Team Effectiveness

Group

Two or more freely interacting individuals who share norms and goals and have a common identity

Virtual Teams

Work together over time and distance through electronic media. Work force is distributed. Flexible and efficient because they are driven by information and skills, not time and location.

Do experts believe that the trend toward self-managed work will continue upward in north america?

Yes, due to strong cultural bias in favor of direct participation

Formal group vs informal group

Formal group: Created through organization to accomplish specific goals (functional groups, business units, etc) Informal group: Created by individuals in organizations, overriding purpose of getting together is friendship or common interest

In what stage is some group conflict beneficial?

Forming. Conflict in the early stage of group development process increased creativity.

Gersick's "Punctuated Equilibrium" Model

Group development follows a pattern: First meeting Inertia (typically doing very little) Increased level of activity at halfway point More inertia/constancy in behavior until close to deadline Frenzied activity to complete project

Self Managed Teams

Groups of workers given administrative oversight for their task domains--activities such as planning, scheduling, monitoring, and staffing. essentially act as own supervisor

If teams didn't succeed as they had planned, what was it due to?

Lack of: Clear and elevating goal Principled leadership

Investigation of high performance teams

Larson and LaFasto evaluated 30 high-performance teams (Boeing, IBM, Mt Everest, CDC, President cabinets, challenger disaster) and interviewed leaders and members to to try to find commonalities

A group becomes a team when the following criteria are met:

Leadership is actively shared Members are held accountable for individual and team results Defines its own mission Focused on problem solving and continuous improvement Views effectiveness and success in terms of their collective productivity "we win or lose together"

There is importance on different team member personality types for self managed team performance. What are these

Teams with members who are very similar in terms of conscientiousness, but very different in terms of extraversion, performed best.

3 forms of trust

*Contractual:* trust of character. Do people say what they are going to do? Do people make expectations clear? *Communication:* Trust of disclosure. How well do people share information and tell the truth? *Competence:* Trust of capability. How effectively do people perform their responsibilities?

Benefits of Groups for the individual:

-Greater availability/ access to resources -Affiliation -Security and protection -Self esteem/ sense of identity -Problem solving

Factors that relate to group/team COHESIVENESS (these are things that increase cohesiveness)

-Severity of initiation to the group (more cohesiveness) - High external threat or competition (perceived outside threat) -Time spent together -High skill levels -Shared respect -Smaller groups -Longer duration of existence -History of success

Benefits of groups for the organization:

-Task accomplishment (couldn't be done by one person) -Increased creativity/innovation -Increase collaboration through departments -Problem solving -Usually better decision making/implementation -Helps socialize newcomers

Factors that influence group/team dynamics

-Team composition issues (size, diversity) -Deindividualization (mob/collective behavior, lose individual identity) -Social loafing (when people work together they tend to not work as hard as they would if alone. Much more prevalent in individualistic cultures like US) -Cohesiveness -Groupthink -Conformity (to group norms and influence) -Obedience (based on authority and perceived lack of responsibility) -Trust

8 dimensions of team effectiveness

1) Clear and elevating goal (must be both, clear and elevating are different things) 2) Results driven structure 3) Competent team members 4) Unified commitment 5) Collaborative climate 6) Standards of excellence 7) External support and recognition 8) Principled leadership (leaders with very strong values that were manifested in their actions)

Groupthink

A rushed decision made by the group, don't think as much as should

Repairing trust

Acknowledge what caused trust to be compromised Allow feelings and emotions to be discussed Get and give support Reframe the experience, shift from being a victim Take responsibility Forgive yourself and others Let go and move on

Effective virtual team participation and managment

Adapt communications Share the love (use company's intranet to keep distributed workers in the loop. Still acknowledge birthdays and accomplishments.) Develop productive relationships with key people on the team Partner (sometimes members of virtual teams are not direct employees of your employer but treat them like true partners) Availability Pace (different time zones, some projects can receive attention around the clock) Updates Select the right people (best works thrive in interdependent working relationships, self reliant and self motivated) Communication is essential (must be able to write in easy to understand language)

Ways to avoid groupthink

Assign role of Evaluator to each group member Have leader avoid seeming partial to one course of action Create subgroups to work on one problem and compare their results Have group members discuss issues w/ outsiders and report back Invite outside experts to observe and react to group dynamics Assign someone to be a devils advocate (take a contrarian position) Hold second chance meetings after consensus is apparently achieved

Norm

Attitude, opinion, feeling, or action shared by two or more people, that guides behavior

4 basic rules to follow for successful brainstorming

Avoid criticizing other people's ideas (don't be the voice of judgement) Share all suggestions, even if they're far out Offer as many comments as possible Build on other's ideas to create your own

Real life groupthink example

Back to the future 1 was a huge success. There was going to be a back to the future 2, and pizza hut was supposed to be in a futuristic scene. Pizza hut did a lot of promotions for it They made 3 million pairs of solar shades, that year they were the largest glasses manufacturer in the world Turned out the pizza hut scene was cut from the movie Caused a huge rift between marketing and ops

Best use for virtual teams

Brainstorming ideas or solutions to problems is the most successful task for these teams. Goal setting for team initiatives follows, as well was developing plans to realize what goals are next

Brainstorming

CREATIVITY! Technique used to increase group creativity and productivity by encouraging group members to express their ideas in a non-critical and safe environment

3 C's of building effective teams (different from the 3 Cs of effective team players)

Charters and strategies: charters to describe how the team will operate. Strategies that are deliberate plans that outline exactly what the team will do. Composition: Collection of jobs, personalities, knowledge, skills, abilities, of team members. Teams perform better in the early stages of development when member shave a high tolerance for uncertainty. Create teams with composition to match the desired objectives. Capacity: Adaptive capacity is important to meet changing demands and transition members in and out.

