Teams & Teamwork

How To Achieve 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, or bargaining. 4. Keep everyone involved in the decision process. 5. Allow disagreements to surface so that issues can be deliberated over. 6. Don't focus on winning versus losing; seek acceptable alternatives. 7. Discuss assumptions, listen carefully, and encourage members' input

Stages of Team Development

1. Forming 2. Storming 3. Norming 4. Performing 5. Adjourning

Seven Deadly Sins of 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.

Norm

A behavioral expectation, rule, or standard to be followed by team members.

Team

A collection of people who regularly interact to pursue common goals

Functional chimneys problem

A lack of communication across functions.

Team Building

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

Self-managing Work Team

A team where members have the authority to make decisions about how they share and complete their work.

Groupthink

A tendency for highly cohesive teams to lose their evaluative capabilities.

Effective Team

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

Building Positive Norms

Act as a positive role model. • Reinforce 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 desired behaviors. • Hold regular meetings to discuss progress and ways of improving. • Use team decision-making methods to reach agreemen

Decentralized Communication Network

Also called the all-channel or star communication network, allows all members to communicate directly with one another.

Task activity

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

Maintenance activity

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

Formal Group

An officially recognized collective that is supported by the organization.

Project Teams or Task Forces

Brings people together to work on common problems, but on a temporary rather than permanent basis and is convened for a specific purpose and disbands when its task is completed.

Characteristics of High-Performance 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

Centralized communication network

Communication flows only between individual members and a hub, or center point.

Decision by Majority Rule

Consistent with the democratic political process, but can create coalitions as some people become "winners" and others "losers."

Committee

Designated to work on a special task on a continuing basis and brings employees together outside of their daily job duties to work together for a specific purpose.

Brainstorming

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

Symptoms of Groupthink

Illusions of invulnerability—Members assume that the team is too good for criticism or is beyond attack. Rationalizing unpleasant and disconfirming data—Members refuse to accept contradictory data or to thoroughly consider alternatives. Belief in inherent group morality—Members act as though the group is inherently right and above reproach. Stereotyping competitors as weak, evil, and stupid—Members refuse to look realistically at other groups. Applying direct pressure to deviants to conform to group wishes—Members refuse to tolerate anyone who suggests the team may be wrong. Self-censorship by members—Members refuse to communicate personal concerns to the whole team. Illusions of unanimity—Members accept consensus prematurely, without testing its completeness. Mind guarding—Members protect the team from hearing disturbing ideas or outside viewpoints.

Team virtuousness

Indicates the extent to which members adopt norms that encourage shared commitments to moral behavior.

Team process

Is the way team members work together to accomplish tasks.

Informal group

Is unofficial and emerges from relationships and shared interests among members.

Virtual Team or Distributed Team

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

Decision by lack of response

One idea after another is suggested without any discussion taking place

Cross-functional team

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

Benefits of Being on a Team

Performance gains through synergy, More resources for problem solving, Improved creativity and innovation, Improved decision-making quality, Greater member commitment to tasks, Increased member motivation, Increased need satisfaction of members

Team Diversity

Represents the differences in values, personalities, experiences, demographics, and cultures among members.

Disruptive activities

Self-serving behaviors that interfere with team effectiveness

Nominal group technique

Structures interaction among team members discussing problems and ideas

Restricted Communication Network

Subgroups have limited communication with one another

Team Effectiveness Equation

Team effectiveness = Quality of inputs + (Process gains - Process losses).

Roles Managers Play In Teams

Team leader, team member, network facilitator, coach or developer

Decision by consensus

Teams often are encouraged to achieve decision by consensus. This is where full discussion leads to one alternative being favored by most members, and the other members agree to support it

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.

Interdependence

The extent to which employees depend on other members of their team to carry out their work effectively.

Decision Making

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

Teamwork

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

Social Loafing

The tendency of some members to avoid responsibility by "free-riding" during group task

Decision by minority rule

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

Distributed leadership

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

Decision by authority rule

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

How To Increase Team Cohesiveness

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

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