Team Dynamics
While working on my software engineering project, of course, I work with my teammates. However, have you ever wondered how can we get along? How can we be a strong team? How can we enhance our teamwork? It is because we have good team dynamics. But, what is team dynamics? How can we improve the team dynamics? Let’s talk about it deeper!
Team Dynamics
Based on this article, Social psychologist Kurt Lewin first described team dynamics in 1939. He said that it is the process of understanding the abilities of the people that make up a team.
And based on this article, team dynamics are the unconscious, psychological forces that influence the direction of a team’s behaviour and performance. They are like undercurrents in the sea, which can carry boats in a different direction to the one they intend to sail.
Team dynamics can be produced because of the team’s teamwork, the relationships between them, and the team’s personalities and environment.
By having good team dynamics, it gives so many profits to the team. Some of the examples are, it creates good relationships with each of the team members. It also makes the team member easier to make decisions, because they trust each other. Good team dynamics will lead to good management practice, work outcomes, and customer satisfaction. Furthermore, it improves the team’s productivity, creativity, and effectiveness.
However, if a team has poor group dynamics, it may cause some conflicts, such as bad decision-making, which will disrupt the work outcomes and of course, disrupting successful decision making.
How Can We Build Our Team Dynamics?
Know your team
To improve your team dynamics, of course, you have to get to know more about your team, so that you can prevent problems that could appear, including conflict or issues with poor group dynamics.
Define Roles and Responsibilities
You should assign responsibilities and roles based on each of the member strengths. They will feel more accountable for the team’s success because they understand where they fit in.
Encourage Open Communication
The strongest team dynamics appear when every member feels they can be heard and also can talk. Start to engage everyone to begin an open and honest communication, so that we receive feedback that can improve the team. Also, remind everyone that conflict is not always a bad thing, however, the goal is to support, not criticize one another.
Willingness to correct mistakes
One of the main aspects of accountability is the willingness to correct mistakes. When an achievement is dependent on results, a productive team must set up the appropriate processes for measurement and evaluation. You should track your work and prepare to change your mistake in the future if the results are not as they should be. Because learning from mistakes can make us be better and it can make our team successful.
Stop Problems Quickly
If you feel like your team has any signs of poor dynamics, such as two members failing to get along, it is important to act quickly to fix things and prevent the negative attitude from spreading. Provide the team members in question with honest but supportive feedback about their actions and offer a positive and healthy solution.
Pay attention
Pay attention if your group starts to have some signs of poor group dynamics. For example, if there are often unanimous decisions, persuade your teammates to share them anonymously or to discuss their views in order to prevent bullying or free riding.
Break Down Barriers
Try to help everyone get to know one another. Try to communicate frequently so that you and your teammates can break down barriers of one another.
Servant Leadership
I also want to add about Servant Leadership. Based on this article, A servant-leader focuses primarily on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong. How can a leader follow the servant leadership methodology? Based on this article, you can implement these points!
- Providing Accountability
ensure each of the team members finishes their goals that were identified by the team.
2. Supporting and Resourcing
Support and provide necessary resources to the team member to accomplish their goals
3. Engaging in Honest Self-Evaluation
You should evaluate yourself in order to make you be a better person and valuable for your team
4. Fostering Collaboration
Start to break your team barriers!
5. Communicating with Clarity
As a leader, start to communicate with your team members so that you know what your team members are heading to.
6. Valuing and Appreciating
Appreciate your teammates if one of them or all of them accomplish their goals!
Meet My Team!
Let me introduce, Porteliér Team! My team consists of 5 members, Rafadana, Yafi, Oliver, Gibran, and Me. It is named as “Porteliér” because it is our application name. I already know them really well since we have been in the same class for 2 and a half years. It has been three months since I work with them and I really enjoy working with them because they always help me if I have problems when I do my work. They also teach me patiently if I have difficulties when I do my task. We have different skills, for example, Gibran and I are known as frontend masters, Rafadana and Oliver, our legendary duo are known as backend masters, while Yafi is known as a master of both, frontend and backend skills.
Since the first time we work as a team, I could say that we have good communication. Even though we are facing this kind of condition where we can’t meet face to face, it is not an excuse not to have good communication and not to keep in touch with each other. We usually use Line, Discord, and Google Meet to communicate. We also really try to help each other if there are any difficulties. We often do our tasks together in Discord. There, we always share our thoughts, we try to help each other and share any difficulties and how to fix them. I am glad that I can be a part of the team. I hope that my team can enhance our team dynamics so that our goals will succeed. Cheers to our dark-circled eyes, Porteliér team!
I hope this article will help you to improve your team dynamics. Good luck!😋
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