EFFECTIVE TEAMWORK

OBJECTIVES• To understand the importance of working

as team and the impact of team spirit on achieving organization goals.

• To enhance participants skills when practicing teamwork concepts.

• To be able to use techniques for handling team interpersonal problems.

• To gain greater insight into:– Why teams succeed and fail. – Team norms, role and stages.

T O P I C S• Why Teamwork• How teams work

– Individual, Team and Task– What is a team?

• Teams Vs. groups.!– What is teamwork?

• How we see ourselves and others– Team norms– Team roles

• Role definitions– Team functions

The Perfect Person

• Creative, imaginative• Extrovert, enthusiastic, communicative. • Confident and trusting. • Dynamic, outgoing, seeks ways round obstacles.• Sees all options. Judges accurately.• Social, mild, perceptive and accommodating.• Disciplined, reliable, conservative and efficient. • Searches out errors and omissions. Delivers on

time.• Single-minded, self-starting, dedicated. Provides

knowledge or technical skills in rare supply.

WHY TEAMWORK?

The Perfect Person

• It is difficult to find …

• But it is easy to find …or establish ..

The Perfect Team

HOW TEAMS WORK

IndividualTeam

Needs of Individual are catered for by team

Individual, Team and Task

Individual

Task

Challenging tasks maintain individual Interest

Team

TaskTeam works to common end to complete tasks

IndividualTeam

TaskTeam works to common end to complete tasks

Needs of Individual are catered for by team

Challenging tasks maintain individual Interest

Each individual contributes to team effort to complete task in hand

What is a team?Teams Vs. Groups

• Outside the canteen there's a group of people waiting in a lunch queue.

• They are all there for the same reason.– Are they a team?

• YES - NO

(NO) We agree. These people have a common purpose, but they're not working together to achieve it! They're not a team.

What is a team?• We are in the

boardroom. • There are seven

directors on the Board.

• They meet four times a year.– Are they a team?

• YES - NO

(YES) We agree. It doesn't matter how often the Board meets they still work together to a common purpose. They're a team.

What is a team?• In the call

centre, • 60 staff are

answering customer calls.– Are they a

team?• YES - NO

(NO) We agree. We'd argue that 60 people is too many to be a manageable team. A group this size would split into smaller teams.

What is a team?• In the Marketing

Department, • Jeff Watkins is

holding a section meeting.

• He's briefing the seven members of his workgroup on sales.– Is this workgroup a

team?• YES - NO

(YES) We agree. The workgroup is a classic team, so long as everyone's working towards the same purpose

What is a team?

• Work teams comprise fewer than 10 people who:– Have a common purpose – Are interdependent

• Teams can be:– Hierarchical, with a strong leader– Participative, with shared decisions and

management – A mixture of both the above

What is Teamwork?

HOW WE SEE OURSELVES AND OTHERS

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INTERPERSONAL INTERACTION STRATEGIES

• Your basic strategy is to:

–MAXIMIZE THE ARENA

–(Open Interaction Area)

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UNKNOWN BLIND SPOT

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OUR OBJECTIVE IS TO MAXIMIZE THE ARENA

MAXIMIZE THE ARENA

• Start with yourself.– You are the main benefactor.

• Give information.– To make your façade as transparent as possible.

• Encourage others to give information.– To minimize the blind area.

• Join others in searching for more information.– This minimizes the unknown area.

• Consult document, studies and work papers.• Try your subordinate, peers and (even) your boss.

MAXIMIZE THE ARENA

• Develop an atmosphere of trust.– Share with others.– Allow them to participate and contribute.– Accept their ideas and opinions.– Conduct open discussion with them.

• Try to develop an … – “I’M OK, You're OK” relationship.

Team Norms

• NORMS are forces which strongly affect team behavior.

• Norms can be productive or counterproductive and

• Norms may be harmless or may need changing.

• Let's see what they are.

Team Norms

• Think about teams you've been in. • Have the team members shared in:

– Jokes and catchphrases?– Styles of dress?– Attitudes to working late?– Standards of tidiness?– Similar ideas about alcohol at

lunchtime?

Team Norms

• Norms are a team's rules about how individuals should think and act.

