Teamwork

According to Beck & Yeager (1994) a team is people coming together to work towards a shared mission. And it’s certainly true; when a team is working well they are capable of achieving great things. In schools and particularly in school libraries we find ourselves working as a team, however sometimes our mission is not a shared vision. Ensuring the team members are on the same path towards a combined goal is essential. Personally I find time constraints affect the ability that we as teachers and librarians have of working closely as a team. Time needs to be made available for teams to meet and work and ensure that teamwork is realised as an essential element of any organisation.

Law & Glover (2000) explore different roles of people in teams. The table they sourced from Belbin (1981, 1993) lists characteristics, qualities and weaknesses of different types of people. I could identify myself as an ‘Implementer’. Qualities include: gets on with the task, organising ability, hard working. This table would help people to understand other people in the team and their own role and participation in the team.

Beck, J. D. & Yeager, N. M. (1994). Making teams work: an underused window of opportunity. In The leader’s window: mastering the four styles of leadership to build high-performing teams (pp. 183-206). New York: Wiley.

Law, S. & Glover, D. (2000). Leading effective teams. In Educational leadership and learning: practice, policy and research (pp. 71-86). Buckingham, England: Open University Press.