Ways to Work Together

Different kinds of screwdrivers work best for different kinds of screws. In the same way, there are different ways of working together that work best for different kinds of goals.

Get Advice - When you make new plans for yourself or a project or an organization, it may help to ask other people what they think is important. You can ask people who have done the same kinds of things before. And you can ask people who will be affected by your plans. This type of working together is often called consultation [A12]. You may invite people to a focus group meeting to say what they think. Or you may call individuals to ask what they think. You listen to what people tell you. If you like the advice they give, you may change your plans. But not always. You keep the power to decide for yourself. If you want to ask for advice about a lot of issues over a long time, you may form an advisory group [A9].

Form a Team - Sometimes you need a lot of help to reach a goal. There may be groups working on parts of the goal, but they do not work together. You may form a team out of members of these groups to help reach your goal. The team may meet, or share information in other ways, like phone calls and e-mails. A group may send a different member to meetings each time. This type of working together is sometimes called co-ordination [A4] [A12]. The leader's job is to make sure that the jobs get done and that people do not waste time doing work that others already did. Team members help make the big decisions; they do not just give advice.

Join a Team - Sometimes there are other people or groups that have the same goal as you or your group does. You can join with them to get the job done better and faster. This type of working together is often called co-operation [A12] or a coalition [A13]. The team you join may be called a task force or working group. This team meets to share what each member or group has done to help meet the goal. Meeting time is also used to plan the next steps and decide together what role each member will play. The team may have a leader or different people can be the leader at different times. Team members work to reach their own goals, as well as being part of the team.

Be Partners - When everyone in the team brings different skills and things they know to help meet the goal they share, it is called collaboration [A6] [A12]. Team members are all important, because success will only happen when they all do their part [A3]. You make decisions together that work for everyone in the team [A2]. Members know they must be able to work closely with each other. If one way of doing things does not work for a team member, they must find a different way to work together. Trust and respect for each other is very important [A4].

Once the goal is reached, these teams either stop meeting or they find a new goal that they all think is important. This makes them different from a committee, whose work is on-going [A1].