Chapter 4: Teamwork PDF

# Chapter 4: Teamwork ## Introduction We are living in an era when technology is growing at a rapid pace. It influences everything from the way we shop or consume media. New technologies have impacted the media sector. Every function, from creating content to dissemination, has been impacted by...

# Chapter 4: Teamwork ## Introduction We are living in an era when technology is growing at a rapid pace. It influences everything from the way we shop or consume media. New technologies have impacted the media sector. Every function, from creating content to dissemination, has been impacted by new technologies. The media has become a lifeline of today's consumers. To handle all operations and tasks with rapid advancement, advanced human interventions are required to complete operations in the most effective and proficient manner. These days, when youngsters are able to learn independently and generate exceptional outcomes freely, you might think that the creative media industry requires important collaboration and teamwork. ## Why would a journalist, a sound engineer, a photographer, a digital marketing manager, a software engineer, a video editor, a graphic designer, or an animator need to collaborate with one another when each one of them can simply work alone? It would be simpler for them to do what they are trained at without asking anyone to share their ideas, without compromising what satisfies someone else's likes and dislikes, and to combine the thought process of others into the work. For every media operation, from planning to end, a group of people thinking and working towards a common goal and objective are needed, which is then called a team. ## Team A team is a group of people working collectively to achieve their goal. A team always has associates with complementary skills and creates collaboration through a coordinated effort which allows each member to expand their powers and reduce their weaknesses. The way to organize any media business with a group of people is in teams. The directing and controlling media related businesses and entertainment industry is media management, which includes varied types of companies with multiple numbers of media teams involved in it, which preforms and targets a single operation at a grand level. For example, the entertainment industry, if we talk about the launch of a movie, involves many preparations from start to end. First, starting from an idea to the end, the producer and directors, in a team, will conceptualize the movie; then, the actors and other teams will join in. The creatives, promotions, video, sound, lights, and production team work together with logistics to make a movie, then the media and ad agencies teams join in to launch and promote the movie at different media platforms and target the audience. All this requires the business, media, and marketing strategies through their respective teams involved and working on it, monitoring and controlling them, which helps any movie to be a grand success. The media planning and buying is also an exceptionally cautious function in today’s time, as the content through news, service, or goal, with a meshing of social media platforms is changing. ## Characteristics of a Team: * It helps in working together of different with different expertise on shared goals and vision. * It increases motivation to employees and business output. * The main objective of the task is understood by all team members. * Open, honest, and direct communication happens in the team. * Leadership is pervasive in the team. * Team does regular review of the status of work. * There is an organizational structure in the team defining roles and responsibilities with expected results. * The work of the management is shared with different team members. * Synergy exists in a team, which motivates team members to work efficiently. * There is a clear direction given to each team member related to the work involved. ## Teamwork According to thestatesman.com, 'Teamwork in business management is essential for the growth of individuals and companies as well.' Teamwork is the most essential part to 'make any project or task a “BIG PICTURE” of any assignment or a project. Media in today's time go hand-in-hand in teamwork of different media channels and platforms. It's never been a single man operating in isolation to make any new brand, business, or news visible to the masses. It's always the teamwork, which refers to the coordinated, concentrated and collaborated efforts of different media channels and networks to make a single project to a grand fruition and making any media information reaching to masses. Teamwork is the key to a grand success of any business or brand in the market. For example, if we consider radio as a media channel, there are different channels (93.5, 98.3, 102.8, etc.) having different teams working everyday behind the Radio Jockeys to make the channel more interesting and reachable to the masses. The content creation team, the sales team for targeting brands for ads, dissemination of important and useful news to the masses through radio are the major challenges in everyday life which involves continuous, collaborated, and focused teamwork, which makes a huge impact on the lives of a consumer who is consuming different types of information through the radio. ## Importance of Teamwork: * It helps the media channels to empower, engage and educate the masses. * It helps each media professional to showcase their expertise to deliver their best in teams. * It helps in fostering learning and creativity. * It blends the complementary talents, skills, and strengths of the team members. * It helps in teaching conflict resolution skills to team members. * It helps in building a sense of connectedness, trust and pride in each accomplishment or achievement of the team. * It helps in sharing open communication amongst team members. * It helps in strong leadership and execution