MNGT 3100: Ch.14 Teams and Teamwork

4 Important Roles Managers Must Complete in Order to Fully Master the Challenges of Teams and Teamwork.

-*Team leader*-serving as the appointed head of a team or work unit. -*Facilitator*-Serving as the peer leader and networking hub for a special task force. -*Member*-Serving as a helpful contributing member of a project team. -*Coach*-Serving as the external convener or sponsor of a problem-solving team staffed by others.

Guidelines for building positive group norms

-Act as a positive role model -Reinforce the desired behaviors with rewards -Control results by performance reviews and regular feedback -Train and orient new members to adopt desired behaviors. -Recruit and select new members who exhibit the desired behaviors. -Hold regular meetings to discuss progress and ways of improving -Use team decision-making methods to reach agreement.

Why Trust is Important

-Allows team members to stay problem-focused -Promotes more efficient communication and coordination -Improves the quality of collaborative outcomes -Leads to compensating

Tactical Teams

-Are formed to execute a well-defined plan -Require a high degree of role clarity -Everyone must know who will do what, when, where, how, and why! -Consider a hospital surgical team, or a NASCAR pit crew!

How to avoid groupthink

-Assign the role of critical evaluator to each team member; encourage a sharing of viewpoints -As a leader, don't seem partial to one course of action; do absent yourself from meetings at times to allow free discussion. -Create subteams to work on the same problems and then share their proposed solutions. -Have team members discuss issues with outsiders and report back on their reactions. -Invite outside experts to observe team activities and react to team processes and decisions. -Assign one member to play a "devil's advocate" role at each team meeting. -Hold a "second-chance" meeting to review the decision after consensus is apparently achieved.

Guidelines for building high cohesiveness

-Build agreement on team goals -Increase membership homogeneity -Increase interactions among members -Decrease team size -Introduce competition with other teams -Reward team rather than individual results -Provide physical isolation from other teams

Characteristics of High-Performing Teams

-Clear and elevating goals -Task-driven, results oriented structure -Competent, hard-working members -Collaborative culture -High standards of excellence -External support and recognition -Strong, principled leadership

Creative Teams

-Creativity requires the abandonment of normative (standard) thinking... -So the most important characteristic of a creative team is *autonomy* (self-governing). -Organizational systems and procedures must be temporarily suspended.

Ways Teams Make Decisions

-Decision by Lack of Response -Decision by Authority Rule -Decision by Minority Rule -Decision by Majority Rule -Decision by Consensus -Decision by Unanimity

Symptoms of groupthink in decision-making teams

-Illusions of invulnerability -Rationalizing unpleasant or disconfirming data -Belief in inherent group morality -Stereotyping competitors as weak, evil, and stupid -Applying direct pressure to deviants to conform to group wishes -Self-censorship by members -Illusions of unanimity -Mind guarding

Leadership Challenge Approach

-Leadership is a relationship -Leadership is everyone's business -Leadership development is really self-development

Characteristics of a Mature Team

-Mechanisms for getting feedback -Decision making procedures -Optimal cohesion -Flexible organization and procedures -Maximum use of member resources -Clear communication -Clear goals accepted by members -Feelings of interdependence with authority person -Shared participation in leadership functions -Acceptance of minority views and persons

Typical Characteristics of Self-Managing Teams

-Members are held collectively accountable for performance results. -Members have discretion in distributing tasks within the team. -Members have discretion in scheduling work within the team. -Members are able to perform more than one job on the team. -Members train one another to develop multiple job skills. -Members evaluate one another's performance contributions. -Members are responsible for the total quality of team products.

Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership

-Model the Way -Inspire a Shared Vision -Challenge the Process -Enable Others to Act -Encourage the Heart

Benefits of teams and teamwork

-More resources for problem solving -Improved creativity and innovation -Improved quality of decision making -Greater commitments to tasks -Higher motivation through collective action -Better control and work discipline -*More individual need satisfaction*

Progressive Discipline

-Oral warning -Written reprimand -Suspension without pay -Termination

Causes of conflict

-Role ambiguities -Resource scarcities -Task interdependencies -Competing objectives -Structural differentiation -Unresolved prior conflicts

Tips for Leading Successful Virtual Teams

-Select team members high in initiative and capable of self-starting. -Select members who will join and engage the team with positive attitudes. -Select members known for working hard to meet team goals. -Begin with social messaging that allows members to exchange information about each other to personalize the process. -Assign clear goals and roles so that members can focus while working alone and also know what others are doing -Gather regular feedback from members about how they think the team is doing and how it might do better. -Provide regular feedback to team members about team accomplishments.

SMART Goals

-Specific -Measurable -Attainable -Responsive -Timely

Competent Team Members

-Technical competencies -Personal competencies --Intellectual abilities --Results oriented --Interpersonal skills --Planning and organizing --Team orientation --Maturity --Presence --Communication skills, especially the ability to actively listen.

