1. Leading Effective Teams
Dr Catherine Hannaway
Senior Fellow, Durham University

2. Why Teams?
“There is a significant and negative relationship between the percentage of staff working in teams in acute hospitals and the mortality rate in those hospitals, taking account of local health care needs and hospital size. Where more employees work in teams the death rate among patients is significantly lower.”
Borrill & West, Aston University, 1999

3. Why Teams?
They bring together complementary skills and experiences that exceed those of any individual
enables a better response to multifaceted challenges
In jointly developing clear goals and approaches, teams establish communications that support real-time problem solving and initiative
as a result teams can adjust their approach to new information and challenges with greater speed, accuracy and effectiveness
They provide a unique social dimension that enhances the economic and administrative aspects of work
overcoming the barriers that stand in the way of collective performance
Teams have more fun!
fun both sustains and is sustained by team performance

4. Individual
Team
Task
Prof John Adair
Effective Leadership

5. http://www. nhsleadership. org

9. Focusing on team basics
Performance results
Problem solving
Technical/function
Interpersonal
Mutual
Small number of people
Individual
Accountability
Skills
Specific goals
Common approach
Meaningful purpose
Commitment
Personal growth
Collective work products
Katzenbach and Smith (1993)

10. Characteristics of High Performing Teams
Leadership
Membership
Ownership
memory of high performing teams
Accountability
Good philosophy
Shared purpose
Shared understanding
Clarity of individual and team roles
Shared values
Trust
Timeliness of actions
Celebration of success
positive feedback, team feeing valued
Empowered
Support from within the team
Laughter
Desire for all to succeed
Common vision
Working for the greater good
Everyone thinks you are a high performing team
Committed to task/completion of objective
Valuing of each member of the team
Feeling safe to take risks
External positive affirmation that you are doing a good job
Successful team accepts feedback and acts on this feedback/seeks feedback
Reflective
Reflect on own team performance
Self evaluation
Trust other people to cross cover
Self support themselves and the team
Task significant to themselves and others
Like each other
Respect everybody’s strengths
Build on things that work well
Share goals - fun, clear
Same mind set
Organised - Commitment
Think differently, happy with the mix
Want to support each other – fair
Honest about performance
Not blamed – getting rid of fear
Brave enough to stop things that aren’t working
Finish job!! Celebrate
Reflect – and be positive

11. The Team Performance Curve
High-performing team
Real team
Performance impact
Working group
Potential team
Katzenbach and Smith
Team effectiveness
Pseudo-team

12. How Work Groups Form into Effective Units or Teams (Bruce Tuckman)
1 Forming
2 Storming
3 Norming
4 Performing
Important that:
Group Members recognise they belong to the group
Have effective working relationships based on agreed goals
Understand one another and are prepared to share ideas and feelings

13. Some Thoughts on Leading Teams
Genuine concern for others
Ability to communicate and inspire
Decency
Humanity
Humility
Sensitivity
Respect for others
Prof Beverley Alimo-Metcalfe summarises the 7 qualities as the leader being a servant not a hero

14. Model-400

15. The nine Team Roles
The first Team Role to be identified was the “Plant”. The role was so-called because one such individual was “planted” in each team. They tended to be highly creative and good at solving problems in unconventional ways.
One by one, the other Team Roles began to emerge.
The Monitor Evaluator was needed to provide a logical eye, make impartial judgements where required and to weigh up the team’s options in a dispassionate way.
Co-ordinators were needed to focus on the team’s objectives, draw out team members and delegate work appropriately.
When the team was at risk of becoming isolated and inwardly-focused, Resource Investigators provided inside knowledge on the opposition and made sure that the team’s idea would carry to the world outside the team.
Implementers were needed to plan a practical, workable strategy and carry it out as efficiently as possible.
Completer Finishers were most effectively used at the end of a task, to “polish” and scrutinise the work for errors, subjecting it to the highest standards of quality control.
Teamworkers helped the team to gel, using their versatility to identify the work required and complete it on behalf of the team.
Challenging individuals, known as Shapers, provided the necessary drive to ensure that the team kept moving and did not lose focus or momentum.
It was only after the initial research had been completed that the ninth Team Role, “Specialist” emerged. The simulated management exercises had been deliberately set up to require no previous knowledge. In the real world, however, the value of an individual with in-depth knowledge of a key area came to be recognised as yet another essential team contribution or Team Role. Just like the other Team Roles, the Specialist also had a weakness: a tendency to focus narrowly on their own subject of choice, and to prioritise this over the team’s progress.

16. Belbin – Team Roles Categories
Action-orientated roles
shaper
implementer
completer/finisher
People-orientated roles
co-ordinator
team worker
resource investigator
Cerebral roles
plant
monitor evaluator
specialist
Model-400
Belbin (1993)

17. Approaches to building team performance
Establish urgency and direction
Select members based on skills and skill potential, not personalities
Pay particular attention to first meetings and actions
Set some clear rules of behaviour
Set and seize upon a few immediate performance-oriented tasks and goals
Challenge the group regularly with fresh facts and information
Spend time together
Exploit the power of positive feedback, recognition and reward

18. Further Reading Belbin, R Meredith (1998) Team Roles at Work. BH
Borrill, C.A., West, M. (2000c), Team-working and Effectiveness in Health Care, Aston Centre of Health Service Organisation Research (ACHSOR), University of Aston, Birmingham
Borrill, C.A., West, M. (2000a), How Good is Your Team? A Guide for Team Members, Aston Centre of Health Service Organisation Research (ACHSOR), University of Aston, Birmingham
Katzenbach J.R. and Smith D.K. The Wisdom of Teams – Creating the high performance organisation – Harvard Business School Press