Team Dynamics
Research and Innovation
S
Outline
Team Dynamics
Team Leader
Choosing Team Leader
Meetings
Allocation of responsibilities
Conflicts
Team Dynamics
Team Dynamics are invisible forces that operate between
different people or groups in a team.
They can have a strong impact on how a team behaves or
performs and their effects can be complex.
Quite a broad area, our focus is on practices that will improve
teams performance skills and the quality of the work the team
will produce
What makes projects fail?
Inadequate resources
Inadequate time
Inadequate goals/expectations
Disagreement and confusion within the team
Inadequate management involvement,
guidance, & support
What makes projects successful
Team clearly understands the project outcome
Team members are willing and properly trained
Detailed, complete, up-to-date project plan
Adequate resources
Realistic project schedule
Feasible project scope
Team Leader
The team leader manages the team: calling and, if necessary,
facilitating meetings, handling or assigning administrative details,
organizing all team activities, and overseeing preparations for
reports and presentations.
Is the contact point for communication between the team and the rest
of the organization, including the sponsor.
Is the official keeper of the team records including: copies of
correspondence; records of meetings and presentations; meeting
minutes and agendas; and charts, graphs, and other data related to
the project.
Is a full-fledged team member. As such, the team leader's duties also
include attending meetings, carrying out assignments between
meetings, and generally sharing in the team's work.
Choosing Team leaders
Is energetic
Is skilled at resolving conflict
Is well organized
Is respected by group members
Is reliable
Is charismatic
Is intelligent
Is creative
Is effective in achieving results
Allocation of responsibilities
Allocate responsibilities according to strength
Ensure that work is balanced amongst members
Each task must have a short time frame of delivery
Share experiences
Always justify/explain the work you did to your team eg.
Database design decisions, existence of operations etc
Report Editing
Must be done by the editor
Make use of spell checkers
Backup must be done either on Dropbox or somewhere safe.
Ensure that each member has a single copy of the report ALL the
time
Each member must report on their own task
Members must make their own latex compilation, which will be
integrated by the editor
All reports will have a similar formatting style. This will be
enforced through latex
Meetings
Critical to the effective functioning of a team
It is at meetings that members develop their relationship as a group,
so if the meetings do not work well, the team is unlikely to do so
Must be done or held regularly, twice a week at the very least. 30
min per session. Meet over lunch, which is when most of you are
there
Must be documented as proof of what transpired
Each member must sign, to help us pick those that do not come to
school
Anybody can take minutes during these sessions. There has to be a
file of weekly meetings, which will go onto your report
Purpose of meetings
Building relationships
Learning team skills
Setting goals and objectives
Planning and coordinating work
Discussing ways to expand empowerment
Finding and solve problems
Working on innovations
Giving each other feedback
Evaluate the team and the meetings
Conflict Management
Conflict - When two or more people’s differences
escalate to a level that negatively affects (or may
affect) productivity, quality, service, morale, or
working relationships
Conflict Management - A process by which the
project manager uses appropriate managerial
techniques to deal with inevitable disagreements -
both technical and personal - that develop among
those working toward project accomplishment
Sources of conflict
Sources of Conflict Definitions
(priority order in
*INITIATION)
#1 Project Priorities View of project participants differ over
sequence of activities and tasks.
#2 Administrative Managerial and administration oriented
Procedures conflicts over how the project will be
managed
#3 Technical Opinions & Disagreements over technical issues,
Performance Trade-offs performance specifications, technical
trade-offs
#4 Human Resources Conflicts about staffing a project team with
personnel from other areas
#5 Cost Conflict over cost estimates from support
areas regarding work breakdown structures
#6 Schedule Disagreements about the timing,
sequencing and scheduling of project-
related tasks
#7 Personality Disagreements on interpersonal issues
Ways to resolve conflict
Avoiding/Withdrawing – Ignoring or
retreating from the problem
Smoothing - De-emphasize differences and
emphasize commonalities – Friendly
Compromising - Find solutions that bring some
degree of satisfaction to parties - Neither wins
Forcing - Exert one's view at expense of
another party
Problem Solving - Address disagreement
directly. Select most appropriate alternative
How To Approach Conflict Mgmt
1. Prepare for Conflict
Expect conflict.
Plan ahead to handle conflict. (Communicate how
the team will handle conflict.)
2. Face the Conflict
– Serve as a lightning rod (Deal with it - don’t take
it personally.)
– Surface the real issues.
3. Resolve the Conflict
– Look for win-win alternatives.
– Cut your losses when necessary.
