Chapter 11 Managing Teams

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Teamwork at the Tour

Lance Armstrong’s dramatic victory in the 2003 Tour de France was a team effort.

Armstrong’s U.S. Postal Service Team was made up of riders from the U.S., Russia, Canada, Spain, Luxembourg, Czechoslovakia, Norway, Columbia, Australia, and the Netherlands.

It had a single goal – victory for Armstrong.

When Armstrong’s teammate, Victor Pena of Colombia, wore the yellow jersey – signifying overall leadership in the race – he continued to carry water bottles from his team car to his U.S. Postal colleagues.

Team members were selected for their unique skills, such as excellence in time trials or on mountain climbs, and for their willingness to work for the good of the team.

Armstrong had earlier said, “… we have been able to hit our stride in terms of teamwork, communication and camaraderie.”

Types of Teams

   A

functional team

team or vertical team, consists of a superior and his or her subordinates in the chain of command.

, also called a command A

cross-functional team

is made up of members from different functional departments in the organization.

A

self-managing team

is able to make key decisions about how its work is done.

Potential Benefits of Teams

      Teams provide many perspectives, skills, and resources.

Participation increases acceptance and understanding of the team’s outcomes.

Participation is empowering.

Working in teams is stimulating.

Teams make more reliable decisions than individuals Participation in teams is a developmental experience

Potential Team Disadvantages

      Dominant or stubborn members may control the process.

Some members may be reluctant to participate.

Some members may focus on personal goals.

Time and resources are taken from other activities.

Some members may rely on others to carry the load.

Team members may be afraid to “rock the boat.”

Deciding When to Use a Team (Based on Figure 11-1)

 Use a Team When:       Many perspectives are needed Acceptance of the decision is critical The problem is complex or unstructured Individuals judgments are unreliable Individuals are unwilling to take necessary risks You want to develop team members’ team related skills

Deciding When to Use a Team (Based on Figure 11-1)

 Be Cautious About Using a Team When:      The issue is unimportant Individuals don’t want to participate Individual risk preferences are too high Time is of the essence Group norms are unacceptable

Building Effective Teams

Building Team Spirit Choosing Team Size and Membership Effective Teams Managing the Team Through the Stages of Group Development Planning the Team Effort Defining the Team’s Assignment

Selecting a Team Size

   Choose a five-person or seven-person team unless there are very compelling reasons to do otherwise.

Any team with fewer than five members has its own unique set of problems.

Beyond size seven, team management becomes much more difficult because:  it becomes harder to coordinate the team since the number of members who must interact and whose actions must be synchronized becomes unwieldy.

  members may be tempted to engage in social loafing.

we stop treating team members as individuals.

Guidelines for Staffing the Team

     Vary team membership across tasks.

Ensure availability of key information, skills, and resources.

Ensure participation of affected parties.

If you will not be leading the team, appoint a task-oriented leader with sufficient power to keep the team on track.

Consider varying team membership over the course of the task.

Defining the Team’s Assignment

   What is the issue to be dealt with? What is its scope?

What is the team’s responsibility?

 To perform a specific task?

  To make a decision?

To exchange information?

What are the constraints on the group?

 What are its deadlines?

   What is its budget? What other resources are available to it?

What should be the format of its final report or the nature of its final product?

Will it have to give progress reports?

Planning the Team Effort

   Divide the team’s overall assignment into parts.

Estimate the time and resources needed to complete each part of the assignment and the overall assignment.

Determine the time and resources needed, and take necessary actions to reduce any gaps between what is needed and what is available.

Developing Productive Norms

    

Norms

shared expectations about how team members should behave.

are the unwritten rules of the team. They are Norms may be prescriptive or proscriptive .

Norms control team member behavior. This is called

control

.

clan

Once a team develops norms, the norms tend to persist.

Norms may:  be imported from other settings   develop because of some critical event in the life of the team develop gradually in the life of the team

Guidelines for Considering Team Norms

    Recognize the power of norms. Norms are real and powerful.

Identify team norms; reinforce positive norms.

Communicate expectations concerning performance and other goals.

Recognize that norms develop gradually and are resistant to change.

Lighten Up: “Norms”

   The term “norm” may bring to mind Norm Peterson, the jovial, rotund regular on Cheers .

Cheers , a long-running TV program set in a Boston pub, had a cast of characters who exchanged jokes, stories, and insults in the comfort of “a place where everybody knows your name.” The characters of of norms about where regulars should sit, how regulars entering the bar should be greeted, what subjects were acceptable for discussion, and how Cheers outsiders.

