making-sense-of-change-management

The team members work together on common goals, meet regularly andhave clearly defined roles and responsibilities (usually).Perhaps the senior management team has decreed that all the highpotential managers in the organization shall be members of the StrategicManagement Group. So the Finance Controller, who is on the high potentiallist, gets together with others at his or her level to form a collection ofindividuals who contribute to the overall strategic direction of the organization.Apart from gatherings every six months, this group rarely meets orcommunicates. It is a grouping, which might be bounded but does not haveany ongoing goals or objectives that require members to work together.STOP AND THINK!Q 2.1Q 2.2Q 2.3Team changeWithin your working life, what teams are you a member of and towhich groups do you belong?Within your personal life, what teams are you a member of and towhich groups do you belong?In what ways was it easier to answer in your personal life, and inwhat ways more difficult?WHY WE NEED TEAMSWhy do we need teams and teamworking? Casey (1993) from AshridgeManagement College researched thisquestion by asking a simple question ofeach team he worked with: ‘Whyshould you work together as a team?’ The simplest answer is, ‘Because ofthe work we need to accomplish.’ Team work may be needed becausethere is a high volume of interconnected pieces of work, or because thework is too complex to be understood and worked on by one person.What about managers? Do they need to operate as teams, or can theyoperate effectively as groups? The Ashridge-based writers say that amanagement team does not necessarily have to be fully integrated as ateam all of the time. Nor should it be reduced to a mere collection of individualsgoing about their own individual functional tasks.65