Lead And Manage A Team Within A Health And Social Care Or Children And Young People’s Setting

1.1 Explain the features of effective team performance

  Team have become so common in healthcare setting due to the benefits they offer. However, not all team are effective.  Effective teams have some common features that make them stand out. These features includes

Clarity of objectives – effective team performance is a result of having clear objectives. Every member understands the purpose of the team and what it is set to achieve. With clear objectives, each person plays their roles effectively resulting in high performance (Fapohunda, 2013). Hence, clarity of objective is crucial in achieving effective performance.

Commitment – for a team to perform excellently, the members must have a high commitment to their roles. Each member must play their roles and put extra effort towards the team’s goals.  Also, the members must be ready to change directions when necessary (Fapohunda, 2013). As well, each member of the team should align and priorities the group roles with their daily tasks.

Effective communication – a team can only perform well when there is effective communication. The member should interact and have a strong working relationship with each other. Also, the sharing of ideas and challenges is a common trait in performing teams (Mao & Woolley, 2016). Without effective communication, it will be hard to achieve the team spirit leading to poor performance. 

1.2 Identify the challenges experienced by developing teams

Developing teams experience different challenges as compared to already established teams. According to Bruce Tuckman concept, developing teams are in the first three stages of group development – forming, storming, and norming. At these stages, there are several challenges faced. First, the group lacks unity of purpose (Kumar, Deshmukh & Adhish, 2014). Newly developed groups consist of people from diverse backgrounds who have different traits and beliefs. Also, each person has a different mission and understanding of the reason for team formation. Hence, realizing a unity of purpose is a hard tackle. 

Secondly, the members face role confusion. In developing teams, there is no clarity on the roles and responsibilities of each member. This aspect creates confusion making the team dysfunctional (Kumar, Deshmukh & Adhish, 2014).  Thirdly, conflict is a common challenge among most developing conflict. During the early stages of forming or developing a group, there is no clear structure and no agreement is usually reached especially on how role and task will be divided among members.  As result, members usually conflict with each other as they try to establish themselves in the group or agree on the way forward for the team. Such conflicts poses serious threat to the survival of the team. 

1.3 Identify the challenges experienced by established teams

Unlike the developing team, well established teams are on the fourth stage of Tuckman model i.e. – performing. At this stage, everyone understands their roles well and the purpose of the team is clear and there is general harmony in the group.  Despite all these, there are several challenges that the team faces.  These are;