2. Working and Writing in Teams
To learn how to
Work in teams. constructively.
Be a productive leader.
Resolve conflicts
Write collaborative documents.

3. Working and Writing in Teams
Start by answering these questions:
What kinds of messages should groups attend to?
What roles do people play in groups?
How should we handle conflict?
How can we create the best coauthored do

4. Working and Writing in Teams
To learn how to
Work in teams
Be a productive leader
Resolve conflicts constructively
Write collaborative documents.

5. Working and Writing in Teams
Start by answering these questions:
What kinds of messages should groups attend to?
What roles do people play in groups?
How should we handle conflict?
How can we create the best coauthored documents?

6. Working and Writing in Teams
Teamwork is crucial to success in an organization.
Some teams:
produce products,
provide services, or
recommend solutions to problems.
Other teams produce documents.
Teams are usually more productive when they establish ground rules for behavior.

7. Working and Writing in Teams
Interpersonal communication is communication between people using
Listening
dealing with conflict
These skills will make you more successful
on the job,
in social groups, and
in community service and volunteer work

8. Group Ground Rules Start on time; end on time.
Teams are often most effective when they explicitly adopt ground rules:
Start on time; end on time.
Come to the meeting prepared.
Focus comments on the issues.
Avoid personal attacks.
Listen to and respect members’ opinions.

9. Group Ground Rules Continued
No one speaks twice until everybody speaks once.
If you have a problem with another person, tell that person, not everyone else.
If you agree to do something, do it.
Communicate immediately if you think you may not be able to fulfill an agreement.
Teams are often most effective when they explicitly adopt ground rules. Figure 18.1 lists some of the most common ground rules used by workplace teams.

10. Positive Roles in Groups
Positive roles and actions that help the group achieve its task goals include:
Seeking Information and Opinions: ask questions and identify gaps in the group’s knowledge.
Giving Information and Opinions: answer questions and provide relevant information.
Summarizing: restate major points, pulling ideas together.
Evaluating: compare group processes and products to standards and goals.
Coordinating: plan work and give directions.

11. What roles do people play in groups?
Encouraging Participation
Relieving Tensions
Checking Feelings
Solving Interpersonal Problems
Listening Actively
Positive roles and actions also help the group build loyalty, resolve conflicts, and function smoothly. To encourage participation, demonstrate openness and acceptance. To relieve tensions, joke and suggest breaks and fun activities. To check feelings, ask members how they feel about group activities. To solve interpersonal problems, open discussion on problems in the group and suggest ways to solve them. To listen actively, show group members that they have been heard and are taken seriously.

12. Negative Roles in Groups
Negative roles and actions that hurt the group's product and process include:
Blocking: disagreeing with everything that is proposed.
Dominating: trying to run the group by ordering and shutting out others.
Clowning: making unproductive jokes and diverting the group from its task.
Withdrawing: being silent in meetings, not helping with work, or not attending.

13. Some actions can be positive or negative depending on how they are used.
Criticizing ideas is necessary if the group is to produce the best solution, but criticizing every single idea raised without ever suggesting possible solutions blocks a group.

14. Leadership in Groups
Being a leader does not mean doing all the work yourself. Indeed, someone who implies that he or she has the best ideas and can do the best work is likely playing the negative roles of blocking and dominating.
Some groups formally or informally rotate or share responsibilities, so that everyone—and no one—is a leader.

15. Leadership in Groups Informational leaders Interpersonal leaders
generate and evaluate ideas and text.
Interpersonal leaders
monitor the group’s process, check people’s feelings, and resolve conflicts.
Informational leaders generate and evaluate ideas and text. Interpersonal leaders monitor the group’s process, check people’s feelings, and resolve conflicts.

16. Leadership in Groups Procedural leaders
set the agenda, make sure that everyone knows what’s due for the next meeting, communicate with absent group members, and check to be sure that assignments are carried out.
Procedural leaders set the agenda, make sure that everyone knows what’s due for the next meeting, communicate with absent group members, and check to be sure that assignments are carried out.

17. Leadership in Groups
Several studies have shown people who talk a lot, listen effectively, and respond nonverbally to other members in the group are considered to be leaders.
Leaders can encourage groups to make fair decisions.

18. Characteristics of Successful Student Groups
Students in successful groups were not necessarily more skilled than students in less successful groups.
Both groups communicate differently in three ways:
One:
successful
less successful
The leader sets clear deadlines
Members ask the leader what they suppose to do
schedules frequent meetings
meet less often
Deals directly with conflicts
Pretend that conflicts don’t exist
A case study of six student groups completing class projects found that students in successful groups were not necessarily more skilled or more experienced than students in less successful groups. Instead, successful and less successful groups communicated differently in three ways.

