Teamwork primarily optimizes the process and relieves the burden on the individual.
Teamwork is a form of activity carried out by a group of experts in such a way that the basis of cooperation is the direct division of tasks between experts with equal rights, rather than the position of the individual in the formal hierarchy.
Teamwork is useful when the successful solution of complex tasks/problems requires the participation of several experts, an interdisciplinary approach and the involvement of different expert profiles. A prerequisite for successful teamwork, in which all the potential and skills of each expert are used, is that the group grows from a group of experts to a group of equal experts – a team.
The people who join the team are different from one another. The experts have different knowledge, professional qualifications, skills and personality traits, motivation to work in a team and different work habits and wishes for personal and professional growth.
They are also framed by their system (legislation and internal regulations) and the situation with the way of organization, material and working conditions. It is important to be open to change within the collective, to encourage leadership and to feel that such work is accepted.
Through teamwork we develop a collective ethos: We promote awareness that the knowledge, responsibility, care, skills and understanding of each team can be used to achieve common goals, overcome problems or obstacles and develop new ways of working; we develop new skills, attitudes, experiences and ideas that improve working relationships; we enable awareness of the diversity of individuals – team members and the level of their professional and personal development; we promote awareness of the achievements and successes of individuals and the team as a whole; we encourage the sharing of responsibility within the team and encourage us to express our support; we offer individuals the opportunity to get to know others and to test themselves in relation to challenges, requirements or conflicts in a particular situation.
The formation and development of a professional team must be a continuous process, and we encourage it by organizing activities where the participation of individuals is essential to achieve common goals.
We develop a good atmosphere mainly by developing mutual support of different professionals, which can be reflected in activities and relationships: encouraging and supporting each other, sharing and exchanging experiences and advice. Especially personal experiences in overcoming certain fears, complexes there., helping to organize work, exchange opinions and plan activities together and take responsibility for their implementation, reduce the psychological distance between individual professionals.
Teamwork is, among other things, part of project management, which is used in project management. The project is a complete whole, which means that it must have a specific goal, which must be defined in time and money. The path to this goal must also be as precise as possible. However, the tasks and responsibilities of certain people must be very clearly defined.
Each individual is the “owner” of his process, and this process is only successful when the project isncompleted. Above all, each individual in the team must be aware of this. Therefore, the work of an individual in a team is not finished when he has finished his work, but when the team has finished the whole work or the project.
Every team must have his own leader
The success of projects depends on the project team. Therefore, the project manager must select the project team members very carefully. Each participant looks at the goal of the project and takes part in it with his or her own eyes and from the point of view of his or her needs. Therefore, the result does not have to match the goal set by the project manager.
When putting together a project team, the project manager must very carefully consider the personal interests of each individual and their life goals and compare them with the project goal. He must also check his personal interests in the project so that he cannot solve personal traumas and needs through
the project alone. When we enter a project, we must be emotionally separated from it and unburdened. This can be achieved through reality therapy. In project management, it is a tool we use to teach team members to take responsibility, to check their personal interests, to put ourselves in a neutral position and to see the whole project as a third party. In this way, we see all errors and deviations from the right path.
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All too often we encounter a lack of responsibility in the execution of projects, not on the part of the project manager, but on the part of the contractors themselves. But we should not look for the cause in the contractors, we should move up in the hierarchy of the project team, and this is how we get back to the project manager.
Let us now put ourselves in the role of the project manager. As soon as we receive an idea, a proposal or an order for a project, we have to ask ourselves whether we are able to lead this project and take on a leadership role. If our answer is yes, then we ask ourselves why we have chosen this project: We want to prove ourselves to someone, we just want to earn, we solve some of our complexes, it means development in our personal growth or we just want to have an adrenaline experience.
The answer is very important, because it depends on the final product or the project goal.
Let’s compare the project goal with our personal goals: There are more similarities, we are more inclined to get emotionally involved in the project, live for it 24 hours a day and do everything to complete the project in a quality and agreed time, regardless of “sacrifices”. This is great for the client, but only if nothing happens to us, otherwise disaster threatens. A disaster means that only one person knows what is happening to the project and if something happens to this person (physically or mentally), the project will stop completely.
The first rule of project management should be that we are not “emotionally” involved in the project, but should view it from a distance, so that we are in control of what is happening at all times.
We must not erect monuments to ourselves with projects or prove ourselves to “our father”. This happens when we get involved in the project, which means that we then solve our problems through the project and not the problems the project was supposed to solve.
In a project, we must focus solely on the goal of the project and the problems that the project is supposed to solve.
What happens when we are emotionally involved?
Suddenly we trust no one, we do everything ourselves. We begin to take responsibility for others and do their work. Suddenly we run out of time for ourselves, for the family… we are more and more burdened and stressed out. We also run out of time for communication. Because we do not communicate, we do not pass on information, and conflicts arise. Suddenly nobody feels well anymore,
the whole project is only with one person, the quality of the project begins to decline, the deadlines move away from the set goals. The project becomes more and more expensive… and in the end we only work on finishing it once. And then you say to yourself: “The second time will be completely different”… And that is how it is with every project.