Cheers did, in fact, share a variety patrons should react to challenges from

Encouraging Effective Team-Member Roles

     We wear many “hats” in life, such as students, neighbors, friends, employees, and much more.

These various hats are called

roles

.

Team members may adopt both positive and negative roles.

Task-oriented

continuing basis.

and

relations-oriented roles

are needed to keep the team effective on a

Self-oriented roles

are roles members adopt for personal gain. These roles may often hamper team performance and cohesiveness.

Team Roles (Figure 11-2)

Task-Oriented

• • • •

Roles: Initiators Information Seekers Opinion Givers Energizers + Task Performance + Relations-

• • • •

Oriented Roles: Harmonizers Compromisers Encouragers Expediters Self-Oriented

• • • •

Roles: Blockers Recognition Seekers Dominators Avoiders

Guidelines for Considering Team Roles

     Encourage and reward members who adopt positive roles.

Recognize that both task-oriented and relations-oriented roles are critical to team performance.

Identify and discourage negative roles.

Understand the roles you play as a team leader -- and those you need not play.

Do all you can to minimize role conflict and role ambiguity.

Stages of Group Development (Figure 11-3)

Forming Storming Norming Performing Adjourning

Stages of Group Development

     In the

forming

stage, team members are getting acquainted and becoming oriented to the task.

In the

storming

stage, conflict and disagreement among members are likely as members become assertive in their roles and personalities become clearer.

By the

norming

stage, conflicts have largely been resolved, the team becomes more cohesive, members settle into roles, and norms, values, and expectations develop.

In the

performing

stage the team is mature and focused on performance, and it can largely manage its own affairs.

In the

adjourning

stage the team dissolves.

Bottom Line: Managing the Stages of Team Development Help Team Members to Become Acquainted Complete Simple Tasks to Get the Team to Start Working Together Clarify the Purpose of the Team and Its Objectives Create Team Ground Rules and Develop a Project Timeline Reinforce the Team’s Identity And Ensure Balanced Participation in Decision Making Work Through Member Issues Or Conflicts Related to the Team Create Meeting Agendas to Structure the Team Process Define the Roles of Each Team Member Gradually Give the Team More Autonomy Encourage the Team to Facilitate Itself Celebrate the Team’s Successes

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Building Team Spirit

Some teams “stick together” better than others; there is a sense of team spirit, and members are proud to be associated with each other and with the team.

Teams with high levels of team spirit -- or

cohesiveness

goals.

-- are more effective in achieving their Members of cohesive teams also communicate relatively better with one another, are more satisfied, and feel less tension and anxiety.

Since cohesive teams are effective in attaining goals, it is important that those goals be consistent with the best interests of the organization.

their

Focus on Management: Hot Groups

   Extremely high levels of team spirit, excitement, and energy characterize what Jean Lipman-Blumen and Harold Leavitt have called “hot groups.” According to Lipman-Blumen and Leavitt, “The hot group state of mind is task obsessed and full of passion, coupled with a distinctive way of behaving, a style that is intense, sharply focused, and full bore.” To encourage hot groups, according to Lipman-Blumen and Leavitt, it is important to make room for spontaneity, break down barriers, encourage intellectual exchange, select talented people and respect their self-motivation and ability, use information technology to build relationships, and value truth and the speaking of it.

The Low Cohesiveness Death Spiral

Low Cohesiveness Poorer Performance Lower Cohesiveness Worse Performance

Guidelines for Building Cohesive Teams

    Make it attractive to be a member of the team. Make team membership an honor.

Praise and publicize team accomplishments. Go for some “small wins.” Keep the team small.

Identify outside threats and pressures and communicate them to the team.

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Lighten Up: Concrete Canoes and Subsurface Paintball

Some teambuilding approaches move outside the office.

Many companies, for instance, send their employees to “challenge courses” where team members must work together to complete tasks such as climbing walls and weaving their ways through webs of rope.

Other firms send their teams on caving, camping, sailing, or rock climbing outings.

Some activities are more innovative, such as dispatching teams to battle in a subsurface paintball complex, or to have them build and race concrete canoes.

The Bottom Line: Developing Team Cohesion

Implement a Severe Initiation Process to Become a Member of the Team Maintain Small Team Size Arrange the Work Environment to Enhance the Physical Proximity of Team Members Build a History of Success for the Team Promote Formal and Informal Interaction Among Team Members Enhance Team Identity and Emphasize External Threats to the Team

Types of Problem Team Members

   

Freeloaders

loafing.

