Untitled

Teams vs. Groups

• Teams consist of individuals working together with a shared purpose, interdependent roles, and collective accountability.
• Team members typically bring complementary skills and aim to achieve a specific objective through collaboration.
• Teams have more coordinated effort, synergy, and shared responsibility, while groups may simply work in parallel without interdependence.
• Groups consist of individuals who may work together but lack the same level of interdependence or shared goals as teams.
• Group members might work on individual tasks that do not require close collaboration.

Team Effectiveness Scoreboard

• A Team Effectiveness Scoreboard is a tool to evaluate a team's performance.
• It usually tracks key performance indicators (KPIs) related to team goals and behaviors such as:
• Team Performance measures goal achievement.
• Team Learning and Development tracks improvement and adaptation.
• Member Satisfaction assesses engagement and contentment.
• Team Cohesion and Collaboration assesses teamwork quality.
• Accountability measures how team members hold each other accountable.

Five Characteristics of High-Performing Teams

• High-performing teams are characterized by:
• Shared Purpose: Having a clear and compelling outcome-based goal.
• Mutual Accountability: Members are mutually accountable and benefit (or suffer) together based on performance.
• Productive Team Norms: Includes confidence, cooperation, coordination, cohesion, and constructive conflict.
• Complementary Skills: Requires a mix of skills and competencies.
• Small Size: Optimal size is typically 5-8 people, but no more than 10.

Capable and Complementary Members

• High-performing teams require members with complementary skills and abilities.
• Capable members possess the skills and expertise necessary to contribute effectively in their area of responsibility.
• Complementary members fill gaps and balance out the team, adding value through diverse skills and perspectives.
• Teams need a balance of technical experts, creative thinkers, and communicators.
• Focusing on multiple dimensions and potential interactions is key, rather than seeking individuals with high levels of all skills.
• Other Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs) include cognitive ability, conscientiousness, agreeableness, conflict resolution, collaborative problem-solving, communication, goal setting, performance management, planning, and task coordination.

Shared Purpose and Performance Objectives

• A Shared Purpose is crucial for team success, aligning members and ensuring a common objective.
• Clarity of Purpose makes teams more focused, aligned, and motivated.
• Performance Objectives define what success looks like for the team, and should be:
• Specific: Clearly defining the target outcomes..
• Measurable: Allowing for tracking and assessment of progress.
• Achievable: Realistic goals that can be reached with effort.
• Relevant: Directly aligned with the team's purpose.
• Time-Bound: Setting deadlines or timeframes for achieving objectives.
• Articulating outcome-based goals (specific results) is better than activity-based goals (activities to be completed).

Productive Norms and Process

• Norms are the unwritten rules or shared expectations of how team members should behave.
• Productive Norms are positive and constructive, guiding members towards collaboration, problem-solving, and high performance.
• Punctuality, open communication, and mutual respect are great examples.
• Process involves having effective methods for managing tasks, resolving conflicts, decision-making, and coordinating efforts.
• Well-established processes increase efficiency and help prevent misunderstandings.

Confidence

• Explanation: Team members should have confidence in each other's abilities and the team's collective capability.
• Importance: Confidence builds trust, which leads to a more positive atmosphere.

Cooperation

• Explanation: Team members should feel psychologically safe to share information, to enhance the team's overall performance.
• Importance: A cooperative mindset encourages teamwork, and fosters a collaborative spirit, which enhances creativity and productivity.

Coordination

• Explanation: Teams must coordinate their efforts and tasks to ensure that there is no overlap or missed work.
• Importance: to overcome uneven communication and have shared information .

Cohesion

• Explanation: Cohesion refers to the sense of unity and togetherness within the team which drives motivation and collective responsibility.
• Building team cohesiveness involves: scheduling social time, getting agreement on group goals, competition with outside groups, rewarding members, and creating a sense of performance “crisis.”

Conflict

• Explanation: The conflict involves differing ideas and perspectives that are resolved in a healthy way
• Importance: constructive conflict over issues from degenerating into dysfunctional conflict between people

Mutual Accountability

• Mutual Accountability refers to the shared responsibility for team performance and:

• Every member holds themselves and each other accountable for contribution.

• Peer Accountability: Team members are responsible for holding each other to high standards of performance.

• Members benefit and potentially suffer based on performance. Cooperative Reward vs Competitive Reward

• Cooperative reward: rewards are distributed equally and good for high interdependence tasks or hard to identify individual contributions

• Team-based rewards

• Team outings or celebrations

• Competitive reward: rewards are distributed based on individual performance and good for low task interdependence tasks or easy to identify individual contributions

• Employee of the Month or other recognition programs

Managing Threats to Team Performance and Decision-Making

• Teams face various threats that can undermine their effectiveness.

Risky Shift

• Definition: occurs when a group makes riskier decisions than individuals would alone because of shared responsibility.
• To Manage: have structured decision making and encourage individuals to voice their concerns

Innocent Bystander Effect

• Definition: individuals are less likely to help or take action in a group, assuming others will step in, where individuals are less likely to intervene in a problem.
• To Manage: clarify responsibilities so that team members are accountable for each task.

