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Communication Skills 2 EG2157. Topics. Team Dynamics Report Writing Skills Team Presentation Skills Communication Relationships & Strategies Interpersonal Conflicts Conflict Management Negotiation Skills. Assignments. WORKING SMART THROUGH TEAMWORK.
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Topics • Team Dynamics • Report Writing Skills • Team Presentation Skills • Communication Relationships & Strategies • Interpersonal Conflicts • Conflict Management • Negotiation Skills
WORKING SMART THROUGH TEAMWORK • All of us know in our hearts that the ideal individual for a given job cannot be found. He cannot be found because he cannot exist. • This is why it is not the individual but the team that is key to the success of any enterprise.
Definition Of A Team • A ‘team’ is defined as a group of members who must rely on group work to achieve success. • Members in team are organised around a common set of objectives and their work is mutually dependant.
When To Form A Team • Conditions needed for a successful team : • 1. A specified, measurable objective that can be best achieved by a team effort. • 2. Knowledge and use of various problem-solving techniques. • 3. An organisational culture that supports the team concept. • 4. Sufficient time for adequate training, debating, and discussion
Key Areas Of Resistance to Teams In Organisations • OrganisationalStructure • Management and Supervision • Individual Workers
Reasons why workers resist being in a team: • 1. Fear losing individual rewards and recognition • 2. Fear losing individuality • 3. Fear that teams will create more work • 4. Fear assuming responsibility • 5. Fear conflict
Characteristics Of An Effective Team • Common commitment and identity • Specific team purpose and goals • Size of teams • Skills mix • Team roles • Mutual accountability
Size of Teams • For a team to be effective, there should be between 2 to 25 members • With the majority of them having less than 10 members.
Size of Teams • large group of more than 10 would have trouble interacting and communicating constructively. • harder it is to manage. • subgroups will emerge • dominated by a few talkative and aggressive members. • group of 4to 8 allows everyone to say something • Yet it is big enough for a range of specialized skills
Skills Mix • 1. Technical and functional expertise • 2. Problem-solving and decision-making skills • 3. Interpersonal skills
Team Roles + Mutual Accountability • Every member of a successful team does equivalent amount of real work; all members, including the team leader, contribute in concrete ways to the team’s work product. • Team accountability is about the promises members make to themselves and others, promises that underpin two critical aspects of effective teams: commitment and trust.
ROLES WITHIN A TEAM • A role is a set of expected behaviours associated with a position. Work teams have a set of expectations about how members in the team should behave in the team.
Bales’ Interaction Process Analysis • Task-related roles • Maintenance-related roles • Defensive roles • Dysfunctional roles
Tasroles (Get job done) • Initiator – suggests new ideas, ways of doing things. • Information giver – offers relevant facts, information • Co-ordinator – brings together ideas, suggestions • Evaluator- measures progress, acts as time
Maintenance-related roles (Morale) • Encourager – praises and supports contributions of others. • Gate keeper – opens channel of communication, ensuring that quiet members who want to contribute can do so and close-down over-talkative members. • Harmoniser - helps to maintain the relationships between members by working to avoid conflict and reduce tension. • Group Co-ordinator – calls attention to group processes and offers suggestions about problems the group may have in functioning.
Task or Maintenance? Task 6 • “That’s a good idea, Jenny.” • “Tom, I think Marion would like to make a point.” • “Are we agreed on the proposal?” • “Let’s move on then.” • “Are you saying that storage is a problem?” • “Should we discuss the production issue first?” • “You sound disappointed with the suggestion.”
Defensive Roles • Defensive roles are behaviours intended to protect the group from anxiety. • Scapegoat - a member who tries to deflect the group’s feelings of failure or incompetency from the group to himself. • Tension reliever - jokes, fills long silences with chatter or suggests breaks. Such a role helps the team when the tension is increasing and needs to be broken.
