Lesson Title: Team Building

PART I

Lesson Title: Team Building

Teaching Method: Informal Lecture/Practical Exercise

Time Required: 2 hours

Prerequisite Classes: None

Visual Aids: PowerPoint Slides

Student Preparation: None

Certified by: Holm Center/CR (Dr. Charles Nath III)

PART IA

Cognitive Lesson Objective: Comprehend the concept of effective team building.

Cognitive Samples of Behavior:

1. Differentiate among the four stages of group growth. (L)
2. Describe the differences between groups and teams. (L)
3. Identify the characteristics of effective teams. (L)
4. Identify the principles of effective teams. (L)

Activity Statement: Practice team-building principles during in-class exercises.

Affective Lesson Objective: Value the importance of effective team building.

Affective Samples of Behavior:

1.  Actively participate in team-building exercise.

2.  Assert the importance of team-building principles.

PART IB

Strategy: This lesson has both cognitive and affective objectives. Students will be objectively tested on the cognitive samples. The affective objective and samples of behavior are included to provide indications that the students not only understand, but also value the information presented surrounding the objective. You should consciously strive to reach the affective domain as you deliver your lecture/guide your discussions. To assess whether you are meeting the objective, ask questions to obtain responses that demonstrate the affective samples of behavior. To accomplish this, ask how and why questions while recognizing and “seizing opportunities” to make your own inquiries of students’ attitudes and feelings. Avoid providing anticipated responses to how and why questions. This will require you to use effective questioning to get the value based responses you are looking for, but don’t put the “words in their mouths.” Responses that communicate feelings in line with the objective are the first level of determining whether you are reaching the affective learning objective with your students.

The first hour of this lesson is designed to lay the foundation for an understanding of how teams are formed and work together. This lesson begins by introducing the four stages of group growth: forming, norming, storming, and performing, based on the research of Greiner (1972) and Cameron & Whetten (1981). We start by defining the various stages and then showing what feelings, behaviors, and expectations are encountered for members at each stage. The lesson then examines the difference between groups and teams. Teams have a stronger sense of identification among their members than do groups, more common goals or tasks, and greater task interdependence, and team members often have more differentiated and specialized roles than group members.

The lesson then looks at different characteristics that are common to all effective teams. A team should have a defined mission, cooperation, communication, and interdependence among its members.

The last hour is set aside for the class to participate in team-building exercises. In the reading, students learned how teams form and work together. In this lesson, the students apply that information in a group or team environment. You have a choice between exercises 1 and 2, and exercise 3 is optional. We recommend the exercises included with this lesson, but keep in mind that these are only recommendations, and it is your option to use these or others of your choosing. Following the exercise information, there is an optional guided discussion section.

Lesson Outline:

A.  Four Stages of Group Growth

B.  Groups versus Teams

1. Effective Teams
2. Exercises

PART II

INTRODUCTION

ATTENTION

(Suggested: A group can be thought of as “two or more persons who are interacting with one another in such a manner that each person influences and is influenced by the other person” (Shaw, 1981). Groups and teams are thought to be different. What is the difference between a group and a team?)

MOTIVATION

(Suggested: The ability of individuals to realize these differences and adapt to them directly impacts how the group will develop. Each group progresses through phases of growth. The faster a group can overcome individual differences, the faster and more effectively the members will accomplish tasks they face. Throughout your Air Force career, you'll be challenged with tasks, just as you are challenged here, requiring you to successfully work within a team. Realizing the stages of growth through which a group progresses will help you and the group to effectively accomplish any task.)

OVERVIEW

1. Four stages of group growth
2. Groups versus teams
3. Effective Teams
4. Exercises

TRANSITION

(Suggested: As a group, you will progress through stages of growth common to virtually all groups. Each stage includes feelings felt by group members and characteristic behaviors group members visibly demonstrate. We will discuss the feelings and behaviors associated with each stage of growth.)

BODY

PRESENTATION

A. While groups are coming together, they progress through four stages: forming, norming, storming, and performing.

1.  The Forming Stage occurs when a group initially comes together (example: the flight’s first week together.)

a.  Forming feelings are somewhat competing:

(1)  On the one hand, there is excitement at being selected to the group, anticipation of what the group and the task will be like, and optimism at the possibility of being able to make a significant contribution to completing a task or a mission.

(2)  On the other hand, there is a wariness about meeting new team members for the first time, uncertainty about whom to trust as a leader or what is expected of yourself as a team member, and guardedness in the early stages about how much to communicate with other members. Getting to know rules and boundaries is an early challenge.

b. Forming behaviors, also an initial stage of team building, is focused most heavily on developing group ties.

(1) Deciding what is acceptable group behavior, purpose, and procedures.

(2) Establishing trust as the leader lays out general groundwork.

(3) Discussing abstractly and conceptually with no clear focus on tasks or problems.

(4) Addressing initial questions or complaints.

2. The Norming Stage occurs when the group takes on an identity, begins to work together as a team, and shares a common goal, maybe even achieving a unit training citation.

a. Norming feelings are marked by acceptance into the group, cooperativeness and bonding with other members, conformity to group norms and dynamics, and a sense of relief that the group is headed in the right direction.

b. Norming behaviors.

(1) Friendlier discussions on a more personal level and more discussions about the dynamics of the group. Members begin to confide in one another.

(2) Focusing on common goals and avoiding conflict in an attempt to promote harmony.

(3) Establishing and sustaining realistic group parameters for behavior and performance.

(4) More of a sense of group cohesion.

The danger at this stage is groupthink where the group is so agreeable that inertia may set in, taking away group creativity. The group may fail to come to grips with tough decisions if the decisions are at the expense of the team's close ties. A good leader should recognize this behavior and counter it – but how? One way is to introduce conflict to the situation.

