Team Work

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Team Work
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To do

• Scan the files needed
• Find a Belbin analysis we can use
• Insert Exhibit 14-2 into slide 21

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Learning Outcomes

• Identify the characteristics of effective teams
• Recognise the stages of team development
• Identify obstacles to effective team performance
• How to facilitate effective meetings

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Contents
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Warm Up Exercise

• Do you have a team mentality?
• Undertake Exercise 1

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Lee Lacocca

• Former CEO of Chrysler Corp said
• all business operations can be reduced to three
  words, People, Products and Profits. People come
  first. Unless you have got a good team, you
  cannot do much with the other two

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Definition of a Team

• "A team is a small number of people with
  complementary skills who are committed to a
  common purpose, performance goals, and approach
  for which they are mutually accountable."
  (Katzenbach and Smith, 1993)
• A group organized to work together a team of
  engineers. (www.answers.com)

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• We associate in groups/teams all of the time
• The Lunch Bunch
• The Friday PM Pub Bunch
• On a more formal basis we are arranged into units
  to be more effective
• Teams are groups of people arranged with
  complimentary skills
• Who are committed to a common purpose
• A set of performance goals
• Who hold themselves responsible for effective
  delivery

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So what about the Friday PM Pub Club

• The Friday PM Pub Club do not need to
• Co-ordinate joint efforts (ahem)
• Complimentary skills
• Or any other formal ingredients to make a group
  work
• So informal groups/teams are very different to
  formularised teams
• But, if you play a team sport, play in an
  orchestra, or go to a philately club! Then you
  are still using co-ordinated, complimentary
  skills in a formalised environment

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But why is Teamwork important?

• You tell me
• Teamwork is a key characteristic of successful
  ventures
• Of successful sports clubs
• Of business
• But teamwork does not just happen, it has to be
  planned, co-ordinated, managed

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In what ways can team work be beneficial?

• You tell me

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So why is teamwork beneficial

• Team output usually exceeds individual output
• Complex problems can be solved more effectively
• Creative ideas are usually stimulated in the
  presence of other individuals who have the same
  focus, passion, and excitement
• Support arises among team members

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• Teams infuse knowledge
• Teams promote organisational learning in a work
  setting
• Teams promote individual self disclosure and
  examination
• Teams both appreciate and take advantage of
  diversity

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Some characteristics of high performing teams

• Small Size!
• Make sure you keep teams below 10 people where
  possible. Over this number and common purposes,
  goals, approach and mutual accountability starts
  to suffer
• If you need more people to work on a
  project/issue/objective then just break them down
  into sub-groups
• Dont believe me, then try and run a meeting with
  15 people and see what happens!

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• Complimentary Skills
• Ideally a team will consist of three types of
  skills
• Technical Skills (TS)
• Problem Solving (PSS) and Decision Making Skills
• Interpersonal Skills (IS)
• Complementary skills are not needed at the onset
  of the project as long as there is scope to
  develop them throughout the lifecycle
• Also, team members DO NOT have to be compatible,
  as long as the team has TS, PSS and IS

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• Common Purpose
• Common vision and meaningful purpose drive
  direction, momentum and commitment from members
• Members from successful teams put time and effort
  into discussion, shaping, and agreeing upon a
  purpose
• The purpose provides direction and guidance under
  any and all conditions

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• Specific Goals
• Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and
  Time-Constrained (SMART) goals are essential to
  effective team work
• Specific goals allow focus on the principal
  objectives and reduce peripheral interference
• Tell me one of your SMART Goals/Objectives

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• Common Approach
• Goals identify the end point a common approach
  assures that the team is unified on how (the
  means) by which that goal will be attained
• Team members need to determine how they will
  share the workload, set schedules, resolve
  conflicts and make decisions

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• Mutual Accountability
• Accountability is essential at both the
  individual and group level
• Good teams ensure each member knows precisely
  his/her goals and how they relate to other
  activity
• Without these individual goals and accountability
  for these goals some members will loaf or not
  contribute to their fullest extent

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In class exercise

• Assess the skills of your friends and family.
  Who has the technical skills? Who has the problem
  solving skills? Who has the interpersonal skills?
  If you can correctly identify them, you will be
  able to apply this to your team experiences
• Divide a sheet of A4 into three categories TS,
  PSS, and IS and write down the names that come to
  mind

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Designing High Performance Teams

• High performance teams are easier to develop in
  new environments why?

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Know the asset base of your team

• Undertake Know My Asset Base exercise

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The five stages of team development

• Productivity and Morale change over time
• We will consider the team development stage in a
  later slide

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Stages of Team Development

• Forming
• Awareness, Commitment, Acceptance
• Storming
• Conflict, Clarification, Belonging

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• Norming
• Cooperation, Involvement, Support
• Performing
• Productivity, Achievement, Pride
• Adjourning
• Separation, Recognition, Satisfaction

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• But what happens if your team is not performing
  as expected or you feel that there is something
  not quite right
• How can you start to identify any of the issues?
• How do you improve Team Effectiveness

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The Team Building Program

• Normally initiated because it is recognised that
  the team is not functioning properly
• But what are the signs of a poorly functioning
  team
• What do you think they are?

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Determining the symptoms of ineffective teams

• Communicating outside the group
• Over dependency on the leader
• Unrealised Decisions
• Hidden Conflicts
• Fighting without resolution
• Subgroups
• Take the following questionnaire!

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What other things can you do?

