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Two or more members
Specific perform objective
Coordination of activities amongst members is a must
Mutually accountable

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This is the second module in the Core Leadership Skills series. It is an eight hour session on teambuilding and related principles necessary to further develop the 21st century education system.

Overview of the agenda for the day. Breaks are noted on the Trainer Outline but can be scheduled as determined by individual class needs. Include the welcome and recap following this slide.

Welcome students and introduce facilitators and the logic for this class as shown on the Welcome slide. This slides shows what is the process for change in an organization. The facilitator can explain how the course materials relate to this slide. The needed skill area for educators is leadership.

At this point, it is time to ask the participants to introduce themselves. This slide is used to help challenge students and to start a process of disclosure and transparency to help them be more comfortable as they interact with the other class participants.

This is what will be conveyed over the course of todays workshop

This is still introductory material and is used to show the rationale for this training session.

Class room etiquette is briefly described in this slide. Facilitators may add to his list at their discretion.

Continuation of class room etiquette and expectations.

Use this slide as a guide for the participants to fill out their own. The directions for the guide are in the trainers manual

Use the intro paragraph on the manual to lead into this section. Follow up each of the characteristics with a few descriptions of each

Read from the trainer manual and guide the participants through each of the subheadings in this table, it will be continued on the next slide

Once again, use the manual to address each of these four stages, since the font for the descriptors is too small please have the participant follow along

Read along the directions with the participants and read the synopsis then have them answer the questions, give 5-10 minutes to answer questions, after reading the synopsis advance to next slide so participants cannot see the answers

Animations are set to show the answers on the second click, leave the screen blank while everyone finishes their quiz and then reveal the answers once everyone has finished, the following slide is set up the same way

Following the conclusion of the test and answers, discuss why each answer was correct, debrief with the group and see what they were able to take out of the exercise. Debrief questions: What worked in the team, was there a leader, was there disagreement, how did they decide which answer they wanted for their small group? What impacted their small group's success or failure?

Provide short descriptions for each dysfunction and have participants think about when they have experienced this themselves in a team setting. This could be used for a small group sharing exercise.

Have participants fill out their own form from their manual and ask them to rate it about their current work team then follow with discussion questions

Have them fill out their answers but also provoke a discussion amongst the participants about their experiences in their team

Introduce the topic with the paragraph below the main heading and then provide other further detail about the other types of decisions, then have the participants fill in times when they have made each types of these decisions. Get examples from the crowd for each of the 4 decisions

Elaborate on the last section via trainer manual. Ask participants when they have experience consensual decision-making at work.

Address this table and then with the following slides go over the definitions

Provide a small summary for each of the headings

Same as before, provide a small summary for each of the headings, the participants should be able to follow along with their manuals

Provide definitions/examples for each heading

Similar to the first activity, provide the directions and then have small groups do this exercise. Be sure to have put masking tape "boats" on the floor in advance.

Engage an open discussion about the experiences of the participants in the activity

Provide definitions for the two different types of team longevity

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This is the second module in the Core Leadership Skills series. It is an eight hour session on teambuilding and related principles necessary to further develop the 21st century education system. Overview of the agenda for the day. Breaks are noted on the Trainer Outline but can be scheduled as determined by individual class needs.

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Learning Outcomes

Discuss creating effective teams

We've learned a little about how teams differ from groups and really "take it to the next level" as far as productivity, and we've learned about the types of teams we might find in the workplace. Now that we know all that . . . let's build one!

Let's say that we've determined that team work is preferable to individual work for the project we need to accomplish. We don't want to solve the wrong problem by creating an effective team to do something a single employee could do better! And we want to understand what an effective team actually means to us . . . in this case, we're going to call a team "effective" based on objective measurement of the team's productivity- a manager's assessment of their performance and member satisfaction.

Knowing that a team is the way we want to go, we're going to take a look at four different areas and take them one at a time.

