teams and team buildings

7/31/2019 Teams and Team Buildings

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Teams and Team Buildings


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Organizational Context for teams

1) Classical Concept The process of starting with the total amount of work to be done &

dividing it into divisions, department, work clusters, jobs & assignmentsof responsibilities to people.

How to achieve efficiency & integration of effort?

Division of work- Creating levels of authority & responsibility to others.

End Result: An operating hierarchy consisting of multiple levels ofauthority

Work: Carefully scheduled, tasks are specified, roles are defined strictly &most formal communications flows along the lines of hierarchy.

Mechanistic- To get people to act as efficiently & predictably as machines.Task Support

Support & SuppressDecline the use of structure?

Down-sizing & elimination of some middle mgt. position

Flexibility with the structure by changing them rapidly according to theneeds of their environment

Horizontal relations between chains of command


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4) Team Work

Individual perform operating tasks, but the vast majority of them work in regular small groups, where their

efforts must fit together. Small pieces of picture puzzle

Interdependent, develop cooperative state.

Task Team:

Cooperative small group

Know their objectives, contribute responsibly & enthusiastically to the task, supports one another,

exhibiting TEAMWORK!

Key Differences between Groups & Teams

Dimensions forcomparison

GROUP TEAM

Work Products Individual Collective

Performance monitoring

source

External Internal

Focus of activity Efficient task performance Problem solving

Leadership Single Shared

View of Conflict Dysfunctional &

discouraged

Functional & encouraged


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Lifecycle of a team Associated questions & issues faced at each stage

Developmental Stage

1. Forming

Who are these people?

What are their unique competence? What information should I share with them?

Will they accept me?

Will I be doing all the work?

2.Storming

What is our mission?

How do we develop team spirit?

What resources are available to us?

What problems do we foresee with theteam?

Why can't we agree on anything?

3. Norming

What do we believe in?

What behaviours do we expect of eachother?

What should we be doing?

How will we control each other's actions?

How do we handle conflicts?

4.Performing

What actions will contribute to our success?

Should we take risks?

Have we been empowered to succeed? How can we change and grow?

Why aren't all groups like this one?

5. Adjourning

How can we celebrate our successes?

What connections should we maintain?

What have we learned from our experience?

Where do we go from here?

How do I resolve my conflicting emotions?


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Potential Team Problems Study ; experience of 245 team developers

o Problems: Goal Clarity

Communications

Role issues

Problem solving & decision making

Conflict Mgt. etc

Most prevalent:

1. Changing composition

Too many membership changes & personnel transfers interfere with group relationship & prevent

the growth of teamwork.

Learn to manage internal turn-over:

Anticipate & accept

Develop plan for managing team turnover from the start

Most Critical. How best to integrate new members

Recognize a new member as an opportunity for improvement and not as treat to the teams

cohesiveness

Briefly return to earlier stages of team development process


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2. Social Loafing (Free Rider effect)

When employees think their contribution to a group cannot be measured, they may lessen their output.

Perception when unfair division of labor, a low achievement motivation, belief that co-worker are lazy,

a perception of a meaningless/largely invisible task, the feeling of being able to hide in a crowd &

therefore not be able to be singled out for blame. Sucker Effect:

one believes, others intend to withhold their efforts & thus he or she would be foolish not to do

the same.

Feeling of anger towards low performer/empathy/complain.

3. Lack of trust

5 Major Impediments towards a Cohesive team

Inattentiveness to team results

Failure to hold individual accountable to their goals

Lack of commitment to group effort.

Reluctance to engage in debate& conflict Absence of trust-insecure, stressed& reserved.

Slow decision making, low morale & damaged customer relations.

4. Other distractions:

Splitting hairs, non-stop talking, side conversations putdowns, uncontrolled anger, interrupting &doodling during discussions.


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Ingredient Effective Team4 Major Factors

1. Supportive environment

Encourage members to think like a team, provide adequate time for meetings, faith in members

capacity to achieve.

2. Skills & Role clarity

Reasonably qualified to perform their job & desire to cooperate.

All the members of the group knows the roles of all the others

Can act immediately as a team

3. Super ordinate goals

Oriented towards their overall tasks

A higher goal that integrates the efforts of 2 or more persons

4. Team rewards

Can stimulate teamwork

Financial / Non-financial (innovative)

Valued by team members, perceived as possible to earn, administered contingent on the groups

task performance

Authority to select new members of the group; recommendations Empowerment


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Team Building Encourages team members to examine how they work together

Identify their weakness

Develop more effective ways of cooperating

Goal?

To make the team more effective

Team coaching

Vital to team success; new teams Leaders intentional efforts & interaction with the team to help its members make appropriate use of their

collective resources.

When is Team Building needed?

Interpersonal conflicts among team members or between the team and its leader

Low degree of team morale or low team cohesiveness

Confusion/disagreement about roles within the team

Large influx of new members

Disagreement over the teams purpose & tasks

Negative climate within the team, evidenced by criticism & bickering Stagnation within the team, with members resisting change & new ideas.


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The Process of Team Building

Highly participative process

Team member providing DATA

Skilled Facilitator may assist in diagnosing & addressing their problems

Develops an ACTION PLAN(S)

End-result:

High performance team with high levels of future morale & cooperation

The best team building approach is the one that is carefully built upon a database

uncovered during the 2nd stage & then tailored to fit the specific team & team

problem.


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Skills used in Team Building

Consultation skills

Interpersonal skills

Research skills

Presentation skills Process Consultation

Feedback

Process Consultation

Utilizes facilitating behavior to help teams function more effectively

A set of activities that help others focus on what is currently happening around the team

Feedback

A useful data on which to base decisions

Encourage them to understand how they are seen by others within their team and to take

self-correcting action. The need for continuous improvement is a cornerstone of total quality mgt. programs & a

focus on teams is a critical structural element of many organizations as they operate in the21st century.


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Characteristics of Mature Teams

Exhibit several attitudinal & behavioural characteristics that organizational value, as well

as achieve desirable org. outcomes.

Members take pride in their achievements & contributions of their colleagues

They feel comfortable asking questions when they dont understand something

No one dominates the team or is a wallflower/non-contributors

Members know how to criticize others constructively & accept feedback

Theres an atmosphere of respect & trust

The group is not threatened by instability / change

The atmosphere is relatively informal & tension free

Members encourage & assist each other

Team consistently achieves its goals & sets progressively higher standards for itself.

Ethical dilemmas within Teams

Team member appraisals

Member assistance

Team Selection

Team perfection


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Self-Managing Teams

Self-Reliant / Self-directed

Advantages:

Improved flexibility of staff

More efficient operations through the reduced numbers of job description

Lower absenteeism & turnover rates

Higher levels of organizational commitment & job satisfaction

Multi-Skilling: Learn a wide range of relevant skills

Disadvantages:

Extended time to implement them (several yrs)

High training investment as members learn new skills

Early inefficiencies due to job rotation

Inability / Unwillingness to adapt to a team structure

Powerful example of the application of OB knowledge & Successful participative methods.

Virtual Teams

Groups of individual from around the globe that meet through the use of technical aids without all of their

members being present in the same location.


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teams and team buildings

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