Chapter 3

How do teams develop quick trust and work in short term teams?

Get to know each other Hold an effective launch meeting Commit to working together and separately Set up a deliverable schedule and evaluate performance regularly

What is complacency?

When a group has experienced quite a few successes and begins to assume it will automatically make good decisions

What is a moral high ground?

When group members assume they're morally correct and as a result dismiss competing ideas or alternative solutions

What is collective rationalization?

When group members convince themselves a solution is the best one even when faced with conflicting info

What is self-censorship?

When group members don't voice their opinions for the sake of harmony

What is stereotyping?

When group members see outsiders as morally inferior or less competent

What is groupthink?

When groups verbally or nonverbally agree to ideas without gathering enough information and exhaustively evaluating their options (try to avoid it); may lead to poor decision making Bad symptoms of it: collective rationalization, moral high ground, self-censorship, illusion of unanimity, peer pressure, illusion of invulnerability, mindguards, and stereotyping

What is the illusion of unanimity?

When no one speaks out against the majority view and as a result, everyone assumes there is agreement

What is the illusion of invulnerability?

When team members are overly optimistic in their ideas and don't consider risks or drawbacks of their ideas

What is peer pressure?

When the majority of group members pressure or even penalize a member with dissenting views

What are the characteristics most important among virtual teammates?

Willingly sharing information, being proactively engaged, and collaboration

What is the forming stage?

(1 to 2 months) team members focus on gaining acceptance and avoiding conflict, this stage is a honeymoon period where team members get to know one another

What is the storming stage?

(2-3 months) team members open up with their competing ideas about how the team should approach work; typically the least productive, since team members are attempting to make sense of uncertain roles, goals, and accountabilities

What is the normal stage?

(4-5 months) the team arrives at a work plan, including roles, goals, and accountabilities

What is the performing stage?

(6-7 months) teams operate efficiently toward accomplishing their goals; have evolved to a level where they can transform disagreement and conflict into consensus for future action

What behaviors help drive acquired diversity?

1. Making sure everyone is heard 2. Making it safe to let team members express novel ideas 3. Giving team members decision-making authority 4. Sharing credit 5. Giving Useful feedback 6. Putting feedback into action * these innovate "speak up culture"

Steps to a difficult conversation? 4

1. Start well/ declare your intent 2. Listen to their story 3. Tell your story 4. Create a shared story

What is a good ratio for positive to negative comments for a successful team?

5.6 positive comment for every negative one

What is team culture?

A set of shared perceptions and commitment to collective values, norms, roles, responsibilities and goals; during the norming stage

What is a facilitator?

Acts from a neutral position to get each person to participate in the conversation and ensure that each agenda item is properly discussed Should acknowledge, check for understanding, paraphrase and summarize, not judge, ask for elaboration, and get everyone involved

What should be included in an agenda?

Agenda items Time frames goals/expected outcomes Roles Materials needed *final agenda should be sent at least one day before the meeting

What are mindguards?

Are team members who purposely filter info so there is no dissent or threat to the team leader

What are cascades?

Are when the initial ideas in a discussion excessively influence the ultimate decisions (amplify groupthink patterns)

Why don't people want to have difficult conversations?

Avoid hurting the feelings of others, want to avoid conflict, or for other reasons

What are I-statements?

Begin with phrases like I think or I feel or I believe; they soften comments to sound more conciliatory and flexible and less blaming and accusatory (use in disagreeing diplomatically)

What is MVS (motivational value system) and what do the colors mean?

Blue MVS tend to focus on nurturing Red MVS tend to focus on directing Green MVS focus most on autonomizing Hub MVS tend to focus on equally on these motivational values

Why do people use virtual teams?

Cost less, more convenient, help assemble experts who are not located in the same office, more productive and effective than co-located, in person teams (traditional teams)

How to achieve productive outcomes from a meeting?

Create tradition, culture and variety to form a sense of purpose and are light way to open people up at the start of meetings Set expectations and follow the agenda Encourage participation and expression of ideas Build consensus and a pan of action Closing the meeting Dealing with difficult people

What should be in the meeting follow-up/ minutes components?

Date and time Team member present Meeting roles Key decisions Key discussion points (optional) Open issues (optional) Action items and deadlines

What are the principles of difficult conversations?

Embrace difficult conversations Assume the best in others Adopt a learner stance Stay calm/ overcome noise Find common ground Disagree diplomatically Avoid exaggeration and either/or approaches

What does finding common ground accomplish?

Emotionally, Lessens the perceived distance btw you and it may lead to bonding Rationally, It helps you analyze the issues at hand in a way that will likely lead to mutually acceptable solutions

How must a leader establish a pattern for discussion and debate?