Context

If you're going to create an effective team, you need first to think about context-that is, all the things that surround the team that aren't actually your team. Contextually speaking, the things that seem to matter most to effective teambuilding are:

Adequate resources

Leadership and structure

Trust

Performance evaluation and reward systems

Of all of those items, it appears that adequate resources are the item that most impacts a team's ability to do its work. Lack of resources impedes the team's ability to do their work, so it's imperative that organizations support their team with the right amount of funding and tools for the job.

Team members should always agree on the work that is to be done and who is doing it, so leadership and structure are important parts of context. Team members should all contribute equally and share the workload, they should determine schedules, any training needed and so on. If they are a self-managed team, they can agree by whatever means they determined decisions might be made, and move on to next steps. Teams don't have to have leaders, but if they do, they should be careful not to obstruct progress and expect great things from this team. (No, that's true. It's been shown that leaders who expect great things from their teams get great things!)

If that leader is a part of the team, then the team needs to show trust in that leader. And the members should trust one another, too. Team members will not spend time monitoring one another if they trust each other, and they'll be more likely to take risks.

Finally, the team should have an established system for how their performance is evaluated and rewarded. Performance evaluation and reward systems keep team members individually and mutually accountable. Individual performance evaluations and reward systems aren't consistent with high-performing teams, so these systems need to recognize team progress as much, if not more, than individual contribution.

Composition

Now that we know the atmosphere around the team (the context), we need to take a look at the members actually making up the team, and talk about them in terms of their roles, diversity, and the size of the team.

When determining composition, a manager should consider the:

Abilities of the members of the team.

Personalities of team members.

Roles that will be allocated.

Diversity of team members.

Size of the team.

Team Abilities

While we talked before about how the sum of the team is greater than its parts, an assessment of team members' abilities will help a manager determine what can be accomplished by the team. In order for the team to be successful, they'll need to have three different skills among them-technical expertise, problem-solving skills, and decision-making skills. A good balance of the three is an imperative-too much of one and not enough of another will lower a team's performance. It also helps if the team members have good interpersonal skills.

Team Personalities

Where personalities of team members are concerned, teams perform well if there is a "higher than mean" level of traits like agreeableness and conscientiousness, extraversion and emotional stability. Interestingly, studies have shown that it's more important for the "higher than mean" measurement to include people who all have tendencies toward those characteristics. For instance, having one person on the team who's very conscientious and one who is not may adversely affect the performance of the team, while two people who are more conscientious than average will enhance the team's performance.

Team Roles

Members of a team should be selected with an eye toward filling all the roles that need to be allocated. There are about nine different roles needed on a team and, while members can fill more than one of these roles, members should be matched to those team role demands. Those roles are:

The Plant. Creative, imaginative. Solves problems.

The Resource Investigator. Communicative. Explores opportunities and develops contacts.

The Coordinator. Clarifies goals, and promotes decision-making.

The Shaper. Dynamic, challenging, thrives on pressure. Overcomes obstacles.

The Monitor-Evaluator. Strategic and discerning. Sees all options and judges accurately.

The Teamworker. Co-operative and perceptive. Listens, builds, averts conflict.

The Implementer. Conservative and efficient. Turns ideas into practical actions.

The Completer/Finisher. Conscientious. Searches out errors, meets deadlines.

The Specialist. Self-starting and dedicated. Provides knowledge/skills in rare supply.

These roles are classified into action-oriented roles, people-oriented roles, and thinking-oriented roles.

Managers need to understand the strengths each team member brings to the table and select members for the team with those strengths in mind.

Team Diversity

The diversity of a team also plays a deciding factor in how productive and successful the team is. Of course, there needs to be a diversity of skills, but if a team also features members of diverse age, gender, education, functional background, and experience, this bodes well for them. Keep in mind, however, that having a team with individuals from various cultures on a single team often does not spell instant success, as team members have a longer learning curve understanding how to work with one another.

