Team Building in the Long-Term Care Environment
The importance of the team in long-term care cannot be overstated. No single individual has all the answers. For efficient management to exist, the importance of a functional team is needed. However, all too often, team building is viewed as something that just happens or that in some way mystically develops without any work needed by the participants. In reality, building a successful team is hard work. Furthermore, the hard work invested in team building often pays dividends. Finally, the work that is invested into building a successful team must happen every day and not just periodically.
In team building, especially in the long-term care environment, the administrator is very important toward leading this effort. Their leadership is important toward sensitizing other team members to the importance of teamwork and successful team building. Furthermore, by taking the lead and demonstrating the importance of team building they lead by example, so that others are able to see how seriously building a successful team is to the facility. With the administrator being the vanguard in this effort, the importance of the team is established.
Given that the team is an important entity for administrative success, what are important characteristics for team success? In this article only a couple will be examined. However, from the perspective of this writer, the ones that will be mentioned are viewed as invaluable for a successful managerial climate.
Probably the most important element for a team to achieve is trust. Without trust all further team-building elements are lost (Lencioni, 2002). Trust is a driving force for everything else that follows. Therefore, trust becomes the base or substructure for everything else to be built on. Just as a house needs a solid foundation for the walls, the floor and the roof to remain firm and to maintain a safe and secure environment, the team also needs the same type of solid foundation. Without it, everything else that may go into the team building enterprise will eventually fail.
Why is trust important for work team in a long-term care environment, or for that matter, any work environment? Quite simply, the team members have to feel a sense of unity and understanding among all its members. When individuals have trust in each other, they also develop a knowledge and understanding of the individuals that are part of the team. They learn to anticipate other team member's thoughts; they learn to feel a sense of camaraderie; they come to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each of their members; and furthermore, they learn to adopt an inextricable sense of unity.
When trust is established individuals come to feel a sense of security that team members are all on the same page, feeling a sense of openness with each team member, as well as working in an interdependent fashion. When trust is established on this level it results in the quarterback knowing where to throw the pass, knowing their receiver will catch the pass, even though they may not be able to see their receiver. Although the team in the long-term care environment is not a football team, the same basic principles of trust apply.
However, for a team to build trust, they also have to subordinate some level of individuality. This is difficult, especially in our culture, which places a premium on individuality. Being raised in a culture that has fostered individuality and independence, many individuals in our society have scorned the team, which often undermine these very important tenets that have been engrained in us from a very early age. The very nature of the team, its interdependence, often vies with the independence and individuality that is so dominant in our culture.
Another difficult problem that is often faced in building trust is that it exposes the individual to a sense of vulnerability (Lencioni, 2002). Trust in predicated on individuals having more intimate knowledge of their team members. However, when others have more knowledge about you, it can also make individuals feel more vulnerable. Individuals often avoid vulnerability by not investing in highly trusting relationships on a team level. This façade of invulnerability is a critical element that has to be addressed when building trust in the team-building approach.
After trust in the team has been established, other levels of team building can follow. One important element that needs to be addressed at this point is conflict. Many individuals come to view conflict as always being negative. However, quite to the contrary, conflict can be positive. Conflict is often feared and avoided within teams (Lencioni, 2002). However, rather than fearing conflict, it should be embraced by the group.
However, conflict can only lead to positive results after trust among group members has been established. If a group fails to have some level of open conflict among its members, the group can become static, apathetic and non-responsive (Robbins & Judge, 2007). At this point it should be mentioned that conflict does not mean involving oneself in contentious interactions and damaging arguments. This is exactly when conflict becomes unproductive. Productive conflict acknowledges differences as well as acknowledges an openness to address these issues in an open forum.
Conflict can also help to illuminate the differences found in the team and help to also shape and define many issues that are often ignored by a false sense of harmony in the group. Too often this false sense of harmony leaves many individuals feeling they are on the same page, when in reality nothing could be farther from the truth. Conflict helps to interject a level of intellectual stimulation toward important problem solving that often fails to exist when individuals accept a false sense of harmony on the team level.
Hopefully I successfully demonstrated the importance of team building in this paper. The team is so very important for the success of any organization, and the long-term care environment is no exception. However, team development is hard work. Although two basic principles were introduced in this paper, trust and conflict, which appear quite simple, the development of these team principles is more difficult than it appears.
For successful teams to exist both principles have to be present. Moreover, both principles have to be inculcated into the team mindset, which can only be completed through daily reinforcement. For this to be successfully completed it is dependent upon a leader to be mindful of its importance and to sensitize other team members of its importance as well as to make team building and development part of the daily agenda. It is important to remember that in almost every phase of life, constructive and functional teamwork brings about superior results. Therefore, recognize the importance of the team not just passively, but actively, and act on its daily development.
References
Lencioni, P. (2002). The five dysfunctions of a team: A leadership fable. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass.
Robbins, S.P., Judge, T.A (2007). Organizational behavior. Upper Saddle River, NJ, Prentice-Hall.