BUILDING EFFECTIVE TEAMS AND TEAMWORK By Aljaohra ALshubaili

Agenda Overview. Developing Teams and Teamwork. The Advantages of Teams. Team Development. Forming. Norming. Storming. Performing. Attributes of a High-Performing Team. Leading Teams. Smart Goals. Everest Goals. Team membership. Task-facilitating roles. Relationship-building roles. Blocking roles. Providing feedback. Summary.

OVERVIEW Making teams more productive is a constant issue for most managers. Productivity is, of course, the essence of what makes businesses competitive, but it is particularly important in times of economic slowdown such as the one we are currently experiencing. This chapter presents the different stages of team development, the important factors to create an effective team, and the types of roles that enhance performance of members.

Developing Teams and Teamwork Effective teams: have independent members productivity and efficiency depends on the interaction and efforts of all its members. help other members to be more efficient  effective teams are always better than the efforts of the individual. have members who desire to be with the team because of the advantages of membership. have members who care for each other, respect the leaders, and trust each other.

The Advantages of Teams Work, research, and many miscellaneous tasks are performed in groups for the myriad of advantages. Data shows that teamwork increases productivity, quality, and morale. Many companies have attributed their improvements in performance to instilling teamwork in the workplace, including: Federal Express, Volvo, General Electric, AT&T, and General Mills. Teams can be confounded by taking too long to make decisions. Research has shown the factors associated with high performance include composition, motivation, as well as type and structure.

Team Development All teams go through the same 4 stages of development. By going through these stages the team matures into a unit that can seemingly work effectively. These stages are: Forming Norming Storming Performing

Forming Definition: the team is faced with the need to become acquainted with its members, its purpose, and its boundaries. Relationships must be formed and trust established through questions and stepping away from hindrances such as self-consciousness and silence. Familiarizing with each other helps members feel comfortable and more prepared in getting tasks completed, questions answered, and establishing workable relationships with one another.

Norming Definition: the team is faced with creating cohesion and unity, differentiating roles, identifying expectations, and enhancing commitment. The more interaction and cooperation between members, the easier it is to create team loyalty and cohesion towards completing the goals. Getting past groupthink is critical to moving past the norming stage. Some attributed of groupthink include: the feeling of invulnerability, rationalization, censorship, pressure, and the illusion of unanimity, where there is a feigned consensus.

Storming Definition: the team is faced with disagreements, counter dependence, and the need to manage conflict. Several issues form during this stage: disagreements, communicating negative information, varied perspectives, competition between members, and coalitions. Effective teams turn these challenges into constructive suggestions for improvement by maintaining flexibility and fostering team cohesion.

Performing Definition: the team is faced with the need for continuous improvement, innovation, speed, and capitalizing on core competencies. At this point the team has developed a clear mission, personal commitment to the team, a high degree of loyalty and morale, and overcome tendencies of groupthink. There are still challenges at this stage including maintaining high energy, helping all members thrive, and continuing to grow.

Attributes of a High-Performing Team Performance outcomes: doing things. Shared vision: having a specific commitment and purpose. Mutual accountability: both internal and group sense of responsibility. Blurring distinctions: everybody contributes. Coordinated, shared roles: individuals working together.

Attributes of a High-Performing Team Inefficiency lead to efficiency: team overtakes individual effort. Extraordinarily high quality: teams perform above and beyond the standards. Continuous improvement: never-ending improvements and creativity. High credibility and trust: personal integrity and honesty between members. Clarity of competence: unique talents and strategic advantages are always utilized.

Leading Teams One important factor in creating effective teams is the role of the leader. Leaders must develop credibility, that is, gain the respect and commitment of the members. This can be done by: Demonstrating integrity. Being clear and consistent with goals. Creating positive energy and optimism. Using commonality and being complimentary. Managing agreement and disagreement. Encouraging and coaching team members. Sharing information and encouraging participation.

SMART goals Definition: goals that produce the highest levels of performance follow these characteristics. S- Specific  goal is clear. M- Measurable  goal can be measured. A- Aligned  goal is supportive and consistent. R- Realistic  difficult, but achievable. T- Time-Bound  an end-point is identified.

Everest Goals Definition: goals that go beyond normal goal settings, aiming for the extraordinary accomplishment. These goals are clear and compelling, and stimulating due to their profound size and difficulty. These targets are stretch goals, and typically: Capture deep commitment, require supreme effort motivate learning and wisdom, and lead people beyond probability.

Team membership The role of each member relating to the overarching goal is a major impact on performance. There are two types of roles that enhance performance: task-facilitating roles and relationship-building roles, and blocking roles which hinder performance.

Task-facilitating roles Definition: These are roles that help the team accomplish its outcomes or objectives. They include: Direction giving  identifying ways to proceed. Information seeking  providing data, offering facts. Elaborating  building on ideas. Urging  imploring others to stay on task. Enforcing  helping reinforce standards and procedures.

Relationship-building roles Definition: These roles focus on assisting team members to feel good and are important during disagreements and tension They include: Supporting  praising ideas of others. Harmonizing  mediating differences between others. Confronting challenging unproductive behaviors. Developing  assisting others to learn, grow, and achieve. Consensus building  helping build solidarity.

Blocking roles Definition: unproductive roles that inhibit the team or its members, hampering morale and destroy cohesion They include: Dominating excessive talking, interrupting, disruption. Overanalyzing  splitting hairs and over-thinking. Stalling  not allowing group to make a decision by sidetracking. Over generalizing blowing something out of proportion. Faultfinding being unwilling to see merits of others’ ideas.

Providing feedback There is a narrow difference between providing effective versus ineffective feedback. This chart details the major deviations: EFFECTIVE INEFFECTIVE Focuses on behaviors Focuses on the person Focuses on observations Focuses on inference (facts) (opinions) Focuses on sharing ideas Focuses on giving advice Give feedback at appropriate time Give feedback when best for you

SUMMARY These slides have highlighted the main points regarding: How to build effective teams. The benefits of working within a team. The main stages of developing a cohesive and unified team. Characteristics that produce the highest levels of performance.

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