Enhancing Group and Team Performance

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Chapter 10

• Enhancing Group and Team Performance

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Communication Principles
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Enhancing Group and Team Performance

• What Effective Group Members Do
• Structuring Group and Team Problem Solving
• Enhancing Group and Team Leadership
• Enhancing Group and Team Meetings

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Research Regarding Group and Team Performance

• Groups and teams come up with more creative
  solutions to problems than a person working
  alone.
• Working with others in groups improves the
  comprehension of the ideas presented.
• Group and team members are more satisfied with
  the conclusions and recommendations if they
  participated in the discussion.
• Groups have more available information by tapping
  the experiences of group members.

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Effective Group Members

• Functional Approach
• described the kinds of functions that lead to
  better quality solutions and decisions
• vigilant thinkers pay attention to the process of
  how problems are solved

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Effective Group Members
Chapter 10 Enhancing Group and Team Performance

• Identify A Clear, Elevating Goal
• Gather and Use Information Effectively
• identify the data
• effectively communicate information
• draw accurate conclusions
• Develop Options
• Evaluate Ideas
• Develop Sensitivity Toward Others

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Effective Group Members
Chapter 10 Enhancing Group and Team Performance

• Prescriptive Approach
• offers a sequence of steps and techniques to help
  your group stay on task and remain productive
• a structured problem is one in which there is a
  single-best solution
• structure refers to the way a group discussion is
  organized
• interaction refers to the give-and-take discussion

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Groups Need a Balance of Structure and Interaction
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Structuring Problem Solving

• Step 1 Identify and Define the Problem
• Step 2 Analyze the Problem
• develop criteria
• force field analysis technique
• Step 3 Generate Possible Solutions
• brainstorming
• silent brainstorming
• nominal group technique

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Structuring Problem Solving
Chapter 10 Enhancing Group and Team Performance

• Step 4 Select the Best Solution
• strategies to reach consensus
• be goal oriented, listen, promote honest dialogue
  and discussion
• be cautious of groupthink
• encourage critical thinking
• dont agree with someone just because she or he
  is high status
• consider asking a third party to evaluate the
  group
• assign a devils advocate
• break into dyads and consider pros and cons

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Structuring Problem Solving

• Step 5 Test and Implement the Solution

RECAP Top Six Reasons Why Groups Make Bad
Decisions No Common Goal Group does not begin
with the end in mind Analysis Paralysis Team
members over analyze unimportant details Jumping
to Solutions People propose solutions before
facts are known Groupthink Group members agree
too quickly just to get on with it Topic
Hopping Lack of agenda and structure Killer
Inch Group argues over minor points
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Enhancing Team Leadership
Chapter 10 Enhancing Group and Team Performance

• Leadership is the ability of a person to
  influence others.
• Approaches To Leadership
• trait
• functional
• styles
• situational
• transformational

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Approaches To Leadership

• Trait Approach
• suggests that there are certain traits that make
  leaders
• intelligence
• confidence
• social skills
• administrative skill
• physical energy
• enthusiasm

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Approaches To Leadership

• Functional Approach
• categorizes the essential leadership functions
  that need to be performed to enhance the workings
  of the group
• task functions
• behaviors that help the group get the work done
• process functions
• help maintain a harmonious group climate by
  encouraging amiable relationships

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Approaches To Leadership

• Styles Approach
• authoritarian
• influence by giving orders and controlling others
• democratic
• consults with the group before issuing edicts
• laissez faire
• takes a hands-off, laid back approach to
  influencing

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Approaches To Leadership
Chapter 10 Enhancing Group and Team Performance

• Situational Approach
• views leadership as an interactive process that
  links a particular style of leadership with
  various factors
• Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchards Situational
  Leadership Model
• relationship behavior
• task behavior
• maturity of group members

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Approaches To Leadership

• Transformational Approach
• transformational leader influences by
  transforming the group by giving it new vision,
  energizing the culture, or giving the group new
  structure
• Fundamental Skills of Transformational Leadership
• build a shared vision
• challenge existing ways of thinking
• be a systems thinker

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Enhancing Group Meetings

• Manage Meeting Structure
• Step 1 Determine Your Meeting Goals
• Step 2 Identify What Needs to be Discussed to
  Achieve the Goal
• Step 3 Organize the Agenda
• an agenda is a list of the key issues, ideas, and
  information that will be discussed in the order
  of discussion

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Enhancing Group Meetings

• Manage Meeting Interaction
• Use gatekeeping skills
• Use metadiscussion
• Monitor time
• Use structure to manage interaction

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Enhancing Group Meetings

• Mosvic and Nelsons Suggestions for Meeting
  Participants
• Organize what you say
• Speak to the point
• Make one point at a time
• Speak clearly and forcefully
• Support your ideas with evidence
• Listen