Project Teams

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Project Teams
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Objectives

• At the end of this lecture you should
• Appreciate the roles required within a team
• Be able to identify why a team is not effective
• Be able to adapt the style of leadership to the
  stage the team is at

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Team issues

• Can the team be selected?
• A group or a team?
• How many make a good team?
• Communication?

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Team structure

• An effective team will need staff to fill the
  following roles although any individual may fill
  more than one role
• A leader to manage and co-ordinate the team,
  keeping it focussed on its goals and objectives.
• An ideas person who is creative, innovative and
  good at problem solving.
• Workers who carry out the main tasks of the
  team.
• A critic who questions methods, activities,
  highlights problems, monitors progress.
• A team builder who keeps the team together,
  makes it work and maintains harmony.

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Belbin Team Roles

• Dr. Meredith Belbin devised one of the most
  widely used Team Models
• This gives a framework for understanding the
  constituents of a perfect team and a language to
  describe peoples behaviour and orientation in a
  team context
• Its usefulness comes from the way in which it
  enables a team to analyse itself and make
  decisions about team roles that are absent,
  over-represented or under-represented

R. M. Belbin, Management Teams Why they succeed
or fail. Butterworth Heinemann
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Belbin Team Roles

• Company worker (Implementer)
• Chairman (Co-ordinator)
• Shaper
• Plant
• Resource Investigator
• Monitor/Evaluator
• Team worker
• Completer- Finisher
• Plus
• Specialist

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Company Worker (CW)

• Typical features
• Conservative, dutiful, predictable
• Positive qualities
• Organizing ability, practical common sense,
  self-discipline, hard working
• Allowable weaknesses
• Lack of flexibility, unresponsiveness to unproven
  ideas, resistance to change

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Chairman (CH)

• Typical features
• Calm, self-confident, controlled
• Positive qualities
• Welcomes contribution on merit without prejudice,
  strong sense of objectives, clarifies,
  co-ordinates and disciplines
• Allowable weaknesses
• Average intellect and ability

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Shaper (SH)

• Typical features
• Highly strung, outgoing, dynamic
• Positive qualities
• Has drive, challenges inertia, ineffectiveness
  and complacency
• Allowable weaknesses
• Prone to provocation, irritation and impatience.
  Impulsive and impatient. Prone to hurt peoples
  feelings. Can be seen as arrogant and abrasive

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Plant (PL)

• Typical features
• Individualistic, serious minded, unorthodox
• Positive qualities
• Genius, radical and imagination, intellect,
  knowledge
• Allowable weaknesses
• Can make careless mistakes, ignore protocol,
  disregard practical details. Conflict if too
  many in the team

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Resource Investigator (RI)

• Typical features
• Extrovert, enthusiastic, curious, communicative,
  externally focused
• Positive qualities
• Responds to challenge, contacts people exploring
  anything new
• Allowable weaknesses
• Liable to lose interest once the initial
  fascination has passed and not follow through.
  Over-optimistic and uncritical

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Monitor-Evaluator (ME)

• Typical features
• Sober, unemotional, prudent, objective
• Positive qualities
• Has judgement, discretion, analyses problems and
  critiques contributions
• Allowable weaknesses
• Lacks tack and fails to accept new ideas

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Team Worker (TW)

• Typical features
• Socially orientated, rather mild and sensitive,
• Positive qualities
• Fosters team spirit, supports team members, good
  for morale. Helps communications, counters
  friction, likeable and popular.
• Allowable weaknesses
• Seen as soft, indecisive in a crisis

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Completer-Finisher (CF)

• Typical features
• Orderly, conscientious, anxious, perfectionist
• Positive qualities
• Delivers on time. Takes care that details arent
  overlooked and tasks finished on time.
• Allowable weaknesses
• Can get bogged down, worries

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Specialist

• Typical features
• Single mindedness to become expert
• Positive qualities
• Drive, dedication, can make good managers
• Allowable weaknesses
• Dont see the big picture

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• Creative Plants and Resource Investigators
• Motivators Co-ordinators and Resource
  Investigators
• Strong Leaders Co-ordinators and Shapers
• Intelligent Thinkers Plant and Monitor
  Evaluator
• Promote Harmony Co-ordinators and Team workers
• Doers Implementers and Completers
• Dedicated to achieving high standards
  Completers and Specialists

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6 Key Factors

• Need a chair
• Need a plant (one strong one, more than one is
  less productive)
• Need a good spread of mental abilities (not all
  very clever)
• Needs a wide coverage of roles/personal
  characteristics
• Match tasks to peoples personality (dont try to
  change people)
• Recognise imbalance and act (change roles as
  needed)

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Characteristics of High Performing Teams

• Purpose
• Empowerment
• Relationships and Communication
• Flexibility
• Optimal Performance
• Recognition and Appreciation
• Morale

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perform
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To assess your teams ratings

• Think how your team would rate on a scale of 1 -
  5 (1 - low, 5 - high)
• REMEMBER None of us is as smart as all of us

