Team and Coalition Building

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Team and Coalition Building

• Class 7
• August 1, 2010

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Forming and Working with Teams

• How can managers work collaboratively with others
  both internally and outside the agency
• Collaborative relationships
• Teams
• Task Forces
• Working with Collateral Organizations

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Importance of team building

• Agencies move away from top-down to bottom-up
  decision making
• Forming a team is one of the most effective
  methods of developing staff commitment
• Team can produce results that are quantitatively
  better what an individual can
• produce

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Creating Effective Teams

• Characteristics of effective teams
• Communicate a shared vision
• Deemphasize hierarchy
• Encourage open communication
• Develop trust in one another
• Establish rules and behavioral norms
• Make decisions by consensus

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Effective team leaders

• Characteristics that make good team leaders
• negotiating
• communicating
• agenda setting
• goal development and action planning
• creates a safe environment

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Handling Conflict on Teams

• Avoid groupthink
• Most conflict relates to tasks and roles
• Uneven division of work
• Individuals forming cliques within the team
• Leaders determine the source of the conflict
• Encourage the airing of differences
• Use ground rules

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Individual Styles and Team Development

• Contributor task oriented provides team with
  information
• Collaborator goal-oriented open to new ideas
  sees the big picture
• Communicator process-oriented able to solve
  conflict and build relationships
• Challenger openly questions the goals and
  methods of team encourages risk- taking and
  being open to new ideas
• Parker (1990)

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Stages of Team Development

• Forming establish a sense of security and
  direction
• Conforming becoming united and identifying
  roles members become content with team
  membership
• Storming differentiation occurs and leads to
  conflict
• Performing functions at a highly effective level
• (Tuckman, 1965 Cameron Whetten, 1991)

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Improving Team Effectiveness

• US Department of Labor Guidelines
• Have clarity on goals of the team
• Clearly define roles
• Communicate clearly
• Be mindful of personality styles and stages
• Develop a plan for improvement

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Team Building Exercise

• Identify a target population (e.g., street
  children, the elderly, the disabled, mentally
  ill) that need better social services
• Come up with 3 major recommendations for
• government organizations in order to improve
  services for target population

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Team Building Exercise Continued

• Reflect on Group Process
• -leader or self-led?
• -was consensus used to come up with
  recommendations?
• -were you aware of the stage of the group?
• -were there different personality types
  operating in the group did members take on
  different roles?
• -what made your group successful in achieving
  its goals?
• -how might the group process be improved?

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Task Forces

• Carry out a specific assignment on a time-limited
  basis
• Important to clarify tasks and roles
• Staff involvement must be meaningful
• If several task forces are organized need to be
  well-organized
• Need to reintegrate staff once work is complete

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Coalition BuildingCollateral Relationships

• Good compatibility
• Development of shared resources
• Cultural compatibility
• Common domain of activities and target population
• Communicative infrastructure
• Trust!

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Areas of CollaborationJoint Planning

• Administrative services
• Service Coordination
• Personnel Coordination
• Financial Coordination

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Questions for Discussion

• You are a neighborhood grassroots advocacy
  organization dedicated to changing living
  conditions in your community. Recently, you have
  been invited to join a coalition of agencies from
  the community to address the problem of
  overcrowding in urban areas.
• What are the pros and cons of joining the
  coalition?
• If you join, how will you preserve your autonomy?

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Questions for Discussion

• Several business and community leaders have
  proposed creating a community coalition to
  conduct a community needs assessment in Hanois
  Old Quarter.
• Based on results, the coalition would develop the
  communitys agenda for addressing the highest
  priorities.
• What are the pros and cons of participating in a
  process that determines the communitys focus and
  resource allocation?

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