A Team's Purpose
Whether it’s in academia, in business, in sports or in family, teams can play a significant role in the success of a purpose. In academia, teams come together to complete learning projects. In sports, teams are formed to win championships. In business, teams may be created to meet a specific objective. Men and women marry, have children and become teams within their community with goals specific to their core values. One common denominator that all these teams require for success is effective communication.

In business, the benefits of a successful team are many. Projects gain the benefit of expertise and strength of several instead of one. Teams can come together and offer brainstorming solutions – something a single individual cannot provide. Flaws in ideas and design are more likely to be discovered in groups. Teams can bond workers together in a common goal, thereby improving loyalty and moral for a company.

According to best selling authors Peters and Waterman (2004) In Search of Excellence the true power of small groups in business lie in their flexibility. Teams can be formed for specific purposes and do not need to fit into any one specific division, and this lack of formality allows them to become an effective problem-solving tool. They have the empowerment necessary to make change and provide implementation without the bureaucratic overhead found elsewhere.

Men and women come together with a common purpose, but rather than using words like “teams”, terminology changes to words such as “marriage”, “family” and “partnerships”. Bookstores line their shelves with books that show the reader ways on preserving, enhancing, even fixing a marriage. Empirical evidence gathered argues this may be a good thing. Gottman (1999) writes in The Seven Principles of Making Marriage Work that it’s been found that people who remain married will live an average of four years longer than people who do not.

Of course, when many people think of teams, they think of a favorite sports team. A Super Bowl Championship, the World Series, or the Final Four are what is seen as the final objective. On the surface, fans see teams win because of their talent, the coaching or even the recruiting, but digging deeper one can see the same factors that make all teams successful, such as effective team communication.

In Team Power, author Jim Temme (2004) defines communication as “the other person gets the same message you sent, or conversely, you receive the same message that the other person intended.” If everyone on the team has a different perspective of what is expected from him or her, then the team is not in synch and cannot function effectively. Individuals learn to communicate effectively by learning to develop active listening skills, asking questions and providing useful feedback.

Social skills begin to develop at a very early age. Before children enter school, parents will teach their children to listen and ask questions. Once in school, teachers continue to build upon theses communication skills. For many, school will become the student’s first exposure to working with others on a team. As students mature and progress through school, institutions will continue to extrapolate and build upon the student’s ability to work as a team member. Communication skills will continue to become fine-tuned.

Online schools like University of Phoenix now incorporate the Learning Team into each class curriculum. Schools do this not because a given project is impossible to complete without a Learning Team, but rather to show the value of how Learning Teams can better address projects. In essence, the Educational Learning Team helps prepare the student to become a more effective team member on life’s journey.

As simplistic as effective communication seems, many barriers stand in the way. As discussed under University Of Phoenix (2004) Learning Team Toolkit, turf battles, lack of appreciation and even department lingo can become obstacles to communication. Again, we find these obstacles across all teams, not just one sector. Marriages fail when one no longer feels appreciated, teams succumb not because of conflict, but from fear of conflict. Even turf battles in sports can stand in the way of precision guided plays, unless players learn to trust each other.

One such example of communication and trust involves the De La Salle high school football team, (Wallace, 2003). On December 7, 1991, the De La Salle Spartans lost a game. It was the last time they lost until September 2004. The team, coached by Bob Ladouceur, produced a winning streak of 151 games for which any sports junkie will be recognized as an amazing accomplishment.

Ladouceur recognized that his team players needed to trust each other before they could effectively communicate, and they were not going to win until they could communicate effectively. During the off-season, Ladouceur requires all players to fill out commitment cards listing expectations for the upcoming games. After every practice, he then encourages his players to practice speaking from their heart, discussing their expectations, and confessing their shortcoming. Through his efforts, Coach Ladouceur has helped his team learn to trust each other, which in turn led to better communication. The result was one of the nations longest winning streaks in high school football.

Conflict will not hamper effective communication as much as the fear of conflict will. The team leader, the parent, the teacher and the coach that must ensure that members of the team feel trusted enough to communicate. If communication is always one way – Leader or Manager downwards – a main purpose of the team has been ruined.

In the book Leading from the Heart, (Krzyzewski, 2004), coach Mike Krzyzewski of the Duke University Blue Devils, provides the reader with “Coach K Tips” after each chapter. Krzyzewski has won three national championships and has made 10 Final Four appearances since 1986. Just as Ladouceur recognized with the Spartans that trust and communication are essential elements for a team, Krzyzewski shares with the reader his blue print for success such as “Ask for opinions”, “Communication skills are just as important as technical skills” and “Don’t be the only speaker in the meeting”. Today, Coach K has taken his winning formula on communication from the courts to the boardrooms where he is a much sought after motivational speaker.

In their strongest sense, teams are created to support each other and share a common purpose and regardless of discipline, the functionality of an effective team is paramount. A team will not reach its potential if its members do not communicate and for communication to flow, members must feel trusted. Whether it’s the team leader, a teacher, or the coach, must help the team feel appreciated and safe from fear of conflict.