The document discusses topics related to team effectiveness including task and maintenance roles, leadership models, team profiles, norms, and groupthink. It provides definitions of teams and explores factors that influence individual and team performance. Some key aspects of effective teams mentioned are clearly understood goals, open communication, shared decision making, and problem solving as a group.
2. Learning Objectives
๏ง Help you identify acknowledge your personal working
preferences
๏ง Observe and appreciate the work preferences exhibited
by your team members
๏ง Acknowledge that no one working style is better than
another
๏ง Recognise the potential for friction and/or conflict in the
workplace
๏ง Respond to friction/conflict in a proactive and open
communicative style
๏ง Maintain your independence in an interdependent work
environment
3. Topics
๏ง Task & Maintenance Roles
๏ง John Adairโs Action Centred Leadership Model
๏ง Belbinโs Team Profiles
๏ง Left Hand Column Technique
๏ง Norms โ Explicit and Implicit
๏ง Conformity and Non-conformity
๏ง Groupthink
4. Teams - some definitions
โข A number of persons associated in some joint action. Macquarie
Dictionary
โข A team is a collection of people who must work
interdependently to achieve a common goal or output. Baden
Eunson
โข A team (may be regarded as) a โmachineโ with human parts.
Mechanical problems such as coping with friction, making sure
all the gears mesh, wheels spinning etc. have direct human
analogies when we talk about group functioning. Rubin et al
5. Shared Vision & Commitment
w Enrolment โ becoming part of something by choice
w Commitment โ not only enrolled but feeling fully
responsible for making the vision happen
w Compliance โ Sees the benefit of the vision and does
what is expected and no more
The whole is greater than its individual sum parts
6. 9 Characteristics of Effective Teams
w Team goals must be clearly understood by every member of the team
w Team members must communicate their ideas and feelings accurately
and clearly
w Participation must be distributed among all members of the team
w The decision making process must be appropriate for the aims and
resources of the team
w Power and influence must be approximately equal in the team
w Conflict which comes from different ideas and opinions among the team
members must be listened to and considered
w Team members identification with the team must be high
w The team members must know how to solve problems as a team
w Each member of the team must be able to interact well with every other
member of the team
8. What factors influence your performance?
โข Is the team more important than the task?
โข Are you determined to achieve your goals?
โข Is โgetting the task doneโ your priority?
โข Can you shift your focus among the three
aspects?
โข How do you achieve a balance among all three?
9. TASK & MAINTENANCE ROLES
TASK ROLES
โข Task roles refer to those aspects of the teamโs behaviour that are
directed towards getting things done and achieving the purpose of the
team.
MAINTENANCE ROLES
โข Maintenance/Building roles refer to those behaviours that help make
and keep the team together.
โข In an effective team there will be a balance between the two.
๏ง As the team goes through various stages of development the relative
emphasis will vary.
๏ง Too great an emphasis on one or the other for long periods may lead to an
ineffective team.
10. Belbinโs Team Roles
Plant
โข An โideas personโ. A prime source of innovation and ideas. Can play a
strategic role such as forward planning. Advances new ideas and
strategies, with special attention to major issues. Looks for ways
around problems.
๏ง Key words: Inventive. Creative. Fun. Unorthodox. โLetโs play with
the ideaโ
Monitor Evaluator
โข A critic of ideas and suggestions. Evaluates new plans (which should
seldom be acted on against their advice). Analyses problems. Assess
ideas and options so that the team can make balanced decisions.
๏ง Key words: Questions. Analytical. Prudent. Judgement. โIs it good
enough?โ
11. Team Normโs
โข Formal norms are those rules that are explicit in
the way they define the groupโs behaviour
โข Informal norms are implicit in the way they define
the groupโs behaviour
12. Informal Team Norms
โข You donโt dob on (report on) your mates to your superiors
โข A fair dayโs work here is x amount of output
โข We trust each other a lot, and we can try out weird and
wonderful ideas on the group without getting laughed at.
โข We donโt express too much emotion when discussing
things.
โข This groupโs output is a cut above what the others deliver,
and we like it like that.
โข We donโt like working with women (men)
13. Groupthink
โข What is Groupthink?
๏ง A pattern of defective decision making seen in
groups
๏ท critical evaluation is frowned upon;
๏ท questioning an established position is avoided;
๏ท potential threats against the established position are
simply rationalised into obscurity