Escalation of Commitment

• Definition: individuals or teams continue to invest in a failing course of action, even when it's clear the decision was wrong.
• To Manage: set up decision check-points where progress is evaluated

###Conformity and Obedience

• Definition: Conformity is when individuals adjust their opinions to align with group norms.
• Obedience refers to following authority figures' directives without questioning them, often leading to poor decisions or unethical behavior.
• To Manage: encourage open dialogue where dissenting opinions are valued and encourage a culture of questioning and critical thinking to avoid groupthink.

Social Conformity

• Definition: Social conformity occurs when social pressures persuade members to conform to the perceived wishes of the group
• To Manage: create an environment of safety, use feedback, encourage diverse opinions, name a devil's advocate

Groupthink

• Definition: Groupthink is when the desire for harmony in group is high.
• To Manage: appoint a advocate

Abilene Paradox

• Definition: group of people collectively decide on course of action that no one individually wants because they assume others want it
• To Manage: encourage input and voting as well create an enviornment where contrarian views are comfortable

Ringelmann Effect

• Definition: individual effort decreases as group size increases.
• To Manage: set indvidual goals, track individual performance, and keep teams small

Self-Limiting Behavior

• Definition: Team members intentionally or unintentionally limit their contribution to a task or project.
• To Manage: encourage active participation by creating a safe environment for everyone to share ideas and communication skills

Reducing Social Loafing

• Definition: individuals exert less effort in a group than if working alone because they believe others will compensate
• To Manage: find ways to communicate or display each member's contribution

Decision-Making Issues

• Avoid these by encouraging diverse opinions, using structured decision-making processes, and encouraging critical thinking.

Effective Team Interventions

• Are strategies used to improve team performance

Holding Effective Meetings

• Effective meetings have clear goals, proper planning, and active participation. They should be structured to ensure productivity.
• Key points: clear purpose, direct questions, time management, encourage participation, action items and a brief review

After Action Reviews

• Are tools to evaluate the effectiveness of a project as well as evaluate how to improve future tasks

Dealing with Free Riders

• A free rider is someone who benefits from the group's efforts without contributing equally, before there are even social norms and incecentive to reduce free riding.

Evaluating Evidence

• Identify the claim and reliability, quality, sources, context, and possible counterarguments in order to strengthen weak decisions.

SPAARC Framework

• Accuracy: Need an independent source of information to be factual
• Precision: Provide detailed and specific evidence
• Sufficiency: Use enough evidence for claim and to make argument convincing
• Representativeness- is the sample or evidence used to represent the entire issue
• Authority- credibility and expertise
• Clarity: ensure the evidence is clear

Power

• Is the capacity to influence others

Reward Power

• Is the ability to grant rewards (e.g., promotions, raises, praise) to influence work.
• Works: People will comply with requests to avoid negative outcomes

Legitimate

• Is the authority that comes from a formal position with in an organization
• Works: People comply because they believe that the person has the right to make requests

Referent

• Power that comes from personal traits or the respect others have for someone.
• Works: People follow individuals they admire/trust

Expert

• Definition: Power derived from having specialized knowledge, skills, or expertise.
• Works: People trust leaders who have valuable knowledge.

Coercive

• Definition: The ability to influence others through the threat of punishment or negative consequences. Forcing someone to do something against their will
• Works: The power is based on fear

Rational Persuasion

• Most effective way to use logical arguments to fact
• Is one of the most effective techniques

Personal Appeal

• Elicit commitment by referring to personal relationships

###Exchange

• Offering something return to what you want

Ingratiation

• Definition: Using flattery or praise to influence others' behaviors or decisions.
• Using these actions to get somebody in good standings.

Coalition

Definition: Gaining support from others to back up your position or request. involves building alliances or support groups to amplify your influence and make your case stronger.

Legitimizing

• Coercive technique by using authority to make requests seem approprate

Consultations

• Elicting commitment by involving others in the decisions

Inspiration Appeal

• Trying to influence others using emotions

Social influence weapons

• Includes liking, commitment, scarcity , reprocity, social proof and appeals.

Influence Up

• Understanding boss' goals and issues

Actionable steps to influencing

• Offer solutions, use clear data, be spercific

The abaility to influence

• Is leadership with setting aside pesonal conserns for a larger agenda.

Leaders and Managers

• Leaders do not hold mangrical itiles, use action and ideas unlike management

Charasteristics of leaders

• Great mean theory, IQ, Dominance, Sociability

Behavior drives people in leaders

• Communisication , empathy, and decision making

###Leader-member exchange (LMX)

• Have a positive relationship between employee and manager

Leading

• By rewarding people and instilling confidence

Leadership

• Setting goals, apperciating the vision, modeling values

Expectations

• set expectations through high performance and through Pygmalion effect where the mind influences behavioral cues

Provide inteluctual stiimulation

Challenges followers to re think

Provide contingent rewards/punishment.

• Explain all rewards with them performing and their performance.

Contingent Awards

• Desribe a benefit and reward associate