“Innovation is the lifeblood of an organization. Knowing how to lead and work with creative people requires knowledge and action that often goes against the typical organizational structure. Protect unusual people from bureaucracy and legalism typical of organizations.” – Max de Pree
The team construct remains an enduring concept in the narrative of human civilization. It encases an interesting aspect of human behavior and human endeavor; the construct dates back to the earliest days of human existence, when human beings would team to hunt wild animals. In modern times, the construct has evolved into a versatile, sophisticated idea, indeed a paradigm that comprises the unitary representation of organizations. Teams enable a smarter, more efficient deployment of human talent; hence, a “team structure defines how activities such as task allocation, coordination, and supervision are executed or directed toward the achievement of organizational aims.”
- Sharpening the Competitive Edge
A well-designed team (or collections thereof) could heighten the competitive edge of organizations. The lines of activity that generate such collectives must be brainstormed extensively, and enriched with research inputs as well as experience of team operators. In light of these facts, the motifs of team structure and role relationship have undergone extensive research and investigations. Further, it would help to explore the core ideas underlying these motifs, and explore the constituent dynamics through the agency of connected diagrams, such as flowcharts.
- Designing Teams to Attain Objectives
Supervisors and managers may devise team structure and role relationship bearing in mind the objectives of organizations. This endeavor could hinge on legacy ideas that define collectives, or on new lines of thought that expand the idea of units and outline the relationships between various roles embedded in teams. For instance, a special team may include multiple lines of reporting and gradations of associates/workers and colleagues. This structure, when represented inside flowcharts, allows supervisors to design changes and implement amendments in tune with the mandates of teams. The use of diagram also spotlights the transparency necessary to operate multiple teams inside organizations. Subsequently, the idea of team structure and role relationship could evolve to include specialized sub-units that elevate the levels of performance and functionality of teams.
- Primacy of Skillsets
Skillsets and knowledge levels of team persons could comprise the operational premise on which organizations develop team structure and role relationship. Skillsets and aptitude may vary among individuals, and an examination of these could assist organizations to establish connections between skillsets and various factors – such as the requirements of projects, the timelines committed to clients, the changing dynamics of the collective, induction of new members in teams, alterations in themes of projects, and others. An alternative line of team building (read upskilling) may take shape when supervisors embellish team structure and role relationships with professional development programs aimed at associates and workers. This stance can assist in developing highly-skilled units of workers that can serve the various objectives enshrined within projects.
- An Inclusive Approach
“Some people are better communicators, some have brighter ideas, and some are more efficient and organized.” Configuring team structures to include variety of human talents including process specialists, implementers of technology, observers, auditors, and quality control personnel, would be the next step. The role relationships between these could be fluid – enabling teams and work units to attain higher levels of performance. In addition, the idea of team structure and role relationship could attain the proverbial boost when leaders of organizations implement hybrid mechanisms. Hybrid could stem from innovation (and original/flexible practices) applied to different phases of work projects. Flowcharts can empower leaders to ideate on, and extend these thoughts, and design experiments that generate refreshed stances toward higher outcomes.
- Deploying Tools of Collaboration
It would help to consider the idea of improving business processes through the effective deployment of collaboration tools. Collaboration could help enrich and diversify the structures of teams, expand the scope of work relationships within work units, and devise faster connections within groups of (internal and external) stakeholders. Effective modes of collaboration could also help organizations to evolve the concept of role relationships through, for instance, mentor-and-mentee configurations. Flexible collaborations could contribute to accelerated learning in team environments while generating additional value through composite constructs of team structure and role relationship. It would help to design editions of illustrations to develop high-level imagery of business processes that have evolved through collaboration among and between teams.
- The Role of Specialists
Team builders may consider the idea of embedding specialists within work units as part of developing team structure and role relationship. Readers may envisage specialists as force multipliers, or individuals that impart additional value to output generated by teams. Veteran specialists could be entrusted with “responsibility to support team members in their inter-dependence, and reinforce their sense of belonging” to work units. In this instance, specialists could work as mentors, guides, reviewers and advisors – helping managers and line supervisors to boost the integrity of team structures. Additionally, specialists could leverage their work experiences to develop specific abilities in select team persons as part of training and development initiatives. Further, it could be stated that role relationships can acquire multiple meanings in modern teams and workgroups.
- The Perspective of Evolution
An ongoing evolution in work relationships could fuel growth in team performance. It would help to explore the various facets of this premise within the spaces of flowcharts, wherein team structure and role relationship are periodically evaluated and assessed. For instance, a core team could expand into a larger group in response to business imperatives – this implies evolution in the relationships between team persons, an expansion of individual responsibility, greater levels of accountability to clients and other stakeholders, and more. It would serve well to design flowcharts to outline the contours of such evolution, and re-invent (or re-engineer) the team structure in tune with expansion. Additionally, subsidiary versions of connected diagrams could encase explorations into the nature of team structures, and the locations that add value to these organizational constructs.
- The Distributed Work Team
Organizations that operate workgroups across various points of the globe could investigate new ideas in team structure and role relationships. Such endeavor gains significance because certain teams may be dispersed geographically, and require special modes of operation as part of driving performance in line with client mandates. It would serve well to ideate on team structures and design the idea of subsidiary work units integrated into structures of large teams. Subsequently, team builders could etch lines of communication and control within these diagrams, leading to the emergence of hybridized team structures. New editions of role relationships could find expression within these flowcharts, enabling organizations to break new ground in the headline topic. Connected illustrations could also aid designers to revise the expanse of team structures in response to imperatives in work mandates, work environments, and others.
- In Conclusion
These readings can guide our thoughts on the nature of team structure and role relationships that animate modern work units. Readers may utilize diagrams to develop their thoughts, experiment with ideas, implement innovation to design teams, and source inspiration from the experiences of individual team persons. These endeavors may find representation in new versions of structures, and the emergence of refreshed methods to harness human potential. Stakeholders, on their part, may offer inputs inside diagrams as part of attempts to refine and re-distribute talent available in various teams. The value of such inputs resides in their ability to implement focused innovation in these matters, thus empowering organizations to court new systems of organizing labor.
