Throughout personal and business lives everyone will eventually work in a team setting. A team usually consists of three or more people who have a common goal or purpose. When working in a team, members have to decide what roles they will fill, plan their schedules for projects, and deal with upcoming team conflicts. Stewart, Sims & Manz (1999) stated, “For a team to succeed, team members need to effectively communicate with one another” (p. 79). While each element of teamwork is important, effective communication is the cornerstone to team dynamics.
One of the main elements of effective communication is open discussions. Everyone on the team needs to be willing to share his or her point of view. De Janasz, Dowd & Schneider (2002) …show more content…

The team members will feel empowered that they have a purpose and can work together to achieve the goal. Working in a team will help the team members build a professional bond. Teamwork will help each team member be more creative in solving problems. The team will also learn to be more tolerant and positive in communication, thereby helping to form the familiarity and deep trust necessary to share communications openly with each other.
The challenges that are faced when working in a team are many. LeClair & Page (2008) wrote that “if your team lacks the ability to work together well, efficiency and productivity will suffer.” Therefore, open communication needs to address issues that could stall the team. A team goal must be agreed upon, jobs need to be decided upon, a schedule needs to be set up and followed, all team members must contribute to the project, team members must build the trust necessary to accomplish their goals, and the team needs to decide how conflict will be handled. Once all these challenges are met the team productivity will improve and they will be successful in reaching their goal.
In conclusion, although all elements of teamwork are important, effective communication is the cornerstone to team dynamics for two reasons. First, active listening is necessary in all phases of teamwork. Without being an active listener each team member would be unable to respond to the post in an open and positive manner. Secondly, open communication