Identification of Team Roles
It is not an easy task to create a team and make every member work properly in regard to the roles and duties identified. It is not only necessary to define the roles; it is more important to prove the importance of the identification process and the essence of each role in a team. Levi (2014) states that “roles are one of the basic building blocks of successful team performance” (p. 69). With the help of properly identified roles, team members know what they have to do, what is expected from them, and how they can achieve the best results.
Any kind of work should correspond with a set of standards, and the identification of roles depends on these standards and may be organized in different ways. There are several people, who may identify roles: a person him/herself, who knows what he/she can do and how he/she can be helpful, a team that understands what kind of work should be done, or an organization that makes orders and create the conditions under which the required portion of work should be completed. Sometimes, the identification of roles is organized by means of the methods’ combination. For example, a team and an individual may identify a role, and an organization approves/disproves the choice. That is why it is possible to say that the process of role identification should not be pure collective or individual. It should be definite and reasonable.
Another important aspect of role identification is the fact that as soon as roles are defined, behaviors and conditions can be defined as well. As can be seen in the charter proposal, team members identify roles and provide a description of roles to explain what is expected from each member. The identification of role helps to comprehend whether task behavior that “focuses on the group’s goals and tasks” or social behavior that “focuses on the social and emotional needs of the group members” are required (Levi, 2014, p. 71). As a rule, a team should consider both types of behavior while the identification of roles to function effectively.
In general, the identification of roles in a team should be properly organized. It is necessary to consider personal characteristics and the needs of a team as a whole. A team has one goal, and its members (who are usually different in their skills, knowledge, and styles) should have the roles that they can perform at a high level. Roles’ identification is a crucial step that takes place at the beginning of work. If this process goes wrong, the success of a project can be under threat.
Transformation of an Idea from the Initial Idea
Teamwork is not easy, and team members should be ready to make fast decisions, choose alternatives, and transform different ideas in a short period of time. Developing ideas is a crucial step in a team’s work; however, in spite of the desire to develop something new, team members should consider “critical comments from other members,” who are “not good at supporting one another’s ideas” (Levi, 2014, p. 189).
Team members may like or dislike the ideas of each other; still, some improvements or transformations are necessary indeed. It means that the process of transformation of one idea from the initial idea takes place. To succeed in transforming ideas, team members should learn to develop their cooperative skills. Creativity should be used not only in developing ideas but also in developing the relations and communication between team members, who introduce new ideas. Some teams cannot divide such processes as creativity and transformation because they cannot exist without each other. As soon as transformation is necessary, creativity has to be used. And creativity always leads to some kinds of transformation.
The process of transformation of an idea from the initial idea is complicated. One of the first steps that should be taken is to promote “developing an open climate that encourages participation” (Levi, 2014, p. 189). When the environment is appropriate, team members are able to develop their ideas, transform some of them on the basis of others, etc. One of the goals each team member should want to achieve is to choose the best idea and proves its appropriateness.
The transformation process should pass in several stages: brainstorming (when several ideas are generated in regards to the available conditions), recording (when all offered ideas are written down and evaluated), brainwriting (when team members share their opinions about the ideas in a written form), and the selection of a solution (when the final idea is chosen by all team members). Group creativity is the source of success for a team, and each member should demonstrate his/her best skills to define and analyze several ideas in order to choose the most successful thought.
In general, the process of transformation of an idea from the initial idea is impossible to avoid in a team’s work because almost every member has a number of ideas and improvements to rely on. Teamwork should be based on mutual trust and understanding to realize that all ideas cannot be accepted at once. Still, the transformation of ideas is an appropriate process that can help a team to achieve the required portion of success.
Reference
Levi, D. (2014). Group dynamics for teams. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. Web.