This study offers suggestions for creating a team charter as well as communication and collaboration tactics for a new interprofessional team that will work on a variety of difficult assignments. Team members will be chosen from various parts of the organization and will be expected to work collaboratively within six months of the orientation.
To begin, simply list the ground rules and expectations for the team but ensure that these are acceptable to all team members. As explained by Aldag and Kuzuhara (2015), this method is usually preferable if the team has short time to create the ground rules.
The second method is to provide a list of ground rules and expectations commonly used in the organization
then request the team to provide additional inputs, which should be agreeable by all members.
The last (and the best) method is to allow the team to generate the entire list
this method is suitable if there is enough time to generate the entire list from scratch.
Effects of differences in personality, expectations, and experiences on team efficiency
Weiss, Tilin, and Morgan (2014) argued that differences in personality traits such as emotions, sociability, competence, trust, self-discipline, self-consciousness, straightforwardness, sensibility, as well as openness to experiences play significant role in determining effectiveness of the team. For instance, when more members tend to be extroverted, the team efficiency will be improved due to increased communication and viability. Moreover, personalities such as openness and conscientiousness may also improve team efficiency while experiences and expectations may influence creativity and decision-making.
Conflict resolution strategies for interprofessional teams
Counselling: The organization should provide free counselling services to every employee: the counselling services should be designed to provide relevant education on conflict resolution and management. Such education should be geared towards enhancing self-awareness and emotional intelligence.
Discussion forums: Issues should be openly discussed in with all team members on various occasions such as staff members and discussion forums. The leadership should be committed to managing and mitigating conflict through this avenue and every team member should be accountable to his or her actions.
Effective Ways to Address Team Leadership Issues
Cooperative process: It is essential for the team to cooperate and agree on a process that involves everyone in finding amicable solution to the problem. As explained by Aldag and Kuzuhara (2015), this implies putting interest of the team first and setting aside personal opinions, ideas, and vendettas.
Open communication: Communication should be kept open and everyone should be free to communicate the issue affecting the team even if it touches the team leadership.
Understand the situation: Once the leadership issue has identified, the team should take time to understand the situation and ensure that their position is not influenced by their personal relationships.
Choosing the Team Leader
The team leader can be chosen through a democratic process whereby members should nominate but the organization’s management has to endorse the person. The team can nominate three potential leaders for the management to pick one of them: this method is advantageous because it allows for the participation of both the team and managers in selecting the best team leader.
An Ineffective Team Leader
If the elected team leader is ineffective, then the team must embark on the process of solving the problem either by helping the leader or getting a replacement. Once the issue has been identified clearly, during a team meeting, members should explore how to solve the problem. If that does not work or the leader is still ineffective, then members can ask the leader to step aside so that another member can be elected.
Communication and Collaboration Strategies
Best practice for effective interprofessional collaboration
First, through words and actions, the organization’s leadership should prioritize in enhancing interprofessional collaboration by establishing proper partnership.
Secondly, the organization should create a level playing ground that enables team members to collaborate while clearly understanding their roles and values in the firm. The key concern is to help members understand that they are providing meaningful contributions to the firm through their work and have collective value.
Embracing effective communication strategy is another best practice: it is a key driver of effective interprofessional collaboration. It can be achieved through shared language and tools, which enables team members to overcome challenges and barriers of communication that might impede effective collaboration (Dwyer, 2013).
Supportive Technologies
Many different types of technologies can be used to support collaboration such as course management systems, project management tools, real-time communications, and collaboration suites among others. They provide tools that (1) facilitate asynchronous and real-time communication (voice, call, or text), (2) support co-creation and project management, (3) enable remote and local presentation, and (4) facilitate consensus building (Dwyer, 2013).
Communication Strategies
Email communication: There are numerous advantages of email commination strategies such as high speed, availability, cost-effectiveness, and accessibility. The main disadvantage of email communication is that it is vulnerable to external attack, for instance, an employee can lose all important emails and information when the hard drive is crashed. In addition, external hackers who are interested in acquiring the company’s crucial data or information can intercept an email. This communication method is appropriate when the same document (information) need to be shared with a large group of people (Dwyer, 2013).
Text communication: Sending text for business communication is easy to do, convenient, cost effective, time saving and personal. However, its main disadvantage is the character limits: it does not long and detailed messages. In addition, the person communicating cannot display proper tone when using text messaging. This method of communication is appropriate for use when the employee is away from the desk phone or unable to access email immediately.
Voice mail communication: This method is advantageous because (1) it is convenient, (2) can be timed, (3) allows scheduling of appointments, and (4) reduces the need of secretarial and administrative staffs. The main disadvantage is that various communication issues might crop in especially when some clients feel that they are always getting voice mail instead of support from your office. It is appropriate to use this method of communication especially when it is necessary to provide customers with immediate replays rather than make them wait.
Face-to-face communication: When using this method, response is received immediately and it is easy to identify people’s emotions and feelings when communicating. The main limitation of this method is that it cannot be easily practiced in large organizations and large gatherings. This communication strategy is appropriate for use when immediate clarifications are needed on some issues being communicated (Dwyer, 2013).
References
Aldag R. & Kuzuhara L. (2015). Creating High Performance Teams: Applied Strategies and Tools for Managers and Team Members. New York: Routledge.
Dwyer, J. (2013). Communication for the professions: Strategies and skills. Frenchs Forest: Pearson Australia.
Goldsmith, J., Bennis, W., & Cloke, K. (2013). Resolving conflicts at work: Eight strategies for everyone on the job. San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass.
Weiss, D., Tilin, F. J., & Morgan, M. J. (2014). The interprofessional health care team: Leadership and development. Burlington: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