: Members who don’t carry their fair shares. They engage in social

Complainers

: Members who constantly complain about the team’s scheduling, activities, progress, or other matters.

Bullies

: Members who actively disrupt the team by pushing their opinions on others.

Martyrs

: Members who feel they are carrying the load for the team.

         Guidelines for Dealing with Problem Behaviors Choose team members carefully.

Offer training.

Provide clear goals.

Clearly define member responsibilities.

Use peer evaluations.

Reward superior performance.

Don’t let social considerations overwhelm concern with the task.

Appeal to the “shadow of the future” Remove problem team members as a last resort.

Running Team Meetings

Give Structure to Meetings Help Team Members Become Acquainted Effective Team Meetings Consider Spatial Arrangements Provide a Facilitating Setting

Action Forums at General Electric

    General Electric is one company that makes heavy use of action forums.

Action forums

customers.

are broadly inclusive corporate meetings that involve key players from management, the factory floor, and even outside suppliers and Action forums lead to faster and better decisions, and help ensure the commitment of those who will implement the decisions.

Companies as far away as Japan are now developing action-forum approaches to their organizations.

Guidelines for Helping Team Members Become Acquainted      Before the first meeting, distribute members’ biographical sketches, along with the team assignment and other relevant materials.

Before each meeting, give members a chance to socialize.

At the first meeting, introduce each member or have the members introduce themselves.

Use appropriate “icebreaker” exercises.

During long meetings, provide breaks.

Zones of Personal Space (Figure 11-4)

Public Social Personal Intimate

Zones of Personal Space

   

Intimate Zone

. We let others enter the intimate zone only for purposes such as lovemaking, protecting, and comforting.

Personal Zone

. This is the zone used for comfortable interaction with others and connotes closeness and friendship.

Social Zone

interactions.

. This zone is used for interpersonal business. People working together use the inner part of the zone. The outer part is used for more formal

Public Zone

. This zone is beyond the range of comfortable interaction.

Zones of Personal Space

In “mainstream” U.S. society:     Intimate Zone: Skin to 18” Personal Zone: 18” to 4’ Social Zone: 4’ to 12’ Public Zone: Greater than 12’ The sizes of these zones vary across nations and ethnic groups.

Interpersonal Distances Across Cultures

     Interpersonal distances corresponding to the zones of personal space vary dramatically across cultures.

For instance, in northern Europe, the “bubbles” tend to be quite large and people keep their distance.

In southern France, Italy, Greece, and Spain, the bubbles are smaller.

A distance seen as intimate in northern Europe overlaps normal conversational distance in southern Europe.

As a result, Mediterranean Europeans “get too close” for the comfort of Germans, Scandinavians, English persons, and Americans of northern European ancestry.

The Importance of Potential Eye Contact

   High status individuals tend to choose positions of high potential eye contact, such as: An elevated position; A position at the front of the room; A position at the end of a conference table.

The Importance of Potential Eye Contact (Continued)

  Individuals who choose positions of high potential eye contact are perceived to have high status.

They are also:  Most likely to be perceived to be the group leaders;  Likely to have the most communications directed to them.

Seating Arrangements for Different Activities (Figure 11-5)

!

# X X # !

O O ! Competing # Coacting O Cooperating X Casual Conversation

Guidelines for Structuring Meetings

      Prior to the meeting, distribute an agenda to team members.

At the beginning of the meeting, review progress to date and establish the task of the meeting.

Early in the meeting, get a progress report from each member with a pre-assigned task.

Manage the discussion to ensure fair participation.

At the end of the meeting, summarize what has been accomplished, where the team is on its schedule, and what will be the team’s task at the next meeting.

Make public and clear each member’s assignment for the next meeting.

Tips for Encouraging Fair Participation

    Establish norms for fair participation.

Provide guiding comments.

Use a

round-robin process

, asking members to give their comments in turn.

Ask members to write down their ideas.

Self-Managing Teams

   Self-managing teams are becoming increasingly common; they are one of the fastest-growing forms of employee involvement.

According to one survey, more than two-thirds of Fortune 1000 firms use self-managing teams with at least some employees.

Self-managing teams are common in such companies as Procter & Gamble, General Motors, Motorola, Ford, General Electric, AT&T, Xerox, American Express, and Prudential.

Leader Roles in Self-Managing Teams

   

Becoming a self-leader

to perform.

