Leading and Building Teams

Objectives
After reading this unit you should be able to: understand what is a team compare teams with groups distinguish between various types of teams describe situations when teams are preferred over individuals describe the processes involved in team building specify features of effective teams leadership in team building team sustenance

Structure
Introduction

Why Teams? Groups and Teams: what is Difference? Types of Teams Building Effective Teams Team Effectiveness and Team Sustenance Leadership in Team Building Summary Self Assessment Questions Father Readings

Introduction
A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance, goals and approach for which they hold mutually accountable. Every group can not be considered as a team. Teams are more than sum of individual members contributions. There exists synergy. Members of the teams possess complimentary skills and work in interdependent manner while working for agreed objectives. Team building has emerged as a popular tool of workplace management during mid sixties and remains popular approach even now in numerous industries. Norman Hill suggested the following common knowledge among managers regarding teamwork may have served as guiding point to accept team approach to work:

 Involvement is a precondition to commitment, people become involved seeing their ideas, become part of their work and work environment. Management should work like team leaders and coaches.

Management has a facilitating or developing role rather than a

directing role. Work groups have the necessary capacity to cope with their own problems provided they are aware of their capacity and problems. Employees are innately cooperative and self actualising, preferring the chance to exercise a degree of control over their work environment.

Typical hierarchical organizations and their inherent trend towards

more

 formal rules and dysfunctional bureaucratic behavior can become

more effective and functional by eliminating status distinctions and emphasizing interpersonal trust, openness, and self disclosure. Why Teams? Team approach to work seems to have several advantages over individual approach at work. Evidence suggests that team works better when task requires multiple skills, judgment, and experience. Further, competition demands flexibility among the players. Teams have shown more flexibility in adapting changing demands as compared to traditional departmental structure. Organizations also use teams to motivate their staff as staff gets enough opportunity to influence operational decisions by having interactions. Teams are also being used to utilize the talents available with the organizations in more efficient ways. Last but not least teams are being used to democratize the workplace where there is hierarchical relationship between the members of the workforce.

If you want to see work teams see project teams of Infosys Technologies. These project teams are formed with a purpose to achieve the projective objectives effectively and efficiently. Members of project teams are selected on the basis of their complimentary skills and experience and their work is highly interdependent in nature. Most often part of compensation also depends on how the entire team has worked. Members of the team thoroughly discuss the problem, work closely, and communicate frequently while working on the problems. Robbins cited the Case of Boeing Company using team approach. Boeing Company decided to follow self regulating, cross-disciplinary work teams in place of military style hierarchical structure in air craft design. The planning and development of Boeings new 777-200 twin jet involved an intensive collaboration of designers, production experts, maintenance people, customer service staff, finance specialists and even airline customers. A small group of 8 to 10 members were given the responsibility of refining and meshing all the aspect of aircraft program from the start. The purpose was to get the feedback of each team on entire aircraft design as a whole and

act quickly on ideas irrespective of who is giving the idea/feedback. Boeing Management believes that the use of teams allows the company to produce better products, faster and at a lower cost. Now teams are being used by many organizations all over the world. Pick up any business magazine, you will invariably find on some thing on use of work teams in various companies. General Electric, Johnson, 3M Co, Maruti are to name few the companies that are using teams in work organizations. After all what is the reason for such popularity? It should be kept in mind that teams are always in preferred mode of working. Teams take more time and consume more resources than individuals at work. For example, team require more communication, more conflicts are to be resolved. Thus, team should be used only when benefits of using team definitely outweigh cost. Three points should be checked whether the task is such which can e done better by more than one person. The nature of complexity of the task will provide the answer. If the complexity of the task is high, multiple perspective is required, teamwork may be an appropriate option. Simple and routine tasks dont require teamwork. Second, does the

work generate common goal/objective leading to possible synergy, i.e., working together has potential to generate better outcome than sum of individual contributions. And lastly, is the work interdependent? i.e., performance of members depends on performance of other members. If the work is interdependent again, teamwork is a better option. Now a days many car dealers have for customer service cells consisting of customer service personnel, mechanics, part specialists, and sales rep to provide better service. With this kind of intervention, customer is provided with better service and any of his quarries can responded to immediately to the best of his satisfaction. If the work is simple it can be done by one person, which has no potential to generate synergy and when there is interdependence among members, team work any not a good approach to follow. Groups and teams: What is the difference? Group and teams may look alike but all groups are not the teams. All teams start as groups, but not all groups become teams.

The elements that distinguish teams from groups are:(1)full commitment by members to a common goal and mission, (2) mutual accountability, (3) shared leadership, (4) trust and a collaborative culture (5) achievement of synergy, and (6) complementary skills. Teams are found to be higher on these six variables as compared to groups. Groups meet to share information for enabling each member to perform efficiently in his/her own area of responsibility. Normally groups may not jointly work on collective goals. Teams have full commitment to collective goals and mission. Group may have designated leader while teams have shared leadership.

