Effective teamwork

Objectives

• In lieu of magic, smart work of teams (not hard work but smart work).

• We want simple solutions. There are none.

Agenda

• Managing feedback.

• Norms or Team contracts.

• Diversity

• Trust

• Communication

Present team Contracts

• Three minutes please.

#1 plus and minus of teams is usually

working with other people

So much in chapters 2-5

• Begin with diversity as the core. Book mentions group culture is very important for team effectiveness. Diversity is a very important part of that culture. If poor atttidues towards diversity then very likely to have either mediocre teams, problem teams, have the magic of right personalities.

What is diversity

• We all have our own definitions. Book has no definition.

• What is diversity in your opinion (likely to reflect in general population).

Book does mention different types

• Social category (demographics)• Informational (knowldge and know how)• Values (I would include interests).• Personality (related to values but more)• Lets take a personality test (meyers briggs).• Often these are linked to each other so that

demographic differences lead to informational, value and personality differences.

Teams and diversity are very important

• Expanded talent pool

• Multiple viewpoints (is this usually good or not and why?)

• Better decision Making

• Usually linked to positive attributes of teams.

• Morale is High

• Winning.

• Together these MAY lead to competitive advantage. (You will be hearing this word a lot).

Drawbacks of Diversity

• Conflict (too many viewpoints)• Biases in Performance reviews (biases in

judgement of others)• Difficult to deal with people who have different

values. Procrastinators and type As.• Meyers Briggs categories.• My own—easier to work with people who think

and act like I do. Diversity makes work more difficult.

Another option

• #1 Accept the fact that people will be different than you.

• #2 How can you expand your ways of behaving by seeing how different people behave.

• #3 Listen.

• #4 Realize all personalities have their bright attributes and dark attributes.

• How can the team most effectively use the positive attributes and minimize the negative attributes.

• This is NOT EASY.

• But What happens when people get labeled good-bad.

• Lets go back to procrastinators vs Type As.

• Options to manage this.

• Abbreviated MBTI

Type Theory Preferences and Descriptors EXTROVERSION INTROVERSIONOutgoingPublicly impressiveInteractingSpeaks, then thinksGregarious

QuietReservedConcentratingThinks, then speaksReflective

SENSING INTUITINGPracticalSpecificFeet on the groundDetailsConcrete

GeneralAbstractHead in the cloudsPossibilitiesTheoretical

THINKING FEELINGAnalyticalClarityHeadJusticeRules

SubjectiveHarmonyHeartMercyCircumstances

JUDGING PERCEIVINGStructuredTime orientedDecisiveMakes lists / uses themOrganised

FlexibleOpen endedExploringMakes lists / loses themSpontaneous

“Excuse Me, Where is the Rest Room?”

• Sensor: Go through the green double doors and turn immediately left. You’ll pass a staircase and a sign that says “Caution: Doors Open Outward.” Three doors past that is the director’s office. The rest room will be the next door on your right.”

• Intuitive: “Go through the doors and turn left. It’s down the hall. You can’t miss it.”

• Business people more sensing; Professors more Intuitive.

• Cases sensing people tend to take the surface problems, intuitive thinkers tend to look for the hidden causes.

• Sensing people like routine problems, intuitive people like novel problems—such as cases.

• Sensors—label intuitors as head in the clouds, vague, poor communicators.

• Intuitors labor sensors as dull, weak thinkers.

Share with team MBTI

• Sensor Intuitive. Others too.

Trust

• Book Talks about . 5 dysfunctions it’s a central component.

• Meet in teams. Come up with a definition of trust?

• What contributes to trust, what detracts from trust.

Why is trust important?

• Communication, group cohesiveness, performance, attitudes towards group, leader, organization, motivation, cooperative behaviors above the call of duty.

• Competence based trust vs Interpersonal trust.

Research in Progress

• Competence• Task specific• Degrees of trust (more or

less).• Cognitive assessment

and work pressures• Delegation issue

Commitment to task.• Limited communication

• Interpersonal• Wholistic• Categorical• Distrust, no trust, trust.• Emotional and affective• Commitment to person-

group.• Authentic communication

with sympathy.

In your teams, What is the advantage of Competence only?

• What is the advantage of Interpersonal trust?

Why do I link Trust and Diversity together?

#2

• Communication

• Most people believe they are a good communicators.

• Then why do we have so many communication problems?

Sender problems

• Message distortion• Many reasons for message distortion.

Can be intentional or unintentional.• Transparency illusion--Assumptions is a

good unintentional message distortion with absence of information.

• Sometimes we do not honestly express our feeling thoughts. Many reasons for this.

Jack Welch and Candor

Receiver bias

• Biased interpretation

• Selective perception

• Perspective-taking failures. Fail to fully listen to other. Sometimes more than words.

• Indirect speech acts, nonverbal communication

• There will be a presentation on effective listening.

• This is always best managed by having the role of the summarizer at the end.

Video Case

How are trust, communication, and diversity related?

#3 I will cover this topic next week.

• Role sharing

• Task/Functional roles—Keeps the group on task

• People/Maintenance roles—Keeps harmonious relationships among group members.

• You will see these again in leadership discussions.

Examples of Task/functional roles

• Agenda Setter, recorder, progress monitor, critic, information provider, summarizer

Examples of people/maintenance Roles

• Humorist, conflict manager, encourager, listener.• People need to do both in small groups. • Debate how to manage the different roles.• Problem teams, no task functional roles.

Leaderless groups.• Somewhat problematic no people maintenance

roles. Job gets done, but the advantages of teams are not utilized. Often no cohesion.

Suggestions

• Agenda setter every meeting.

• Harmonizer every meeting. Focus on encouraging, listening, conflict. More facilitator of good group discussion

• Summarizer at the end of meeting review notes, what was agreed not agreed, who is going to do what before the end of the next meeting.

Next class Presentations

• AND CONDUCTING EFFECTIVE MEETINGS (start of class)

• Social loafing (after the break)