL individuals in a team need a role, and need

to understand their value in the team if they are to

participate, contribute, and feel they ‘belong’.


Team roles and hierarchy

There are many different roles within different teams

Some examples: Gatekeeper

Visionary

Critic

Clown

Teacher

Timekeeper

Optimist

Pessimist


Team behaviour

Teamwork is NOT easy:

Differing expectations

Perceptions of individuals

And can be affected by

Different temperaments

Different skills

Differing balances of artistic and technical

merits (think ice skating!)


Team values

Nobody appreciates colleagues whom

Are frequently late

Take long breaks

Are lazy

Always give excuses

Are unhelpful

In a team there is no place for bickering,

petulance, fighting, ‘tit-for-tat’ etc.


A failing team – some symptoms

Petty arguments

The ‘silent’ routine

Silly guerrilla wars

Petty jealousies

Fighting

Sabotage

Infighting within the team

Undermining credit

Negative ‘can’t do’ responses


Awakening professional worth

Set and maintain good personal standards

Team takes a much higher profile

Talk to anyone at any time

Set PR objectives

Become a valued business unit – a Business Asset

Let others worry about us!

Develop our own team ethics


Team Ethics

DO

Set values from the start

Be proud

Have fun!

Own problems

Recognise recognition

Communicate and trust

Put words into action

Be flexible

Adjust to conceptions

Listen and hear

DON’T

Go native

Be rigid

Moan

Blame in public

Ignore the customer

Wash dirty linen in public

Humiliate in public

Be accusatory

Forget to support

Point the finger


Being the best team

Become your own best critics

Do ‘fleet maintenance’

Be the team everyone wants

to be on


A fully functioning and effective team

Clear aims

Assertive leadership

Effective management

Positive climate

Structure

Power balance

Development of individuals

Effective teamwork

Good communication

Services

Working in service team