Building and Maintaining a

TeamJuly – August 2010

Introduction to Teams

Exercise:

• Successful teams

• Not-so successful teams

Introduction to Teams

Exercise:

• Positives and negatives of working in a team

Team Dynamics

Team Dynamics

• Communication and participation• Conflict• Leadership and power struggles• Climate• Individual behaviour• Non-verbal communication• Norm application

Team Dynamics

Attitude and Energy• Walking dead (low energy – negative

attitude)• Spectators (low energy – positive attitude)• Cynics (high energy – negative attitude)• Players (high energy – positive attitude)

Functions of Teams

“The sum is greater than the parts”

“We have 2 hands. One is for helping ourselves, and the other is for helping others”

Audrey Hepburn

Functions of Teams

• When a common goal must be achieved• When one person cannot provide all the

required skills• Interdependencies (direct and implicit)

Functions of Teams

Advising

Innova

-ting

Pro

mo

-tingIn

spe

c-t

ing

Prod

u-

cing

Develop-ing

Organising

Maintenance

Linking

Types of Teams

• Informal teams• Project teams• Quality circles• Kaizen• Process Improvement• Six Sigma

• Focused teams• Work teams

Stages of Team Development

• Forming• Storming• Norming• Performing

Stages of Team Development

• Forming• Storming• Norming• Performing

Stages of Team Development

Team Building and Team Maintenance

• Experimental teambuilding• EI-Based teambuilding

Team Building

Key Building Blocks for teambuilding• Vision, mission and values• Trust and awareness• Passion• Team behaviours

Maintaining Teams

• Attitudes and teams• Micromanagement

Maintaining Teams

Delegation• What am I doing that does not need to be

done at all?• What am I doing that can be done by

somebody else?• What am I doing that only I can do?

Maintaining Teams

Team Traps• “What are we here for?” • “Our world is THE world”• Single issue obsessions• Reality distortion• Increasing bureaucracy• A lack of new stimuli • We all agree• The sepia photo • Poor communication

Difficulty in teams

Team member responses:• Motivational• Rejection• Intervening• Defense

Symptoms

Toxic teams

Team Leadership – Behaviours and Roles

Situational Team Leadership• Direction• Support

Team Membership

"None of us is as smart as all of us."

Ken Blanchard

Change in Teams

CHANGE

LOSS

FEAR

UNKNOWN

RESISTANCE!

Understanding Resistance

Resistance in Teams

LOSS

• Jobs

• Status

• Security

• Comfort zones

• Title

• Office

• Others?

FEAR

• The unknown

• New skills

• New structure

• Coping ability

• Too much work

• Others?

THE UNKOWN

• Uncertainty

• Rumours

• Competencies and skills

• Comfort zones

• New order

• Others?

Emotions such as: anger, fear, stress, resentment, unhappy, sad, agitation, anxiety, judgmental, distrust, etc.

Stages of Change in Teams

Change and Teams

Change in Teams

Understanding Change – Typical Reactions

Change in Teams

Jordan (2004) argues that:• Successful people during change – read and

manage their emotions• They are able to read others’ emotions and

take actions to manage those emotions prior to attitudes being affected.

• Emotions during change – A GIVEN!

Political Intelligence in a Team

• Reasons for politics• Awareness

Team Reward and Recognition

• Guidelines• Ideas

Diversity in Teams                                                                                                                           Put employees into a room with only a table and two chairs. Leave them without any instruction and check back on them in two hours.•If they have taken the table apart...assign them to engineering. •If they are counting butts in the ashtray...put them in finance. •If they are talking to the chairs...assign them to personnel. •If they are sleeping...they are management material. •If they do not notice when you walk in...place them in security. •And if they have left early...put them in sales. 

Diversity in Teams

• What is Diversity?• Why multi-faceted teams?• Fostering diversity

Conclusion

Andre O’CallaghanAndre O’Callaghan Consultingwww.aoconsult.co.za

QUESTIONS