Building, Maintaining and Developing the Team

Karen Stubbs and Gillian Borrie

Corelli Consulting LtdSeptember 06

How team/groups develop

• Woodcock (1979) and Tuckman (1965) identified certain characteristics which a team will exhibit at different stages in its development

• not every team will display every characteristic

• the type of team and its tasks and responsibilities will affect its tendency to have particular characteristics

Forming; the undeveloped team

• relying on the leader

• finding out about tasks, rules and methods of working

• acquiring information and resources

Drawings by Dr. George Kouloumas c. 1991

Storming: the experimenting team

• internal conflict • members resist

tasks at the emotional level

Norming; the consolidating team

• conflict is settled• cooperation

develops• views exchanged• new norms/ standards of

behaviour established

Performing; the mature team

• teamwork is achieved

• roles are flexible• solutions are

found and implemented

Recognising the Effective Team

• informal relaxed atmosphere• highly participative discussion• group task clearly understood• members listen to each other• decisions made by general consensus• ideas expressed freely• Leadership shared appropriately

McGregor “The Human Side of Enterprise” 1961

……and the Ineffective Team

• bored and tense• discussion dominated by one or two• no clear common objectives• no real listening to each other• decisions made by majority rule, rather

than consensus• no criticism, no personal feelings• leadership not shared

McGregor “The Human Side of Enterprise” 1961

Meredith Belbin- “nobody’s perfect but a team can

be”This Cambridge psychologist/management

consultant devised the classic exercise in defining and identifying team roles – A Self-Perception Inventory – in 1981. It is still widely used.

We will look at it now; please spend approx. 15 minutes completing it, and assessing your own team role

Can you identify other roles played by other members of your practice?

Balancing needs in teams

Group Task

Needs

Other interested groups/tea

ms

Group Maintenance

(Other Team members’

needs)

Full Team

Individual Needs

McGregor on Motivation

Theory Y states that the average human:

• does not inherently dislike work• will exercise control and self-

direction• learns to accept responsibility• more people can contribute

creatively than do so

Motivation

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need:

• people are motivated by desire to satisfy specific groups of needs

• people satisfy these needs systematically, moving up the hierarchy

• useful framework for discussing variety of human needs people experience at work

Maslow

Hierarchy of needSelf-actualisation

Self-Esteem

Love, Affection, Belonging

Emotional Safety

Physiological

The 7s Framework

A good manager/ team leader pays attention to:

Strategy SystemsStructure StyleStaff Skills

Shared Values

Peters and Waterman, McKinsey & Co, 1992

Looking after your team

• understand what motivates staff• use meetings effectively• define and agree your objectives• see the need for value and

appreciation – and show it!• put in place effective appraisal• identify team’s strengths and

weaknesses

and more……………

• encouraging informal feedback• promoting professional

development• seeking opportunities for training/

mentoring/coaching• developing written procedures to

help things work• communicating effectively

What can you see?

A small group exercise

• What sort of team do you work with?- describe it in 3 words

• What could you do to improve, encourage and develop it?- outline in 3 sentences

Recognising challenges to the team

Challenge• new tasks

• new roles

• new responsibilities

• new opportunities

Example please!

Kubler-Ross Change Curve

Integration

Shock

Denial

Decisions

Frustration

Experiments

Depression

A last group exercise

• What is the major challenge to your practice over the next 12 months?

• Can your team cope with it? Yes / No

• If not, why not?

• If so, why?

A short course in leadership – John Adair

• The six most important words...“I admit I made a mistake”

• The five most important words...“I am proud of you.”

• The four most important words...“What is your opinion?”

• The three most important words...“If you please.”

• The two most important words...“Thank you.”• The one most important word...“We”• And the least most important word…...“I”.

A brief bibliography

• The Good Manager’s Guide, 2nd ed.,Trevor Boutall, MCI, London, 1997

• The Toolbox for Portfolio Development, a practical guide for the primary health care team, Roger Pietroni, Radcliffe Medical Press, 2001

So, in summary………

In this session, we have looked • what teams are and how they behave

• strategies for strengthening teams

• how change in health care policy and practice might impact on our primary health care teams’ behaviour