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| * Effective Teamwork * | | Time Management | | | Technology tips | |
Tips for Effective Teamwork
These helpful team tips are provided courtesy of the Center for Academic Computing (CAC) at Penn State University
Conditions that help develop and maintain effective teamwork
:
1. Common group objectives and goals that are understood and committed to by all team members.
2. Efforts to develop and use the unique skills and abilities of each team member in a way that helps a team meet its objectives.
3. Efforts to develop in team members flexibility, creativity and sensitivity to the needs of others.
4. A clear value reinforced by our management team, on trust, openness of communication among team members and between team members.
5. Efforts to increase each member's sense of belonging to the team.
6. Time and attention devoted to teamwork.
7. Rapid and accurate feedback to team members about the effectiveness of their actions and decisions.
Conditions that present challenges to effective teamwork
:1. Team members are new or change often.
2. Persons on the team are unsure of or not happy with their roles.
3. Time pressures make it difficult to adequately develop project and team.
4. The locations or workload of team members make it difficult for team members to have regular contact with each other.
5. There is uncertainty about the goals or tasks to be accomplished, or individual team members are unsure of their task proficiency.
6. Differences in perceptions exist among team members and team roles.
7. Communication break down exists. This goes for managers also.
8. There are taboo topics that affect team's performance.
9. Participation is not uniformly spread among team members, OR there is not adequate punishment for those that do not do their part.
Team Meetings
The arena in which many elements of team interaction are worked out is in the dreaded team meeting. In order for a group in a meeting to achieve anything, the team needs a certain amount of structure to guide the goals.
A
successful meeting starts before the meeting when a project manager or team leader informs members of the following:1. Meeting agenda
2. Purpose of the meeting (information sharing, problem solving, decision making, coordination, planning, etc.)
3. Whose attendance is required
4. Where to find background or support materials required
5. Schedule information (time, place, duration..)
6. Minutes of the previous meeting and any specific pre-meeting assignments
The
meeting agenda is similar to a contract or agreement among team members and all team members should have input in the agenda. The meeting agenda should include:1. Date, time and location of meeting
2. List of attendees expected
3. Purpose of the meeting
4. Order of business to be conducted at the meeting
5. Ending time
Since a team should be empowered to govern its own affairs, all members should be open to the fact that a team may modify an agenda. Teams often develop ground rules that extend to how they want a meeting conducted.
Some possible
team ground rules:1. Be prepared for the meeting
2. Come to the meeting on time
3. Start and end meeting on time
4. Value the diversity of team members
5. Support the team concept and process
6. Maintain POSITIVE group dynamics
7. Make decisions by consensus of all necessary team members
8. Participate in the meeting. Don't be a lurker
9. Keep records of your own work and the team's compiled work
10. Listen and have an open mind
Evaluate the meetings
with the intent of improving future meeting:1. Was the purpose of the meeting clear?
2. Did the ergonomics of the room help or hinder the meeting process?
3. Was jumping to conclusions allowed? Did the group help to suspend
judgement and explore alternatives?
4. Did the group use conflict in a positive way to differentiate ideas?
5. Did the group work toward consensus?
6. Did the team leader document the interaction when the process seemed
ineffective?
7. Did the group insist on action commitments (what is to be done, by when and who)?
8. Did the group identify follow-up processes?
Managing Team Conflict
Identifying
Types of Team Conflict:Internal conflict
- An individual or team member is experiencing a personal conflict that may or may not be related to the team. The conflict is interfering with the person's ability to perform.
Individual conflict with one other team member
- One team member is in conflict with another.Individual conflict with the entire team
- One team member is experiencing conflict with the entire team.
Conflict between several team members
- The entire team is experiencing conflict with several other team members.
Conflict between teams
- The entire team is in conflict with another team.
Team conflict with one person outside of the team
.
Most members of a team have to learn at least two fundamentals:
1. Disagreement is an essential part of teamwork.
2. Team members have strong feelings and emotions. We can not expect a team to be authentic if all that is allowed is logic or information.
For managers
:Help the team's behavior by asking
1. What are we doing that is blocking the resolution of this problem?
2. How can we express differences without blaming others?
3. Help the individuals take ownership of their unproductive behavior.
Don't make an excuse when one of your subordinates behaves badly.
Define the team's problem as a shared need
. As a group:1. Identify the causes
2. Determine the criteria for a solution
3. Generate options
4. Determine possible solutions
5. Develop implementation plans
6. Review results on a regular basis
During the problem solving focus on issues *not* personalities.
When the team is determining criteria for a solution, encourage each side to objectively explain its bottom line requirements.
Keep reminding the team of groundrules while generating options such as: no criticizing statements by other people until all ideas are posted.
Encourage everyone to listen to other points of view.
During the process keep encouraging points of agreement.
Don't stifle new anger, but also don't dwell on it.
Another set of steps to consider as a team
:1. Acknowledge that the conflict exists
2. Gain common ground
3. Seek to understand all angles
4. Attack the issue not each other
5. Develop an action plan
A structured way to handle conflicts
:1. Let each person state their view briefly
2. Have neutral team members reflect on areas of agreement or disagreement.
3. Explore areas of disagreement for specific issues.
4. Have opponents suggest modifications to their own points of view as well as others.
5. If blocked, ask opponents if they can accept the team's decision.
Questions to help teams through conflict
:1. What are we supposed to accomplish as a team?
2. What are each of our roles and responsibilities in accomplishing that goal?
3. Who and when do each of us need to get information from?
4. If we get into trouble, whom can we ask without feeling inadequate or helpless?
5. How will we arrive at decisions
6. What strengths do each of us bring in accomplishing our goals?
7. How are we going to make ourselves more accessible to one another??