The organization, role, and significance of the rehabilitation team.

In this article the author shares his 30 years of experience and reflection on teamwork in rehabilitation. In a well-organized rehabilitation team, the result of the team's efforts exceeds the sum of all the individual efforts. In well-organized rehabilitation is the individual segments are played out in the proper order, like the music of an orchestra under the master's baton. The task of directing such a team consists of several phases: deciding who is to do what, communicating that decision for implementation, creating situations that stimulate the members of the team to identify with the established goals, and monitoring performance, which includes expressly delimiting the responsibilities of supervisors and subordinates. The primary obligations of the team leader include earning the team members' acceptance of his/her authority (in which case decisions can be communicated not as orders, but as an expression of the collective will to achieve the goal), facilitating the work of the team members, stimulating them to develop a more creative approach to their work (while simultaneously inculcating them with the habit of precisely following instructions), and contributing to their further professional development. Personal contacts should not be neglected, even those that may seem non-service-related, since this is what transforms a group of strangers into a good team. Information feedback should occur both horizontally and vertically, even diagonally, always by the shortest practical route. The simpler the information loops, the more quickly the information gets where it is needed, and the better the teamwork.