How to make sure that this does not happen again from project to project:
- Let's consider ourselves first of all as a project.So we will somehow stand out from ourselves and see ourselves as a third person. We will see all the mistakes we make, and it will be easier for us to address the problems we have discovered.
- We have to set ourselves the goal of what we want to make of ourselves and what we want to achieve in life.
- When we have a goal, we take a few steps or. short-term goals, how we get to the main goal. Goals mean not only material goals (house, car temveč), but also marriage, children, position in society, mental health.
- The basics of the laws of nature (physics) to see where the limits of a free and safe life are.
- The basics of social processes, to see how society works and what causes chaos.
When we set ourselves a personal goal, we will also know what projects we choose and what we want to achieve with them.
We have to keep as little information as possible about the project in our heads. All information must be recorded and linked together. The information system must allow us to have all information in one place. In this way, we bring the project out of us on paper or into a computer. So when we bring it out of us, we look at it from a distance.
We do the same with the people we select for the project. There are basically two possible approaches.
If we do not want employees to become emotionally involved in the project, it is best to be a key leader, which means sharing the work with them and only controlling the execution, not letting them add their own recommendations and improvements. In such a case, the members of the project team are just “ordinary” contractors. But then the entire organization and creativity is in the hands of one person, i.e. us. Therefore, it is best not to use such a role or to use it very rarely and in critical moments, but to let the project team mean teamwork in the true sense of the word.
Composition of the project team
When selecting our employees, we must first be careful. We should pay attention not only to their professionalism, but also to their personality, their communication and their understanding of the objectives. Above all, the first meeting is important, so it should be such that we explain the vision and goals of the project and the potential employee prepares a protocol based on this and his strategy for
achieving the goals. In this way we will find out how he understood us. The closer we are to our show, the fewer conflict situations we will have, and the flow of information will be faster. We must also pay close attention to his personal goals and the role he wants to play in the project. This means that the project manager must have sufficient knowledge of psychology and of the characters of the people.
At the first project meeting, we show the entire team a plan that we have compiled from individual strategies, even though we have already created a complete plan.
However, our plan will not be of much use to us if the team members’ options are different from our personal expectations. Of course we have to take into account the corrections according to the goal of the project, because this way we get the most optimal project plan, especially when it comes to implementation.
At the meeting, they all get a complete picture together; we comment together and create a comprehensive project strategy. By showing where we are considering their suggestions, team members gain confidence and increase their motivation because someone has taken their opinions into account when they did not expect it. Namely, that they basically expect someone to take us into account. Of course, we should not play this card throughout the entire project, because it is intended that the entire project team works without manipulation and very honestly.
In this way, everyone gave their suggestions and also the final solutions for doing their work, they also took (public) responsibility, because they had to present the suggestions to everyone and list all critical ways and solutions.
We must be very honest in our conversation, we must not hide anything. If under certain circumstances we want to manipulate or hide certain facts, this is “forced” into our subconscious.
Since we will not do this only once, this “pile” will increase. Such a “pile of lies” is called psychological garbage. Since we have only limited space in our subconscious, this “garbage” will only hinder it. This will reduce the possibility of logical and sober thinking, we will become more irritable, stress will increase, in short, we will unconsciously fall into the problem of the project.
The role of the project manager
We maintain the distance to the project in the following way. All data is transferred to an information system, which enables good planning and constant comparison with the realization. This means that whenever we have information or come up with something, we try to transfer it as soon as possible to a notebook, telephone, PDA, computer…, then we have to make sure that this information reaches the
right person from whom we need confirmation that the information is true. accepted. That way, we get rid of the “worry.”
All information, its flow and objectives must be reviewed daily or. weekly, depending on the deadline and complexity of the project. This means that we should not put ourselves in an operational role as project managers.
The project manager role should be organization, coordination, translation, encouragement – motivation.
In short, it should look at the project from a distance and help people who are carrying out the project directly to find information if it is lost. If a leader sees that a team member is “burying” himself in a problem and cannot find a way out, he must get him out of the problem by talking to him about the problems as if it were happening to a third party.
If everyone gets into trouble, the project manager should never help by tackling the operational tasks himself.
However, honesty and respect are very important. It is a basic project culture that forms the basis of the entire information flow. Otherwise it is manipulation, and in such a case we cannot talk about project management anymore. If we say that all information must be in one place, it means that it is seen by everyone according to a certain hierarchy, but in the case of manipulation, it means duplication of information, duplication of work, playing different roles, and when there is a large amount of information, we simply get lost.
