Team Building

Reaching Goals Together

Objectives

• Understand how teams work

• Develop skills to build a team

• Explain problem solving in a team

• Examine techniques for managing conflict

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If you want to succeed in modern

organizational and social life, you must

understand how to communicate

effectively as a member of a Team.

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Why Teams

1. Meet important human needs

2. Teams are everywhere

3. Cannot assume that we participate

effectively

4. Vehicle by which the individual can make

a contribution to the organization and

society as a whole

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Definition--Team

Shared Goal

Collaborative

Individuals

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Product

Input

• Energy

• Information

• Raw materials

Through Put

• Transformation

• Input to output

Output

• Tangible product

• Reports

• Policies

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Effectiveness

• Workable size

– Usually 3 – 7, rarely more than 15

• Mutually interdependent purpose

• Each person has a sense of belonging

• Interaction involving verbal and non-verbal

channels

• A sense of cooperation among members.

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The Participant—Observer

Participant-Observer

• Active

• Observes

• Evaluates

• Participates

• Shares common goal

• Understands common

goal

Social Loafer

• Minimal contribution

• Assumes the other

members will take up the

slack

• Does not share common

goal

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The number of members and their personal

characteristics are input variables that

seriously affect team communication and

productivity

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Ethical Behavior

1. Team members should not disconfirm,

belittle, or ridicule other members

2. Team members should make sure they

understand other members before

agreeing or disagreeing with them

3. Team members should be thorough in

gathering information and diligent in

evaluating it

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Ethical Behavior (cont)

4. Members should be willing to speak and

should not do anything to prevent others

from speaking freely

5. Team members should embrace diversity

within the team

6. Team members must conduct themselves

with honesty and integrity

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Building a Team

All components of a

team operate

interdependently

with one another;

not in isolation.

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The Team

Nonsummativty

The property of the

team where the whole

is not the sum of its

parts, but may be

greater or lesser than

the sum.

• The personalities,

education,

commitment, the

individual make the

personality of the

team

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Traits and Attitude

Trait

• A relatively enduring,

consistent pattern of

behavior or other

observable

characteristics.

Attitude

• A network of beliefs and

values, not directly

measurable, that a

person holds toward an

object, person or concept;

produces a tendency to

react in specific ways

toward that object,

person, or concept.

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Briggs-Myers

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Shared Goal

• Determine goal

• Validate each

member’s

commitment to the

goal

• Constantly remind of

goal

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Willingness

Anxiety or fear

Reticence

Shyness

Open-Mindedness

Listener

Nonjudgmental

Dogmatic

Assertiveness

Assertiveness

Passiveness

Aggressiveness

Responsibility

Self-driven

Team driven

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Factors of Teams

Internal

• Characteristics

• Preferences

External

• Task

• Values

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Two Phases of Development

• Formation Phase

– Members get to

know each other

– Develop

interpersonal

relationships

• Production phase

– Focus on team

tasks

Formation

Production

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Two Phases of Development

• Production phase

– Focus on team

tasks

• Formation Phase

– Needs to be

reinvigorated

– New members

28

Production

Formation

Rev 12/2010 Report Writing - Team Building

Effective Problem Solving

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Problem Goal

Obstacle

Solution

P-MOPS

Procedural Model of Problem Solving (P-MOPS)

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Problem

Solution

EvaluateConsensus

Implement

Considerations

• Task difficulty

• Solution multiplicity

• Intrinsic interest

• Cooperative requirements

• Population familiarity

• Acceptance

• Technical requirements

• Area of freedom

• Goal

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Methods of Decision

By consensus

By leader

By majority

vote

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Sometimes

Needed

Winners &

Losers

Usually

Best

Decisions by Consensus

Advantages

• All members support the decision

• Members more satisfied and committed to decision

• Decision can be high quality, because all viewpoints are taken into account

• May cause team conflict

Disadvantages

• Usually takes more

time

• Members may feel

pressured to conform

• May be hard or

impossible to achieve

• May cause team

conflict

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Suggestions for Consensus

1. Don’t argue stubbornly for your own position

2. Avoid looking at a stalemate as a win-lose

situation

3. When agreement is reached to easily and

too quickly, be on guard for team think

4. Avoid conflict-suppressing techniques, such

as majority vote, averaging, coin toss, etc.

5. Seek out differences of opinion

Conflict

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36

Tension

• Tension is normal in team interactions

• Some tension is desirable

• Managing tension is part of the team

dynamics

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Benefits of Conflict

1. Conflict can produce better understanding

of both issues and people.

2. Conflict can increase member motivation.

3. Conflict can produce better decisions.

4. Conflict can produce greater

cohesiveness among team members.

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Negative Effects of Conflict

1. Conflict can cause bad feelings among

the team members.

2. Conflict, especially if it involves personal

attacks or is carried on too long, can

lower team cohesiveness.

3. Conflict can split a team apart.

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Primary Tension

Interpersonal -- first meet or during competition for power among members

• Member related

– Interpersonal

– Self-centered

competition

• Reduction

– Mutual respect

– Self-disclosure

• More difficult to

resolve

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Secondary Tension

Stems from task-related

• Points-of-view

differences

• Result from opinion

differences

• Can be loud and

vocal

• Reduction

– Agreeing

– Showing solidarity

• Use we

– Tension release

• humor

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Conflict Management Styles

• Avoidance

• Accommodation

• Competition

• Collaboration

• Compromise

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Effective Disagreement

1. Do express your disagreement

2. Stick with the issue at hand

3. Use rhetorical sensitivity in expressing

disagreement

4. Disagree with the idea but do not ever

criticize the person

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Effective Disagreement

5. Base your disagreement on evidence and

reasoning

6. React to disagreement in a spirit of

inquiry, not defensiveness

7. If someone persists in attacking you, stay

calm and speak reasonably

8. Use an integrative rather than distributive

approach to solving the conflict

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44

Summary

• Teams are part of human society

• Teams function in every human endeavor

• For teams to function effectively, the

individuals must act ethically toward each

other

• Team success requires active participation

from the individuals.

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Resources

• Team Building http://www.depts.ttu.edu/aged/leadership/leadtem.htm

• Emerging Systems for Managing Workplace Conflict: http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1101&context=ilrreview

• Building Team Cohesion: http://cas.bethel.edu/dept/comm/nfa/journal/vol23no1-16.pdf

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Resources

• Leadership & Management: Managing Teams (There are 17 articles in this topic.)

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/topics/managingteams.html

• Managing Virtual Project Teams http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~ceb/b895/btrautsch895.pdf

• Characteristics of effective teams: a literature review http://www.unc.edu/courses/2008fall/nurs/379/960/65_604078165817-effective_teams.pdf

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