Similarly, group is individually accountable for performance, while teams are mutually as well as individually accountable for outcome. Groups may have random and varied skills while members in teams normally have complementary skills. Effective teams are able to attain synergy while in groups, performance is merely an addition of contribution of individual members. Teams also share the culture of trust and collaboration while groups may not share similar degree of trust and collaboration. Example of Indian Cricket Team can be taken as a case. Vision of the team is to win and play good cricket. While forming the team players complimentary skills are taken into consideration. Team may be having batting specialists, all rounder's fast bowlers, spin bowlers depends on wicketkeeper, quality of fielding and of

course on quality of bowling. Thus performance of the bowlers depends on wicketkeeper, quality of fielding and of course on quality of bowling. Thus performance of members is interdependent. Each member of the team trust and collaborate with each other and have mutual accountability. Members of the team are fully committed to the goals and missions of the team. Here leadership (captaincy) is decided, however, there is no rigid hierarchy. And, the defined leaders also take the views of senior players before taking crucial decisions. If an individual goal becomes important for the player than the team goals, you can see visible deviation in the behaviour of member. A player becomes too cautious if nearing century is achieved. Many times hostility among members is observed when there is mismatch in priorities of team goals and personals goals/ ambitions.

Numerous work organizations are redesigning/restructuring work around teams and expect to benefit from this intervention without any additional input believing that teams are able to generate synergy. Definitely, teams have potential for generating high performance in organizations however putting teams in place is not sure route to high performance. We need to ensure certain processes and common attributes of high performance teams to attain high performance.

Types of Teams
There can be many kinds of teams. The simplest team can be a manager and his direct reports. Another example may be members of music bands. Teams can be ad-hoc or temporary groups such as task forces, committees formed for a specific purpose and for a limited time. For example, a task force is organized by district administration to deal with flood/earthquake in the area. Once the crisis is over team gets dissolved. There can be permanent team like members of sections and department working on issues

arising out of organizational objectives. Similarly, there can be cross-functional teams bringing together experts from a variety of backgrounds to work on new and innovative problems. Now it is not necessary that team members work face to face to attain team objectives. Team members working to achieve common objectives from remote stations and connected through intranet and internet from virtual teams. Thus teams can be differentiated on four dimensions: 1. Purpose: Why teams have been formed? It may be for overcoming a crisis, developing a new product, improving quality or for solving a problem? 2. Duration: Whether the team is of continuous/ permanent or the same is temporary/ ad-hoc nature? 3. Membership: Whether membership is discipline based or the same is multi-disciplinary/cross functional 4. Nature of interaction: Whether the interface among members is face to face or the same is mediated through computer technology?

Robbins talked about four major types of teams:

1. 2. 3. 4. Problem-solving teams Self managed teams Cross-functional teams, Virtual teams

Problems Solving Teams

This is the most classical form of teams. These teams typically consists of a small group (5 to 12) members of employees from same department who meet for few hours weekly or fortnightly to discuss ways of improving quality, efficiency, and work environment. These are called problem solving teams. In problem solving teams people discussed problems, made suggestions for improvements in process and work methods. However, these teams were not having any authority to implement their decisions in organizations. The usual way was to make presentations before the management team which used to

give go ahead signal to suggestions made by problem solving teams. Quality Circles are the examples of problem solving teams. Quality Circles are usually permanent in nature, membership is voluntary, functional or discipline based and interaction is face to face and purpose to solve the most pressing problems quality, efficiency etc faced by the team. Quality circles have been used to improve productivity, efficiency, housekeeping, customer service and layout of the organization.

2. Self Managed Work Teams

Self managed teams are improvement over problem solving teams. Since problems solving teams do not have authority to implement their own decisions, they do not go beyond a point and members get demotivated that their decisions are not being implemented. Self managed teams are group of employees (typically 10 to 15 in number) who perform highly related to interdependent jobs and assume many of the roles assigned to their formers supervisors

Typically, this includes planning and scheduling of work, assigning tasks to members, collective control over the pace of work, making operational decisions, and taking action on problems. Fully self managed work teams select their members and mutually evaluate each others performance. Thus supervisory positions become redundant and sometimes even eliminated. In GEs locomotive-engine plant, in Grove city of Pennsylvania, there are about 100 self managed teams and they make most of plant decisions. They manage maintenance, schedule the work and authorise equipment purchase. In Oriental Bank of Commerce employees have their own job rotation arrangement although they have not named their initiative as self managed team. Xerox, General Motors, Coor Brewing, PepsiCo, Honeywell, HP are some familiar names using self managed teams. In US approximately 30% of employees are using self managed teams as a concept is being accepted here too. Self managed teams are again permanenet in nature, membership is functional, objective is to improve efficiency.

The same are being used primarily to increase employee involvement. Otis Elevators is making successful use of self managed teams in India. 3. Cross-Functional Teams Cross-functional teams consists of members belonging to same hierarchical level, but having different skills and professional background and have come together to accomplish a task. Project management teams in software organizations normally use such cross-functional teams. Cross functional teams are being used in consultancy assignments where experts of varying background join in and provide their services. Once the assignment is over the team get dissolved. Such temporary teams of cross-functional experts are also called task force. Task force is adhoc, membership is temporary and goal is to solve the problem. Expert committees consisting of experts from diverse background which dwell upon academic programme and its

Content and processes can be considered cross-functional team. Such teams are normally of continuous nature and have face to face interface and purpose of such teams is to enhance the quality of product/programme.

