Building an Efficient and Effective Team

Some days back I met one of my friend, who was hunting for new opportunity.  He asked me some simple questions which I felt difficult to answer.

For example:

“Is your next job application depends on your current team size?”    

"How the size of team affects the productivity of team and individual?” etc...

I tried my best to explain my experiences to him and am hoping many of us must be having some inputs to share.

In IT companies we meet people who are either working in small team or managing some big teams. There are some enthusiasts who find comfortable working as individual contributor. But have we ever thought of any specific team size. I am not aware of any standard size. But if we talk about any sports, we know the size of team is fixed and if the size varies, it is going to impact the end result of the game. Does the same apply in case of project teams?

If we take some similar example we find that team with small number are doing well then compared to big teams. For example, a person has more than 200 friends on social site feels less connected and attached than the person who is part of small groups in messaging apps like watsup etc....If we are talking in small group we feel more responsible. I am not sure how many of you would agree with the facts that interacting in small group gives more opportunity to believe/trust each other.

Another great advantage in small group is that they keep talking to each other and the pending things get cleared very fast as the communication happens directly. Mostly in big teams we talk more through mail and there is less in-person interaction which again makes the things little slow. The attachment will not be enough to drive the mood.

I think most of us will agree that, yes Small teams communicate well, maintain good relations and connected well with each other. But how much beneficial its for long term project. I feel as the time grows, it is justified that the team size gradually increases to share the work load and increase the productivity.

Creativity and Innovations are one of the factors that are seen more in larger team. I am not saying that small teams are less creative; in fact small teams have more opportunity to come out with innovative ideas. But over all if the team is big, there will cross-cultural learning and the competitions will be more for finding out new ideas for implementation. Even if the idea is small, it will be affecting the big crowd in larger team, where as in case of small teams people may not be that much supportive or enthusiast to bother about just any other idea.

We often hear about this popular word “Visibility” from guys around us. Yes, I think we all agree that small team has more visibility then big teams. In case of small teams we keep interacting with our immediate lead, managers and even directors as well. Whereas in big group we hardly go beyond our lead or manager. I remember in my previous team, there were only few occasion when I use to see my senior leaders (i.e. during annual appraisals or during some town hall meetings.). Our attitude, interest or performance during this rare hours of meeting with our senior leaders, helps them to fix our picture in front of them for years. So, for that particular meeting we have to take all the appropriate cautions to present ourselves best to them. But in case of small teams, it’s almost daily we meet with entire team and one day performance may not set the face of the employee for his tenure in company. 

I personally feel, we shall concentrate to form an effective and efficient team rather than going on head count. Having a good team should always be the concern than thinking about the size of the team. We all want to be part of a brilliant team or lead a talented team. In this demanding time, we consider forming a team (big or small) based on future road map of project/company.

Last point I want to make is “who are going to be part of new team is really important”. For example if we have a project running for quite some time and certainly we have to form a production support team for that project. Now in this case if we are taking the member from the existing team, we need very less number of people to build the team. Because they know the system, they are aware of process and flow. But for the same project if we are targeting the new employees, obviously the number will be more. It is justified to have more people in the team. Initially they may take some time but over the years, if the road map is set and expectations have clearly explained, the project is going to go to new heights.

Do share your experience on team formation and any other factors. 

Thank you so much for reading and pouring your input :)