Chapter 9 - Building Effective Teams and Teamwork

What is a Team?

• A group of individuals working together towards a common goal, with shared responsibility and accountability.

• Benefits:

  • Increased productivity

  • Enhance creativity and innovation.

  • Improved problem-solving and decision making.

  • Shared workload and support.

Tuckman’s Stages of Team Development

• Forming: members get to know each other and establish ground rules.

• Storming: conflicts and disagreements may arise as members challenge each other’s ideas.

• Norming: the team establishes norms and roles, and cohesions begin to develop.

• Performing: the team functions smoothly and efficiently, achieving its goals.

• Ex. A newly formed project team might experience initial excitement (forming), followed by disagreements about the project approach (storming), before settling into their roles and collaborating effectively (norming and performing).

Team Leadership Capability 1: Developing Credibility

• The foundation of team leadership, earning the team’s respect and trust.

• Key Actions to Build It:

  • Demonstrate integrity (do what you say).

  • Be clear and consistent.

  • Create positive energy (optimism and enthusiasm).

  • Encourage and coach members.

  • Share information openly.

Team Leadership Capability 2: Establishing Goals

• Effective team leaders establish two kinds:

  • SMART Goals: Specific, Measurable, Aligned, Realistic, and Time-bound (Focus: Achievable Targets).

  • Everest Goals: goals that focus on an extraordinary accomplishment or beyond the norm outcomes (Focus: inspiration and vision).

• Key Idea: SMART goals provide the map; Everest goals provide the destination.

Team Membership Roles (Productive)

• Effective team members adopt advantageous roles to support the team’s success.

  • Task-Facilitating Role: Behaviors like direction-giving, urging, and monitoring that help the team carry out and achieve its tasks.

  • Relationship-Building Role: behaviors like supporting, harmonizing, energizing, and empathizing that help build team cohesion and morale.

Team Membership Roles (Unproductive)

• The Blocking Rule: unproductive behaviors that hinder team goal accomplishment and cohesion.

• Example of Blocking: dominating, stalling, passivity, pulling rank, resisting, and deflecting.

Principles of Effective Team Feedback (Part 1)

1. Should be supportive, descriptive and actionable: Focus on Behaviors, not Persons.

   1. Focus on Observations, not Inferences (stick to facts, not assumptions about motives).

   2. Focus on Descriptions, not Evaluations.

   3. Focus on Specific situations or incidents, not abstract or general situations.

Principles of Effective Team Feedback (Part 2)

• Timeliness and Values

  • Focus on the here-and-now, not the past.

  • Focus on Sharing Ideas and Information, not giving advice (unless asked).

  • Give feedback at an appropriate time and place, not when it is convenient only for you

Stages are Essential

Managers must proactively manager teams through the Forming, Norming, and Storming stages to reach Performing.

Goals Inspire Actions

Use both SMART goals (for accountability) and Everest goals (for inspiration).

Roles Matter

High-performing teams require members to balance Task-Facilitating and Relationship-Building roles.

Feedback is Descriptive

Effective feedback focuses on observable behaviors in the here-and-now, ensuring it is useful and actionable.

Which of the following is an example of an unproductive Blocking Role in a team setting?

a. Harmonizing and supporting other members.

b. Consistently asking questions to clarify ambiguity.

c. Monitoring progress and urging the team forward.

d. Dominating the conversation and resisting new procedures.

d. Dominating the conversation and resisting new procedures.

A team member who focuses their efforts on supporting, harmonizing, and empathizing with others is primarily filling which advantageous team role?

a. Relationship-Building Role

b. Task-Facilitating Role

c. Blocking Role

d. Monitoring Role

a. Relationship-Building Role

Not wanting to make a serious judgment error, you convene a meeting of your team. In the process of discussing an issue, George, Harpreet, and Werner voice agreement over alternative 1, whereas Bill and Trinh have not spoken. If you accept alternative 1, what potential mistake would you be making?

a. Illusion of unanimity

b. Illusion of morality

c. Illusion of invulnerability

d. Illusion of uniformity

a. Illusion of unanimity

Which of the following is a strategy to counteract groupthink?

a. Mind guarding

b. Direct pressure

c. Devil's advocate

d. Mind Rationalization

c. Devil's advocate

All of the following are attributes of groupthink EXCEPT which one?

a. Shared stereotypes

b. Critical evaluators

c. Direct pressure

d. Rationalization

b. Critical evaluators

Which stage of team development is characterized by members expressing disagreements, forming coalitions, and learning to confront conflict productively?

a. Forming

b. Storming

c. Performing

d. Norming

b. Storming

According to Chapter Nine, team leaders who focus on achieving extraordinary accomplishment or a beyond-the-norm outcome are setting what type of goal?

a. Everest Goals

b. SMART Goals

c. Relationship-Building Goals

d. Task-Facilitating Goals

a. Everest Goals

Relationships characterized by superficiality, dependence, and mild discomfort are most likely at which stage of team development?

a. Storming

b. Norming

c. Performing

d. Forming

d. Forming

According to the text, which statement about teams is true?

a. Teams occur solely in business and sports contexts.

b. Teams see themselves as a unique entity.

c. Task forces and committees are not considered teams.

d. Teams are groups of people who are independent in the tasks they perform.

b. Teams see themselves as a unique entity.

In your team's meeting with your most important client, you state, "We have been trying to get that data, both Arnie and I, since last October." Your manager, Georgina, gives you a stern look like "Don't air our dirty laundry in public." You say very little after the stare. How you behaved in the remaining part of the meeting is an example of what type of groupthink attribute?

a. Devil's advocate

b. Self-censorship

c. Rationalization

d. Mind guarding

b. Self-censorship