4. Virtual Teams
Virtual teams use computer technology to have interface among members of the team who work together to achieve a common goal. They allow people to collaborate online through various means like wide area networks, video conferencing, email whether they are on room away or far a part. For example, team of news crew of Doordarshan providing information from various stations can be considered to work in virtual team and their goal is to provide quality news to customers/viewers. Virtual can do everything that other teams do: share information, make decisions and complete tasks. They include members from same organizations or may have members from other organizations (for example, suppliers and collaborating organizations). Virtual teams have an advantage over

Traditional teams as they overcome time and space problem through computer aided technology but they also have to be more context independent as they dont receive Para verbal and nonverbal cues in communication, thus have limited social context.

Group Dynamics
Group dynamics is concerned with the interactions and forces among group members in a social situation. In the context of this course on Management Functions and Behavior, it is important to understand dynamics of members of formal or informal group in the organization. In the 1930s Kurt Lewin popularized the term, Group Dynamics to mean interaction of forces among group members in a social situation. In course of time, various meanings were attached to the term group dynamics (Kelly 1974). One of the meaning suggests how a group should be organized and conducted. In democratic leadership, member participation and overall cooperation are emphasized.

Another meaning of Group Dynamics is that it is a set of techniques. In various group exercises it tries to make the leader as well as the member effective. An attempt is made to make the above members play their roles in a management situation of group discussions, team building, finding, finding out various solutions to problems by brainstorming and understanding ourselves in relation to others while we transact or interact with others. The last meaning of the term Group Dynamics is closest to Lewins use of the term suggesting internal nature of the groups as to how they are formed, what their structures and processes are, how they function and affect

Building Effective Teams Team building process should be natural and be centered on specific and identifiable tasks. Is the problem is challenging and capable of stimulating various aspects of team process, building of team becomes smooth. Process of team building may be further accelerated if the people selected to work on the team are likely to work together in future as compared to individual artificially grouped. Moreover, effective teams are not static, they adapt to the task at hand. For example, a large project may unfold different phases in the project, which will require teams with varying skills and briefs. Keeping various requirements, Parkinson suggested that team building needs to cover at least five areas:

1. Task management Teams should follow a systematic approach to managing the work. It should include formal goal setting, planning, organizing time management, problem solving and review. On some aspects, members may require additional input. Many tasks may likely to go continuously, for example, review of progress. Monitoring of continuous progress may affect subsequent phases of work depending upon the progress. 2. Process Management This involves many interpersonal competencies like questioning, listening, summarizing encouraging, initiative, expressing opinion, synthesizing expressing and responding to feelings, gate keeping etc. Team members need to be taught and they need to practice the same. 3. Inter-group communication Team work parallel to many other teams. Many time teams need to share resources or need to communicate to others for getting its objectives fulfilled. This requires teams to develop communication, negotiation skills and understanding of political climate in the organization. 4. Team style What instance members of the team take will affect

teams performance. Similarly, what instance, what role team members take will also affect teams outcome. It is therefore expected that team leaders, members adopt appropriate influencing style matching with the needs of team members and the situation. 5. Contribution management Since the team is nothing but a synergistic combination of individuals, while building the teams individuals skills expertise, needs and personality must be understood in the context of teamwork since these features will help in assuming various team roles. Team leaders in particular, have to take additional responsibility to understand each members strengths and weaknesses, and manage the team such a way that each member is able to contribute to the team endeavor to the maximum.

Teams are essentially groups, thus follow the principles of group dynamics in the process of team formation and development. It team building process/programmes we need to take care of three key aspects for development:

1. Prepare the team members People require time to adapt to team working instead of individual working. Some of the skills required for team working need to be taught, the process of teaching takes time. Similarly, many people feel that team working is resorted to due to individual incompetence. Such feelings needs to be addressed to and dealt with firmly. To do all this organisation may require competent facilitators. Training, rewarding team performance over individual contribution and presenting people with positive attitude towards team working as role models may help preparing team members. 2. Clarify the teams objectives A large amount of friction and conflict gets generated during forming and storming stage. Clarifying the teams objective and course of action in advance may reduce such friction or conflict. If team facilitator provides the course of action for the team along with rule of the game and role of the members are clarified and defined in advance, wastage of teams energy on unproductive issues is minimized. 3. Set measurable goals many teams grapple in the dark because they are not clear what they are willing to achieve. It is very

Important to establish clear goals and develop clear indicators of measuring teams progress. Teams must develop yardsticks of measuring progress and all efforts be made by teams to achieve those objectives. Appendix 1 provides set of activities to check whether individual is suitably prepared to work in teams? Whether processes required for effective team functioning have been taken care of. The checklist provides good yardstick of variables involved team building process.

