Build your Team’s Effectiveness

1. Build your Team’s Effectiveness Dr. Carol A. Beatty President Warp Speed Training Enterprises

2. Objectives of this Presentation • Understand the key success factors of high performance teams • Clarify the roles and responsibilities of meeting participants • Obtain tools to organize meetings effectively

3. Beatty, C. and Barker Scott, B. (2004) Building Smart Teams: A Road Map to High Performance, Thousand Oaks, CA.; Sage Publications.

4. The Team Effectiveness Model * * From the author’s study of more than 200 industry teams, comprising close to 2,000 members of work teams in both the public and private sectors. PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS R2 = .83 TEAM PERFOMANCE TEAM MANAGEMENT PRACTICES CONFLICT HANDLING SKILLS R2 = .72 TEAM SATISFACTION

5. Team Conflict Handling Skills

6. Conflict Handling Skills • How does your team usually handle meeting irritants? • Ignore the problem and continue discussion? • Acknowledge the problem, but do nothing to correct it? • Acknowledge the problem, attempt to solve it? • Acknowledge the problem, solve it, discuss it, develop rules or a method to handle it in the future?

7. Conflict Handling Skills • How does your team usually handle meeting irritants? • Ignore the problem and continue discussion? • Acknowledge the problem, but do nothing to correct it? • Acknowledge the problem, attempt to solve it? • Acknowledge the problem, solve it, discuss it, develop rules or a method to handle it in the future?

8. Conflict Handling Skills • Above all, do not avoid dealing with conflict. It will probably fester and make things worse. Then the conflict will explode when the team experiences a tight deadline or another source of stress • Don’t allow conflict to become “personalized”. Many conflicts escalate and members start to dislike each other unless the conflict is dealt with early on. You will find most conflicts are not “personalized” at the beginning.

9. Team Problem Solving Skills

10. Problem Solving Skills • Three critical skill sets or disciplines to use within the team during meetings: • An agreed-upon problem solving process • Communications “patience” • Creation of synergy

11. Use a Problem-Solving Process: Joint Problem Exploration Identify the problem, or opportunity Explore the problem or opportunity Gather relevant information Define what success will look like Develop a statement of the problem or opportunity Joint Option Development Joint Evaluation Assess the many options Select and test the best options Develop plans & actions Track and modify along the way Generate many possibilities and options

12. Avoid Pitfalls In Decision Making Problem Exploration & Definition Option Development Evaluation & Selection Limited or wrong criteria for evaluation Jumping to solutions Too few options Insufficient data/analysis Over-reliance on intuition Search for confirming evidence Solving symptom Groupthink Failure to clarify assumptions Groupthink Failure to establish success criteria

13. Communications Patience

14. Seek first to understand and then to be understood Steven Covey

15. Practice “Communications “Patience” Patient communicators understand that the communications process is difficult and misunderstandings are common - so they: • Work hard: • to make themselves understood • to understand others • Do not: • blame each other for misunderstandings • insist on their solutions

16. PracticeCommunications Patience • Team members work hard for a complete understanding of the issues • Team members make sure they clearly understand each others’ points of view before solving problems • We bring everyone’s concerns out into the open so that issues are fully explored • When we misunderstand each other, we slow down and find a way to correct the problem • When someone doesn’t agree or understand, we always find out their reasons • We work hard to come up with solutions acceptable to all of us

17. Create Team Synergy

18. Create Synergy • Prepare for Decision-Making • Use data, not hunches • Generate and build on ideas • Use synergy tools such as brainstorming, mind mapping, café discussions, etc. • Evaluate ideas and options systematically and objectively • Strive for creative solutions instead of settling for routine solutions

19. Team Management Practices

20. Team Management Practices predict the highest level of Team Performance and Satisfaction PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS R2 = .83 TEAM PERFOMANCE TEAM MANAGEMENT PRACTICES CONFLICT HANDLING SKILLS R2 = .72 TEAM SATISFACTION

21. Task strategies Social strategies Commitment Prepare for Team Success Get yourTeam Management Practices right!

22. Team Management Practices • Task Strategies: • Meaningful and well-defined purpose • Goals and strategies • Effective ground rules, norms and protocols • Clarify authority and reporting relationships • Organize for efficient and effective meetings

23. Social Strategies • Inclusion: • Members feel safe to be themselves during meetings • The group allows diverse perspectives to be expressed and explored • Talents of group members are known and used • Creativity is encouraged • Self-evaluation of the group takes place regularly

24. Commitment Strategies • All members assume responsibility for the work of the committee • Everyone contributes • Balanced contribution over the longer term • Confidentiality of the group is maintained • No cliques or sub-groups are allowed to form

25. Create Meeting NormsHave your team brainstorm a list of team behaviors that will either help or hinder the team’s effectiveness. Come to consensus on the most important ones and post the filled-out chart at meetings. Members then agree to hold each other responsible for following these norms. Help Hinder

26. Meeting Norms - Examples Help Hinder • Some members monopolize the conversation • Personal attacks are not stopped immediately • Some members arrive late • Some members engage in side-bar conversations • Members fail to support decisions made in team meetings outside the meeting room • Members speak up if they disagree • Members come prepared to team meetings • The team deals with conflicts immediately • No hidden agendas • All members participate • The team strives for consensus in all key decisions

27. Write down your Key Insights from this presentation

28. www.warpspeedtraining.com Dr. Carol A. Beatty, BA, MA, MBA, PhD President, Warp Speed Training 20 King Pitt Road, Kingston, ON, K7L 4V1 DrCarol@warpspeedtraining.com (613) 531-0462

29. Contact me for further help In using our engaging online training modules in change management For consulting and coaching to plan and implement your change projects In planning change using the “CHANGE WALL” planning tools that compress your planning time dramatically. Create a complete change plan in only TWO DAYS