Team Dynamics and Leadership Chapter 11

Chapter 11: The Team Concept

• Learning objectives include describing high-performance group characteristics, demonstrating positive/negative group member roles, and understanding leader roles in developing communication, teamwork, and a unified team attitude.
• Leadership is the ability to effectively harness and channel group power. Leadership requires understanding group behavior and tapping the constructive power of teams.
• Excellent teams exhibit 12 key characteristics: clear mission, informal atmosphere, lots of discussion, active listening, trust and openness, disagreement is acceptable, criticism is focused on issues, consensus is the norm, effective leadership, clarity of assignment, shared values/norms, and commitment.
• Successful groups depend on individual choices, leader influence and direction, and intentional reinforcement of positive vs. negative roles.

Roles That Build High-Performance Groups

• Encourager: Helps members fulfill potential.
• Clarifier: Organizes and clarifies information.
• Harmonizer: Brings together differing points of view.
• Idea generator: Suggests ideas.
• Ignition key: Facilitates group work.
• Standard setter: Uses knowledge/skills to guide the group.
• Detail specialist: Identifies errors/omissions.

Roles That Reduce Group Success

• Ego tripper: Interrupts others, overly dogmatic.
• Negative artist: Rejects ideas, takes negative stances.
• Above-it-all person: Withdraws from group activities.
• Aggressor: Attacks/blames others.
• Jokester: Distracts from tasks.
• Avoider: Avoids conflict/confrontation.
• Power victim: Seeks negative attention.

Dealing with Problem Behavior

• Address issues: Calmly discuss behavior after the fact.
• Report honestly: Note observations, emphasizing the importance of considering others' perspectives.
• Emphasize shared goals: Highlight the need for cooperation to achieve success.
• Express impact: Describe how the behavior affected individuals.
• Ask for clarification: Encourage the individual to explain their behavior.
• Avoid counter attack - do not engage in defensiveness if the person challenges your observations.
• Emphasize cooperation: Point out the value of cooperation with others.
• Confront with facts: Emphasize consequences if closed-minded.
• Communicate unacceptability: State that the behavior is unacceptable.

Designing Teams for Success

• Teams typically consist of 5-8 individuals.
• Effective teams draw on diverse experiences/perspectives.
• Amazon's "two-pizza rule" suggests team size limits for effective teamwork.
• Microsoft recommends 8-person teams for software development.

The Problem-Solving Cycle

• Problem-solving involves: having experiences (E), reflecting on results (R), building theories (T), taking action (A).

Problem-Solving Styles

• Problem-solving includes having experiences, reflecting on results, building theories, and taking action.
• Preference for multiple problem-solving styles is possible.
• Tolerance of differences in styles is crucial in collaborative environments.

Leader as Team Builder

• Teamwork is essential for group success.
• Effective leaders value teamwork, acting as team builders and champions.

Hiring and Developing Winners

• Leaders must recruit and develop high-performing team members.
• Leaders must commit to excellence, set an example.
• Leaders need to hire talented individuals and train others.
• Leaders should consider the needs/interests of all team members.

How to Create a High-Performance Team

• Individual competence does not guarantee high-performance teams.
• Leaders should create a unified team spirit and "one-team" attitude.
• Seek to assemble teams with knowledge, commitment, desire to collaborate.
• Encourage enthusiasm, timely decision-making, open-mindedness, innovation.

How to Create a High-Performance Team, II

• Modelling honesty and handling uncertainties.
• Being adaptive in tactics/strategies for success.
• Emphasize persistence/lasting power in teams.
• Giving credit to others, recognizing efforts and accomplishments.

Characteristics of a Successful Team

• Clear, elevating goal.
• Results-driven structure.
• Competent team members.
• Unified commitment.
• Collaborative climate.
• Standards of excellence.
• External support/recognition.
• Principled leadership.

Virtual Teams

• Virtual teams perform best with tasks needing moderate interdependence.
• Key elements for global virtual teams = senior management support, effective communication technology, a supportive organizational structure, trust and respect between team members, ability to capitalize on diverse cultures/languages.

Stages in the Life of a Group

• Groups progress through stages: forming (caution, tentative interactions), storming (conflict, pushing limits), norming (agreement, cohesion), performing (focused effort, high morale).
• Transition between stages may involve the potential for groupthink.

Stage I: Forming

• Group formation, but purpose/expectations are unclear.
• Cautious approach to testing the waters.
• Individuals evaluate acceptable behavior, tasks, and interactions.
• Interactions are superficial and directed toward formal leaders.

Stage II: Storming

• Individuals react to actions and authority, asserting individuality.
• Characterized by conflict, resistance to structure.
• Members develop coping strategies and approaches for working together.

Stage III: Norming

• Norms are established for group tasks.
• Greater order/cohesion develops.
• Members identify with the group and find ways to resolve conflict.
• Members feel comfortable exchanging ideas and information.

Stage IV: Performing

• Focused efforts on tasks, having passed through membership, structure, role issues.
• Tasks are prioritized, members take initiative emphasizing results.
• Morale increases as milestones are achieved, improving positive feelings among members.
• Each member takes on leadership responsibilities.

Avoiding Groupthink

• Groupthink is a mode of thinking where striving for unanimity overrides realistic evaluation of alternatives.

• Factors fostering groupthink = highly insulated groups, stressful decision-making contexts, group cohesiveness.

• Symptoms include illusion of invulnerability, inherent morality, rationalization, stereotypes of out-groups, self-censorship, pressure to conform, mindguards, illusion of unanimity.

• Techniques to avoid groupthink= assign role of critical evaluator, adopt impartial stance, external evaluators, devil's advocate, second-chance meetings.

Team-Building Interventions and Techniques

• Team building often occurs organically, as the group responds to challenges.
• Experiential strategies enhance team building.
• Challenges/adventures can strengthen relationships.

Team-Building, II

• Key questions to consider during team discussions = history, current status, purpose, goals, values, stakeholders, strategy, success factors, team dynamics

Appreciative Inquiry

• Team-building strategy.
• "Four-D" model – Discovery, Dreaming, Designing, and Delivering.

The Role of the Leader in the Team Concept

• Organizational success depends on understanding and managing team processes.
• Crucial processes include buy-in (legitimizing work & setting goals), accountability (managing/rewarding performance), learning (performance improvement), infrastructure (systemizing work/accessing resources), and partnering (promoting interaction across units).
• Leaders must coordinate teams across organizations, advocate for teams, access resources, and ensure organizational support for team results.

Team Dynamics

• Five dysfunctions of teams = absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, inattention to results.
• Five traits of effective teams = trust, unfiltered conflict about ideas, committing to decisions, holding each other accountable, focusing on collective results.

The Human Side of Team Effectiveness

• Research emphasizes psychological safety as a critical factor in team success.
• Good teams foster a sense of equality in conversational turn-taking.
• The importance of social sensitivity in teams.