Focus on getting agreement on the definition of the problem Focus switches to the history of the problem and its current impacts Participants consider the causes and future consequences if the problem is not solid The group is now ready to brainstorm options for addressing the problem

What are the stages teams go through to reach a high performance (4)

Forming, storming, norming, performing

Best way to have an effective team?

Have team meet in person for the first few meeting at least to help build rapport, and forming andnroming

What is 2-D diversity?

Having both types of diversity

What are the two forms of diversity? With def?

Inherent diversity: involves traits like age, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation Acquired diversity: involves traits gained through experience like customer service, retail, or engineering experience

What are the ways to handle difficult conversations? 3

Initiating the conversation disagreeing diplomatically avoiding exaggeration and either/or approaches

What is a shared story?

Involves combining yours and the others' experiences, perspectives, and goals into a shared approach to work Requires a substantial time commitment but worth it

What is divergence?

Involves considering as many solutions as possible Working independently can increase the number of ideas and solutions generated

What is convergence?

Involves evaluating the proposed ideas and solutions and narrowing them to a small set of feasible solutions to address the problem; highly collaborative and generally involves refining the best ideas with contributions from all team members

What is validating?

Means that you recognize their perspectives and feelings as credible or legitimate; does not mean you necessarily agree ( use in disagreeing diplomatically)

What should virtual teams do in order to be more effective?

Meet in person if possible Get to know one another Use collaborative technologies Choose and active team leader Rune effective vital meetings

Downsides to virtual teams?

More likely to feel isolated, not feeling connected as a team member, not being able to read nonverbal cues, managing conflict, making decisions is harder, and expressing opinions (introverts do so more on virtual teams and extroverts prefer traditional teams) Time zone differences, language differences, and communication technologies can also be difficulties

What should teams focus most on first?

Performance

What are strategies for virtual teams regarding a team leader?

Periodically rotate team leaders; it energizes a team and keeps the team leaders from burning out; it also helps develop leadership skills of team members

Most important part in group writing?

Planning Should develop group purposes, goals clarify and define the basic problems and issues together, prioritize finding certain pieces of information, identify subject-matter experts, and delegate roles for researching and writing

What are coordination meetings?

Primarily focus on discussing roles, goals, and accountabilities; usually have many agenda items with reasonable expectations o f accomplishing each item in the allocated times

How to deal with difficult people

Provide strong leadership, with a clear agenda, goals, and roles; if the problem continues, pull that team member aside, talk about the disruptive behavior and explain how it impacts the group performance be polite and firm when making a request

Common types of difficult conversations for entry-level business professionals?

Receiving a bad performance review, having ideas rejected, critiquing a colleague, giving feedback to a boss, correcting someone, approaching rule breakers about their behavior, talking to a slacker on a group project,and dealing with office politics

What is self-disclosure?

Sharing info about yourself like goals, aspirations, views, and values, and experiences

Tips for better group writing?

Start right away Work together at the planning stage Make sure the roles and contributions are fair - discuss roles and expectations for one another Stay flexible and open Meet in real time consistently and ensure the writing reflects the views of the group Discuss how you will edit the document together - Be clear in the rules when overwriting one another's work and the programs you will be using - Have a purpose with each round of revisions Consider a single group member to polish the final version and ensure a consistent voice

How to make virtual meetings more productive?

Start the meeting with social chat Start with a contentious question Ask, "What do you think about..." question Make sure each team member is involved Articulate views precisely Take minutes in real time Focus on your teammates and avoid multitasking Use video when possible

What is psychological safety?

Team members feel safe to take risks and be vulnerable in front of one another

What should you do before a meeting for participants?

Tell them what they should have done before the meeting and what they can expect in terms of content and length of the meeting

What are the keys to effective evaluation?

The process should be primarily positive and goal-driven and rarely punitive The process should involve clear expectations All team members should participate

What are stories?

Their retrospective version of interpersonal interactions or heir explanations of business success and failures

What are priming statements?

Trigger a mind-set that affects subsequent behavior; solution-oriented priming statements trigger a focus on performance

What to do when closing a meeting?

Try to end it ontime; in the last few minutes, try to recap action items that the team has agreed on, establish accountabilities for follow ups

What are problem-solving meetings?

Typically involve brainstorming about how to address and solve a particular work problem; involve more fluid issues that are less easily classified as discrete agenda items and that are less easily given time allotments

What is a way to embrace difficult conversations?

View them as an opportunity (the exchange of perspectives and competing ideas reflects open and honest communication) - If there is no conflict, employees are likely to voicing their true perspectives Adopt a learning stance and commit to hearing everyone's story

What is a team charter?

Ways to ensure teams develop and live up to shared values, norms, and goals Provides direction to the team in how it functions to meet shared objectives Usually have a purpose/ mission statement, values, goals, team member roles like leadership, tasks, ground rules, communication protocol, meeting protocol, decision-making rules, conflict resolution, and feedback mechanisms