Business Teams

Quick reference

• 00:04 Hello I'm Ray Sheen.
• 00:05 Welcome to this course on Team Leadership.
• 00:08 I'd like to start with a quick discussion about business teams.
• 00:14 The concept of teams is very prevalent in our workplace today.
• 00:17 There are permanent teams and temporary teams.
• 00:20 There are sports teams and business teams.
• 00:22 There are functional teams and dysfunctional teams.
• 00:25 In this program we wanna focus on business teams, both good and bad.
• 00:29 To do that, we need to first establish what we mean by a business team.
• 00:34 A business team is a group of people with a set of complementary skills,
• 00:38 who work together to complete a set of business tasks.
• 00:41 So for starters,
• 00:42 we're talking about a group of people, no such thing as a team of one in business.
• 00:48 Some organizations do everything in a team environment.
• 00:51 Other organizations establish business teams to address specific projects or
• 00:55 processes.
• 00:57 Regardless, a business team will embody several characteristics
• 01:00 including a common goal.
• 01:02 Also, they have a high degree of interdependency.
• 01:04 They may be doing the same work or
• 01:06 they may be doing successive steps in a business process.
• 01:10 They share authority and responsibility for team management.
• 01:13 There may be a designated team leader.
• 01:16 But it is not an authoritative or dictatorial role.
• 01:19 At least, not if they are actually operating as a team.
• 01:22 Another characteristic is accountability by all for collective performance.
• 01:27 They work together to achieve the goal, not against each other.
• 01:31 Finally, the reward for job well done is shared by all the team members.
• 01:35 All members of the team are recognized for their contribution.
• 01:39 As you can see, a business team is more than just a collection of people
• 01:43 working for the same company.
• 01:45 There is a cohesion and organization of the team.
• 01:48 So that by working together,
• 01:50 they are able to achieve more than if each of them was working independently.
• 01:54 I know that many organizations use the term broadly and
• 01:57 refer to everyone in the company as being on the same team.
• 02:01 Well in this class we'll be much more focused.
• 02:04 We'll be considering the case where the team must regularly be working together
• 02:08 in order to achieve the team goal.
• 02:12 Let me describe one of the special types of business teams
• 02:15 that can be found in most organizations, the functional team.
• 02:19 This is a special case of business teams with a few unique characteristics.
• 02:24 For one thing, they're usually a permanent team.
• 02:26 People on the team may come and go, but the team and its goals remain unchanged.
• 02:32 Each individual has similar skills, and
• 02:34 they're either performing the same types of activities or very similar activities.
• 02:38 The functions could be HR, IT, Finance or Operations.
• 02:43 Whatever the function, they're working on the same business processes.
• 02:47 In this case, the team is normally organized and operating so
• 02:50 as to achieve functional excellence.
• 02:53 They are the subject matter experts in their organization for
• 02:56 the activities accomplished in their function, so they want to do it well.
• 03:00 Sometimes, a function such as customer service will be
• 03:03 operated as a team that can quickly react to any customer problem or challenge.
• 03:08 In that case, their goal is less about operational excellence and
• 03:12 more about customer responsiveness.
• 03:14 A functional team normally has a manager, supervisor or a team leader.
• 03:18 But in this type of team, that individual operates primarily as a coach and
• 03:22 facilitator of the process, not the boss.
• 03:25 One of the most important functions is to share and
• 03:28 propagate best practices among the team members.
• 03:31 They also apply critical extra resources at points
• 03:34 where the team is challenged by business conditions.
• 03:37 Since the team members are subject matter experts,
• 03:40 they don't need close supervision and direction.
• 03:42 Rather they need the facilitator to ensure they stay on course, and
• 03:46 don't overlook anything.
• 03:49 Let's switch to Project Teams.
• 03:51 These are also a special case of business teams.
• 03:54 In this case the team goal is normally the project goal.
• 03:57 What is unique about these teams is that it is a temporary team.
• 04:00 It is created to accomplish the project and
• 04:02 as soon as the project is complete, the team is disbanded.
• 04:06 Unlike the functional team,
• 04:07 the team members on a project team often have very different skill sets.
• 04:12 Let's talk briefly about the role of the project leader.
• 04:14 Since a project team is a unique and temporary team, a plan for
• 04:18 the project's activities must be created.
• 04:21 This individual is responsible for coordinating and
• 04:23 integrating all aspects of the project plan.
• 04:26 They lead the Core Team members who are the subject matter experts that will plan
• 04:29 and accomplish the various aspects of this project.
• 04:33 This individual has an integrating role, but
• 04:36 not a coaching role of the functional teams.
• 04:38 The Core Team members are the key role for
• 04:40 planning and implementing the project activities.
• 04:43 They are the subject matter experts for their function and they're responsible for
• 04:47 all of their functional project activities.
• 04:49 They work with the project leader and other core team members to plan and
• 04:53 execute the project.
• 04:55 A key indicator of project success is often the degree to which the core team
• 04:59 can operate well as a team.
• 05:02 On large projects, the project team will include extended team members.
• 05:06 These are individuals who are working with the core team members
• 05:09 from their function to accomplish the project activities.
• 05:12 On small projects, the core team members do the work and
• 05:15 no extended team members are needed.
• 05:17 On larger projects, there will be sometimes be a functional team supporting
• 05:21 a core team member to do all the functional work on the project.
• 05:27 Well, we've introduced the concept of business teams.
• 05:30 Many of the remaining modules in this course will focus on
• 05:33 all types of business teams.
• 05:34 However there will be some things that are special about functional teams and
• 05:38 project teams.

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