team building

Team Building

Dr. Nicola MezzettiSoftware Architect, Team Leader

1venerdì 12 febbraio 2010

The Idea“A team is a small number of people with complementary skills

who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and a common approach for which they hold

themselves mutually accountable ”

A team is the best organization for involving all employees in creating business success and profitability

How can the disciplines, the frameworks, and techniques required for team building and good team performance be developed and implemented?

How can what is already in place and in play be improved?

There is a great need for groups of all sorts to learn about team building and how to go about it


The need for team building The symptoms that signal a need for team building are

Decreased productivity

Negative reactions to the manager or conflicts and hostility between staff members

Confusion about assignments, missed signals and unclear relationships

Decisions misunderstood or not carried out through properly

Apathy and lack of involvement, initiation, imagination, and innovation

Complaints of discrimination or favoritism

Ineffective staff meetings, low participation, minimally effective decisions

Complaints about quality service


Reasons for Team Building Improving communication

Making the workplace more enjoyable

Motivating a team or improve team productivity

Getting everyone "onto the same page", including goal setting

Teaching the team self-regulation strategies

Helping participants to learn (more about) themselves

Identifying and utilizing the strengths of team members

Practicing effective collaboration with team members


The ingredients of team building Selection of participants

Establishing visions, goals, missions and/or objectives

Distribution of workload

Timetabling

Balancing skill-set

Metrics

Harmonizing personality types

Training on how to work together


Skills needed for teamwork

A wide variety of social skills are desirable for successful teamworking, including

Listening – it is important to listen to other people's ideas.When people are allowed to freely express their ideas, these initial ideas will produce other ideas

Questioning – it is important to ask questions, interact and discuss the objectives of the team

Persuading – individuals are encouraged to exchange, defend, and ultimately to rethink their ideas


Skills needed for teamwork

More skills needed:

Respecting – it is important to treat others with respect and to support their ideas

Helping – it is crucial to help one's co-workers

Sharing – it is important to share with the team to create a team environment

Participating – all members of the team must participate in it


Steps to build an effective team Consider each employee's ideas valuable

Be aware of employees' unspoken feelings

Act as a harmonizing influence

Be clear when communicating

Encourage trust and cooperation among employees

Encourage team members to share information

Delegate problem-solving tasks to the team

Facilitate communication


Steps to build an effective team

Establish team values and goals; evaluate team performance

Have a clear idea of what you need to accomplish

Establish consensus

Set ground rules for the team

Establish a method for arriving at a consensus

Encourage listening and brainstorming

Establish the parameters of consensus-building sessions


The CARB model

The CARB model defines four dimensions over which a good team builder has to work in order to create a solid and effective team

Commitment to the team and each other

Alignment and goal agreement

Relationships among team members

Behaviors and skills


Commitment to the team and each other

Belief: Individual motivations are clear and generally understood. People are able to believe in the team, its individual members and the work of the team

Agreements: People have a mutually agreed on a set of norms that define performance, behavior and “how things are done,” productivity is greatly improved

Trust: Trust in team members and trust in leadership are necessary for the levels of commitment required for high-performing teams

Support: If people are supporting team decisions, commitment is likely present. If people are supporting each other through tough parts of a team’s life, they are likely committed


Alignment and goal agreement Start at the beginning:

Make sure the organization’s goals and strategies are set. At a minimum the team needs to understand, from the start, why their work product matters in the bigger picture and how they can make a positive impact

Generate conversation:

Make the time to have conversation. The alignment we are searching for needs to be deep. Help individuals and the team develop meaning and purpose. Help them understand how they can create work that matters.

Get the team's help:

When people have the chance to shape the goals of the team, and when given the opportunity to have input into those decisions, they will have greater agreement with the goals.


Alignment and goal agreement

Provide a connection:

Teams need someone in leadership “above” them that can provide support and resources ― someone who can answer questions and keep them on track.

Make them accountable:

If the alignment is clear and the goals set, then the team needs to be held accountable for results.



Learn each other’s strengths:

Strong teams not only like each other, they know each other’s strengths.

Find ways to capitalize on those strengths:

The best team building activities give people a chance to be themselves, without all the structure and trappings of the workplace, helping others see how those strengths can be tapped by the team.

Get comfortable with asking for help:

Highly effective team members are willing to ask for help, regardless of their role on the team.



Initiation processes:

The application of processes that require teams to agree on norms will have greater success with teams that change membership frequently.

Role definition:

Team members need to understand where they fit in and what their roles are. When new teams are chartered or started there needs to be a format and plan for discussion of team member roles and expectations.


Behaviors and skills

Strong technical skills and competence:

Having the subject matter knowledge, industry perspective or specific skills the team needs is critical.

Able to trust others:

The best team members though are willing to start from a position of basic trust in their teammates. This trust can deepen and grow, but the most effective team members are willing to assume the best and work together more effectively from the beginning.