Behavioural Guidelines for Developing Effective Team

Whetten and Camerom (2002) provided how the team development take place. They have supplied a comprehensive set of behavioural guidelines for developing effective teams 1. As a leader of a team you must develop credibility by: - Demonstrating integrity and displaying congruence - Being clear and consistent about what you want to achieve

- Creating positive energy by being optimistic and complimentary - Building a base of agreement before moving on with task accomplishment - Managing agreements and disagreements by using appropriate arguments - Encourage and coach team members to help them improve - Sharing information about the team itself and from external sources, and encourage participation 2. After developing credibility, you must articulate a motivating vision for the team having following attributes: - Left brained (rational objectives) and right brained (symbols and images element - Challenges to status quo - Passionate language based on core personal principles - SMART (specific, measurable, aligned, realistic but stretching, and time bound) - Goals

3. You can play the role of effective team member in facilitating task performance by: Giving direction - Seeking information - Giving information - Elaborating others ideas - Urging task performance - Monitoring progress - Analyzing the teams processes - Testing the reality of suggestions - Enforcing team rules - Summarizing comments 4. You can play the role of effective team member in building relationship among team members by: - Supporting team members - Harmonizing disagreements - Relieving tension through humour

- Confronting unproductive behavior - Energizing others - Developing teams members abilities - Empathizing with others

5. When encountering team members who block the team performance with unproductive behaviours, confront the behavior and /or isolate the unproductive behaviour.
6. Provide feedback on unhelpful behaviour having following features: - Focused on the behaviour, not the person - Based on observations and descriptions rather than on inferences or personal judgments - Related to specific here and now behaviour and not past or abstract behaviour - Sharing of ideas more than the giving of advice - Based on the amount of information given on what the recipient wants or requires

Information that benefits the receiver rather than just being an emotional release - Shared at appropriate times and places 7. Learn to identify the stage in which the team is operating in order to help facilitate team development. Know the key attributes of the forming, norming, storming and performing stage of development. 8. In the forming stage: - Encourage team member orientation - Foster trust - Encourage relationship building - Clarify purpose and expectations 9. In the forming stage: - Forster unity - Show support - Provide feedback - Encourage team member empowerment

10. In the storming stage: - Manage conflict - Legitimise expression of differences - Foster interdependence - Work towards consensus building 11. In the performing stage: - Identify and capitalize the teams core competence - Foster innovation and continuous improvement - Encourage speed - Encourage creative problem solving and excitement level of performance

Team Effectiveness and Team Sustenance

Once teams reach the performance stage, their concern centers around effectiveness and efficiency. Before reaching at this stage team has already dealt the issues of skepticism, uncertainty, noncontribution, dependence and self-centeredness typical of forming stage. It has developed clear set of rules to deal with the problems,

vision, and loyalty and have dealt with the issues of conformity and loyalty and have dealt with the issues of conformity and groupthink at forming stage. It has also worked through conflicts and unproductive friction and power issues typically arising at storming stage. It has now reached to a stage where they have potential to generate extraordinary performance. Teams raise questions like: How can we continuously improve? How can we nurture innovativeness and creativity? How can we build on our core competence? How can we maintain a high energy level in the team? While solving any problem teams follow the philosophy of continuous improvement the essential components of the approach are specified below: 1. Customer focus: Who are the users of your product or service. They include not only people who buy organizational products but also internal customers (such as finance, dispatch personnel) who interact with and serve others in organization.

2. Even best can be improved: Quality is a journey and not a destination. Thus strive for continuous improvement. 3. Improve everything that team does: Map every activity that is undertaken by the team. Find how improvement can be introduced in every thing that team works on. May it be a product, a service, a meeting or financial services Define Problem. Define objective of the decision. What is the problem? How to reach there from here? 4. Measure whatever team does: Develop measures of everything that team does. It also involves measurement of teams skills and other resources. Improvement can be assessed only if there is reliable and valid measure of input, process, or outcome. Performance and contribution can also be assessed if there is a measure of performance. 5. Empower team members: Empowered teams work more effectively than low or non-empowered team. At this stage (performing stage) team member display high degree of cohesiveness that emanates form high mutual trust, unconditional commitment to teams, mutual training and development and

entrepreneurship. Researches have revealed following attributes of effective team: 1. High performance outcomes 2. Specific and shared purpose and vision 3. Mutual internal accountability 4. Blurring of formal status 5. Coordinated shared work roles 6. Synergy 7. Extraordinary high quality 8. Creativity and continuous improvement 9. High credibility and trust 10.Clarity of core competence After effectiveness, team sustenance becomes critical issue. How does one keep a good team in its existing state of efficiency and effectiveness? In other words, how does one continue to make if function? It is difficult to maintain the core purpose and tempo of the team over a long time. As a manager you are supposed to ask yourself and the team the following questions:

 Why do we exist? What and who would be affected if we went out of existence? Are there more cost-effective ways of achieving our purpose and aim than having the current team? Has there been a significant change in our mission as a team. Have we perceived, or been given new responsibilities ? Are we still the right people to be tackling this work. Does it still need a team effort? So, a managers task is to maintain the standards of the team and raise them, and enhance the level of cooperation which in turn results in increased effectiveness. Contrary to this mature team are found to develop apathy. As time passes by teams become more complacent and due to cohesiveness gains achieved through following diverse perspective also diminish. Mature team is also susceptible to group think and resistant to accept and implement change.

