Working in a team necessarily means managing differences among individual team members, regardless of how diverse the team is. We saw in session 3 how complex the process of transforming a group of individuals into a well-functioning team can be. This, however, can only work when we take individuals' differences into consideration.
Task: Diversity factors
In the first session, "Virtual teamwork in my work environment", we discussed a case study which focussed on Thiago and his team of IT / sales people in Brazil. One of the subsequent questions referred to the level of diversity. This led to the observation that even though the whole team came from the same region and spoke the same language, there can still be a high level of diversity in the team. Can you remember some of the variables we mentioned there? Try to remember three diversity factors we have already discussed here – without looking them up – and write them down in your learning journal.
All of these factors need to be considered when working within a team, and the respective managers would be well advised to address these issues either in periodical face-to-face discussions, team meetings, or anonymous team surveys.
For this session, however, we will focus on a different, but crucial dimension of individual diversity: the individual (informal) roles of the team members. While some of us are great at coming up with ideas, others might be good organisers. In this context, we will discuss the possible strengths and weaknesses of the individual team members and how to deal with these.
Download: Learning journal for session 4
Last modified: Thursday, 16 May 2024, 4:14 PM