Teams

1
Teams

• Author Dr. Melenie Lankau
• Department of Management
• Terry College of Business
• Presented and posted by permission of author

2
Teams

• A small number of people with complementary
  skills who are committed to a common mission,
  performance goals, and approach for which they
  hold themselves mutually accountable.
• Shared leadership
• Mutual accountability
• Collective work products.

3
Stages of Team Development

• FORMING
• - Define Goals
• - Leadership emerges
• - Understand member
• roles
• - Feelings of insecurity,
• anxiety, excitement

4
Establishing Ground Rules

• Ground Rules
• Attendance
• Promptness
• Meeting Place Time
• Participation Communication
• Basic Conversational Courtesies
• Assignments
• Agendas and Recordkeeping

5
Establishing Ground Rules

• Work Expectations
• Quantity of work
• Quality of work
• Accountability
• Develop clear goals
• Set specific milestones
• Assign team expectations for performance
• Use regular assessments of achievement
• Confidentiality

6
Stages of Team Development

• STORMING
• - Conflict emerges re
• roles, priorities,
• leadership
• - Competition
• - Feelings of resentment,
• withdrawal.

7
Functional vs. Dysfunctional Conflict

• Functional conflict
• A healthy, constructive disagreement between two
  or more people.
• Dysfunctional conflict
• An unhealthy, destructive disagreement between
  two or more people.

8
Conflict

• Diversity
• Social Category
• Informational
• Value
• Types of Conflict
• Task
• Process
• Relationship

9
Conflict Management Styles
Competing
Collaborating
Assertive
Assertiveness (Desire to satisfy ones own
concerns)
Compromising
Unassertive
Avoiding
Accommodating
Uncooperative
Cooperative
Cooperativeness (Desire to satisfy anothers
concerns)
10
Team Politics

• Flexibility in ground rules and decision-making
  frameworks
• Important skills
• Influencing others
• Negotiation
• Be prepared for different perspectives
• Focus on issues not people
• Understand your environment
• Search for collaborative solutions

11
Constructive Feedback

• Acknowledge the need for feedback
• Give both positive and negative feedback
• Understand the context
• Know when to give feedback
• Do not give feedback when
• You dont know about circumstances
• It is about something the person has no power to
  change
• Time, place or circumstances are inappropriate

12
Know how to give feedback

• Be descriptive
• Dont use labels
• Dont exaggerate
• Dont be judgmental
• Speak for yourself
• Talk first about yourself, not about the other
  person

• Restrict your feedback to things you know
• Help people hear and accept your compliments when
  giving positive feedback

13
Know how to receive feedback

• Listen carefully
• Ask questions for clarity
• Acknowledge the feedback
• Acknowledge valid points
• Take time out to sort out what you heard

14
Stages of Team Development

• NORMING
• - Compromising Collaborating
• - Share Information
• - Accept Differences
• - Cooperation
• Cohesion

15
Team Development

• Performing
• Group members work toward achieving
• their goals.

16
Influences on Team Behavior

• Context
• - Conditions and factors outside the group.
• Goals
• - Compatible and conflicting goals may exist
  within a group.
• Size
• - As size increases, formality, time, subgroups
  increase.

17
Influences on Team Behavior

• Member Composition and Roles
• Similarities and differences influence group
  behavior and effectiveness.
• Task-oriented roles
• Maintenance roles
• Norms
• Rules and patterns of behavior accepted and
  expected by group members.

18
Influences on Team Behavior

• Cohesiveness
• - The strength of members desire to remain in
  the group and be committed.
• Leadership
• - Informal leader, multiple leaders, leadership
  style.

19
Decision-Making in Teams

• Defining problem
• Information gathering
• Generating ideas and opinions
• Exploring ideas and options
• Deciding on Action

20
Obstacles to Effective Team Decision-Making

• Loss of focus
• Rush to accomplishment satisficing
• Rigid mindsets
• Intimidating environment
• Unwillingness to deal with difficult issues
• Domineering and reluctant members
• Process disruptions

21
Team Learning

• Appraising the Team
• Quantity of work
• Quality of team work
• Team knowledge
• Initiative
• Collaboration

22
The Team Contract

• The team contract is an agreement regarding the
  team's purpose and functioning. It should
  include the team's goals, the duties and roles of
  each member, and expectations for how leadership
  functions will be carried out. You should
  carefully describe what is expected from each
  member of the team.

23
The Team Contract
QUESTIONS 1. What is our team's purpose or
mission? 2. What are the primary outcomes or
goals towards which we are working? 3. What
duties or roles must be fulfilled if we are to
reach these goals? What then is expected of
each team member? 4. How will the team handle
the leadership/facilitation - management
activities? 5. What name will we adopt that
reflects our team's purpose, philosophy, and
culture?
24
The Team Contract
CODE OF CONDUCT Successful teams have either
explicit or implicit rules that guide
their behavior. A code of conduct states the
norms or ground rules the team will follow.
Ground rules are team guidelines or outcomes that
the team will agree to follow to ensure high
performance and satisfaction. For ground rules
to be useful, everyone one must understand them,
agree on their meaning, and commit to using them.
This Code of Conduct should address both
task-oriented and people-related issues. As an
attachment to your contract, create a short
document summarizing your team's ground
rules/norms that will govern your interactions.
25
The Team Contract
ISSUES TO CONSIDER What "on time" and
"meeting attendance" mean? How will relevant
information be shared? What will be the
communication medium of choice? How will you
discuss "nondiscussable" issues? How will you
keep team focused, committed and energized? How
will decisions be made? How will
conflict/disagreements be handled? (What
procedures will you use?) What behaviors should
be encouraged? Avoided? What happens when ground
rule is broken? How will you handle
exceptions? What recourse will you take when a
team member does not perform as agreed? In other
words, what happens when one of the team members
lets the others down? How will specific roles
(activities, tasks) be assigned for team
projects? How will team members give each other
feedback on their performance in team? How will
team self-critique itself?