A Highly Cohesive Project Team, Essay Example

While it is advantageous to have a highly cohesive project team in some situations, when a team becomes too homogeneous, it becomes more difficult for them to produce original results. Therefore, it is important to prevent this from happening when the risks of allowing a cohesive team to work together outweigh the benefits. In some cases, this phenomenon occurs because a team became too accustomed to working with one another, so they began to think more alike and this is reflected in their work. To solve this, a manager can simply change project teams in a manner that disperses the cohesive team. When they are now faced with new team members, they will be able to work in a manner in which they will be able to uniquely contribute to the team, rather than mirror the opinions of the other individuals in the group.

Another aspect of resolving a highly cohesive project team may involve first determining why they are so cohesive. A major factor for this behavior may be risk avoidance; rather than being lashed out against by team members for disagreeing, many more passive individuals would rather appear to agree with the team rather than speak his or her own opinion. In reality, this opinion may differ and contribute significantly to the team’s project. Therefore, it may be essential to initiate training programs that encourage this type of contributory behavior. If doing so still does not solve the problem, it may be useful to find a team that better suits the more reserved individual because a different group may welcome his or her opinion freely rather than reject it altogether. Ultimately, it is important that the company values the importance of the ideas of each employee and managers are responsible for ensuring that these ideas are heard.