The use of teamwork gives an organization the opportunity to achieve better results. The ability to set and plan goals is really a set of habits that can be developed. Planning the team's work in order to perform an assigned task should be understood as a process consisting in defining tasks, assigning them to appropriate people and determining the order and deadlines for the completion of sub-tasks.
An effective team should have clearly defined goals, structure, defined responsibilities of team members and defined communication rules and procedures. Improving the division and planning the work of the team are the key to the success of any company. Only thanks to this, employees know what they are responsible for and what strategic goal they pursue as part of their daily duties. Moreover, the measure of the team's performance is its ability to complete the project within the allotted time and budget.
The strength of the team lies in the diverse skills, experiences and views of its members. It is also important corporate culture. The most effective teams are characterized by certain common features, which include: matching the skills and psychological characteristics of team members, a clear and consistent goal, understanding of the ongoing processes and procedures, and interpersonal and communication skills.
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Team work planning stages
Planning the team's work takes place in several successive steps:
- Analysis of the current situation of the organization.
- Setting goals to be implemented or changes that we plan to introduce.
- Defining all tasks that will allow us to achieve our goals.
- Analyzing the state of possessed and necessary resources (material, intangible, human and financial).
- Selection of team members and assigning specific people responsibility for the performance of particular sub-tasks.
- Determining the methods, costs and resources needed to implement individual activities and the relationships between them.
- Risk analysis for potential threats and obstacles to plan implementation, together with ideas on how to solve specific problems.
- Completing and presenting the plan along with the schedule of individual activities.
- Observation of the environment in order to apply any necessary plan adjustments.
- Determining the methods of controlling and monitoring the effects of the implementation of the plan.
Planning itself is mainly about setting goals and actions in line with them. This concept can be understood as a project for the future and the selection of appropriate measures for its organization. Planning can also be understood as acting in the future, based on predicting later events in a limited time and selecting the appropriate and most beneficial means, goals, tasks and methods. All of this also applies to the activities carried out under employer branding.
Planning in time
Team work planning can be divided according to the time horizon. Then we distinguish planning:
- strategic (incl marketing planning), the development of which is estimated to take longer than 5 years,
- long-term, from 2 to 5 years (mainly these are tasks conducive to some above-set goal),
- medium-term, the duration of which is usually estimated from several months to a year (these are auxiliary tasks in achieving long-term goals),
- short-term (operational), estimated for a period of up to three months,
- current, including daily tasks or tasks that take up to a week.
The role of the leader in planning the work of the team
Effective employee team should have a leader who will be able to influence the behavior of other team members. In every team there should be someone who will take responsibility for the people working in it. Someone who will unite them around the company's goal and plan a path on the way to the goal.
Leadership as a process is about using influence to shape the organization's goals and motivating the behavior of individual team members to achieve those goals. Leading is about more than just administering people. It is the ability to motivate, show purpose and inspire further development.
The leader is responsible for outlining and properly communicating the vision guiding the team during daily work, which enables effective internal communication. The leader takes over contacts with the environment, defends the interests of the team and removes emerging obstacles. It is his attitude and behavior that significantly influences whether the team will achieve above-average results.
The leader may make suggestions as one of the team members, but he should not interfere too much in the process of action, as this may lead to a decrease in the involvement of team members. Leaders should look after the welfare of all members, emphasize the importance of personal responsibility for achieving the goal, and give team members the opportunity to act independently. Constructive remarks and positive motivation used by the leader are conducive to building responsibility and trust. And these are essential in planning the team's work.
Planning the team's work - good practices
When starting the planning of sub-tasks assigned to individual team members, you should list all the activities that come to your mind as those that need to be done to complete the task. This step is crucial in planning the team's work. Omitting any action at this stage may result in serious problems with the implementation of the entire task.
The organization should establish a coherent set of rules to ensure the uniform performance of tasks. It should also establish a hierarchy of positions by creating a line of subordination from the top to the bottom of the organization.
The general regularity is that the more experienced a planner has, the less risk of missing an action. Therefore, when planning the implementation of the entrusted task, it is good to use the experience of the entire team.
Team members play specific roles. The greater the diversity of people, the greater the chance of innovative solutions. A good team strengthens its strengths when its members complement each other in terms of competences.