Problem Resolution Teams

-The most common type of team -Are designed to resolve problems on an ongoing basis -Are built on a foundation of trust: --Honesty --Openness --Consistency --Respect

Keys to Consensus

1. Don't argue blindly; consider others' reactions to your points. 2. Don't change your mind just to reach quick agreement. 3. Avoid conflict reduction by voting, coin tossing, bargaining. 4. Keep everyone involved in the decision process. 5. *Allow disagreements to surface so things can be deliberated.* 6. Don't focus on winning versus losing; seek acceptable alternatives. 7. Discuss assumptions, listen carefully, and encourage inputs by all.

5 Distinct Phases in the Life Cycle of Any Team

1. Forming-a stage of initial orientation and interpersonal testing. 2. Storming-a stage of conflict over tasks and working as a team. 3. Norming-a stage of consolidation around task and operating agendas. 4. Performing-a stage of teamwork and focused task performance. 5. Adjourning-a stage of task completion and disengagement. *Must restart cycle any time new member joins team.

Spotting the seven sins of deadly meetings

1. People arrive late, leave early, and don't take things seriously. 2. The meeting is too long, sometimes twice as long as necessary. 3. People don't stay on topic; they digress and are easily distracted. 4. The discussion lacks candor; people are unwilling to tell the truth. 5. The right information isn't available, so decisions are postponed. 6. Nothing happens when the meeting is over; no one puts decisions into action. 7. Things never get better; the same mistakes are made meeting after meeting.

Three basic types of teams

1.Problem resolution 2.Creative 3.Tactical

Criteria for assessing the maturity of a team

1.Trust among members. 2.Feedback mechanisms. 3.Open communications. 4.Approach to decisions. 5.Leadership sharing. 6.Acceptance of goals. 7.Valuing diversity. 8.Member cohesiveness. 9.Support for each other. 10.Performance norms.

Norm

A behavior, rule, or standard expected to be followed by team members.

Team

A collection of people who regularly interact to pursue common goals.

Team building

A sequence of activities to analyze a team and make changes to improve its performance.

Task performance

A work group is expected to transform resource inputs (such as ideas, materials, and information) into product outputs (such as a report, decision, service, or commodity).

Effective team

Achieves high levels of task performance, membership satisfaction, and future viability.

Decision by unanimity

All team members agree on the course of action to be taken. A logically perfect method, but extremely difficult to achieve in actual practice.

Task activity

An action taken by a team member that *directly contributes* to the group's performance purpose.

Maintenance activity

An action taken by a team member that supports the emotional life of the group.

Project team or task force

Convened for a specific purpose and disbands when its task is completed.

Committee

Designated to work on a special task on a continuing basis.

Brainstorming

Engages group members in an open, spontaneous discussion of problems and ideas.

Decision by majority rule

Formal voting may take place, or members may be polled to find the majority viewpoint.

Leadership Imperative

Great Leadership->Engagement->Results

Self-managing work team

Members have the authority to make decisions about how they share and complete their work.

Member satisfaction

Members should take pleasure from both the team's performance accomplishments and their contributions toward making it happen.

Virtual Team

Members work together and solve problems through computer-based interactions.

Formal group

Officially recognized and supported by the organization.

Decision by lack of response

One idea after another is suggested without any discussion taking place. When the team finally accepts an idea, all other ideas have been bypassed by simple lack of response rather than by critical evaluation.

Cross-functional team

Operates with members who come from different functional units of an organization.

Coaching

Refers primarily to problem-solving discussions with employees directed toward enhancing work performance. *The coach makes things happen by matching an employee's competency level with appropriate learning opportunities*

Disruptive activities

Self-serving behaviors that interfere with team effectiveness.

Nominal group technique

Structures interaction among team members discussing problems and ideas.

Team Effectiveness Equation

Team Effectiveness=Quality of Inputs+(Process gains-Process losses)

Future viability

Team should have a social fabric and work climate that makes its members willing and able to work well together in the future, again and again, as needed.

Groupthink

Tendency for highly cohesive teams to lose their evaluative capabilities.

Synergy

The creation of a whole greater than the sum of its individual parts.

Cohesiveness

The degree to which members are attracted to and motivated to remain part of a team.

Decision by authority rule

The leader, manager, committee head, or some other authority figure makes a decision for the team.

Decision making

The process of making choices among alternative possible courses of action.

Teamwork

The process of people actively working together to accomplish common goals.

Social loafing

The tendency of some people to avoid responsibility by "free-riding" in groups

Group process

The way team members work together to accomplish tasks.

Building Trust on Problem Resolution Teams

Trust is produced in a climate that includes four elements: -*Honesty*-integrity, no lies, no exaggerations -*Openness*-a willingness to share and a receptivity to information, perceptions and ideas -*Consistency*-predictable behavior and responses -*Respect*-treating people with dignity and fairness

Decision by minority rule

Two or three people are able to dominate or "railroad" the team into making the decision they prefer.

Informal group

Unofficial and emerges from relationships and shared interests among members.

Distributed leadership

When all members of a team contribute helpful task and maintenance behaviors.

Decision by consensus

Where full discussion leads to one alternative being favored by most members, and the other members agree to support it. When the decision is reached, even those who may have opposed the decision know that their views have been heard by everyone involved.