19. Characteristics of Successful Student Groups
Students in successful groups were not necessarily more skilled than students in less successful groups.
Both groups communicate differently in three ways:
Two:
successful
less successful
Listen to criticism
No listening (since they meet less )
Make important decisions together
Decisions are made by subgroups and tell other members what had been decided

20. Characteristics of Successful Student Groups
Students in successful groups were not necessarily more skilled than students in less successful groups.
Both groups communicate differently in three ways:
Three:
successful
less successful
members work more evenly and actively on the project
have a smaller percentage of active members and frequently have some members who do very little on the final project.

21. Peer Pressure and Groupthink
Groups that never express conflict may be experiencing groupthink.
What is groupthink? عدم التشجيع على المعارضة بل و محاربتها وهذا خطأ
It is the tendency for group to push such a high premium on agreement that they directly or indirectly punish dissent.
A business suffering from groupthink may launch a new product supported by management but has no demand by costumers.
Student groups suffering from groupthink turn in (deliver) inferior documents “less important”.
Groups that never express conflict may be experiencing groupthink. Groupthink is the tendency for groups to put such a high premium on agreement that they directly or indirect
punish dissent.
Dissent: معارضة

22. Peer Pressure and Groupthink
The best correctives to groupthink are to
Consciously search for additional alternatives
Test assumptions against those of a range of other people
Encourage disagreement
Protect the right of people in a group to disagree
Groups that “go along with the crowd” and suppress conflict ignore the full range of alternatives, seek only information that supports the positions they already favor, and fail to prepare contingency plans to cope with foreseeable setbacks.

23. Conflict handling
Conflict will arise in any group that many of us feel uncomfortable with it.
To reduce conflicts in group:
Make responsibilities and ground rules clear at the beginning
Discuss problems as they arise
Realize that group members are responsible for each other’s happiness
Next are suggested solutions to conflicts that student groups often experience:

24. Troubleshooting Group Problems
Figure 18.2 suggests several possible solutions to conflicts that student groups often experience. Often the symptom arises from a feeling of not being respected or appreciated by the group. Therefore, many problems can be averted if people advocate for their ideas in a positive way.

25. Troubleshooting Group Problems
We can’t find a time to meet that works for all of us.
Possible Solutions:
Find out why people can’t meet at certain times. Some reasons suggest their own solutions.
Assign out-of-class work to “committees” to work on parts of the project.
Use to share, discuss, and revise drafts.

26. Troubleshooting Group Problems Continued
One person just criticizes everything.
Possible Solutions:
Ask the person to follow up the criticism with a suggestion for improvement.
Talk about ways to express criticism tactfully. “I think we need to think about x ” is more tactful than “You’re wrong.”
Value criticism about ideas and writing (not about people). Ideas and documents need criticism if we are to improve them.

27. Troubleshooting Group Problems Continued
People in the group don’t seem willing to disagree. We end up going with the first idea suggested.
Possible Solutions:
Brainstorm so you have several possibilities to consider.
After an idea is suggested, have each person in the group suggest a way it could be improved.
Have each person in the group write a draft. It’s likely the drafts will be different.
Talk about good ways to offer criticism. Sometimes people don’t disagree because they’re afraid that other group members won’t tolerate disagreement.

28. Troubleshooting Group Problems Continued
I seem to be the only one in the group who cares about quality.
Possible Solutions:
Find out why other members “don’t care.”
Encourage others to volunteer to do extra work.
Be sure that you’re respecting what each person can contribute.

29. Troubleshooting Group Problems Continued
One person isn’t doing his or her fair share.
Possible Solutions:
Find out what is going on. Is the person overcommitted? Does he or she feel unappreciated?
Encourage the person to contribute. Then find something to praise in the work.
If someone misses a meeting, assign someone else to bring the person up to speed.
Consider whether strict equality is the most important criterion.
Even if you divide up the work, make all decisions as a group.

30. To Respond to Criticism
Paraphrase
Check for feelings
Check for inferences
Buy time with limited agreement
To paraphrase, repeat in your own words the verbal content of a critic’s message.
When you check for feelings, identify the emotions that the critic seems to be expressing.
To check inferences, identify the implied meaning of the criticism.
You can buy time with limited agreement by restating the part of the criticism you believe to be true.
Use you-attitude to help see the other person’s point of view.

31. Unit Five
End of Module 18