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Purpose

• Members can describe and are committed to a
  common purpose
• Goals are clear, challenging and relevant to the
  purpose
• Strategies for achieving goals are clear
• Individual roles are clear

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Empowerment

• Members feel a personal and collective sense of
  power
• Members have access to necessary skills and
  resources
• Policies and practices support team objectives
• Mutual respect and willingness to help each other
  is evident

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Relationships and Communication

• Members express themselves openly and honestly
• Warmth, understanding and acceptance is expressed
• Members listen actively to each other
• Differences of opinion and perspective are valued

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Flexibility

• Members perform different roles and functions as
  needed
• Members share responsibility for team leadership
  and team development
• Members are adaptable to changing demands
• Various ideas and approaches are explored

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Optimal Productivity

• Output is high
• Quality is excellent
• Decision making is effective
• Clear problem-solving process is apparent

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Recognition and Appreciation

• Individual contributions are recognized and
  appreciated by leader and other members
• Team accomplishments are recognized by members
• Group members feel respected
• Team contributions are valued and recognized by
  the organization

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Morale

• Individuals feel good about their membership on
  the team
• Individuals are confident and motivated
• Members have a sense of pride and satisfaction
  about their work
• There is a strong sense of cohesion and team
  spirit

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• An effective team starts with a clear purpose.
  The hoped-for end results are optimal
  productivity and good morale. The means to those
  ends are empowerment, relationships,
  communication, flexibility and recognition and
  appreciation
• Blanchard (1993)

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Developing high performing teams

• The team leaders need three major skills
• diagnosis - observe the team interacting
• adaptability - become a situational leader
• empowerment - turning over the responsibility for
  direction and support to the group

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The team leader is balancing the needs of
Each Team Member
The Customer
The Team
The Organisation
Other Teams
Ken Rabey 1999
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When observing teams

• content (what, the task)
• process (how, team functioning)
• communication and participation
• decision making
• conflict
• leadership
• goals and roles
• group norms
• problem solving
• climate/tone

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Group Development

• Stage 1 - Orientation
• Stage 2 - Dissatisfaction
• Stage 3 - Resolution
• Stage 4 - Production

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Orientation

• Characteristics
• Feeling moderately eager with high expectations
• Feeling some anxiety Where do I fit? What is
  expected of me?
• Testing the situation and central figures
• Depending on authority and hierarchy
• Needing to find a place and establish oneself

the sniffing stage
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Dissatisfaction

• Characteristics
• Experiencing a discrepancy between hopes and
  reality
• Feeling dissatisfied with dependence on authority
• Feeling frustrated anger around goals, tasks
  and action plans
• Feeling incompetent and confused
• Reacting negatively toward leaders and other
  members
• Competing for power and/or attention
• Experiencing polarities dependence/counter-depen
  dence

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• No developmental stage is bad. Each stage is
  part of the journey toward production
• Blanchard (1993)

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Resolution

• Characteristics
• Decreasing dissatisfaction
• Resolving discrepancies between expectations and
  reality
• Resolving polarities and animosities
• Developing harmony, trust, support and respect
• Developing self-esteem and confidence
• Being more open and giving more feedback
• Sharing responsibility and control
• Using team language

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Groupthink

• Irving Janis (a psychologist) discovered that
  often social pressure prevented group members for
  disagreeing.
• No-on wants to rock the boat.

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Production

• Characteristics
• Feeling excited about participating in team
  activities
• Working collaboratively and interdependently with
  whole and sub-groups
• Feeling team strength
• Showing high confidence in accomplishing tasks
• Sharing leadership
• Feeling positive about task successes
• Performing at high levels

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Group Development Stages
High
Low
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Becoming a Situational Leader

• Leadership styles
• autocratic - telling people what to do, how, when
  and where to do it
• directive
• democratic - emphasis on listening, praising
  efforts and facilitating interactions
• supportive
• The two extremes can lead to problems

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The four leadership styles of situational
leadership
High
Coaching
Supporting
Supportive Behaviour
S2
S3
S4
S1
Directing
Delegating
Low
High
Directive Behaviour
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Empowerment

• Empowerment is all about letting go so that
  others can get going
• You will never have an empowered self-directed
  team unless the manager is willing to share
  control
• The leader still needs to provide the kind of
  behaviour that the team is not able to provide
  for itself at each stage
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

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Team Development Game Plan

• Determine vision, set goals and roles
• Diagnosis
• determine development level of the group
• Match appropriate leadership style
• Deliver the appropriate leadership style
• Begin to manage the journey to group empowerment

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Bibliography

• Belbin R M (1981). Management Teams Why they
  succeed or fail. Butterworth Heinemann
• Blanchard K, Carew D Parisi-Carew E (1993).
  The One Minute Manager Builds High Performing
  Teams. Harper Collins Business
• Maddux R (1994). Team Building An exercise in
  leadership. Crisp Publications Inc.