Effective Teamwork

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Effective Teamwork

• Farrokh Alemi, Ph.D.

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What do you like about teams?What needs
improvement?

• Takes too much time
• Rewards popularity not good ideas
• Many make no effort but get the credit

• Get to meet new people
• Listen to new ideas
• Check on my thinking
• Help from others
• Commitment from others to follow up with the
  teams decision

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Objectives

• Describe the advantages of structured group
  processes.
• Describe key structured group processes.
• Describe what makes teams more effective and why.
• Describe steps in Integrative Group Process.

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How do you meet? What is your process of
meeting?

• Make an appointment
• People get together
• The issues are raised and discussed
• A consensus is arrived (how?)

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Possible Ways to Improve

• Agenda
• Timekeeper
• Evaluation

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More ways to improve Tell Members to Behave

• Avoid arguing,
• Avoid win-lose statements,
• Avoid changing opinions in order to reduce
  conflict,
• Avoid conflict-reducing techniques such as
  majority votes and bargaining.
• View differences of opinion as natural and
  initial agreements as suspect.

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Improve the Process Not People
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Nominal Group Process

• 1. Silent idea generations
• 2. Round-robin sharing of ideas
• 3. Voting and feedback to the group
• 4. Explanatory group discussion
• 5. Individual re-assessment
• 6. Mathematical aggregation of revised judgments

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Why it succeeds?

• Postponing evaluation increases creative
  solutions
• Thinking again improves
• Separating ideas from people helps judging ideas
  based on their merit

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Problems With Nominal Group Technique

• Awkward restrictions on interactions
• Not fun, participants do not have large
  commitment to decisions

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Delphi - Inter-related surveys

• List the options and give the reason for them
• Review the reasons, add comment and vote
• Review votes and comments and vote again

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Why it succeeds

• Separates evaluation from generation of ideas
• Separates ideas from people and lets the group
  decide on the merit of ideas not who said it
• Can involves hundreds of people

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Why it fails?

• Awkward
• People like to talk
• Takes time

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Summary of Lessons

• Postpone evaluation
• Do it again
• Meet before the meeting
• Instruct the group about meeting process

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Integrative Group Process

• Have agenda and timekeeper
• Select the best, even if they disagree
• Meet before the meeting
• Do it again
• Vote before discussion
• Talk through differences
• Document groups decision

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Take Home Lesson

• Post pone evaluation
• What else is bothering you
• Would someone else volunteer