Imagine cup being the biggest code competition globally needs you to be up to speed with the world’s biggest technology, and the best team, true or true? A question I asked myself before I enrolled for the imagine cup 2021, which raises another question of who is the best, for me my answer was you are the best that there could be, in our next discussion we'll delve into what it takes to ensure from the word go that your team is the crème de la crème, without much ado let me take you this very four steps of how to identify and ensure that your team is the best of best.

From the great works of great men like Richard Hackman a pioneer of organizational behavior since 1970 who discovered the enabling conditions to what affects the team's ability to collaborate. People mostly think that the abilities of people and their personalities et cetera are the major factors that affect a team's growth towards the project implementation. However, there was this groundbreaking discovery that despite all multiple factors secluded these four factors that could lead to your team's optimization. These factors namely

1.A compelling direction

2.Strong structure

3.Supportive structure

4.Team evaluation

Compelling direction

A compelling direction gives gusto to the team members since they have something they are looking forward to. Their goals need to be challenging, this gives the team a sense of commitment towards the final goal however the challenge should be reasonable. This would give the members a sense of having something they are looking forward to. The team members should have something they are looking forward towards and also expect something from their end goals i.e. a reward, recognition. Imagine cup by the virtue of its logo deems a reward of a trophy, besides which creates opportunities from recognition, grants, and sponsorship.

Importance of direction

Working with diverse people brings forth varying opinions about different varying opinions from multiple varying factors. How then do we mitigate the conflict between parties? There needs to be a consensus on how the team laid down its objectives

Strong structure

Cement sand and water are used to build right? What happens if the quantities are not mixed proportionally there needs to be a balance; a little bit of this and a little of that, in teams for example diversity is key i.e. working on some international project local and cosmopolitan members could be put in your team, where cosmopolitan could bring both technical knowledge and expertise as they have worked and lived in a lot of nations hence speak multiple languages. Locals know the cultures likes and dislikes from their res perceive communities, cosmopolitan people know what has and has not worked on them

Obstacles they’ve faced in the multiple communities they’ve interacted with within time. They hence have a high probability of knowing what will or won't work under various diverse circumstances.

A team needs members, however bigger teams have limitations like higher costs and suffer a vulnerability of poor communication and joyriding.

Division of labor is tricky too, research shows that team members get more motivated when they work on entire modules. Working with members in different timezones has an added advantage as the project will run 24/7.

Shared mindset

Team members should not have a ''us and them'' mindset, it should have a ''we'' mindset. Information between team members should be shared with all members equally. In the case that the information is being shared digitally the team members should note that it erodes an important type of intelligence I.e emotions, motivation et cetera.

Team evaluation

With all the factors put into consideration, how do you know that your efforts are working?

The following 3 criteria help in the analysis:

1. Checking members' individual development

2. Establishing a collaborative ability

3. Gauging their output

Team leaders should conduct regular light-touch monitoring and deeper checks too which should be less often when they come to a cross problem. Thereafter you'll be able to identify where your team is lagging and where its strengths are.

As teams become global, diverse, and more virtual using a team's approach to solve problems is increasingly getting complex as more trends continue to emerge from time to time.

Resources:

For more insights feel free to read the article below
https://hbr.org/2016/06/the-secrets-of-great-teamwork