To counter these problems and sustain the motivation of maturing team, Robbins suggested four-pronged steps: 1. Prepare members to deal with the problem of maturity: Teams are given feedback that they need to face maturity issue. They are not unique. Every team goes through this phase. They should not lose heart when initial excitement dries away and conflicts start surfacing. They need to face the situation and need not lose faith in team concept. 2. Offer refresher training: When team is stuck they may be given refresher training in communication, team building process, conflict management and leadership. Such intervention may build confidence and mutual trust among each other. 3. Offer Advanced training: Members may have exhausted their skill set while working on initial problems. Now they are confronted with more complicated conceptual, interpersonal and technical skills. 4. Learning Experience: Teams may be encouraged to own their development and search opportunities for continuous improvement. Teams should try to evolve ways to learn through dealing with members fears, conflicts and frustrations.

Leadership in Team Building

Although in ideal conditions every member of the team is capable of providing leadership to teams, and leadership is a shared process in team approach to work. Moreover in self-managed teams, there is no requirement of a formal leader. Inspite these assertions, leadership remain an issue with teams. Who will coordinate the effort? Who will insure that members are sharing the workload properly? What will be the process of decision-making followed in the team? How conflicts will be resolved? How rules will be formed? These are some of the questions that team will be facing within the area of leadership. Traditionally managed teams may have designated leaders, captain, boss coordinator who provides guidance as to how team will function. Depending on his style the leader will be directive (who keeps tight control over the activities of the team), delegative (who allow team members to take responsibility for work), participative (involving and democratic team working), consultative (listens to team members concern but retains control over decision making of team) and negotiative (relies heavily on negotiation skills to achieve team objectives). Team can also

share leadership by playing different role showing different skills by different members. For example, team members may fulfill roles of promoter, organizer, producer maintainer and linker. Nine Team Roles Creator- Innovator: Initiate creative ideas Explorer-Promoter: Champion ideas after they are initiated Assessor-Developer: Analyse decision options Thruster- Organizer: Provide structure Concluder-Producer: Provide direction and follow through Controller- Inspector: Checks for details Upholders- Maintainers: Fight external battles Reporters- Advisers: Seek full information Linkers: Coordinate and integrate Studies suggest that in traditionally managed teams two factors to play important role in team performance: leaders expectations and his mood. The leaders with high expectations from their team members end up getting superior team outcomes that leaders having

low expectations. Similarly, leaders displaying positive mood have better team outcomes than leaders showing poor mood. Leaders trustworthiness also affects team outcome. Trust is a positive expectation, that another will not, through words, actions, or decisions act opportunistically. P.L Schindler and C.C Thomas (quoted in Robbins, 2001) proposed five dimension of trust: Integrity: Honesty and truthfulness Competence: Reliability, predictability, and good judgment in handling situations Loyalty: Willingness to protect and save face for a person Openness: Willingness to share ideas and information freely Trust involves risk and vulnerability. Still people say trust begets trust. Following are some of the ways trust can be built:

1. Demonstrate that you are working for others interest as well as your own 2. Be a team player 3. Practice openness 4. Be fair 5. Speak your feelings 6. Show consistency in the basic values that guide your decision making 7. Maintain confidences 8. Demonstrate competence

Activity 1

Checklist: Have you selected the right team members? Task

Has she/he an alert intelligence? Where applicable, has she/he a high level vocational skills? Do his or her knowledge/skills complement those of other team members rather the duplicate them? Is she/he motivated to seek excellence in results and methods or working together?

Yes

No

Does his or her track record really bear out the scores given above?
Team Will she/he work closely with others in decision-making and problem-solving without rubbing people up the wrong way?

Is she/he flexible enough to adopt different roles within the group? Can she/he influence other-assertive rather than aggressive Will she/he contribute to group morale rather than draw cheques upon it? individual Has she/he certain amount of will to achieve ambition, tinged with understanding that she/he cannot do it all alone? Will she/he develop a feeling of responsibility for the success of the team as a whole, not simply his or her own part in it? Has she/he integrity? Does she/he have a realistic perception of his/her strengths and weakness?

Activity 2 Task:

Purpose Responsibilities Objectives Programme Working condition

: Am I clear what the task is? : Am I clear what mine are? : Have I agreed these with my superior, the person accountable for the group? : Have I worked one out to reach objectives? : Are these right for the job

Resources Targets

Authority
Training

Priorities Progress Supervision Example

: Are these adequate (authority, money, materials) : Has each member clearly defined and agreed them? : Is the line of authority clear? (Accountability chart)? : Are there any gaps in the specialist skill or abilities of individuals in the group required for the task? : Have I planned the time? : Do I check this regularly and evaluate? : In case of my absence who covers for me? : Do I set standards by my behaviour?

Activity 3 Task: Team members

Objectives Standards Safety standards Size of team Team members Team spirit

: Does the team clearly understand and accept them? : Do they know what standards of performance are expected? : Do they know consequences of infringement? : Is the size correct? : Are the right people working together? Is there a need for subgroups to be constituted? : do I look for opportunities for building teamwork into jobs? Do methods of pay and bonus help to develop team spirit?

Discipline Grievances Consultation Briefing Represent Support

: Are the rules seen to be reasonable? Am I fair and impartial in enforcing them? : Are grievances dealt with promptly? Do I take action on matters likely to disrupt the group? : Is this gentle? Do I encourage and welcome ideas and suggestions? : Is this regular? Does it cover current plans, progress and future developments? : Am I prepared to represent the feelings of the group when required? : Do I visit people at their work when the team is apart? Do I then represent to the individual the whole team in my manner and encouragement?

