Team Failures - Why teams fail and how to overcome it

Boompa.com. (2006, May 19). Boompa.com launch postmortem, part 1: Research, picking a team, office space and money. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/the-25-best-startup-fail-stories-of-all-time-2010-10?op=1

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."

-Winston Churchill

Although corporations or companies may have the best intentions as well as team members, teams still fail. Failure within teams can be caused by a variety of reasons: Environmental Influences, Goals, Roles, Processes, and Relationships.

Team members may live in different locations which make it difficult to meet regularly. Teams may not have been given enough resources to complete a task; team efforts must be praised because a lack of recognition by a business can leave members feeling unmotivated. When members in a group do not set a common goal, this takes away from the ownership of the team, this reduces the commitment of the team members. Groups that lack communication if goals are not communicated efficiently every individual will do their part separately not paying attention to other within the group, which can lead to replicates in work. When responsibilities of team members are poorly communicated, this leads to a lack of commitment there is no leader established many members end up in a power struggle in the group and end up working independently, and leads to failure within a team. When a group as a lack of processes and decision-making this almost always leads to a critical situation; communication ends up being channelled through different parties and this leads to wasted time and energy. Meeting can be unproductive if they are scheduled poorly and unresolved issues are not dealt with, meetings cover minimal issues and lack clear goals needed to be achieved. When members are not willing to be a part of group participation, there is conflict that is not being addressed such as personality conflicts and therefore, relationships become competitive.

The issues that lead to unsuccessful teams include group members unwilling to be a part of the team, when communication is lacking due to environmental differences or poor organizational skills, and when members are unaware or lacking ambitious to meet a team’s goals due to non-recognition when finishing a task effectively and efficiently.

In my opinion I believe that this article is helpful because it allows the reader to understand the major aspects in which other people have had trouble and to learn from it. Also I think this article could be of use to company owners because if they may feel that their employees are not working effectively, missing deadlines, or there are areas of confusion with employees, the owner could read through this article to get an idea of how they should proceed with the issue, may it be with team building activity events or retreats, even seminars or success for teamwork are an option. I think it is important to give employees recognition, because this allows them to know that they are appreciated and needed to keep the group dynamic in good working order. Communication is a big part of a company, if the people within a company do not communicate effectively the message may be reheard or misinterpreted which can lead to confusion in the work place and excessive amount of stress on the individual and the company.

Rockwell, D. R. (2013, Feb 23). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://leadershipfreak.wordpress.com/

Team failures - why teams fail and how to overcome it. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.managementstudyguide.com/team-failures.htm