of the task assigned by the team. * It helps in recognition of team members' efforts and talents as an individual and as a team. * It helps in growth and successful completion of the work of the organization. ## Objectives of Teamwork * **Shared aims and objectives:** The team members should share common goals with proper understanding of work and utilizing each other’s expertise. * **Conflict Resolutions and Problem Solving:** In teams, many people with different mindsets and skill sets work together. So teamwork will only be effective if problems are solved and conflicts are resolved within the group without going outside the group, more organized the team would be, the more productivity would be there. There should be many opportunities and clear directions should be provided to team members to express themselves with new and innovative ideas, which can enhance their productivity as a team. * **Building Long-term Relationships:** Relationship building is the most important function in teams, as it helps in generating support, trust, admiration and recognition of each team member as an individual or a group, and amongst teams as well. * **Cultivation of creativity and expression:** The teams should be given a freedom to foster their creative side, and to explore and express themselves with their own individualities, ideas, opinions and vision, towards betterment as a team or a group with shared interests. * **Advancement of sense of ownership:** When team members work on the shared vision, ideas, and common goal with continuous monitoring and evaluating their efforts as a team, then the sense of ownership originates in each individual as a team, which relates them more to all the successes, failures, sorrows and joys of the team as they feel connected and emotionally involved in the collective effort. * **Brainstorming Opportunities:** The stimulation of the brain of the team members should be pervasive and continuous. As in media business all activities require cautious planning and focus to achieve the targets which involves strategic planning at all levels - account handling, finance, marketing, and media operations, so teams require ongoing brainstorming to analyze and teammates. In the competitive media job markets, criteria for hiring is not limited to some technical or specialized knowledge or ability. A media professional like a journalist with amazing managerial skills will only do well if he has the ability to interact professionally with top dignitaries, celebrities, or the political leaders, as deriving information from them is a big task and challenge, which just cannot happen without soft skills. The good teamwork involves a combination of different soft skills. The interpersonal expertise is required to know when to be a listener or to be a speaker. Good team players always show themselves very responsive, insightful, sensitive to the needs, roles, and responsibilities of others. Teamwork skills are vital to accomplishment at work, no matter which sector or industry you are in. ## Teamwork as a Core Value: Team membership encourages a sense of belonging, which often transforms to a greater sense of ownership and accountability for the work. This happens when teammates respect each other and do not target to let the team down. ## Teamwork as a Competency: Teamwork as a competency is the skill to work with others towards a shared goal by participating enthusiastically, sharing accountability and rewards, and supporting to the capability of the team. The competent leaders having this skill understand and create an encouraging and competent environment for teams. ## Leadership in Teamwork: Leadership in teamwork have a direct impact on the ability for an organization to carry out its task. The leadership gives direction to the teams, provides a strategy and motivates team members. Leaders make sure that the whole team is working towards the same direction and goal with zeal. The leaders challenge the team to be innovative and competent, monitors team progress and directs the team to keep themselves on track. ## Negotiations in Teamwork Negotiating a good decision boosts a team’s solidity and helps team members to assess their own motivations. Fruitful negotiations provide the team with faith in their ability to continue and to co-function with each other. ## New Perspectives of Teamwork Skills in 21st Century: Teamwork relates to a term that is often manipulated casually into the modern business discussion and communication. We always referred a teamwork in terms of management, leadership and engagement of employees, but we failed to realize and accept how digital and new media contributed to teamwork and collaboration which is the future dimension of the 21st century. ## Activity Go through the credits of your favorite movie. Create a list of teams and sub- teams that worked to make that movie a success. ## What are the different teams that work on a film to make it a success? ## Upgrade their Productive Skills Instant Communication- The teams should have instant, open, continuous, and honest communication which gives an open window through varied digital platforms to the team members giving them the concrete picture of the opportunities, strengths, weaknesses and threats of the status of team operations. Instant communication helps in rectifying mistakes or inculcating suggestions if any, amongst team members. ## Effective Delegation of Roles and Responsibilities The delegation function in the teams is done very carefully and cautiously keeping the expertise and the skills possessed by each member of the team in mind. All the team members have different educational, emotional, and experiential level with different skills, so delegation of specified roles and responsibilities accordingly should be delegated in the teams. ## Increase in Efficiency and Output The team is expected to do their work very efficiently, as each outcome in media industry is