Activity 4

Individual

Developing The individual

Targets Induction Achievement Responsibilities Authority Training

: Have they been agreed and quantified? : Does she/he really know the other team members and the organisation? : Does she/he really know the other team members and the organisation? : Has she/he got a clear and accurate job description? Can I delegate more to him/her? : Does she/he have sufficient authority for his/her task? : Has adequate provision been made for training or retaining both technical and as team member?

Recognition Growth

Performance Reward The task

The person Time/attention Grievances Security Appraisal

: Do I emphasize peoples successes? I failure is criticism constructive? : Does she/he see the chance of development? Does she /he see some pattern of career? : Is this regularly reviewed? : Are work, capacity and pay in balance? : Is she/he in the right job? Has she/he the necessary resources? : Do I know this person will? What makes him/her different from others? : Do I spend enough with individuals listening, developing, counseling? : Are these dealt with promptly? : Does she/he know pensions redundancy and so on? : Is the overall performance of each individual regularly reviewed in face to face.

Checklist: Does your team need maintenance Does your team need maintenance? The following questions will help you to decide:

Are there any symptoms of low morale, such as a decline in the teams self-confidence, a weakening of resolve and a loss of a sense of purpose? Has the group or organisation lost its sense of direction? Is each individual member still clear about the teams core mission and its principal aims? Are personal goals or objectives related to that purpose? Is the atmosphere of the group negative and lukewarm? Are individual members lackluster in their enthusiasms? Has communication between members been dwindling?

 Are these signs of mistrust developing? All groups have potential mental fatigue cracks. Are these cracks widening into division between individuals, cliques, or sub-groups? Have professional and personal standards declined in the last six months?

Can you identify one or more individuals who are clearly underachieving when measured against todays group standards? Are there complaints about your leadership?

Creating Effective Teams

Context Adequate resources Leadership and structure Climate of trust Performance evolution and reward system

Composition
Ability of members Personality Allocating role Diversity Size of teams Member flexibility Member preferences

Team effectiveness

Work design Autonomy

Skill variety Task identity

Task significance

Process
Common purpose Conflict levels Specific goals Team efficacy Social loafing

Studies form football, soccer, basketball, hockey, and baseball have found a number of elements that successful sports teams have that can be extrapolated to successful work teams. Successful teams integrate cooperation and competition. Sports team with the best win loss record had coaches who promoted a strong spirit of cooperation and a high level of healthy competition among their players. Successful teams score early wins. Early successes build teammates faith in themselves and their capacity as a team. Research on hockey teams of relatively equal ability found that 72 percent of the time the team that was ahead at the end of the first period went on to win. So managers should provide teams with early tasks that are simple and provide easy wins. Successful teams avoid losing streaks. A couple of failures can lead to a downward spiral if a team becomes demoralized. Managers need to instill confidence in team members that they can

turn things around when they encounter setbacks. Practice makes perfect. Successful sport teams execute on game day but learn from their mistakes in practice. Practice should be used to try new things and fail. A wise manager encourages work teams to experiment and learn. Successful teams use half-time breaks. The best coaches in basketball and football use half-time during a game to reassess what is working and what isnt. Managers of work teams should similarly build in assessments at the approximate halfway point in a team project to evaluate what it can do to improve. Winning teams have stable membership. Stability improves performance. Studies of professional basketball teams have found that when teammate have more time together, the more able they are to anticipate one anothers moves and the clearer they are about one anothers roles. Successful teams debrief after failures and successes. The

best sports teams study the game video. Similarly, work teams should routinely assess their successes and failures and should learn from them. Sports metaphors are useful. For example, a recent Harvard Business Review issue had as the lead story Playing to Win Five killer Strategies for Trouncing the Competition. The article argues that winners in business play hardball, which means they pick their shots, seek out competitive encounters, set the pace of innovation, and test the edges of the possible. Like sports teams, in business you have to play hardball, which means playing to win. That is what the sports model can teach us.

Seven keys to Building Great Work teams 1. Commitment:- Commitment to the purpose and values of an organisation provides a clear sense of direction 2. Contribution:- The power of an effective team is in direct proportion to the skills members possess and the initiative of its members. 3. Communication 4. Cooperation (a) Follow-through (b) Accuracy (c) Creativity (d) Timeliness 5. Conflict Management 6. Change Management 7. Connections

Case Study
Teamwork: The New Organisational Paradigm

The old paradigm or model of organisational structure was based on the assumptions of a hierarchy that top leadership knows all the answers and is in charge of the goals and work processes for the organisation. The emerging team paradigm, on the other hand, is constructed on new assumptions that knowledge, and therefore insight and answers, are found throughout the organisation in the abilities and knowhow of all organisational members when brought together in teams. In this model, goals are mutually determined and work processes are built around teams of experts. For example, to prepare for the twenty-first century, General Electric CEO Jack Welch wanted to build a boundary less organisation at GE. He worked to eliminate barriers within the

