Week 2

This module aims to enhance your understanding of how effective teams work and how you could expand good teamwork to involve community members. You may have already been involved in many types of teams before and so will have some knowledge of how they function. If you haven’t, that’s okay. During your academic and working life you will be placed in many teams, often consisting of people you don’t know who have a diverse range of attributes. The ability to work well in a team will assist you, your colleagues, and the people you see receiving health services. I have worked in healthcare teams consisting of all physiotherapists, a mixed lot of health professionals, and teams of health professionals plus patients/consumers/clients/carers. Each team had its own dynamics and it was important to recognise that in order for it to work as well as it could.

You will be in teams for your rural community experience, working with fellow students and the rural community. Keep the principles outlined in this module in your mind as you work towards your community project outcomes.

This section isn’t just going to tell you about what a team is or why it is important, it is going to get you thinking and acting like a team so be sure to get stuck into the activities. Without them, this section is pretty pointless. We need to get you and your team working like a well-oiled machine and the only way to do that is to get you working together.

What does an effective team look like?

There’s been a lot of research into how teams work, especially in the business world (from Messrs Hackman and Walton, for instance), but increasingly within healthcare. Whatever the industry, team success depends upon very similar broad conditions:

The team has a clear, engaging direction that members are working toward
Each person has a role within the team
The structure of the team enables teamwork, that is, there is a well-structured task for the group to complete, it is a well-composed group and the group shows respectful behaviour
The team operatives within a supportive organisational context with adequate resources and information to complete the task, rewards for good work, and members/organisation co-operation
The team has access to expert guidance or coaching to assist them through challenges.

In order to achieve this a team members need to know what they are working on and why, and each person should have a shared understanding of the task. Team roles should be clearly defined so that everyone knows their responsibilities. The free-rider (a team member who gets the benefit of the team without doing the work) is not a team role! While effective team members commit to work that is a fair division of the task at hand, there are particular roles for members. Depending on the size of the team, these may include

Project manager
Team leader
Technical expert
Communications manager
Organiser

Activity

You are going to be talking about this in class but have a think about your team and the project objectives. What roles do you think you will need in order to work well as a team and to achieve your goals. You will be discussing these ideas in class and coming to some kind of consensus, so I want you to write down what roles you think you will need and take them to class so that you can work out exactly how your group is going to tackle this whole group thing.

Psychological Safety in Teams

One of the key ingredients of effective teams is psychological safety. Watch the following video from professor Amy Edmonson for an introduction to the idea.

Listening to this talk you might have started to think about some of your own experiences, times where you were in teams where you felt psychologically safe but also times where you did not. From this video you can see the important role that the leader has in creating an environment of psychological safety, but each of us, no matter what our role has a part to play in ensuring that we develop into psychologically safe teams. I want you to take a moment to write down three things that you can do to improve the psychological safety of your team. Think about your own tendencies and think how you might work hard to create psychologically safe spaces. Bring these ideas to class, we are going to spend a bit of time in class developing these ideas.

Activity

Lets just admit that we have all been in situations where we did not really live up to expectations within a team. Perhaps you didn't work hard enough or you weren't listening or maybe you were just a bit too pushy. Take some time now to write down 2 things that you are going to be intentional about whenever you are working with a team. What are you going to put real effort into. As an example, I often make a point of reminding myself that I really need to listen deeply to others. So my commitment to myself might be that I make a conscious decision to really listen when I am with my team, to make the people that are speaking feel like they are the centre of my world for a moment, because I am absolutely focused on hearing what they have to say.

Spend some time thinking and writing down the most meaningful thing that you can personally do to ensure that you are an effective team.

Creating an effective team

During this subject you are going to need to work quickly at becoming a fantastic team. Watch the following talk from Amy Edmonson who explains what effective 'teaming' looks like

Activity

Think about groups or teams you’ve been in. Has your team ever had to manage someone who appears to be not doing their work?

Establishing your rules, roles and responsibilities at the beginning of your team or group activity goes a long way in assuring your team works well. Having regular team catch-ups can be a great way of checking that everyone is doing what they said they would.

If, however, some team members don’t seem to be pulling their weight, reflect on the reasons why this may be happening.

1. Firstly, consider your team structure. Does everyone have a clear understanding of the task at hand and the role they have in completing it? Was this written down or recorded to make it more formal? If not, it could still be done.

