Yesterday, Shayna and I presented on the topic of teams and the making up of these groups to be successful in the health care field. While I have discussed this topic a couple of times already I thought it was a good discussion because it summed up everything that we have learned in the class. Also, having an immense amount of knowledge in team building is a crucial skill because hopefully in the long run I will be developing one myself.
We started the presentation on by discussing the different type of teams that can be created in today's world. One of the teams that I thought was the most interesting was the cyber team because in the future these kind of groups will be prevalent. I gave an example on how my stepdad is a manager of a engineering company in Portsmouth New Hampshire and he frequently contacts his manager in Wisconsin over Skype. This is very important because my step dad obviously cannot fly out to Wisconsin every time there is a problem or an issue has to be discussed. Professor Bonica also agreed that these types of teams could become the future of health care and people can be treated by doctors that might not be in the same state or region as them.
We continued the presentation by showing a couple of videos that showed the negative aspects of teams along with one that showed different group activities being performed. Also we had a group activity where we asked some individuals to tell us two truths and a lie. While everyone knows what this activity is I thought It was a good way to represent how to read individuals before you assign them to a team. Reading body language can be tough, but as a manager it is a critical skill that must be developed.
I went on to discuss the different problems that teams may face while in the workforce. One of the major problems that I found consistently was social loafing. This is the idea that people slack off or don't work as hard because the consequences wont be as severe and the others will be expected to pick up their workload. This is a common problem in every group setting whether its at work or in a school setting. Future managers must be able to keep everyone on track with everyone splitting the workload fairly.
The definition of "virtual" teams is an area of interest for me. What does that mean? How is it virtual? Does it mean not working face to face? Or does it mean the teams are temporary in some way? I did some research on this concept a long time ago and it doesn't seem that we have a clearer meaning today than we did 20 years ago. Instead I think we have accepted that teams don't have to necessarily sit in the same room or even be employed by the same organizations. The world you and your colleagues are going out into is much more fluid than the one I entered in the 90's.
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