subject: The Teamwork Attitude Importance in Organization [print this page] Teamwork is both an attitude and a set of action. The teamwork attitude reminds people that everyones work is interdependent, and the success of the entire organization requires that people cooperate with each other. Teamwork actions involve everyone in (1) understanding the whole process and its goals, (2) understanding their individual roles in the process, (3) communicating openly and regularly with one another, and (4) having joint responsibility to execute, as well as continuously improve, the process. The idea of setting up teams in organization has been a hot management idea for the past several years. Top leaders, always on the lookout for solutions to the problem of improving productivity, decide to set up teams. A memo is then issued declaring that this or that group of workers is now a team. They hope that this will result in reduced costs and higher-quality work. These leaders may even bring in a consulting company to train people in various teamwork skills, such as communication, meeting skills, team decision-making, and so on. However, there is often one problem in all this. These leaders have a teamwork attitude problem. They still have a tendency to treat people as if they were those independent contractors mentioned previously. They have not yet adopted the teamwork attitude. It quickly becomes apparent to workers that calling them a team is just another management gimmick that doesnt result in any changes in the way they are managed. The organization still doesnt have a good understanding of its processes. And it hasnt put a high premium on the cooperation and Communication necessary for teams to operate effectively. The result is mediocre cooperation and not much change from how things were done before. Unless leaders deeply understand and buy into the idea of the organization as a system, calling groups of workers teams simply wont make any difference. There has to be an attitude shift where leaders see that taking actions that facilitate cooperation and collaboration among people throughout the organization is the way to improve performance.
