Chapter 5: Understanding the Workplace Team

Outline - AOT 141 - Test Date: 25 September 2013

Learning Objective #1: Describe benefits of teams and identify common types of workplace teams.

  1. Teams at Work

Team: a group of employees that work together towards a common goal.

  1. Benefits of Teams for Organizations
  1. Brings together skills and experiences that exceed those of an individual
  2. Results in greater creativity, more options, better decisions and solutions
  3. Effective teamwork leads to more job satisfaction, better job performance and job security
  1. Benefits of Teams for Employees
  1. Gain insight, ideas and helpful information from others
  2. Cross-training on different tasks
  3. Seeing the whole process
  4. See the “bigger picture”
  5. Teams are fun
  1. Types of Teams
  1. Project Team
  1. Project Team: A team developed for a clearly defined project with a beginning and an end.
  2. May report to task force
  3. Usually has a budget and schedule

Ex: A team that finds a new market niche, develops new client services or improves a process

  1. Cross – Functional Team
  1. Cross-Functional Team: a team composed of individuals from a number of different functional groups within an organization
  2. Has matrix structure; resources are temporarily borrowed from all over the company to accomplish a goal

Ex: Engineering, Marketing or Quality Control Departments

  1. Virtual Team
  1. Virtual Team: a team that primarily meets electronically, crossing time, distance and organizational boundaries in order to operate as a team..
  2. Open up collaborative opportunities that wouldn’t be possible or practical by any other means
  3. May operate globally or locally
  4. Meet virtually some or all of the time for convenience
  5. Use email, blogs, wikis, VOIP, phone calls and IM to communicate

Workplace Wisdom

Projects are less predictable and more stressful to manage because they are new and there is less evidence available to predict costs, schedules, and resource requirements.

Writing @ Work

Status Report: A regular progress report that generally includes a brief summary of the team’s progress since the last report was made and the team’s objectives for the period until the next report is due.

May also include:

  • Overall deadlines for completion
  • Any upcoming interim deadlines
  • General statement about whether the project is on schedule
  • Questions for which the team does not need an immediate answer
  • Problems that are not urgent or are confidential
  • Other brief information

Learning Objective #2: Describe the general process by which teams operate.

  1. The Team Process
  1. Early Meetings
  1. Organizational leadership forms teams and places a leader in charge
  2. Teams can be short- or long-term
  3. Define team goals and roles of members
  4. Clearly define broad goals
  5. Make initial work assignments
  1. Team Roles
  1. Informal Roles: roles that team members recognize as needing to be filled and accordingly take on, often because they are skilled in that area.
  2. Informal Team Roles:
  1. Clarifier: Interprets ideas, discussions, and issues by asking questions, giving examples and restating ideas
  2. Facilitator: Often serves as team leader; keeps meetings on topic and helps the team reach agreements
  3. Initiator: Offers ideas and suggestions to get the team started and to move it along
  4. Summarizer: Pulls together related ideas and draws conclusions
  5. Supporter: Praises the efforts of other team members and helps build and sustain morale
  1. Team Norms
  1. Team Norms: Habits or unwritten rules of operation for the team
  1. A team doesn’t talk about the details of the project outside team meetings
  2. If a team member is going to miss a meeting, that person emails his contribution
  3. A team may elect to defer certain questions to a particular team member because of that person’s expertise
  4. Team members agree to let everyone speak uninterrupted
  5. Team may spend the first 10 minutes of a meeting socializing; team members may arrive during this time without being considered late
  1. Stages of Team Development

Tuckman Model:

  1. Forming: All members are seeking to get to know the team and are avoiding conflict.
  2. Storming: As important issues are discussed, people begin to have conflicts and let their opinions be known.
  3. Norming: The conflicts are over. Everyone knows each other better and can listen and appreciate what each member has to offer. Now real progress can be made.
  4. Performing: Everyone trusts one another enough to work independently. Roles are flexible, and the team changes easily according to need.
  5. Adjourning: The work is done. The team disbands with a feeling of loss because of the positive group relationships they have had but also with a sense of satisfaction.

Developing Ideas

  1. Brainstorming encourages members to come up with innovative ideas.
  1. Any and all ideas are encouraged
  2. The main rule is that no idea is ever criticized or evaluated during the session
  1. Starbursting is a form of brainstorming that consists of asking questions instead of generating answers.
  1. The words who, what, when, where, and why are written on each point of a star
  2. Participants pose questions (not answers) about the topic

Learning Objective #3: Describe qualities and skills for being an effective team member, supporter or leader.