Behaviors and skills Able to participate and lead effective meetings:

Meetings develop the ability to contribute ideas and insights, to help the team move towards the desired results, to provide feedback when needed, and the ability to and willingness to stay focused.

Comfortable and competent at group problem solving:

Effective team members know how to work together to solve problems, how to listen to the ideas of others, to ask questions without being condescending and to make sure that the strengths of each team member are taken into account in the problem solving process.

Willing to continuously learn:

For teams to succeed each individual on the team needs to continuously improve their individual skills.


Types of teams

Interdependent team

No significant task can be accomplished without the help of essentially all the team members

Independent team

Every person performs basically the same actions

− Whether one team member performs well or not, that has no direct effect on the performance of the next person


Types of teams

Virtual team

Consists of members joined electronically, using technology tools such as the Internet

− This allows teams to be formed of members otherwise unavailable

Project team

A team used only for a defined period of time and for a separate, concretely definable, purpose


What team building should be Team building must be:

A natural behavior

The responsibility of any team member

A continuous process about developing a clear and unique identity

Focused on a clear and consistent set of goals

Concerned with the needs and ambitions of each member and recognizing his unique contributions

An awareness of the potential of the team as a unit

Result oriented

Enjoyable


What team building should not be

Team building must not be

Imposed without regard to people's feelings

Reserved for only some members of the team

An excuse for not meeting personal responsibilities

A process where actions contradict intentions

Without a goal shared by all members


Stages of team development Stage 1: Forming

− The team is created with clear structure, goals, direction and roles

Stage 2: Storming

− The team refocuses on its goals, breaking larger goals down into smaller, achievable steps

Stage 3: Norming

− Members shift their energy to the team's goals and increase in productivity

Stage 4: Performing

− The team makes significant progress

Stage 5: Termination/Ending22venerdì 12 febbraio 2010

Forming Supervisors need to be directive during this phase

Team initially concern themselves with orientation accomplished primarily through testing

Team members get to know one another, and their respective strengths

Team members are focused on themselves and tend to behave independently and to show their best behavior

Testing allows to understand how each member of the team works as an individual and how they respond to pressure

Testing also allow to establish the dependency relationships with leaders, other group members, or pre-existing norms

The team learns about the opportunity and challenges, and then agrees on goals and begins to tackle the tasks


Storming Team members open up to each other and confront each other's ideas and perspectives

− what problems they are really supposed to solve,

− how they will function independently and together, and

− what leadership model they will accept

The maturity of some team members usually determines whether the team will ever move out of this stage

This stage can become destructive to the team and will lower motivation if allowed to get out of control

Supervisors may still need to be directive in their guidance of decision-making and professional behavior


Norming Team members adjust their behavior to each other as they develop work habits that make

teamwork seem more natural and fluid

Team members begin to trust each other

Motivation increases as the team gets more acquainted with the project

Team supervisors tend to be participative more than in the earlier stages

Team members can be expected to take more responsibility for making decisions and for their professional behavior

Team members work through this stage by agreeing on rules, values, professional behavior, shared methods, and working tools

Some members can begin to feel threatened by the amount of responsibility they have been given

If the norming behavior becomes too strong, teams may loose creativity25venerdì 12 febbraio 2010

Performing Teams are now able to function as a unit as they find ways to get the job done smoothly and

effectively without inappropriate conflict or the need for external supervision

Team members have become interdependent, competent, autonomous and able to handle the decision-making process without supervision

− Dissent is expected and allowed as long as it is channeled through means acceptable to the team

− Supervisors of the team during this phase are almost always participative

Many teams will go through these cycles many times as they react to changing circumstances

− A change in leadership may cause the team to revert to storming as the new people challenge the existing norms of the team


Belbin team inventory Plant

Creative, bright and free-thinking

− Can ignore incidentals and refrain from getting bogged down in detail

− Often poor in communicating ideas to others

Resource Investigator

Focused outside the team, he is a maker of possibilities and an excellent networker

− Can give a team a rush of enthusiasm at the start of the project

− Can have a tendency to lose momentum towards the end of a project and to forget small details


Belbin team inventory Coordinator

Confident, stable and mature; chairperson of a team, stepping back to see the big picture

− Because they recognize abilities in others, they can delegating tasks to the right person for the job

− Clarify decisions, helping everyone else focus on their tasks

− Can tend to delegate any activity

Shaper

Task-focused leader who has a high motivation to achieve and for whom winning is the name of the game

− Will ‘shape’ others into achieving the aims of the team

− Will possibly challenge, argue or disagree; will display aggression in the pursuit of goal achievement


Belbin team inventory Monitor Evaluator

Fair and logical observers and judges of what is going on; they are often the ones to see all available options with the greatest clarity