• There are some important things to remember about norms.– NORMS ALWAYS EMERGE– NORMS DEVELOP OVER TIME– NORMS ARE GENERALLY UNSPOKEN– NORMS ARE DIFFERENT IN EVERY TEAM

Team Norms• Norms can sometimes stop teams

succeeding.– We call norms like this counterproductive. – They can slow down production or waste time.

• You may have come across managers who feel they have to sit in the office reading the paper rather than be seen going home before 8:00pm

• You're going to be taken on a tour of some team norms.

• You'll have to decide if they are: – Productive, – Counterproductive or – Harmless.

Team Norms• THE SALES

DEPARTMENT– We always have five

minutes fooling around before getting down to business at meetings.

– Is this norm:• Productive?• Counterproductive?• HARMLESS?

Productive

Team Norms• THE DESPATCH

DEPARTMENT• We let the Logistics

Controller discover problems for himself. – Is this norm:

• Productive?• Counterproductive?• HARMLESS?

Counterproductive

Team Norms• THE PERSONNEL

DEPARTMENT• We call the

Managing Director Genghis Khan. – Is this norm:

• Productive?• Counterproductive?• HARMLESS?

HARMLESS

• ACCOUNTS DEPARTMENT

• We move hell and high water to produce the monthly management accounts on time.– Is this norm:

• Productive?• Counterproductive?• HARMLESS?

PRODUCTIVE

Team Norms• To change a norm would you:

– Alter your behavior and hope the rest will follow

– Discuss this norm with the group– Try to identify allies in the group

“Discuss this norm with the group”Yes. Norms are unspoken. To change them you have to bring them out into the open.

Team Norms

• TIPS FOR SUCCESS– When a norm is harmless go along with it– When a norm is productive encourage it– When a norm is counterproductive, bring it

out in the open

BUT, be careful! Norms are powerful things. Treat them with care

Team Roles

• A successful team must have the right mix of expertise to help achieve the team's tasks.

• But teams are more than just a mix of complementary skills.

• In all successful teams, each individual has a role to fulfill.

• The team as a whole requires the right mix of expertise, personalities, etc.

Team Roles

• The best known work on team roles is by R.M.Belbin, who identifies 9 essential roles, all of which are associated with PERSONALITY TRAITS, such as extroversion, enthusiasm, …etc,

THE NINE TEAM ROLESAs defined by R.M.Belbin

1. The PLANT: – Creative, imaginative, unorthodox. Solves difficult problems.

2. The RESOURCE INVESTIGATOR:– Extrovert, enthusiastic, communicative. Explores opportunities.

Develops contacts.3. The CO-ORDINATOR:

– Mature, confident and trusting. A good chairman. Clarifies goals, promotes decision-making.

4. The SHAPER:– Dynamic, outgoing, highly strung. Challenges, pressurizes,

seeks ways round obstacles.5. The MONITOR EVALUATOR:

– Sober, strategic and discerning. Sees all options. Judges accurately.

THE NINE TEAM ROLESAs defined by R.M.Belbin

6. The TEAM WORKER:– Social, mild, perceptive and accommodating.

Listens, builds, averts friction.7. The IMPLEMENTER:

– Disciplined, reliable, conservative and efficient. Turns ideas into practical actions.

8. The COMPLETER-FINISHER: – Painstaking, conscientious, anxious. Searches out

errors and omissions. Delivers on time.9. The SPECIALIST:

– Single-minded, self-starting, dedicated. Provides knowledge or technical skills in rare supply.

Team FunctionsThe 6 functions that must be performed in a team.

• PLANNING– Seeking all available information; defining team

objectives and tasks; making a workable plan• INITIATING

– Briefing team on aims and plan; explaining why aim or plan is necessary; allocating tasks to group members; setting team standards

• CONTROLLING– Maintaining team standards; influencing tempo;

ensuring all actions are taken towards objectives; keeping discussion relevant; prodding group to action/decision

Team FunctionsThe 6 functions that must be performed in a team.

• SUPPORTING– Acceptance of persons and their contributions; encouraging

groups/individuals; disciplining groups/individuals; creating team spirit; relieving tension with humor; reconciling disagreements or getting others to explore them

• INFORMING– Clarifying task and plan; giving new information to the team;

keeping everybody 'in the picture'; receiving information from the team; summarizing ideas and suggestions clearly

• EVALUATING– Checking the feasibility of an idea; testing the consequences of a

proposed solution; evaluating group performance; helping the team to evaluate its own performance against standards