Dysfunctional Roles • Dysfunctional roles are behaviours intended to distract the team from its purpose or to inhibit the team’s progress towards its goals. Examples: • Blocker – raises irrelevancies or argues a point for too long. • Pessimist – negative about task and/or group; gloomy. • Aggressor - criticises or blames others in a hostile manner. • Rebel - breaks team norms and attacks authority. • Show-off -draws attention away from the team’s purpose. • Lobbyist- puts personal goals ahead of team’s goals • Recognition seeker - themselves ahead of needs of team.
Belbin’s Team Role Theory • IMPLEMENTER • Disciplined, reliable, conservative and efficient. Turns ideas into practical actions. • Somewhat inflexible. Slow to respond to new possibilities. • CO-ORDINATOR • Mature, confident, a good chairperson. Clarifies goals, promotes decision-making, delegates well. • Can often be seen as manipulative. Off loads personal work. • SPECIALIST • Single-minded, self-starting, dedicated. Provides knowledge and skills in rare supply. • Contributes only on a narrow front. Dwells on technicalities.
Belbin’s Team Role Theory • SHAPER • Challenging, dynamic, thrives on pressure. The drive and courage to overcome obstacles. • Prone to provocation. Offends people's feelings. • PLANT • Creative, imaginative, unorthodox. Solves difficult problems. • Ignores incidentals. Too pre-occupied to communicate effectively. • RESOURCE INVESTIGATOR • Extrovert, enthusiastic, communicative. Explores opportunities. Develops contacts. • Over-optimistic. Loses interest once initial enthusiasm has passed.
Belbin’s Team Role Theory • MONITOR EVALUATOR • Sober, strategic and discerning. Sees all options. Judges accurately. • Lacks drive and ability to inspire others. • COMPLETER FINISHER • Painstaking, conscientious, anxious. Searches out errors and omissions. Delivers on time. • Inclined to worry unduly. Reluctant to delegate. • TEAMWORKER • Co-operative, mild, perceptive and diplomatic. Listens, builds, averts friction. • Indecisive in crunch situations.
COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN TEAMS • Speaking Skills • Supportive Communication • An open supportive team encourages people to offer suggestions and solutions and to be part of the team process. • Supportive communication is genuine, spontaneous and non-evaluative. • Supportive communication creates a climate of trust, respect and cohesiveness within the team.
Group Decision-Making Methods • Majority rule • Compromise • Consensus
Outcomes: • a. Majority rule: Outcome: Win-lose • b. Compromise: Outcome: Lose-lose • c. Consensus: Outcome: Win-Win
ACTIVITIES AND QUESTIONS • ICA 1.
ICA 1 ICA 1: TEAM DYNAMICS (20 MARKS) • Objectives: • To encourage cooperation among classmates and help you come together as a team, You can gather together concepts on ‘Team Dynamics’ into a practical experience and it is also hoped that you will become more comfortable with the idea of introducing, leading and presenting an activity in class. • Description: • Your tutor will divide the class into 4 teams. You should give yourselves opportunities to work with different people for different assignments throughout this semester. Each member in your team should have a role to play and must take up a ‘position’ which gives him sufficient speaking and presentation opportunities.
ICA 1 Part 1: Team-building activity • In your team, run a team-building activity in class (or other suitable areas in campus) to achieve at least one of the following objectives:- • -to encourage cooperation among students/ help them come together as a team • -to show that everyone contributes to the team’s success • -to show that skills in speaking, questioning, listening are important to team performance • -others, please specify • Make sure that each team in the class presents a different activity.
ICA 1 • Part 2: Debrief • Before you run the activity, you need to present and give clear instructions on how the class can participate. After the activity, give a debrief. Your debrief should cover objective(s) achieved and learning points and concepts shown by your activity. • You are given 20 minutes to run the team-building activity and give the debrief. You should allocate sufficient time (at least 5 minutes) for the debrief. • Part 3: Reflection/ Evaluation (via email to your tutor before the next lesson) • Reflect on and evaluate your learning experience when you ran the team-building activity or participated in other team-building activities by other groups. Reflections or feedback should be meaningful and specific – describe specific things that you did, saw or heard which had an impact on you. If you are giving feedback on other activities, remember to be constructive.