Training and qualification: Essentials of team development

Abstract

This chapter deals with ways to develop teams to be more effective. Economically systematic development of teams plays a large role, as it has a direct impact on productivity of an organization. Different kinds of teams need different interventions; that is why the chapter starts out with looking at different types of team constellations and their specific requirements. It plays a big role if a team is located in one place and belonging to one organization or if it is distributed in several sites, maybe homed in different organizations and on top of that interculturally diverse. In the following models for describing team dynamics and constellations are used as a basis to derive measures for developing teams. A clear process and each step is described for developing teams systematically and sustainably. Tools and interventions to successfully implement team development are elaborated on. Especially the different phases of team socialization are looked at and differentiated measures are offered. The author gives an evaluation on the effectiveness of tools and interventions also related to the phase that the team is in. In several practical examples, the application of these interventions is illustrated.