business, such as those created by the functional groups most hierarchies are constructed around such as marketing, production human resources and engineering. To bring creativity, work processes and knowledge together, GE has introduced crossfunctional teams, project teams and partnerships. GE is also breaking down the barriers between the company and its environment by creating alliances with others and building teams with customers and suppliers. with the organisational environment likely to remain unstable and turbulent, the flexibility and adaptability created by teams is a significant advantage. In fact, Tom Peters and many others predict that teamwork will replace hierarchy as the dominant form of organisation in the twenty-first century. According to fortune magazine, Peters futurists such as Alvin Tofler and CEOs like Allied Signals Lawrence Bossidy all agree that the demise of the old authoritarian hierarchies, from the USSR to General Motors, is a global, historical phenomenon that none can evade. Like it or not,

everyone who works for a living is helping create a new relationship between individual and corporation, and a new sense of employer and employee. Peters envisions businesses of the future to be organized somewhat like a movie production company. Teams of specialists will come together for a specific project and then move on into other teams in the same or other organisations. Key to the success of this approach is the understanding that managers must share both power and responsibility with teams of people who were once disempowered by the rigid bureaucratic lines of authority. The downsizing of many corporations, creating flatter organisations with fewer middle managers available to manage in the traditional hierarchical manner, has forced organisations to more fully empower organisation members into true teams. According to C.K Prahalad of the University of Michigan, the emphasis will be on people skills. Even those managers designated leaders will need to learn how to follow the team: A team is not like a pack of sledge dogs, with one dog the leader. Its more like a flight of wild geese:

the leader always changes, but they fly in a flock. The team phenomenon is particularly suited to the era of information technology and globalization. Information highways and networks connect teams from all over the continent and the globe, facilitating the exchange of information and creative ideas. Global alliances create new opportunities to use multinational teams to develop cooperation and creative exchange. Global alliances will seem like standard operating procedure in the next century as multinational teams create new ventures for an exciting future. Source: Management, Stoner, Prentice Hall of India (P) Ltd, New Delhi,1998

Why Team-Building and Development is Important Team-building and development is important for various reasons: (i) It is a strong and decisive management style. (ii) Stress among team members is reduced as problems are solved through sharing loads. (iii)More ideas are generated to enhance team achievements thus increasing the innovativeness and creativity of team members. (iv)Even complex multi/inter-disciplinary problems are solved in a better and effective way by using a team approach. (v) It is possible to solve inter-personal problems, confusion over rules and poor interpersonal relations and communication issues. Concept, Nature and Importance of Teamwork The word team conjures up different images to different people. Some think of sports teams while other s envision workplace teams teams uniting hourly and salaried workers, teams cutting across functions, teams that he facilitate labour

Management collaboration and organisational teams that direct their own activities without supervision. A team is a group of people working for a common purpose and goal. When groups perform operating tasks, they act as a team and seek develop a cooperative state called teamwork. In other words, a team is a small number of people with complementary skills, who are committed to common purpose, goals, and approach for which they are mutually accountable. Team Elements

The characteristics of effective team members are: Friendly, concerned and interested in others. Acknowledge and confront conflicts openly. Listen to others with understanding Recognize and reward team efforts. Encourage and appreciate comments about team performance. Understand goals and are committed to achieving them. Work in a comfortable and informal climate. Are empowered and individual competitiveness does not exist.

 Communication is spontaneous and shared among all members. Diversity of ideas and opinion is encouraged. The ideas and contributions of others are valued. Respect, open-mindedness and collaboration are high. Members seek win-win solutions and build on each others ideas. Trust is replaced by fear and people feel comfortable taking risks. Leadership is rotated and no one person dominates. Decisions are by consensus and have the acceptance and support members. Factors Contributing to Team Development and Effectiveness 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Shared Goals and Objectives Utilization of Resources Trust and Conflict Resolution Shared Leadership Control and Procedures

6. Effective Interpersonal Communications 7. Approach to Problem Solving and Decision Making 8. Experimentation/Creativity 9. Evaluation

Effective team-building and development, therefore, involves five things:

(i) Mastering and practicing the steps for team-building and development. (ii) The knowledge and skills of the team builder/team leader. (iii) Role of the team builder/team leader. (iv) Role of team members. (v) Overcoming obstacles to team-building and development.

Mastering and Practicing the Steps for Team-building and Development i) Identify the communication barriers present in day-to-day work. ii) Determine non-verbal messages being sent. iii) Use feedback techniques to reinforce teamwork. iv) Identify personal traits. v) Use personal traits to reinforce teamwork. vi) When in doubt, inquire to obtain the needed information. vii) Using facts, and considering their probable consequences, advocate the appropriate action. viii) Identify when action ix) identify conflicting styles. x) Manage conflict by using information on personal traits and promote and reinforce teamwork. xi) Be assertive and take actins appropriate for the situation. xii)Identify conditions that could adversely affect teamwork. xiii) Identify behavior that reinforce or degrade team performance. xiv) Analyse functioning in operations, maintenance, etc., to determine value and relevance.

xv) Determine the strengths and challenges of various organisational teams. xvi) Do a critique of team performance before and after some team activity.