  1. Contributing to the Team

Cohesion: The ability to “stick together” and operate as one

  1. Reliability and Commitment
  1. A successful team must have reliable members.
  2. Commitment is demonstrated in both attitude and actions

Examples:

  1. Getting to meetings on time
  2. Being prepared
  3. Doing the work the team assigns you
  4. Taking part wholeheartedly in the team’s activities
  5. Meeting Deadlines
  1. Trust is another important element
  2. Mistrust results when members have the real or mistaken perception that someone isn’t interested or isn’t doing his fair share
  3. Develop relationships to build trust; people who know each other well work better as a team
  1. Listening and Speaking Skills

(Also covered in AOT 134, Chapter 1-3)

Listening Skills

  1. Listen attentively to other team members
  2. Focus your attention on the speaker
  3. Take notes if necessary
  4. Wait until the speaker is finished before deciding what you are going to say

Speaking Skills

  1. Express your ideas and opinions clearly and accurately
  2. Think and plan a little before contributing
  3. Look at the person to whom you are speaking
  4. When speaking to a group, shift your gaze from person to person
  5. Be prepared: review meeting minutes and research your points
  6. Mentally rehearse your speech
  1. Other Skills
  1. Written communication skills
  2. Interpersonal skills
  3. The ability to handle criticism
  4. Problem solving and discussion making
  5. Conflict resolution skills
  6. Leadership skills
  1. Being the Leader

Being the leader is a natural progression in any career.

  1. Lead and manage people, organize and manage time and projects
  2. Set ground rules and establish expectations; clearly define purposes and goals
  3. Establish rapport and create precedent for communication and collaboration
  4. Model openness to encourage an open, cooperative and collaborative environment
  5. Motivate team
  6. Be receptive – ask the right question and listen effectively to see each member as an individual and get to know strengths and weaknesses
  7. When choosing a team, choose members with knowledge, skill and background; 5-7 members provides a good range of effective problem solving and decision making

“Genuine praise is a powerful motivator.”

“Flatter is praise given for an interested purpose.”

Technology @ Work

Mind maps: let you visually represent a problem, help clarify points, and allow you to see the problem differently.

Communicating @ Work

Do’s and don’ts of being in a team meeting:

  • Do listen well to everyone
  • Do try to understand everyone’s point
  • Don’t interrupt anyone
  • Don’t dominate the discussion
  • Don’t talk off-topic
  • Don’t demonstrate a negative attitude
  • Don’t text, check email, or surf the internet on your cell phone or computer

Expected Team Behaviors

  • Only one person talks at a time
  • Be on time for meetings
  • Listen to the person talking
  • No side discussion
  • Deal with issues, not personalities
  • Keep your commitments

Savvy Admin

Respect people’s opinions, even if you strongly disagree

Do not discuss other people’s opinion as if it were your own

Learning Objective #4: List qualities of effective teams and identify team challenges.

  1. Effective Teams and Team Challenges

Good leadership and organizational support is important to the success of the team.

  1. Characteristics of Effective Teams
  1. Clear and realistic goals
  2. A proper level of education and mix of skills
  3. Adequate tools
  4. Discipline (such as communication plans and regular meetings)
  5. Cohesion
  6. Effective leadership
  7. Integrate diversity
  8. Focus on team goals instead of personal goals
  9. Take ownership of performance and efficiency; each member is responsible for the team’s success or failure
  1. Team Challenges

The team leader is usually the person most responsible for meeting these challenges.

  1. Conflict
  1. Can help identify problems and issues the team has not considered and can help the team grow
  2. Can be counterproductive
  3. Look at conflict objectively from your perspective and others’ perspectives
  4. If you are wrong, apologize one and move on
  1. Groupthink
  1. Groupthink: Problems that occur when conformity becomes more important than exploring different ideas and viewpoints.
  1. Other Challenges
  1. Reluctance of some members to contribute to team discussion
  2. Tendency of some members to dominate others

People @ Work

Project managers oversee and manage all the details associated with completing a project. They carry out the project plans by identifying the resources that are needed as well as managing the day-to-day operations of the project.

  • Financial duties: projecting and tracking team hours and expenses, manage budget
  • Get projects done on time – all project goals met
  • Has technical understanding of the project
  • Facilitate team meetings and discussions, communicate with clients, continually seek opportunities to increase customer satisfaction, and serve as mentors and leaders to the project team.
  • Moderate team conflicts, challenge others on the team to take leadership roles, and inspire and motivate teammates to work together to their fullest potential