NUMBER 349• 4 SEPTEMBER 2003 • TEAMWORK
INDEX OF QUOTES

    

Realizing that teamwork is a sophisticated process that requires a great deal of skill, they constantly teach one another and practice team skills. The following are skills they either have or are in process of developing:

  • accepting and giving constructive feedback at team meetings and in day-to-day interactions with colleagues

  • listening as fellow team members disseminate information

  • advocating assertively for a specific point of view

  • taking calculated risks when it is clear that a course of action is not predetermined by a team or treatment procedure

  • implementing decisions consistently

  • acting independently while maintaining the trust and confidence of fellow team members

  • following through dependably with team assignments and in attending meetings

  • striving for and displaying self-awareness in analyzing and formulating solutions to treatment problems

  • expressing anger constructively at team meetings and in individual interactions with team members

  • giving and receiving support

  • learning from successes and failures

  • articulating observations in formal and information interactions

  • writing descriptive log notes and reports

  • finding a personal level of comfortableness in talking about personal issues

With a solid procedural foundation and the proper skills, team members concentrate on creating an atmosphere in which teamwork can take place. The following are human ingredients in this atmosphere:

  • Support—Team members make a conscious effort to encourage and support one another. They set aside time to recognize particular accomplishments. They also encourage each other in their struggles to reach consensus or solve a problem.

  • Knowledge Sharing—Team members teach each other in formal training sessions and informal interactions. They are eager to learn from one another and to share their expertise.

  • Processing—When team members are frustrated or angry they take time to discuss and vent their feelings. They try to keep their anger and/or frustrations from undermining their efforts to work together.

  • Empathy—Team members try to place themselves in each other’s shoes, realizing that empathy is equally as important to their interactions among themselves as it is to their interactions with their clients.

  • Accountability—Team members hold each other accountable. Through team and individual supervision they monitor each other’s actions.

  • Leadership—Team members and leaders recognize the importance of strong leadership. They respect the leader’s authority and support his or her efforts to guide their interactions and decisions and his or her right to make final decisions that sometimes are in opposition to their consensus views.
 


 MARK KRUEGER
Krueger, M. (1990). Child and Youth Care Organizations. In Krueger, M. & Powell, N. Choices in Caring. Washington, DC: CWLA  pp 12-14