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Wednesday, July 7, 2010

And The Winner Is.... Basic Human Instincts!

Global teamwork is critical to the further development of new ideas.  In an abstract on total quality management Schonberger (1994) stated the following about teamsmanship versus leadership:

Total quality management sharply modifies management itself. As teams and teamwork take root, leadership idolatry fades in importance.Teamsmanship requires breaking vertical and horizontal barriers that stand in the way of quick, high-quality customer service. Management tools helpful in barrier-busting include team-building, cross-training,job rotation, cross-careering, project teams, and re-engineering. While these tools are in wide use, companies often misapply or weakly apply them. Examples are given of how some companies use these tools in ways that effectively enhance teamsmanship. Teamsmanship also feeds on information, which must be widely shared. In most Western cultures,however, people tend jealously to guard their own knowledge and personally acquired information. Organizations must employ systematic devices that promote information sharing. Among the better known such devices are benchmarking and quality function deployment. Also useful,but less familiar, are common files and the "star system". As applied by a small number of organizations, these techniques can become effective tools of teamsmanship.  

Rheingold discussed humans instinct to work as a group to accomplish a common goal.  This basic human instinct is what will lead to greater accomplishments in the future.  Through the collaboration of a team larger scale projects can be accomplished.   The critical difference between leadership and teamwork is that in a teamwork setting each person on the team brings a different set of skills to the table.  With the increasing amount of knowledge in the world to know it is no longer possible to know how to do everything well.  Through a team collaboration setting each person does not need to be an expert in all of the fields necessary to complete the project.  

Take the project Wikipedia.  It is a vast amount of knowledge continuously updated and growing on almost any topic imaginable.  It would be impossible for one person to be updating this database, managing the technical end, and staying abreast of new knowledge.  Through the teamwork model no one person has to be an expert in everything, but rather a group of people come together to accomplish a common goal.  
 
The growth of technology has even further enhanced humans ability to work as a team on a common goal.  Through Skype, Google Docs, Webspiration,  and countless other collaborative web 2.0 tools people are able to come together seamlessly to work on the common goal.  As technology grows more in the future, this ability to collaborate will grow even more. 





Through the use of teamwork unimaginable goals can be accomplished.   


Enjoy ~SJ

3 comments:

  1. Hi!

    SJ, good video choice. Do you think teamsmanship should be required for all people? I raise this question in consideration of people who are intrapersonal learners.

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  2. Sarah,
    The resource of Schonberger (1994) gave me new insight about how people innately can work together when the need for information sharing is necessary. It is so true that people in Western cultures are guarded when it comes to information sharing. However, I still wonder about the validity of Wikipedia since its source of information can be questioned. Yet, even with all of the technology out there, people are still hesitant to share. After all, it is sometimes our “me” gets in the way of being involved with such projects.
    Golda

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  3. Sarah,
    You have such great posts. I liked the video. You identified some important characteristics pertaining to teams and teamwork. We have so many tools to help us work together, however, it is up to each individual to make it work. Unfortunately, we cannot count on everyone to be a great team player. I do agree, however, that when we do have great team players, the tools available help us to be more effective and efficient.
    Sara

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