• Observe the communications pattern of the team
• Why bother observing
• Understand a classification of functional team
  roles
• Task Roles
• Building and Maintenance Roles
• Personal Roles
• (please see handout)

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How are decisions made in teams

• Here we come to a dark art!
• Influencing Strategies
• What, where and how decisions are made can
  sometimes be very baffling

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A formalised checklist of influencing

• Lets recap on influencing skills
• Assertiveness
• Ingratiation
• Rationale Appeals
• Sanctions
• Exchanges
• Upward Appeals
• Blocking
• Coalitions
• Your turn complete the Influencing Tactics work

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Remember the emotional component

• We are emotional animals, some less so than
  others.
• The dynamic of the team is likely to be affected
  by these emotional inputs
• But in what ways does emotion affect team work?
• Identity
• Personal Goals and Needs
• Power and Control
• Acceptance and Intimacy

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• So we agree that there are lots of potential
  issues that can affect the effectiveness of a
  team, but what can you do about this

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Intervention

• To intervene effectively you MUST know the
  problem processes and behaviours you must
  analyse the situation
• Into what categories do issues fall

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• Structural issues with team effectiveness
• Ensure agendas are prepared for meetings, set and
  monitor norms of behaviour and output, assign
  task and maintenance roles to ensure the team
  members are on-track
• Power and control issues
• These are the fun ones! If control is being
  demanded by the less able team members assign the
  quieter/introverted members specific roles and
  responsibilities, share the power and control
  around the team form new coalitions between the
  team members and break up any sub-group that are
  not functioning finally appoint task leaders

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• Communications issues
• Address these by creating formal reporting
  activities and monitor these closely introduce
  heavy processes to drag the laggards into
  acceptable behaviour assign a moderator to
  ensure the communications are owned by members of
  the team

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If those dont solve the issue

• Reaffirm the priorities and create an agenda/plan
  to address those priorities
• Identify the areas where the behaviour is
  affecting these outcomes
• Ensure that you find something that you can get a
  positive outcome from just to get people a little
  bit more motivated
• Still not working, then look at these areas!

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• Weak sense of direction
• Infighting
• Shirking Responsibilities
• Lack of Trust
• Critical Skills gaps
• Lack of External Support

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How would you solve entrenched problems..?

• There are a few things that you can do if you
  have very entrenched problems
• Clarify Goals
• Encourage Teams to go for Small Wins
• Build Mutual Trust

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Teamwork is controlled by meetings

• The meetings will take many forms but the team
  will meet. Teams that work in a vacuum are very,
  very weak.
• But how is a meeting run? And what differentiates
  an effective meeting
• The following section outlines the ways in which
  a meeting can be made effective

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• Team decisions should nearly always be made in
  meetings
• Meetings require Planning, Leadership and
  Management to fulfil their objectives and to stop
  wasting valuable team time
• If 10 people attend a meeting for 1 hour, thats
  1.33 person days punctuality is important!
• The following section assumes you have at least a
  small team working for you

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Preparing for the meeting

• Use a blank piece of paper
• Identify the purpose of the meeting and what you
  want to accomplish
• Try to write down all the issues that will spring
  up
• Identify what you want to happen after the
  meeting
• In more detail you need to plan

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• Setting the Objectives
• What is the purpose of the meeting, is it an
  information exchange or way of dealing with
  issues (if neither of these is evident send a
  memo instead of calling a meeting)
• Select the participants
• Only select the participants that need to be
  there, to solve the problem or who have the
  issues try not to exceed 10 people!

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• Plan the Agenda
• Ensure the points you cover are logically
  developed identify the purpose of the meeting
  and articulate it here. The Agenda is essential
  in controlling the meeting (put times against
  objectives if you are worried about a meeting
  lasting too long)
• Distribute the Agenda and Documentation in
  advance of the meeting
• Theres no point getting ill prepared people to a
  meeting, Keep any demands on their time reasonable

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• Consult with participants before the meeting
• If you think there are going to be issues during
  the meeting, hook up before the event and try to
  square them off
• Sometimes you might want to collect more
  background information for the meeting
• If its controversial then you must do some
  pre-meeting work or watch the meeting go to the
  dogs

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• Set a time and venue
• Consideration of the team members duties needs to
  be factored into the time chosen
• Ensure there are no interruptions
• Choose time carefully, lunchtime is a great
  motivator so if you only need an hour then choose
  12pm
• Location needs to be considered only if it
  provides one of the warring factions with an
  advantage
• Never meet for more than 90 minutes
• Choose your meeting layout carefully

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• Now you know how to prepare for the meeting, how
  about conducting the meeting?
• Even with good planning, poor control of a
  meeting will lead to chaos
• It is important that the team learns the facts
  during the meeting and that they are not allowed
  to go off on tangents
• So how do you start..?

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• Begin by talking through the agenda letting
  them know what to expect (but they should know
  about
• Allow participants to modify the meeting or add
  to the AOB (any other business)
• Clarify any immediate issues
• Then get agreement on the agenda, if you cant
  get agreement then, iterate the process again.
  If theres a sticking point but its not
  essential park it and deal with it offline or
  at the end of the meeting

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• Establish precise time parameters
• Ensure you know how long you wish to spend
• Control the timings
• However, if something is very important and its
  moving forward cut it some slack (and remove one
  of the less important later objectives)
• Start on time, welcome latecomers but remind them
  that they have wasted everyone elses time
• Precise time parameters allow tight control and
  stop procrastination

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• Control the discussion
• Only when its looking like its becoming
  disruptive if people are talking let them talk
• Tent your fingers, look at the clock
• If it tends towards chaos then utilise a flip
  board or some other mechanism to bring some order
  into the meeting

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• End the meeting by clarifying what happens next
• Summarise the agreed points
• Recall the actions and who is responsible
• Set a deadline for a follow up meeting
• Thank them for their time
• And then after the meeting follow up on anything
  that concerned/interested you in the meeting with
  the parties individually

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