The Knowledge and Skills of Team Builders/Team Leaders

1. Background Reading in Team-Building Theory i) Theory of Team Growth ii) Repertoire of Discussions 2. Availability of Structured Experiences 3. Skill in Process Feedback 4. Personal Acceptability 5. Co-facilitating Experience 6. Personal Openness

Role of the Team Builder/Leader The team builder/leader should not merely have the requisite knowledge and skills but should also play his role in a manner that facilitates team-building and development. For this, he needs to follow these essential steps/actions: 1. Establish clear aims by helping team members bogged down with methods come out of it, so that teams know where to go. 2. Start the process in a modest way; big oaks grow from little acorns. 3. Communicate concepts that team members can grasp. 4. Ensure agreement on total commitment before embarking on action, since gaining commitment is time-consuming. Commitment grows from real understanding, and change without commitment is difficult. 5. Develop organizational acceptance by ensuring understanding about team-building and managing resources right. 6. Build realistic time schedules.

7. Consult widely and genuinely 8. Relate team-building to the organisations work. 9. Encourage openness and frankness 10.Do not raise false expectations, since broken promises affect credibility. 11.Re-organise work if necessary. 12.Always remember, you can lead a horse to the water, but you cannot make it drink. Thus, a) People cannot be forced to change. b) People cannot be forced into pretending to change. c) People cannot e forced into openness and honesty. 13. Remember those who are not part of action can be jealous; people always like to be in the thick of things. 14. Remember, team-building can precipitate other problems, since other groups often start feeling insecure. 15. Always learn to delegate, since delegation usually leads development. 16. Take responsibility for your own acitons.

17. Learn from mistakes: admit when you are wrong, review progress regularly and encourage feedback. 18. Remember, honest feedback is the most valuable thing your colleague can give you. 19. Practice what you preach, since actions speak louder than words. 20. Make everyday work relevant by reorganising, ensuring the team effectiveness. 21. Build contacts with other teams etc. Role of Team Members It is also important to ensure the following:

1. 2. 3. 4.

All team members are clear about the objectives of the team. Individual skills are identified and roles clarified. The team is structured appropriately for the needs of the task. The team reflects on its work methods, and sets targets for improvement.

5. The team has self-discipline, using time and resources well. 6. The team has sufficient opportunities to meet and work through any problem. 7. It supports members and develops close relationships. 8. It has an open relationship and is prepared to confront difficulties and obstacles to effectiveness. Overcoming Obstacles to Team-Building & Development The following are areas that should be worked on to remove such obstacles: (i) Clear objectives and agreed goals. (ii) Openness and confrontation. (iii) Support and Trust. (iv) Cooperation and conflict (v) Sound procedure (vi) Appropriate leadership (vii) Regular review. (viii) Individual development (ix) Sound inter-group relations

Team Building Process In organisations that are still in an active stage of growth and the team culture not very strong, the first step is creating awareness about team-building and development, particularly with respect to: 1. The concept, nature and importance of teamwork. 2. Team-building processes and interventions 3. Factors contributing to and hindering team-building and development. 4. Steps in team-building and development 5. Knowledge ad skills required for the competent team builder. 6. The approach needed to be adopted by the team builder. 7. Characteristics of effective team members.

A model of Team-Building
Stage
Forming

Themes
Awareness

Task Outcomes
Commitment

Relationship Outcomes Acceptance

Belonging
Support Pride Satisfaction

Storming
Norming Performing Adjourning

Conflict
Cooperation Productivity Separation

Clarification
Involvement Achievement Recognition

Case Study
Large Teams that Work Like Small Teams: Microsoft Bill Gates

Learn from mistakes. What was a major failure you had? Flexible time. Visionary risk takes. There are lots of failures. That is accepted here It is better to take chances and fail than never to take chances at all.

Early in Microsofts evaluation, Bill Gates came to the conclusion that the best software was created by small groups of developers. When the company decided to move from Seattle, its Redmond Campus was designed to reinforce small groups. To create the right environment, office accommodation was provided in a series of two-storey buildings, which allowed team members to interact with their development groups on daily basis, rather than opt for the classic corporate HQ. Gates also instituted systems that reinforced the effectiveness of the small team mentality. According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technologys (MITs) Professor Michael Cusumano, in Microsoft Gates has created a special culture that fosters creativity, both individually and in teams, at the same time meeting commercial deadlines and demands. The Microsoft product development philosophy is labeled synch-andstabilise. This involves focusing creativity by evolving features and fixing resources, and doing everything in parallel with frequent synchronizations. Exactly what it means is obscure. But clearly, there is method in their madness.

What is striking about the Microsoft approach, says Professor Cusumano, is that the company is not the free wheeling ideas factory it is often portrayed as being. In particular, he points out, the seemingly relaxed atmosphere is only one part of the picture. Pizzas may be delivered directly to desks, but there is also a great deal of control- or discipline at work. It may appear jolly and collegiate, but it is deadly serious. (Interestingly, Tim Jacksons recent book on Intel produced similar observations of the chip maker.) For example, the scope and ambition of each and every project is carefully delineated. The numbers of people involved and the time they spend on a particular project are also carefully controlled. Some rules are unbending bugs have to be immediately repaired to ensure that work is coordinated. But, as Michael Cusumano points out, this is simply good project management, as applicable to software development as to any other business where project development is continuous. People are given responsibility and allowed to determine their own working patterns and schedules up to a point. The boundaries are very clear and simple. People know where they stand, how the system works and what is expected from them. The system works because the people are smart enough to make it work and are highly motivated at the individual level. Their knowledge and creativity is appreciated and rewarded.