3 fundamental elements recommended for establishing the ROI for team building

Clear objectives Validation (confirming that team building efforts actually link to the desired changes in behavior or attitudes) Performance information (what data is needed to track the previous 2 elements and how will they be obtained?)

3 Cs of being a team player

Committed Collaborative Competent

How to build a high-performance team

Communicate high performance standard Set tone in first meeting Create sense of urgency Make sure members have the right skills Find ways to create/communicate early successes Give positive feedback/ reward high performance Focus on group bohesiveness

Tuckman's Model of Group Development

Development in 5 Stages 1) Forming 2) Storming (conflict while trying to figure each other out, figuring out power structure) 3) Norming (experience group cohesiveness) 4) Performing 5) Adjourning (for temporary teams) Curve starts, decreases a little during the storming period, then steadily increases until end of project

Group/team decision making ADVANTAGES

Diversity/breath of perspective Division of labor Greater chance of high quality decisions Increased acceptance of solution Higher perceived legitimacy and objectivity

Guidelines for building group consensus

Don't change mind to reach quick agreement Involve everyone in the decision making process Don't focus on winning vs losing, seek a win win solution *Seek first to understand, then to be understood* Recognize you own't always reach 100% consensus, but people need to feel like they had a say

What did Larson and LaFasto discover after conducting their investigation of high-performance teams?

Eight Dimensions of Team Effectiveness

Obedience to authority- Milgram's study

Electric shock study Biggest finding: when you believe you are not responsible, you will do things you wouldn't ordinarily do "I'm responsible, not you"' Because of Milgram's study, institutions now review psychological harm, not just physical

Things you can do to keep the punctuated equilibrium model from happening (since it is not necessarily amazing)

Focusing on initial steps Better planning of milestones in project More project meetings

3 ways to prevent against social loafting

Limit group size Assure equity of effort so no one things "everyone else is goofing of, so why shouldn't i?" Hold people accountable, don't allow members to think "who cares?" Additionally, recent research with 4 member teams show that hybrid rewards (those that include team and individual components) reduced social loafing and improved information sharing.

Group/team decision making DISADVANTAGES

More time Decision may not be reached (extreme) Potential for interpersonal conflict Pressure to conform Diffusion of responsibility Groupthink

In self managed work teams, do you turn workers lose to do their own thing?

No, be prepared to undergo revolutionary changes in managment philosophy, structure, staffing and training practices, and reward systems.

Are benefits of groups given?

No, they only come with work and effort

In a group setting, can you only play one roll?

Nope!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In what stage do groups experience group cohesiveness?

Norming

Teams are task groups that have matured to the ___ stage

Performing

Common types of teams

Production teams Problem solving teams (task forces) Management/leadership teams (board of directors) Cross functional teams (composed of people from different parts of the organization, is a type of self managed team) Self managed work teams Virtual teams (very important to have an in person meeting if you can)

Characteristics of high performance teams

Relatively small (10-12) Members have specific skills (some shared, some complementary) Reward systems reinforce team vs individual behavior High levels of trust Shared pride "esprit de corps" Ex) Surgical teams

Benefits of groups for individual functions

Satisfy need for affiliation Self esteem/identity Opportunity to test and share perceptions of social reality Reduce anxiety or feeling of powerlessness Provide problem solving for person and interpersonal problems

Are self managed teams effective?

Self managed teams had a positive effect on productivity and specific attitudes relating to self-management (responsibility and control), but had no significant effect on general attitudes (job satisfaction and organizational commitment) and no significant effect on absenteeism or turnover

Role

Set of expected behaviors for a particular position

Different approaches to team building

Single event/discussion (during a staff meeting) Recreational activity (bowling, sporting) Low-key offsite (recreation and focused discussion) Intensive offsite experiences (surveys, intense discussion) Outdoor experiences (high ropes)

Definition of team

Small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable

Common roles played in group settings: Task-oriented roles Maintenance roles Individual roles

Task oriented: Initiator*, energizer*, information seeker, option giver, elaborator, evaluator, recorder *Goal-directed roles Maintenance roles: Harmonizer, compromiser, encourager, gatekeeper, commentator Individual roles: Blocker, recognition seeker, dominator, evader (these are dysfunctional!)

Task roles vs maintenance roles

Task roles: enable the work group to define, clarify, and pursue a common purpose Maintenance roles: foster supportive and constructive interpersonal relationships Task roles keep the group on track while maintenance roles keep the group together