The importance of working together in groups and teams It is important to realize that a group can become a high-performance team. Achieving this goal is valuable, beneficial and profitable. Being able to operate from a high-performance group to a team is a big step forward in preparing you for the world of big business. Leaders and members must also realize not only how to achieve this goal, but also that some problems will and can arise from different demographic characteristics and cultural diversity. This is if you are part of such a group, the probability would be quite high. It is important that members of a team are knowledgeable and skilled in their positions, the degree to which such members can work together harmoniously and cooperatively is equally important and will form a high performing team. Effective team management plays an important role in building high-performance teams. It should always be a question of what management can do to actively foster successful work teams. The skills and knowledge possessed by each member are also important for a team to achieve high performance. Although it is among the most important factors, however, it must be combined with a good working relationship with each team member and good collaboration with each team member. Members who possess good skills and broad knowledge will be a useful asset to the team if that team member can share their strengths with other team members and vice versa. It is usually misunderstood that having skilled and intelligent team members is already enough for a team to function well. This type of thinking is why most teams, despite all the competent members they have, fail to achieve their goals. A team should establish a common goal, not think this way, and develop a good working relationship with each member. (retrieved from: http://www.strictlysuccess.com, August 18, 2005) This can be done through self-awareness exercises, such as the DISC assessment and other assessments or any other type of self-awareness exercises regarding differences in communication style. So these important factors and information should be taken into full consideration before starting the actual project. These exercises or assessments can be great icebreakers and differentiators between a group of individuals simply assigned to a team, rather than functioning as… middle of the paper… project direction. is about to come. Whenever issues related to demographic or cultural diversity arise and cause conflict and begin to interfere with ongoing work or projects, just like any other problem inducer, they are the client, customers, leaders and/or others stakeholders who will be dissatisfied with the results and they are the ones who will experience the negative results. All of this may seem a little overwhelming and boring to some or all, but rest assured that it is not as difficult as it seems. Just keep in mind that you need to embrace the differences between all the demographics and culturally diverse team members that make up your group. This with an open mind and a willingness to cooperate, compromise and enjoy collaborating will reap many great results and allow the organization to reap many great benefits along with a great top of the line fueled high performance team. :Wisdom of the teams; Katzenbach & Smith (2003) HarperCollins PublishersThe Team Learning Assistant Workbook; Jeffrey G. Miller (2004) McGraw-Hill Companies, The/