Team Size

Finally the size of the team makes a difference in a team's success. Studies show that a team should be made up of no more than ten people, and optimally, no more than exactly the number of team members that are necessary to do the work. When teams have more members than they need, cohesiveness and mutual accountability suffer, and social loafing can creep in.

Beyond those things, managers need to consider if members actually want to be on a team-there are many individuals who would preferably opt out rather than participate on one, and it's not likely that those employees are going to lend any real value to the group. Furthermore, a manager can consider an individual's flexibility, or their capability as a team member to complete more than one kind of task. These individuals, if they're willing to participate on the team, are very valuable indeed!

Work Design

We talked a lot about work design in Module 6: Motivation in the Workplace and how the right job design can motivate an employee to perform. Similarly, the right work design for a group is a huge motivator. The manager should strive to give the team members work that offers autonomy, skill variety, task identity and task significance. Just like with individuals, these features motivate the team and increase its effectiveness.

Process

Finally, to build an effective team we must consider process. Process refers to the way the team operates, and includes things like:

Common purpose

Specific goals

Team efficacy

Managed conflict levels

Minimized social loafing

Having a common purpose provides direction and drives the commitment of the team members. Teams that are destined to be successful put a lot of effort into defining their common purpose-creating it, discussing it and agreeing on it-so that they can use it as their guiding principle. Any and all activity performed by the team should support the common purpose.

Just like the motivational theory of goal setting, a team must translate their common purpose into attainable, measurable, specific goals. These goals help the team focus on the results they're working to achieve. Just like with individual goals, team goals should be challenging in order to be motivational.

Teams need to feel like they're accomplishing something, and most of the time, they truly believe that they will achieve results. This concept is called team efficacy. Success breeds success, and teams that have been successful in the past want more of that same success for their future projects. Management can help team efficacy by setting up the team to achieve small successes along the way to their larger goals, and provide training to ensure that team members are growing their skills.

Conflict can be healthy for teams, but usually not when it's relationship based. Relationship conflicts-team members who aren't getting along, exhibit interpersonal incompatibilities, etc.-are almost always to the detriment of the team's success. However, conflict around task content is often beneficial because it helps the team avoid the trappings of groupthink.

Finally, a successful team minimizes social loafing. Team members in successful groups understand the effects of social loafing and hold themselves accountable for a certain level of productivity. Successful teams make members individually and mutually accountable for the team's goals, and members of these teams are clear on those expectations.

Considering all these options can help a manager build an effective team. The model we used here attempts to generalize across all varieties of teams, so if you're "trying this at home," take that into consideration and don't approach this too rigidly! You may have needs these suggestions don't fill, but ultimately, following these guidelines will get you pretty close to building an effective team.

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Organizational Behavior and Human Relations

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Discuss creating effective teams We've learned a little about how teams differ from groups and really "take it to the next level" as far as productivity, and we've learned about the types of teams we might find in the workplace. Now that we know all that . . .

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Autonomy
Skill variety
Task identity
Task Significance

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Adequate resources
Effective Leadership
A climate of trust
Performance Evaluation and Reward System

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Think about the best teams you've ever been part of or had the pleasure of watching do their thing.

Now remember a teamwork disaster that you've experienced. Hopefully the painful memories aren't too difficult to bear.

These two memories represent the end points of a teamwork effectiveness continuum, at least based on your personal experiences. There are likely better and worse examples than what you have, but to keep it real, these will serve our purpose.

How do you know?

With that full range of effectiveness possibilities in mind, I want you to think about the team you lead or of which you are a member. Where does this team fall on the continuum?

It's a hard question to answer when you try to make an overall assessment. There are too many factors to consider, and it's easier to rate them one at a time.

If you want your team to start improving its performance, you need to establish its current performance and then set a goal for where you want it to be.

The 20 characteristics

You could go back to the good and bad teams you are thinking about and try to identify those characteristics you unconsciously considered when evaluating them, or you can use the list I've assembled for you.

Here are the characteristics you will be asking your team members to rate. For each, I've included a brief explanation of why it's important.

