4 ‘Too many chefs spoil the broth’ or ‘Two heads are better than one’?
In the last section you considered the difference between groups and teams and started to identify some of the teams that you have been part of in your life to date.
You may not have always had positive experiences of working in a team and some teams can certainly be described as dysfunctional, for example, David Brent and his team in the sitcom The Office (Figure 6), or Steve Carell’s character Michael in the US version. You may be able to think of other examples from either the media or your own experience.
In the next activity, you’ll spend some time reflecting on your own experiences and identifying some of the challenges you might encounter in a team.
Activity 4 Challenges of working in teams
Think back to your own experience of working in teams and/or examples of teams you have seen in the media and on TV or film. What are some of the things that concern you about working in teams? What for you are the possible disadvantages of this kind of work? See how many you can think of.
Comment
While individual experience will vary, you may have come up with something along these lines:
- taking into account so many different ideas can slow a task down
- it’s easier to concentrate when working on your own
- there is increased opportunity for conflict in a team, which may prevent the task being completed
- some team members may not pull their weight and rely on the efforts of others
- domineering personalities may take over
- the idea of ‘group reward’ may seem less motivating to some members of the team
- ‘group think’ is known to prevent creative thinking
- some people feel very uncomfortable in a team situation, for example those with neurodivergence
- there may be a lack of commitment to the team goal
- team members may be poor communicators.
Did you come up with any others? There are no right or wrong answers to this question and some of the things you have recorded may be very personal to your own situation and may not be listed here. Are there any that you agree with and would like to add to your list at this point?
Understanding what’s causing any challenges, either for yourself or others in the team, can help you to turn the situation around. You’ll focus on topics such as dealing with conflict later in the course.