. The leader must develop behavioral and cognitive self-management skills to achieve the self-motivation and self-direction needed

Modeling self-leadership

others can learn.

. The leader’s own self leadership behaviors serve as a model from which

Encouraging self-set goals

challenging goals.

. Leaders should encourage team members to set specific and

Creating positive thought patterns

them.

. Leaders should transmit positive thought patterns to team members, and encourage positive expectations in

   Leader Roles in Self-Managing Teams (Continued)

Developing self-leadership through reward and constructive reprimand

. Leaders of self-managing teams should both use conventional rewards and reprimands to encourage self-leadership behaviors and also encourage team members to reward themselves and build self-rewards into their work.

Promoting self-leadership through teamwork

positions where self-management is necessary.

. Team members learn self-leadership through regular and varied experiences in team settings that place them in

Facilitating a self-leadership culture

conducive to high levels of self-management and performance.

which is

Using Special-Purpose Group Techniques

To Encourage Healthy Dissent To Generate Creative Ideas To Generate a Group Solution Devil’s Advocate Brainstorming, Affinity Technique Nominal Group Technique

To Encourage Healthy Dissent: The Devil’s Advocate     Beginning in the 12th century, the Roman Catholic Church instituted strict procedures to determine who was, or wasn’t worthy of sainthood.

One barrier on the road to sainthood was the devil’s advocate, a church officer whose role was to spot flaws in the arguments on behalf of the candidate for sainthood.

Now the

devil’s advocate

refers to an individual or group given the responsibility for challenging a proposal.

The idea is to find flaws while they may still be remedied, or to recognize they are fatal, before competitors, customers, and others become aware of them.

To Generate Creative Ideas: Group Brainstorming  

Group brainstorming

right atmosphere for relaxed, spontaneous thinking.

seeks to create the Rules for group brainstorming are:     Don’t criticize any ideas. This creates a climate of psychological safety, reducing inhibitions.

Freewheel. Any idea, no matter how wild, is fine.

Try to come up with as many ideas as possible. The more ideas, the better.

Try to combine and improve. Hitchhiking on others’ ideas may create a chain of inspiration.

United Technology Automotive’s Idea Center     In 1997 United Technologies Automotive added an idea center to its Dearborn, Michigan headquarters.

The center is a focal point for brainstorming and systems development, incorporating the latest technology and designed to stimulate the free-flow of ideas.

The center allows members from various product teams to meet in a supportive setting.

The center is aimed at reducing costs , improving quality, and speeding up product-development time.

Variations on Brainstorming

   With

stop-and-go brainstorming

, short periods of brainstorming (10 minutes or so) are interspersed with short periods of evaluation.

Reverse brainstorming

brings fresh perspectives by turning the problem around. How could we stifle creativity? How could we decrease morale?

With large groups, the

Phillips 66 technique

be used. Once the problem is clearly understood, small groups of six members brainstorm for six can minutes. Then a member of each group presents the best ideas or all ideas to the larger group.

    Web Wise: Ventana Corporation’s GroupSystems GroupSystems is a suite of team-based, decision support software tools that can be used for strategic planning, innovative problem solving, business process reengineering, and other purposes.

It includes electronic tools for brainstorming, information gathering, voting, organizing, prioritizing, and consensus building.

GroupSystems is used by such organizations as American Express, IBM, and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

http://www.ventana.com

Goals of the Nominal Group Technique

    To encourage all members to make inputs To prevent dominant members from controlling the process To ensure that all ideas get a fair hearing To allow members to evaluate alternatives without fear of retribution

Steps in the Nominal Group Technique (Figure 11-6)

Select Team Members Divide the Group into Subgroups of 8 or Fewer Individuals Leader Presents a Specific Question to the Group Members Silently Generate Ideas in Writing Use Silent Voting to Determine the Overall Rating of Each Idea Members Discuss the Ideas in Turn Round-Robin Idea Generation and Listing on Flipchart

Advantages of Silent Generation of Ideas in Writing

     Ideas are generated without being evaluated Members focus their time directly on the search for ideas Nobody can dominate the process Everyone makes inputs Ideas are put in writing

Gaining Acceptance of New Techniques

     Just do it. Take charge and announce that you’re going to handle today’s meeting differently.

Explain why you’re doing something different.

Point out that these are widely used, effective techniques.

Treat this as a skill-building exercise both for yourself and for your colleagues.

Point out that mastering more group tools adds further to the team’s resources.