The Importance of Development, Communication, and Learning in Teams Essay

The Importance of Development, Communication, and Learning in Teams - Essay Example Importance of Team Development Team development is important because it produces a productive workforce. Team work inspires solidarity among employees and it also helps build trust (Mackin, 2007). This way everyone in the company carries out their duties effectively since they have the support of everyone else. For example, when a company encourages team work among its employees, they will be able to trust each other, communicate better and learn to work together to achieve the company’s objectives. Effective Training Principles For effective team development, the following team principles are necessary: leadership, communication, trust, problem solving and decision making capabilities (Midura and Glover, 2005). In a company scenario, when team members are trained to work as a team, they not only enhance their leadership skills, but they also learn how to trust and communicate more effectively. This helps them solve problems and make decisions that are beneficial for the proje ct at hand. Stages in Team Development The five stages of team development proposed by Bruce Tuckman are: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and Adjourning (Sugars, 2006). At the forming stage, the team members get to know each other better, they exchange personal information and they also make new friends. It is at this stage that members get a scope of the task at hand. Example: when team members get together to know each other’s names and interests, that is forming. At the storming stage, each team member has different ideas of the project at hand. It is at this stage that the team decides which problems to solve and how to solve them. Example: there may be differences on the reporting time for the team project, but when the members sit and agree on a specific time, the issue is resolved. At the norming stage, the team comes up with a single goal and a plan for carrying out activities. For example: a team might decide that the goal is to build new software in two month s and everyone should take the responsibility in ensuring that that happens. At the performing stage, the team members are actually working together to finish a project without any conflicts. Example: team members working on the algorithms of software can be said to be performing. Adjourning is the final stage that involves the dissolution of the team after a task has been finished. For instance, when a team comes up with new software, there is no more work to be done by the team and so it is dissolved (Midura and Glover, 2005). Communication in Teams Communication in a team helps individuals to achieve what they set out to achieve when they formed the team. When there is communication within the team, the team members are likely to be more efficient in carrying out their duties, and therefore they end up being more productive (Sugars, 2006). Teams communicate when individuals share information about the projects that they are working on. Communication also occurs when each member l ets the others know what his role is and what he expects to get from the team work. Communication allows the team members to develop trust and find ways of resolving conflicts that may arise (Lumsden, Lumsden and Wiethoff, 2010). An example of team communication is when members know each other so well that they are able to help each other out and compliment each other’s efforts without a problem. Team Learning This is the organizational process that involves individuals working

New technology Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

New technology - Research Paper Example 2. New Technology for Blind Individuals There are many individuals in the world who do not have the power of sight. This loss makes visually impaired individuals dependent on others for their daily routine activities like making a trip to the grocery store, visiting a friend etc. Technology has contributed its part in the development of new techniques to make life better for individuals who have low sightedness or blindness. The technology that has been chosen for analysis helps blind individuals find their way around the streets and neighborhoods without any supervision. Blind people tend to be comfortable in the vicinity of their homes since they are well-acquainted with the placement of objects and the structure of the premises. On the contrary, they feel threatened to get out in the real world on their own due to the unknown directions and locations. The fear of getting lost also ceases such independent trips. Modern technology has successfully provided blind people with effectiv e devices to overcome the previously stated fears. An innovative technology has been invented that guides the blind person about the directions that are required to be taken to reach a specific direction. The device is known by the name of ‘Intersection Explorer’ and it has been released by Google in 2010 (Google Inc.,). Intersection Explorer includes a touch screen which is provided with a virtual map of any desired location in the world. The blind user can select the map of his neighborhood to explore the region and seek directions for a desired place. Google maps is incorporated in the device due to which the blind person cannot get lost; Google maps provide extensive mapping features, coupled with the local business information, for example, all restaurants can be listed on its search features that would be located in a certain region or city (Google Maps). This device is also based on GPS technology that is defined as the global positioning system (Purewal); GPS de termines the position of a user with the help of satellites maintained in the space (Lammertsma). The blind person does not have to type anything in the device to get directions; rather it is operated by touching the screen of the device. The aspect of touch operations makes the technology even more convenient for blind users since they take longer periods of time to type (as compared to sighted individuals) and require special keyboards with Braille display to input their desired text. The user browses his finger around the screen of the device and gets audio feedback about the place where his finger is pointed. The person gets notified about his position as he crosses different streets. This feature ensures that the user does not get lost and is aware about his current position at all time, for example, â€Å"Moved 70 meters towards Park Lane† (Raman). Figure 1: Intersection Explorer displaying nearby streets and intersections. The red spot indicates the position of the use r [1]. The most interesting feature of this technology gets revealed when the user gets the feeling of being lost. The user can trace his finger on the screen in a circle and the device will provide feedback about all the streets that have been crossed. This information can highlight any wrong directions that might have been taken in the respective path. The operations of this device are not very complex therefore any person with minimal computer