2. Team Composition.
Abilities of Team Members
A team´s performance is not merely a summation of its individual members´ abilities. However, these abilities set limits on what members´ abilities. However these abilities set limits on what members can do and how effectively they will perform on a team. A team requires three different kinds of skills. First, it needs people who have technical expertise. Second, it needs people who have the problem solving and decision making skills to identify problems, generate and evaluate alternatives, and make competent choices. Finally, teams need people with good listening, feedback, problem resolution and other interpersonal skills.
Personality Of Members
The basic presumption is that teams that rate higher on mean levels of consciousness and openness to experience tend to perform better. However there are small tricks, imagine this example.
Suppose an organization needs to create 20 teams of 4 people each and has 40 highly conscientious people and 40 who score low on this ability. Would the organization be better of (1) forming 10 teams of highly conscientious people and 10 teams of members low on conscientiousness, or (2) “seeding” each team with 2 people who scored high and 2 who scored low on conscientiousness?
Perhaps surprisingly, evidence suggests option 1 is the best choice, performance across teams will be higher if the organization forms 10 highly conscientious teams and 10 teams low in conscientiousness. This may be because, in such teams, members who are highly conscientious not only must perform their own task but also must perform and re-do tasks of low-conscientious members.
Allocation of Roles
As you might expect, teams with more experienced and skilled members perform better. However, the experience and skill of those in core roles who handle more of the workflow in the team, and who are central to all work processes were especially vital. In other words, put your most able, experiences workers in the most central roles in a team.
Size of Teams
Generally speaking, the most effective teams have five to nine members. And experts suggest using the smallest number of people who can do the task. Unfortunately, managers often make their teams too large. It may require only four or five members to develop a diversity of views and skills, while coordination problems can increase exponentially as team members are added.
Member Preferences
Not every employee is a team player. Given the option, many employees will select themselves out of team participation. When people who would prefer to work alone are required to team up, there is a direct threat to the team´s morale and to individual member satisfaction.