Blog Post #2

 The Secrets of Great Teamwork

    The article titled, "The Secrets of Great Teamwork", from Harvard Business Review discusses the factors that contribute to effective teamwork in organizations. The two authors, Martine Haas and Mark Mortensen argue that the key to having successful teams require three core elements being, a clear yet compelling direction, the right mix of skills and expertise and finally a supportive context. 

    The authors explain how that a clear and compelling direction helps provide a shared sense of purpose and supports team members by helping them stay focused on achieving their goals. It does make sense after all, to succeed at or progress through something you must understand what your goal is and it should be clear in what you yourself are trying to achieve whether it be something small like making sure the lights are off when you leave your home or something big like declaring your major and setting yourself up for the future. However in the sense of a team, these goals should be challenging yet not difficult to the point where the team itself gets discouraged. They also should be consequential such as having a chance to gain rewards such as higher pay or recognition just a sense of meaning.

    Next, is having the right mix of skills and expertise allowing team members to complement each other's weaknesses and strengths, therefore ensuring that the team later down the line has the necessary components to completing their tasks. Examples of both size and diversity vary heavily, both having their pros and cons. Having a large team could have less work load but also have poor communication due to the sheer amount of numbers in the group. Diversity is also another thing, having friends in your group is good because you possibly have a similar mindset with them and can work well together, however having different people you don't know is also an advantage because they see things differently from you and can prove to be a huge asset in the future because different perspectives provide a ton of value. 

    Lastly, a supportive context including the processes, organizational culture and systems that enable effective teamwork. These could be a reward system, rewarding good performance, an information system that provides access to the information needed for the work, a system of education that provides training and finally the securement of resources such as funding or help with technological errors. 

    This article applies to other workplaces that of course make use of group work. Which in most cases are almost all workplaces, it also helps strengthen what they may be lacking by highlighting three core components. Personally I can relate to this article because I've found myself encountering different emotions when put into teams I am not familiar with. Such as, frustration when the work isn't clear and no one knows what to do or being surprised when another member of the team provides an interesting opinion I never would have thought due to their own upbringing. 

Haas, M., & Mortensen, M. (2016, June). The Secrets of Great Teamwork. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved March 23, 2023, from https://hbr.org/2016/06/the-secrets-of-great-teamwork