Without teamwork, most projects will not finish on time or not finish at all! Most projects worth doing are complex endeavors and without teamwork, there is no chance to complete them successfully on time and budget.
Anytime more than one person work on a problem, teamwork is the deciding factor which determines if the project completes successfully or fails miserably.
What is Teamwork?
For a proper definition of teamwork, check it here. What are the main ingredients of teamwork, you might ask? The most significant element of teamwork is collaboration. Team members should believe that by collaborating with each other, they will do a much better job and achieve much more than otherwise possible.
By collaborating, the result will be more satisfactory to all stakeholders in the project. This means that you need teams which have “balanced”.
By balance, I mean a team which has members who have expertise in different areas and are not afraid to share knowledge with colloquies and works on problems together.
It is good to have a superstar on the team as long as he or she is willing to share, teach and collaborate with others. In many cases, a superstar that sees others as providing no value is more distributive to the outcome of the project than any other factor.
This does not mean you need a team that all its members are equal or have the same abilities, but a team which its members complement each other. this will make their collective know-how greater than the sum of each individual’s knowledge.
Another element of good teamwork is to have an atmosphere that does not tolerate ego and selfishness.
Ego can easily kill any chance of collaborative work on projects. It is up to the project leader to create an environment where collaboration and helping each other is cherished and highly valued.
If the leader allows ego and selfishness get a hold on the project, the work will be much harder and unpleasant for all team members and the outcome of the project much in doubt!
To make this crystal clear, imagine if you can put an all-star soccer team together, in which each member is a superstar which believes he or she is the greatest player ever.
Believe it or not, this has been done in the past and the results have been awful! The egos of a team made of only all-star members will kill any chance of collaborative work. A match is won by teamwork and sacrifice and not by individual flashes of greatness.
The last element in good teamwork is effective leadership. Most people by nature would like to work on their own little problems and not be bothered by other people’s issues and challenges.
It is up to the leader to set an atmosphere in which everybody feels they are in it together and the success or failure of the project depends on collaboration and coordination of team members. The team collective effort is what at the end makes the project a success or failure. Remember it is the team that wins or losses and not the individual!
Effective Collaboration is known as the project’s secret sauce for success!