1. We have a clear sense of purpose

This unifies the group. Everyone knows why the group exists. In addition to being clear, it should also be important. Cool is better yet.

2. We have measurable objectives

Goals are the fuel which drive each member's effort. They know there is work to do, and they strive to get it done.

3. Our purpose supports the larger organization's purpose

Each team represents the use of scarce resources. People are expensive. They should only be deployed doing something that helps advance the larger organization.

4. We know how the team will be evaluated

People want to win. The trouble with many teams is that winning hasn't been defined. If you don't know what good looks like, how do you know you've achieved it?

5. We understand our customers' expectations

Each team serves others. These could be internal or external customers. To succeed in this task requires that the team knows what those customers expect.

6. Groups and individuals that support us understand our expectations

In most organizations, a team's success depends on the support they get from others. To be well-supported, those people need to know how best to provide that support.

7. We agree on the process for completing our work

There are many ways to get the work done. Efficiency usually requires a shared process. When this characteristic is missing, chaos reigns.

8. We each do our "fair share" of the work

This has to happen to prevent the all-too-common fight that begins when team members begin to think I'm working way harder than her.

9. We have access to the resources we need

This could be experts, data, tools, equipment, or decision authority.

10. We effectively make decisions

Teamwork requires decisions. Lots of decisions. Getting good at making those decisions quickly separates strong teams from weak teams.

11. We communicate openly on the team

Almost all teamwork problems can be traced back to a team's inability to effectively communicate. Assertiveness and candor are necessary teamwork ingredients.

12. We communicate openly with interested parties outside of the team

Your team might be doing good work, but if nobody else knows it, you have a problem.

13. We effectively resolve conflicts

All teams have conflicts, which in themselves are not problems. They only become a problem when they go unresolved or people are bloodied in the process of resolving them.

14. We quickly address problems that are hurting the team

When the inevitable problems arise, good teams notice, raise the concern, and go into problem-solving mode. They certainly don't struggle with an "elephant in the room."

15. We each understand what is expected of us

A team is a collection of individuals. Each person has to know what he is supposed to do to be an effective team member.

16. We support one another

A bunch of individuals all doing their own thing in isolation from coworkers is not a team. Effective teams are collaborative and supportive entities.

17. We continuously monitor our performance

Doing this assessment is an example of monitoring performance. You can't fix what you don't notice. Ask the questions.

18. We work at continuously improving our performance

Effective teams recognize there are many improvement opportunities. They are all about growing better together.

19. Our team achieves (will achieve) its goals and objectives

The bottom-line is always the results. Working well together means very little if the team can't deliver.

20. We each feel good about being a part of this team

Results without connection to teammates doesn't work either. At the end of the day, people are glad they are a member of this team.

Take the TeamCheck Assessment now

Here's an online version you can try now for yourself. It uses some, but not all the 20 characteristics of effective teams. It will likely take less than 5 minutes to complete.

Try TeamCheck Now

If it seems that few of these characteristics describe your team, it's time to take action. With the right help and the willingness to make a change, your team can do amazing things.

When teams are struggling, members may hesitate to complete the assessment honestly.

In those cases, you'll need to take another approach. I can administer the survey for you so that people can respond anonymously. I can also conduct individual interviews to understand what is and isn't working for your group.

To discuss how I can help you conduct a candid assessment, grab a slot on my calendar, and we'll talk through your situation.

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20 Characteristics of Effective Teams | Tom LaForce

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Think about the best teams you've ever been part of or had the pleasure of watching do their thing. Now remember a teamwork disaster that you've experienced. Hopefully the painful memories aren't too difficult to bear. These two memories represent the end points of a teamwork effectiveness continuum, at least based on your personal experiences.

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Common purpose
Specific goals
Team efficacy
Team identity
Team cohesion
Mental models
Conflict levels
Social loafing

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Abilities of members
Personality
Allocating Roles
Diversity
Culture differences:
Size of team
Member preferences