2. If you think that everyone is clear on the aim of the team but there are still issues, think about whether someone’s circumstances might have changed. When groups are together for a while (a semester or a year, for example), it is almost inevitable that events happen. It may be that someone is unwell or caring for someone who is unwell. It may be that lack of financial support is causing them stress. Or perhaps they are finding that university, in general, is much harder than they thought. All these things might be a short-term change or a long-term change. Could someone else take on the person’s portion of the task until they are better positioned?

3. If someone's situation has not changed but they still don't seem to be pulling their weight, what else could be happening? It is often reported to academic staff that some students feel intimidated by dominant members of a group, or that they’ve had their work heavily criticised by other team members without the opportunity to discuss things further. While giving feedback is part of academic study, the way it’s done must be balanced. Is everyone being listened to respectfully?

Now I have a couple of suggestions for you for how to manage particular issues in teamwork. Work through the following three sections.

Giving Feedback

We get feedback about what we're doing every day, and in many different ways. I might be driving down a street and find that it is blocked with roadworks so I choose to go another way - that's feedback on my route to work. Perhaps I’ve baked a cake but have put too much sugar in it, so I resolve to halve the sugar next time - feedback from my taste buds. Or maybe I’ve written an essay and given it to someone to read who suggests I change the structure of my first paragraph - excellent and useful feedback! These are all examples of feedback and how responding to feedback can make things better.

Giving and receiving feedback, however, can be complex. If someone took a bite of my cake and then threw the rest of the slice in the bin, I would get very offended! If they took a bite and said, ‘This is a lovely rich cake with a smooth texture. I wonder if it would be even better with less sugar?’ I might be receptive to trying to bake it again using their suggestion.

If you are giving feedback to a person in your team, start with areas that you thought were strengths and tell the person why. For example, you might say ‘The way you used Frenk et al's article to support your argument in this paragraph was clearly done and it helped me understand your argument.’ If you have suggestions for change, state them in a way that focuses on how things could be improved eg. ‘Perhaps if you included more references during these paragraphs, it would show that you’ve analysed more of the available literature’.

Here's one model of giving feedback to someone. It's known as the Pendleton's Model, or the sandwich method:

1. Ask them what went well and why

2. Explain to them what went well and why

3. Ask them what could be improved and how

4. Explain to them what could be improved and how

If you are receiving feedback and don’t find it useful, try asking the person giving it to be more specific. For example, if someone says to you that you have done something well, ask what made it so good. If they haven’t been complimentary, ask them how you could improve. This is sometimes hard to do but it will help make sense of what they are telling you. You don’t always have to agree, but it can be interesting to try others’ suggestions.

Remember, also, that there's a time and a place for giving feedback so that the person receiving it can make the most of it. You may not give someone feedback if they are feeling uncertain and you are in a meeting with ten other people. Ask if someone would like feedback first and, if they say yes, ask if they are ready to receive it. They might suggest that they see you later about it.

So, if you are giving feedback it should be:

• Wanted

• Timely (not too late or too early)

• Specific (not just saying something is good or bad); and

• Forward-focused (action orientated, with a suggestion for improvement).

Regular catch-ups with your team help with emphasising the team's aim or goal. Meetings, though, need structure as well, as discussed in the next section.

Issue 2 - Productive Meetings

Once you have worked in an organisation with more than a few people you would most definitely have experienced a meeting that had no point. Not only that, after the meeting you might have felt confused and exhausted. It should come as a relief to know that meetings do not have to feel that way. Think about your meeting as the opportunity to make take advantage of the diversity of the group, to make decisions and plan the next actions.

Here are some hints you might like to follow:

Nominate a chair, that is, a person to lead the meeting and make sure that it covers everything in a timely way. The chair can be a rotating position so that everyone gets a turn and can practice leadership.
Start with a reminder of the team’s purpose. What are you attempting to achieve? Has it changed in any way?
Have an agenda, that is, a list of items that need to be discussed. You may like to circulate this before the meeting so that everyone gets a chance to add to it. Always leave a bit of time at the end to discuss items that may come up at the last minute.
Have a restricted time for the meeting and divide this time according to how many agenda items there are. Everyone is busy and, although catching up with friends is great, a meeting is business time. Arrange another time to socialise.
Have someone take notes that are then distributed to team members. Notes act as a reminder of what was decided in the meeting. Again, the note-taker role could be rotated as this will teach people the importance of paying attention.

Now I know that you wont all be leading the meeting but having a clear picture of what an effective meeting looks like will help both you and the person you designate to lead the meetings.

Issue 3 - Dealing with Slackers

Activity

Think about groups or teams you’ve been in. Has your team ever had to manage someone who appears to be not doing their work?

If, however, some team members don’t seem to be pulling their weight, reflect on the reasons why this may be happening.