ABSTRACT
A prerequisite for functioning as an effective management team is that the team spends time on appropriate team tasks. The degree to which the tasks handled are real team tasks will influence team effectiveness. Real team tasks require collaboration and coordination among the members to arrive at good solutions. Often, management teams spend time on tasks that create some added value but could be solved more efficiently and effectively in other arenas or dealt with by the management team at another time in the process. When the team critically reviews the issues and tasks it usually works on, it will typically end up with a number of issues that do not belong in the team meetings. Management teams can therefore benefit from defining an annual cycle, which shows when important activities and processes happen through the year and provides guidance for when the group will address various issues next year.