LOQ: Why should such conflict be introduced into a situation where a team gets along? Any ideas?

AR: Long-standing research says that to move toward having a high performing team, you have to move out of the norming stage into the storming stage. This has its risks, but it helps a leader overcome groupthink and be assured that complicated missions or tasks can be fully explored with the team and the right decisions made from the outcome of the interchange.

Some techniques for overcoming groupthink are listed here.

A leader can encourage open discussion among team members, keeping his or her own opinions quiet for a time to enable team opinions to surface.

Forming subgroups or bringing in outside experts is a way to do this to provide different perspectives.

Assigning a team member to play the role of critic and maybe another as a challenger can be effective. The challenger goes beyond the critic by bringing up entirely new ideas for consideration.

When possible, the leader should allow time to revisit the issue after the group has time to think about it.

The bottom line for leaders is that they need to move beyond the norming stage and groupthink. If you want to develop full-performing teams, don't avoid conflict – manage it.

3. The Storming Stage occurs when the group has been challenged fully by a task and reaches the most dangerous stage for a group and the most difficult to overcome. Example: Drill Performance Review (DPR)

a. Storming feelings occur when consensus gives way to resistance to the task and the group, resulting from differences in group members’ individual approaches toward the task and personality conflicts. Other sources of conflict include rapidly varying attitudes toward the task, roles of other group members, and questioning the chances for success.

b. Storming behaviors

(1) Arguing and competing among group members even when they agree on the issues.

(2) Bids for power, drawing divisional lines, or forming cliques.

(3) Lack of unity, as challenges surface to a leader's approaches.

(4)  Testing boundaries can be a person's desire for expression or to see how far one can go or purely a desire to improve ways things are done.

In any event, the leader should stimulate a team's expression of ideas, find ways to get members to work toward common goals, to work through issues to make intelligent decisions, i.e., ways to limit conflict and to weather the storm at this stage of team-building.

4. The Performing Stage is the final stage of effective performance. (Example: Vigilant Warrior (OTS)/last week of Field Training).

a.  Performing feelings occur when group members finally have insight regarding other group members' strengths and faults, as well as group processes. They feel genuine satisfaction about the group's progress.

b. Performing behaviors.

(1) Constructively changing one's self to better the group.

(2) Ability to avoid group conflict and, should conflict arise, be able to work through it.

(3) Capitalizing on each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

TRANSITION

(Suggested: Think of teams you may have been on such as a football or baseball team or a team in your work environment. What’s the difference between that team and being a member of a group? You want to be more than just a group of people. You want to function as a team. Let's begin by taking a closer look at the differences between groups and teams.)

B. Four ways in which teams can be distinguished from groups include:

1. Teams generally have a stronger sense of identification among their members than do groups.

2. Second, teams have common goals or tasks. Group members, on the other hand, may not have the same degree of consensus about goals as team members do.

3. Third, task interdependence typically is greater with teams than with groups. Group members can often contribute to goal accomplishment by working independently.

4. Team members often have more differentiated and specialized roles than group members do.

TRANSITION

(Suggested: Let’s begin to unravel the mysteries behind effective teams by examining their characteristics.)

C. An effective team has three characteristics:

1.  A defined mission, task, objective, or function. The team must have a purpose for being, a definite goal or purpose that is clearly stated for all to understand.

2. Cooperation and communication among its members. Can you have one without the other? No, these two must work hand-in-hand. Without cooperation, there is no communication, and without communication, there is no cooperation. Individual members must know their roles and how they contribute to the team to accomplish its mission, objective, task, or function.

3. Interdependence among its members. The team members must be interdependent. Each member of a team is dependent on every other member. If the members are not interdependent and one person does all the work, then there is little need for a team effort.

TRANSITION

(Suggested: You now have a better understanding of how groups and teams work and interact. The three characteristics of defined mission, cooperation and communication, and interdependence must be present in a team to give them a chance at success. If they are missing, the chance for failure increases tremendously. These three characteristics can be expanded even further into certain essential ingredients.)

D. Let’s examine the principles that can create a more effective team

·  Trust and Confidence.

Olympic champion teams embody trust and confidence among team members; individual players perform better because they can focus entirely on their own areas of responsibility. The same is true of military teams.

·  Delegation/Empowerment.

Delegation is central to effective military operations. When a section NCO can delegate technical tasks with confidence that they will be done right, he or she can focus on the overall well-being and mission accomplishment of the team.

·  Cooperation.

High-performing teams cooperate under all conditions, whether the going is easy or rough. Effective teams in combat environments seem to be able to anticipate what other members need.

·  Participation.

In an effective team, everyone contributes. In military operations, few tasks can be performed without support and advice from others. As a leader, your participation in routine team activities will set the standard for less-routine times when every member’s participation is critical to mission accomplishment or even survival.

·  Respect For The Individual.

For a team to be effective, members must accommodate each others’ perspectives and needs. When a team values the opinions of even the most junior Airman, this is a sign of strength and unity.

·  Clearly Defined Roles.

Successful military operations require each team member to know his or her role in the mission. A technician assigned to a maintenance unit may assume the role of inspector or troubleshooter in different circumstances. Leaders must clearly communicate what roles are expected of members.

·  Communication.

Communication is what makes a group of people an efficient and effective team. In the military, good communication means good decision-making. Watch a high-performing sports team or military organization at work. Members are constantly listening, watching, talking, and writing to each other.

·  Dedication/Commitment.

A1C Thomas worked late to ensure the section did not have a backlog of items for repair in the morning. Nobody told him to do that, and he did not expect time off in return. A1C Thomas is a dedicated team member.