Team Building

The nature of work in the past 30 years has driven organizations to use teams as a business strategy and structure due to the complexity of tasks and technology, the flattening of organizational hierarchies, and the range of skills needed to produce complex products and services in a global economy. Nearly every organization today makes use of task forces, committees, self-directed work teams, and/or leadership teams. Researchers and practitioners have discovered several factors that lead to the development of effective and cohesive teams.

While a number of models of the components of effective teams have appeared in the literature, the classic model offered by Richard Beckhard provides a useful starting point. His model (aka the GRPI model) states that teams need clear goals; that members must ...