Introduction

The benefits of a cooperating team are;

Work Sharing - The team can divide tasks to allow faster completion or to benefit from the specific capabilities of individuals thus improving group performance. Tasks can be matched to individuals capabilities and need for variety or regularity.
Knowledge Sharing - leading to new, improved and optimised capabilities in individuals and the group. In a team people share there knowledge so that everyone in the group has the opportunity to develop capabilities and improve performance. This leads to optimising the group performance.
Problem Sharing - makes solutions to individual problems and the consequential group problems easy to find. If there is no incentive to share individual problems people will hide them quietly damaging group performance.
- In a co-operating group people declare and own their problems making solutions to the consequential group problems easy to find.
- Generating a culture of mutual help rather than individual blame.
- In a competitive group people hide and disown their problems making solutions to the consequential group problems hard to find.
Success Sharing - Competitiveness is important but its more important to help others win than to win yourself and its more important to thank others who helped you win then it is to praise yourself. In a cooperative group individual success is metered out to individuals who have done most to help the team succeed and it is awarded by other individuals in the team in no formal way. In the competitive groups individual success is metered out based on how much of the group's success the individual can claim as their own.

Help Rather Than Blame

A team culture involves mutual help rather than individual blame, through attention to - care, communication, objectives, performance, maintenance and processes.

Care

The individual must care for the team the team must care for the individual;

The team must care for the personal objectives of all people in the team even though they do not directly contribute to the team objectives.
The team must care for the personal achievement of each person in the team.

Communication

Safe communication. When an individual openly communicates about their mistakes then they are rewarded with help to ensure they do not repeat them, rather than mindlessly punished for them.
Clear objectives
Clear performance

Objectives

The team objectives must be clear to each individual and the break down of those objectives into individual objectives must also be clear.
Individual objectives must be highly visible and must be compatible with group objectives. - Individuals personal objectives that may effect the team objectives must be clear and communicated to the team who must determine to what extent the team can help in the achievement of the personal objectives of its members.
In order to maintain the team we must root out possible individual hidden objectives.
In so far as an individual does not care for the team objectives or the team does not care for the personal objectives, it is the case that the individual should be supported by the team to exit.

Performance

Team performance and individual performance must be open and visible and understood by the team or/and the team leader.
In order to maintain the team we must find any hidden under performance.
In a team individual under performance is primarily seen as a problem to be solved by the team and individuals must feel an incentive to share rather than hide problems. The team is there to help individuals solve problems. If the solution is for that individual to exit the team then the team should provide the support for that individual.

Maintenance

In a competitive group people act against others so that they can retain a performance advantage over others in the group thus damaging the performance of the group. The team must keep open communication and must actively change or remove those who;

Hide their objectives
Hide their under performance
Don't share information or knowledge that might benefit others in the team. In a competitive group people hide there knowledge so that they can retain a performance advantage over others in the group.
Hide and disown their own problems while regarding the problems of others as an opportunity to gain advantage over them. They may even seek to exacerbate the problems of others.
attempts to undermine others.
misrepresent the facts.
Attempts to claim the individual credit for team work.
Individual rivalry can suppress creativity.
The team suppresses differences rather than utilises them. Members worry about how to fit in.
The team leader dominates rather than facilitates.

Processes

A team will need processes for;

Decision making - Who is involved in any given decision.
Conflict resolution - Conflict may develop between team members or other teams.
Task allocation - Some members may experience less motivating jobs as part of a team.
Performance evaluation -
Quality -
People Entry -
People Exit - What happens when individuals under-perform or have an individual problem that is not good for the group. If the solution does not lie within the group that individual may have to leave the group. They may already realise this and so may want to leave. The groups objective must then be to make that leaving as positive an experience as possible for that individual. If an individual has intentionally damaged the group then they need to be kicked out.