Team Development

Team Development By: Tyler Howlett twh875@mun.ca

Overview • What is a Team? • What is Team Development? • Benefits of Team Development • Key Steps and Traits Required for Success: • Team Building • Favorable Traits • Four Stages of Team Development • Three Possible Strategies for Development • Challenges: • How to know when it’s over • Sources

What is a Team?

What is a Team? All Pictures From: Google.ca

What is a Team? • Many Definitions: • A group of players coming together on one side in a game or sport. • Group of Firefighters battling a burning fire. • Two or more people coming together to complete a goal or task. • "A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they are mutually accountable." (Katzenbach and Smith, 1993) Table from: Team Building- A Complete Guide

What is Team Development? • “Team Development’s purpose is to help a team in the process of self-examination to gain awareness of those conditions which are the source of it’s strength and those conditions that keep it from functioning effectively.” • “Through the team development process, the group learns how to make decisions and take those actions that will lead to better efficiency, productivity, product quality, and quality of work life.” Source: Neddermeyer, n.d

Benefits of Team Development • Allows for different perspectives in reaching a goal. • Increased potential for information gathering. • Learning from other team members. • Improves the chances of problem solving. • When a team works on achieving a goal, there is more discussion and increased chance for success. • Team bonding can lead to friendship.

Team Building • Team building is a very important part of successful team development. • It can make or break a team. • Can be achieved in many different ways: • Meetings • Activities • Team Motivation • Bonding trips

Benefits of Team Building • Improves morale and leadership skill • Finds barriers that conflicts creativity • Allows for a more clear definition of objectives and goals • Improves organization, productivity and process • Identifies strengths and weaknesses • Improves problem solving ability Source: The Team Building Directory Picture from: Google.ca

Traits for Success • In order for a team to be successful it must possess certain qualities: • Capable Leadership • Team leader must be active within the team: • Motivate team members • Ensure a positive team attitude • Help with solving problems • Must be dedicated to both team and project goals • Must monitor teams progress • High amounts of motivation and team dedication • Teams must always stay focused on the goal of the project • Teams must always work together

Four Stages of Team Development • There are four main stages of team development, known as Tuckman’s Four Stages of Development. • Forming • Storming • Norming • Preforming

Stage 1: Forming • Involves the team members getting to know one another. • Members learn exactly what it is they are doing and how the team leader plans to run things. • Team building is very important in this stage. • Stage ends when members begin to see themselves as part of the group. Source: Salas, 2007

Stage 2: Storming • Is a sorting out period where members begin to find their place in the group. • This stage is the start of intragroup conflict. • All about exchanging ideas, good or bad on how to reach the goal. Source: Salas, 2007

Stage 3: Norming • Team members use past experiences to solve their problems and pull together as a cohesive group. • Results in team handling procedures in solving conflicts, decisions, and methods to reach the goal. Source: Salas, 2007

Stage 4: Preforming • Team has achieved harmony, defined its tasks, worked out its relationships, and started producing results. • Members have learned to work together and contribute their resources to achieve the goal. Source: Salas, 2007

Strategies for Team Development • GRPI Model • Group Dynamics • Open-ended Meetings Picture from: Google.ca

GRPI Model • Goals, Roles and Responsibilities, Processes and Procedures, and Interpersonal Relationships • Shortens the amount of time teams spend in their storming and forming phases, thus improving team effectiveness, ensuring productivity, efficiency, and quality and at the same time enhancing the way members work together (Tang & Wenzlik, 2008). Source: Tang & Wenzlik, 2008 Picture from: Google.ca

Group Dynamics • Social process that involves the interaction and working together of people in a group environment. • Influences personality, power and behaviour. • Helps with the team building process and forming stage. Source: Karki, 2009 Picture from: Google.ca

Open-Ended Meetings • Holding open-ended meetings allows for complete interaction and participation from any member of the team. • It can develop problem solving strategies, establish objectives, focus on team contributions, promote team ideas and team motivation. Picture from: Google.ca

Challenges • Major challenges related to Team Development occur as a result of the dependence on a team. • Trust is a major issue • Choosing the right team • Keeping the team on track • Space challenges • Knowing when it is over

Internal Barriers to Teamwork • Occur when team members do not set appropriate goals for the team and do not implement a plan for reaching them. • Results in the team falling apart from the inside because their goals are not clear, therefore they do not know what to do. • Can be overcome by setting achievable goals and implementing a solid plan for succeeding. Team leader must also motivate the team members so they don’t lose track of the goal. Source: Salas, 2007 Picture from: Google.ca

Trust • Trust is an extremely important aspect of any team or group. • To overcome the challenge associated with gaining trust one could: • Implement team building activities • Allow involvement of all parties on the team • Provide help to those who need it

External Barriers to Teamwork • Occur when team members are required to work on the team project, but also have to work on outside projects such as school work or family issues. • Results in team members being unable to dedicate their time to the project. • Can be overcome by only choosing team members that can be 100% dedicated to the project. Source: Salas, 2007

Choosing the Right Team • Choosing the right team is also important. The choices you make have the ability to make or break your project. • To overcome this challenge you can: • Choose members that are diverse, dedicated, and have knowledge of the project. • Members should not be selected based on their position within the system because, while they may be knowledgeable, they may not be dedicated to researching information and collecting raw data. Source: Salas, 2007

Keeping the Team on Track • If a team loses track of their projected goal, problems will begin to occur. To prevent this: • The leader must maintain the groups concentration as workload increases. • Motivation can be used to boost the teams morale. • Clear stated goals and objectives also keep the team on track.

Space Challenges • A challenge of team development that is not directly related to team performance is the matter of space; where the team will meet. • This can be overcome by a team member providing a meeting area or room for the team. • If a team member does not have access to a sufficient meeting area, the team can look to outside sources for help; donation of room by outside businesses or organizations. • Electronic sources are also available.

Electronic Resources • Technologies are also available to assist with team work, including webinars or computer programs like Skype. • This can solve the problem of where a team meets by providing options that you can choose from the comfort of your own home. • Team members who cannot attend a meeting due to transportation issues, inclement weather, or any other reason can stay home and by using one of these techniques, can still be in contact with other members. • This is a great way for teams to combat the challenge of where and how meet.

Groupthink • When team members attempt to conform their ideas to what they believe to be the consensus of the group. • Emerges when the view of a few members dominates the discussion. • Can be overcome by the team leader. The leader can spot this and make changes that will discourage the domination of discussion. • Best ways to avoid is to have small group sizes, give everyone opportunity to speak, and encourage the challenging of other ideas. Source: Salas, 2007 Picture from: Google.ca

Knowing When It’s Over • Knowing when a team is over or failing is extremely important in Team Development. • If a leader or team does not recognize that the team is no longer working towards the desired goal, team morale is low, or things are just not working out, it will result in a waste of time, effort, and money.

How to Know When It’s Over? • There are three ways that can lead to the demise of a team: • External Barriers to Teamwork • Internal Barriers to Teamwork • Groupthink

Sources • Suk-Han Tang & ClaasWenzlik. (2008). The GRPI Model: An Approach for Team Development. Systemic Excellence Group. Pp. 1-14 • Ines Salas. (2007). Team Building Tool. World Health Organization. Pp 1-19 • Dorothy M. Neddermeyer (n.d). Definition: Team Development. http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/definition_team_development.html • KedarKarki. (2009). Group Dynamics. PowerPoint Presentation • Images from www.google.ca

Thank You! Questions?

Team Development