expected to be very productive and reliable. Efficiency from all team members is necessary to make each operation successful. According to Andy Neely, author of the book “Business Performance Measurement: Unifying Theory and Integrating Practice,” there are five main operational performance objectives: speed, quality, costs, flexibility, and dependability. ## Types of Teams: * **Functional Team:** In this type of team, all the members belong to the functional area and report to a single manager. This team is responsible for the whole group management. The organizations with rigid hierarchies and functions like Accounting and HR departments, these teams are best suited. * **Inter-working Team:** To bring creative, comprehensive, and progressive results where team members from different sectors work together for a project or task, like councils and committees, is called inter-working team. This type of team is usually formed to develop and work with multi-disciplinary segments of different team members complementing each operation with their different expertise. * **Self-managed Teams:** In this type of team, team members themselves define their responsibilities and distribution of roles and tasks, making decisions for different tasks, controlling, and supervising themselves. These teams don’t have a formal leader. * **Project Team:** These are the work teams created to formulate and execute a specific project till completion. After the project is finished and achieves its objectives, the group gets dissolved. Till the project is ongoing, the team reports to the project leader. For example, a movie is a project as it collaborates so many functions, people, and teams together, but once the movie is released at different media platforms and finally revenue is generated, then the team for the movie gets dissolved, as the expected outcome is achieved. * **Task Force Team:** Whenever emergency situations arise, this type of team comes into action. Like if any mishap, accident, or critical situation arises at any event / company or media operation, where the immediate team force is designed to cater the crisis is called task-force team. * **Troubleshooting Team:** These teams are made to improve the team processes to reveal the problems which are of concern to the organization and solving them in the system itself. Once the problem is known, then they are sent to the individual departments who are responsible for it, as this kind of team does not require and is expected to implement the solutions. ## Reflect Your Understanding What do you mean by team? ## Discuss Any Example Of an Event of The Media Industry Where Teamwork Is The Key For Successful Operations ## Describe Any Two Examples Of Media Brands From The Web, Discussing The Characteristics Of Different Teams And How Digital Media Tools Have Changed The Outlook Of Team Operations. ## Attributes of Teamwork: The success of any organization depends on effective teamwork. Whether it is a business, a cricket team, or a media company, chemistry among team members is the heart of great teams. 1. **The direction and roles to the team should be clear and well defined.** 2. **The communication should be open and honest.** 3. **The good leadership should be there in teams as it should be an inspiration and motivating for each team members.** 4. **The good team always supports risks and change for betterment.** 5. **The teams should accept their responsibility as individuals and as a team.** They recognize the potential of each team member and do not blame each other for team failures, instead re-assess their lacuna and celebrate their successes together. 6. The team heads should share credit and ideas with the team. 7. The team should agree on common goals and should settle differences in opinions of team members. 8. **Collaboration, easy communication should be present in teams to create and generate maximum output.** 9. **Team trust and belongingness should be there amongst members to assign and delegate each task with full reliability.** ## Steps in Making a Successful Media Team: * **Assess the current situation of the business catering budget, resources, and workforce.** * **Set up social media goals and objectives considering different media platforms for your brand awareness, attraction of web traffic, generation of leads, revenue, engagement and community and relationship building, consumer services, public relations, and recruitment of the best resources.** * **Determine the size of your team according to the nature of business, budget, and goals.** * **Deeply understand the required responsibilities and roles of all team members like digital media manager, content creators, creative teams, community relationship manager - online and offline, advertisers and media planners etc.** ## Decide The Structure Of Your Team * **The composition** of an individual team or of a multi-team system is called the structure of the team, and it is a vital part of the process of the teamwork. * **A properly structured advertising, entertainment or media team** is the result of effective communication, leadership, situation monitoring, and mutual support to carry successful media operations. ## Teamwork as a Strength: * **Teamwork helps in building and maintaining relationships between team members and outside clients and stakeholders.** * **Teamwork acts as the biggest strength for any business success or failure.** * **A focused approach on common goals, an organized team and good leadership are the key drivers of teamwork as a strength for any business, operation, task, or project.