When we fall into the problem of the project, we start to solve our personal problems. As we are not omnipotent to solve all problems or complexes completely, as this is a process that takes several years, we should not be emotionally involved in the project, but rather constantly look at it from a distance and strive for the goal of the project. However, if this happens to us anyway, we need to be in control of both ourselves and the project at all times.
Self-control
We help ourselves with the control theory, which is part of the reality therapy.
First we look at how we feel, then we consider ourselves as a third person, i.e. everything that happens to us is supposed to happen to a third person, so in the plural of the third person we also describe this person. In this way we unconsciously step out of ourselves and at the same time out of our problems.
If we really see all problems, we also see solutions for them, if we do not find them. In the same way, we observe the project in the assumption that we take full responsibility for it.
All projects and problems arise in our head, if we ourselves are the cause of them, we can solve them. In practice there is a saying that says that we are always “smart” for others. We can help others with advice, but not ourselves. Why, because we are not part of their problem and we see it as an outside
observer. We simply write our problem in the third person. The text on the paper is a third person whom we advise on how to solve your problem.
The dilemma of teamwork – yes or no, should not exist at all in present and future society. Today’s society and time have made teamwork a condition for the existence of modern man. For a long time the human individual was not able to exist and function beyond others.
Reality Therapy (in the following RT)
– is a method of consultation or. Psychotherapy that teaches people how to get a grip on their lives, how to make more satisfying decisions and develop the strength to overcome stress and problems in life.
The modern RT is supported by the Choice Theory. We also familiarize the consultant with the basics of the Choice Theory. How much depends on him. At the heart of Reality Therapy is the assertion that regardless of what “happened” to us in life or what we have done in life so far, we can always choose behaviors in the present that help us to better meet our needs now and in the future. We cannot satisfy our needs satisfactorily if we do not connect with other people, so the mission of RT is to help people redevelop or rebuild the best possible relationships with their fellow human beings.
The applicability of RT is extremely broad: Its advantage is that it can be successful with voluntary and involuntary “consultants”. The latter, some other counseling or. psychotherapeutic approaches are avoided. In fact, such persons do not want to see a therapist and also resist therapy. The attempts of therapists to help them are often ridiculed.
Involuntary »advisors« usually do not have long good relationships with fellow human beings and are much more difficult to access. However, RT has developed techniques to move from confrontational to collaborative conversation. The most difficult thing is to approach people who have lost contact with a responsible adult at a young age.
These are people who do not have responsible adults in their world, who do not find satisfaction in relationships, even if they cannot give up satisfaction. Therefore they despair and give up belonging, acceptance, love… They seek satisfaction outside of quality interpersonal relationships; in drugs, alcohol, sexual pleasures without love, and in controlling others by causing them pain.
Efficiency can also be seen as an advantage of RT: Success is visible in less time.
Leaving it up to the counselor to judge for himself whether his behavior is leading him in the desired direction, and to decide for himself to change, preserves the dignity of a free being.
Planning makes it possible to clearly monitor the progress of the “client”. RT is also adapted to different global cultures and business processes. We cannot work with this method if the “consultant” does not accept the thesis that he/she is choosing current behavior and is not necessarily a slave to the past. It is also more difficult to work if, for whatever reason, verbal communication is not possible. We cannot talk about the choice of behavior and responsibility in a situation of extreme poverty, financial collapse of a company and serious illness. In all these circumstances, however, it can be useful to apply the findings of choice theory.
- The only person whose behavior we can control is ourselves. If we are prepared to die or to endure pain, no one can prepare us to do something we do not want to do.
- All we can offer others or what others can offer us is information What they or we will do with this information is a matter of their or our choice.
- All long-term mental problems have their origin in an unsatisfactory relationship with other people.
- Relationship problems are always problems in the present: either we live in an unsatisfactory relationship or we have no relationship with anyone.
- Events in the past – especially painful ones – have affected who we are today, but their painful revival in the present does not do much to regulate relationships in the present.
- The five of us are driven by hereditary needs: for the survival of the individual and the species, for love or belonging, for power or (self-)respect, for freedom or free choice, and for fun or entertaining creative curiosity. The satisfaction of needs can be postponed, but it must come somehow.
- We can only satisfy our needs through concrete images (pictures, ideas, wishes) in our inner world of quality. In this world everything is valuable to us; even that which means nothing to others.
- Everything we do in life is to try to satisfy our basic needs through holistic, indivisible behaviors that consist of four components (activities, thinking, emotions and physiological processes).
- All our behavior is goal-oriented and proactive. We gain much of our personal freedom when we become aware of this and start to talk, e.g. that we have chosen depression and have not fallen into it.
- We can only control thinking and activities directly, and emotions, feelings and physiological processes can only be controlled indirectly through activities and thinking. «(Glasser, 1990)«
Dynamic Leadership model
The purpose of the book is to present a dynamic leadership model, which in more than a hundred cases has proven to be a great way to get out of business and personal crisis and how to overcome difficulties without even going into crisis.