Evidenced-based writing: team building and decision making
Part one
During my industrial attachment as one of the university requirement, I applied for an accounting position at one of the local banks in Auckland. While working at the bank, I joined a group that had six members. My experience with the group was remarkable since I was exposed to the working industry as well as gained much knowledge from my team members. However, the primary purpose of the group was to identify the shortcomings of the internal control system of the organization as well as recommend the manger on the effective measures they would implement for it to effectively control and measure the operational goals of the bank. As a group, we worked to achieve a reliable internal control system that the bank would comfortably rely on.
Leadership is one of the aspects that arose in my experience working with the team. One of the team members directed us appropriately, delegated the tasks as well as motivated us towards achieving the teams’ objectives. This aspect of leadership assisted the team in making rational decisions as well as motivating the team members towards achieving the aimed goal. On the other hand, conflict is another concept I negatively experienced in the group. Delivering credible results was one of the pressures we received from our team leader, hence some of the members took it personally, which resulted in conflict. These conflicts delayed as well as slowed our decision-making process, thus delayed the completion of the project at the anticipated time. Finally, the team was diversified in terms of functionality, personality as well as demographic. Some of the members were from the auditing department, IT, finance as well as from the accounting department. This diversity of skills and abilities assisted us in accomplishing our goal.
Part two
Introduction
Generally, teams outstrip individuals. KK depicts that teams perform better compared to single individuals since they allocate more people on single tasks, who have diversified perspectives and skills that have a multiplying effect on the end results. In addition to that, team decision making is significant where the support of the team is critical; for instance, where a team is expected to convert their decisions into actions. KK affirms that organizations develop teams which make decisions on its behalf in order to chart its course for a better future since the organization remains consistently successful in the market due to quality decision making. Being in a team of six members, the bank had assigned us with a task that was to identify the shortcomings of the internal control system as well as recommend the manger on the effective measures they would implement for it to effectively control and measure the operational goals of the bank.
Through effective leadership from one of our team members, we managed to identify the shortcomings of the internal control system of the bank. Although at the beginning, the team leader was faced with numerous decision making challenges since we were expected to deliver our feedback within a month. Therefore, the team leader identified a decision strategy where he divided his decision in two, the first category involved small daily decision, while the second involved larger strategic decisions as endorsed by KK. In addition to that, the team leader used four steps as established by KK that they can assist in making decisions in alignment with the team. Setting the foundation with values was the first step our team leader generated to create an agreement of what the team’s shared value are and their impacts. This made all the team members feel valued in the team hence were offered with a chance to participate toward the teams’ achievement. Secondly, the team leader involved all the members in decision making, where we viewed our different views on how to identify the shortcomings of the bank’s internal control system. This phase assisted us at brainstorming numerous ways of identifying the shortcomings as well as recommendation on effective measures a strategy recommended by KK. Finally, after building consensus, the team leader implemented the decisions that we had agreed on. Being involved in the decision making process as explained by KK improved on the team quality as well as delivery of the result. As a team we managed to provide some of the recommendations that the mangers would implement such as formulated new control procedures such as segregation of responsibilities, proper delegation of power and adequate security measures. Some of the shortcomings we achieved to identify were minimum risk assessment as well as poor implementation of control activities.
As established by KK, team diversity is the differences between team members. Being in a team of six members, we were from different departments. Some of the members were from the accounts, finances, auditing as well as IT department. The integration of skills and abilities brought in a pool of different opinions and thoughts that amplified our decision making as well as delivery of results as emphasized by KK. Being the youngest in the group in terms of academic qualifications level, I was associated with team members who had experience from other organizations therefore, I gained much knowledge from them on how to go through the internal control system. On the other hand, the ethnic diversity in the group dissipated personal biases as well as negative stereotypes among the team members. We were all from different cultures as well as backgrounds but this never prevented us from making radical decisions but prompted us to recognize and respect the way of being from different people. More so, this aspect increased our responsiveness of understanding other members’ perspectives and opinions hence assisted us in fastening our decision making processes. Finally, the age gap within the team members was so crucial since it contributed especially in solving team’s conflicts and other issues that negatively affected the team. As KK elaborates that team members from diverse backgrounds bring diverse solution on the table, which leads to a more informed decision-making processes as well as improved results.
KK identifies conflict as a negative energy derived from team, which mainly occur when the team members have no ideas on how to go through the work or else numerous disagreements especially on decision makings. However, the ability to resolve team conflicts is vital to the success of any firm. After the group was formed, the team members faced numerous conflicts that were initiated by various factors such as rules and procedures that each member was expected to follow particularly while making decisions. Generally, the teams decision making process had a length protocol that was unfriendly hence arose unnecessary pressure that led to conflict among the team members. As expounded by KK, incentive structure is another factor that accelerates conflict within a group. However, some of the team members had conflict of interest mainly on the leadership of the group, these conflicts delayed decision making, which eventually slowed the performance of the team. With time the team leader managed to streamline the rules and procedures to more friendly rules as a strategy to manage the conflict as recommended by KK. As a result of managing the internal team’s conflicts we managed to deliver the results as expected although they consumed much of our time as well as energy that we could have converted it into results.
Conclusion
From the above analysis it is evident that effective decision making is vital to the success of any team. Leadership is one of the essential factors that ought to be considered while forming a team. Therefore, leaders ought to have the capability of making quality decisions while handling teams in order to achieve their ultimate goals. In addition to that leaders are the main pillars of any successful team since they are responsible for making decisions, as well as managing conflicts. Additionally, team diversity promotes quality decision making since different team members have different opinions and perspectives which are unique hence as a result informed decisions are formed. Finally, if conflicts are not effectively managed they reduce the quality of the teams decision making.