** ## Teamwork as a Soft Skill: Soft skills mark the difference between acceptable teammates and ideal teammates. ## Social Media for Team Building: Social media is a dais that has created a virtual world in today’s time that has engaged and connected infinite teams of people under a virtual umbrella where masses are associating with each other in seconds on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Myspace, google meets, Zoom Cloud, Skype, etc. which has made this world very small, close, engaged, and connected, so we can never overlook the importance of social networks and media teams for any business in this 21st century. The digital media teams and their generation of media output has proved a benchmark in the networking, engagement, communication, and associations of not only one or two people but the masses in an instant click. Advanced and hi-tech software enable media teams to generate maximum content outputs from their teams in minimum time. The digital media platforms have become the most powerful weapon for every business management and marketing activities. The skill of content creation on these sites by digital marketing teams after intensive strategic planning would be the future of media teams. New media world has created amazing job satisfaction amongst teams as they have many options to express themselves as a team and an individual and ensure productive and happy performances of the teams overall. Businesses are building a company culture where teams should be happy and satisfied to work in and to generate an environment where workplace friendships can flourish, and that's where social media plays a major component. Friendly atmosphere enriches teams' engagement and can substantially result in productive teamwork and synergy between teams. The new era of new media enables more rapid information sharing and allows instant dissemination of content like news, audio, images, audio, video, etc., amongst masses. The new tactics in the social media strategy can nurture their teams' productivity, innovation, and creativity. The teamwork gives team members a sense of belonging and recognition, flexibility and understanding. Good teamwork refers to the communication, the capability to send and receive the message in the appropriate way. The new perspective of teamwork through digital and virtual media would enlighten, empower, and alter the business landscape and proved to be the most powerful tools for proficient teamwork. A typical work meeting comprises of people come together and start discussing about the tasks in hand or done, trying to discuss future plans and resolve some internal or client issues. And when such meeting can be held online, the convenience, ease and interest gets maximized. The main aim of online team meeting applications is to make the teamwork much intensive, aggressive and efficient with the team members having the feeling of their full presence in the organization. We will now explore a few applications that have created a new era of digital transformation for collecting, coordinating, inspiring, sharing, calling, chatting, and meeting team members at any time and at any place within seconds. In this 21st century, digital media has and would change the total existence of media world. The users of all ages are connected to the new media world. The transformation in methodology and technology in coming years would makes teams more strategic, influential and result oriented. ## Microsoft Teams It is a hub for teamwork in Microsoft 365 in which, no matter where you are, you can call, chat, collaborate and meet with all the people you work with shared spaces. ## Google Meet It allows teams to hold meetings online, make group video calls in the free base of Google. ## GoToMeeting This application is liked by many companies and work teams, as this app has everything the team needs. ## ReadyTalk Ready-steady-go! This group meeting application has fine quality audio and video calls with the ability to download up to four video screens together at once. ## Zoom This group meeting application is one of the most demanded tools for online meetings in the world. It supports functions like HD video conferences and secure audio calls. ## Cisco Webex This application makes online group calls with a HD video and audio communication. Six operating videos can be open during the call, which is appreciated for big online team meetings. ## Join.Me This online meeting app allows to gather online video calls instantly and share their screens or posting documents or media files easily during the meet. It is so easy as you are speaking to everyone as if all are in the same office. ## Meetin.gs This team meeting app is the fastest as it takes about one minute to start your team meeting with HQ audio and video calls. ## Syn.in This online application is a type of real time exchange of text platform. It is an improvised adaptation of the Google Docs app, but it has many functions in a more apt way. ## Vyew It is an uncommon team meeting app, as the teams can synchronize or chat in a comfortable way by video conferencing, sharing text messages and working files. It can add media content in the user's account such as YouTube, MP3 player, or other tools to make the teamwork simple and exciting. ## TeamViewer It is a software application made for remote control, web conferencing, online meeting, transfer of files and desktop sharing between computers. ## Summary: The group of people working on a shared goal with different skill set is called a team. Teams have become vital to companies in the 21st century. Organizations have made large team forms composed of smaller ones. Teamwork has become a crucial component of every media process. Effective leadership, mutual trust, decision making, open communication, collaborations and cooperation amongst teams leads to successful completion of any media operation. Globalization and the expansion of MNC’s have resulted in a larger number of virtual teams (where team members connect in a virtual environment with ICT tools), which are often diverse. The virtual teams on different media platforms have become the present and the future of the 21st century. To become a successful team one should be well versed and equipped with innovations and advancements in digital technology.