− Can be very critical, damping enthusiasm for anything without logical grounds

− Can have a hard time inspiring themselves or others to be passionate

Team worker

Good listeners and diplomats, talented at smoothing over conflicts and helping parties understand each other without becoming confrontational

Because of an unwillingness to take sides, a Team worker may not be able to take decisive action when it is needed


Belbin team inventory Implementer

Motivated, efficient and self-disciplined; can always be relied on to deliver on time

− Can take what the other roles have suggested or asked

− They will often take on jobs everyone else avoids or dislikes

− Will often have difficulty deviating from their own plans

Completer Finisher

Perfectionist with a strong inward sense of the need for accuracy

− The delivered artifacts can be trusted to have been double-checked

− Tend to worry excessively about minor details and to refuse to delegate tasks that they do not trust anyone else to perform


Belbin team inventory

Specialist

Passionate about learning and constantly improving their knowledge in their own particular field; they will have the greatest depth of knowledge, and will enjoy imparting it to others

− Bring a high level of concentration, ability, and skill in their discipline to the team

− Can only contribute on that narrow front and will tend to be uninterested in anything which lies outside its narrow confines


What to do about team failures?

Learn about teams. Don't invest in anything without first finding out what it will (or won't) do for you

Learn before you leap. Visit other companies, read, send people to conferences, etc.

Develop your vision and strategy. Create a specific picture of what you want to have in place

Explore readiness. Take a careful look at where to start

Choose the right team structure to fit your needs

Craft a plan. You can't implement workplace teams in an ad-hoc fashion


What to do about team failures? Focus on real work. Effective work teams get high quality results with high levels of engagement

and satisfaction

Expect transition time. Success won't happen overnight

Form friendships. A “best friend at work” is one of the most important factors that contribute to high performance teams

Fire people who refuse to join in

Give permission to start over.

Appreciate how powerful teams really are. The momentum they bring can be unstoppable and highly influential


Contributions of a team leader

Put forward, in cooperation with team members, a vision of what the team is to do

Participate in defining the composition of the team

Help developing a set of principles that will contribute to success

Should be the liaison between the team and upper management

Obtaining full commitment managers in support of the team

Allow capable members to help provide some leadership

Be fair, supportive, and can make final judgments as needed


The good team leader In order to implement the desired team behavior, you have to watch what you say to others

Be kind

Be aware of your effects on others

Emphasize the positive

Don't assume you have been understood

Know when to shut up

Don't interrupt

Don't gossip


Be kind

No matter what you say or how you say it, at bottom your communication will always reveal your true thoughts and attitudes

You can communicate from a standpoint of kindness or from one of uncertainty

Kindness means respect, appreciation, acceptance, joy, delight, wonder

Uncertainty means sarcasm, blame, threat, anger, anxiety, worry, and control

Kindness enables setting up a working environment governed by mutual respect and motivation


Be aware of your effect on others

We often use language to criticize and attack others

Some people are masters of doing this in disguise; others do it openly

For many, communication is a battle that they have to win and words are their chief weapons of war

Harsh words can cut people deep and leave their scars for days if not years

Knowing what effect your words have on others, and knowing how to adjust it, is the key for positively affecting the teams morale


Emphasize the positive

Governing a team is not just about getting your message across or even clarifying what someone else is trying to say to you

Great team leaders leave people feeling better than they did

They say something of value to the other person

Or they appreciated what the other person was saying to them

Governing a team means working with people, not with words


Don’t assume you’ve been understood

The history of relationships is littered with the history of misunderstood communications

A word gone awry here, a meaning missed there: they all add up to distorting your message and being mis-received

First, seek to be understood; then understand


Know when to shut up If there was a problem and you had responsibilities in finding a solution, you’ll know how hard it

is to say nothing

When facing problems, many leaders just talk to take time or to show themselves dominating the problem

Talking is a way to impress, even if it isn’t relevant, even if the point has already been made

As a result, team members could be disoriented and worried

− Possibly, they did not understood or they don't know what to do

The best team leaders are those who are secure enough to admit when they have little to say or little to add


Don’t interrupt

If you’ve ever eavesdropped on a conversation between two people, you’ll probably have noticed that, instead of there being a progression of ideas building one on top of the other, most people talk over one another

It resembles a contest more than a dialogue

It is rare to see people listening with openness and non-judgment until the other person has stopped speaking

And even rarer to hear people asking for clarification and help with understanding

The good leader can hold back while listening to others, and further ask for reasons or clarifications


Don’t gossip

Gossip is a particularly pernicious form of communication

It is idle, often indulged in merely to pass the time, and serves no real purpose other than to make ourselves feel better at the expense of others

If you work with others who like to gossip, simply learn the trick of disengagement: don’t reply, don’t be drawn in, and never do it yourself


team building

Leadership & Management