Team Building—
a relatively new concept
LIBR204-21
Susan Edwards and [name withheld]
Why is team building considered a
new concept?
Because team building and collaboration is counter
to more traditional hierarchical business models and
involves developing autonomous working groups
within the business structure.
5 Elements of a Good Team
We like Topchick’s criteria best:
1. Clear, member-defined roles and responsibilities
2. Open and honest communication among team
members and team manager. This includes goal
setting by team’s members
3. Supportive, knowledgeable manager/leader
4. Ability to make decisions freely
5. Rewards and recognition when goals are met or
exceeded.
Topchick, Gary S. The First Time Manager’s Guide to Team Building. New York : AMACOM, 2007.
Another similar set of criteria:
“There are five fundamental qualities that
make every team great: communication,
trust, collective responsibility, caring, and
pride.”
—Duke University head basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski
Krzyzewski, Mike. Leading with the Heart: Coach K’s Successful Strategies for Basketball,
Business, and Life. Warner Books, 2000
Soft Skills vs. Technical Skills
Building a good team isn’t just about assembling a
group of individuals with the right technical skills or
subject expertise to do the job.
“Soft skills” are equally as crucial to team work:
communication, leadership, planning, decisionmaking, and coaching.
Team building is all about creating TRUST among
team members.
Why build teams?
• Most people prefer to work on a team and work best when
they do.
• Individuals on teams find the work more meaningful.
• Teams enable organizations to use their people more
effectively for higher returns.
• Teams can often work without direct management
support—autonomy is a motivator!
• Teams can make up for inefficient supervisors.
• Teams that develop synergy can make better decisions and
develop better solutions than individuals.
Topchick, Gary S. The First Time Manager’s Guide to Team Building. New York : AMACOM, 2007.
Why build teams? continued…
When teams work well, they can
• improve the working environment
• keep communication consistent
• relieve stress
• reduce errors
• keeps communication lines open
Are you ready to build teams?
“Some organizations put a subject-matter expert in
charge of a team—someone who has the technical
knowledge but not necessarily the team-leadership
skills. By team-leadership skills I mean the ability to
communicate well, motivate people, facilitate
discussions, make decisions, resolve conflicts, listen,
deal with difficult team members, etc.”
—Gary Topchick
Team building requires a
leader who
• is willing to trust staff
• allows open, honest communication
• can clearly define roles and responsibilities
• can give the team some level of autonomous decision making
Most importantly, team building takes time.
Is your organization
ready for teams?
The five conditions for a team-based environment are:
• Management that will trust the team and be open to two-way
communication.
• Team skills: members need training to work as a team and to
work autonomously.
• Empowered team members: members have to want to be part of
the team.
• Open approach to change and risk: teams can be risky, but the
organization must be open to taking a chance.
• Human Resource systems: HR ratings should look at teamwork,
not just individual performance, and implement 360 reviews.
2 Types of Teams
1. Ongoing teams
• Continuous working groups or departments within an
organization
• Team is stable—never or rarely disbanded
• Time is available to develop over months or years
2. Project-based teams
• Cross-departmental working groups, assembled for a
specific purpose
• Team disbands when project is completed
• Usually exists from a few weeks to a few months—not a
lot of time to develop a cohesive team.
Teams develop over time
Developing Team
Needs lots of guidance from
management
Spends time setting up team
norms (rules)
Self-Managed Team
Little management oversight
required. Management
becomes consultant
Team norms well-established
Manager make decisions,
with team’s input
Team makes decisions
autonomously
Manager needed to resolve
conflict
Team resolves conflict on its
own
Forming-Storming-Norming-Performing
Another model of the stages of group development was
developed by social psychologist Bruce Tuckman in 1965:
“forming-storming-norming-performing.”
• Forming: introductions, team member selection, goal setting
• Storming: contentious period of competing ideas for the team
• Norming: members agree on rules, trust begins
• Performing: team members are interdependent, autonomous
Bruce Tuckman. "Developmental Sequence in Small Groups" Group Facilitation, Spring 2001. Reprinting of
Tuckman's 1965 article of same title, along with his 1977 update "Stages of Small-Group Development
Revisited," coauthored with Mary Ann Jensen.
10 Steps to Building a Team
If you are ready, and your organization is
ready, you can follow these 10 steps to
building successful teams.
Preparing the Team
1. Get upper management support. Show how team goals
align with organization. Ensure they won’t usurp your
authority as leader. Show how team is doing in
measurable terms.
2. Define the purpose of the team. Communicate this to
team members.
3. Identify time frames: milestones and due dates.
4. Select team members: choose those who need to learn
along with the most qualified people. Use volunteers.
Connect one-on-one with individuals throughout your
project.
In the First Team Meetings:
5. Team member openings—have members introduce
themselves and explain how they see the team working.
6. Share the overall purpose.
7. Team name—have members create a name related to the
team’s purpose.
8. Set goals—S.M.A.R.T. goals, revised regularly.
9. Core team issues—introduce your philosophy on teams,
what you expect, resources available, logistics, schedules,
concerns, discussion of rewards, and how you want them
to work together.
10. Establish team norms—these ground rules should be
created as a team.
5 Elements of a Good Team
Let’s review the 5 elements, and see how steps
can be taken to help them grow…
Embodying the 5 Elements of a Team
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Clear roles and responsibilities: Define each member’s role, but realize there
is a shared purpose. All members should understand all roles, not just their own.
Discuss team progress at meetings.
Open and honest communication: Constant, continual communication. Team
norms and ground rules will help with honesty and trust issues.
Supportive and knowledgeable leader: Use “we” instead of “I.” Listen
actively, solicit feedback, build trust, and allow the team to make mistakes.
Decision-making authority: Set boundaries about which decisions are made by
the team and which are made by the leader. Developing teams may require the
leader to make decisions with team input. Self-managing teams can handle
consensus.
Rewards and recognition: Reward both the team and individuals. Celebrate
milestones. At conclusion of a project make sure to record what was learned,
make recommendations for the future, develop tips for other teams, and talk
about follow-up.
How Teams Get Derailed
It seems so easy!
Let’s look at some of the things that can go wrong.
Undermanaging and
Overmanaging
• Developing teams will need more managing. There is a tendency
to undermanage these teams. This can lead to chaos, as the group
is not yet able to plan and make decisions autonomously.
Infighting and confusion can undermine the group.
• Self-managed teams are autonomous and need little managing.
There is a tendency to be overmanage these groups. This can
cause frustration and anger and erode trust.
Knowing where your team is at is vital for long-term success.
Common Mistakes
and Solutions
1.
Out of control meetings—not clearly connected to goals of the team.
Solution: have an agenda, set ground rules, keep meetings small and short.
2.
Seemingly random changes in project direction.
Solution: keep communication lines open and explain why there is a change.
The closer a project is to completion, the more difficult a transition is.
3.
Energy zapping delays.
Solution: if you make a mistake, be honest! Don’t lose team’s trust.
4.
Team squabbles gone awry.
Solution: Schedule a face-to-face meeting and work it out immediately. If
they won’t work it out, remove one of the troublemakers from the team.
Hollingsworth, C. (2009). “5 Ways to Make or Break Your Team.” PM Network, 23(4), 52-7. Retrieved September 28, 2009, from
Business Full Text database.
Team-Building Activities
Leaders can organize activities designed to build
trust and improve communication among team
members. Such group activities:
• Focus on developing “soft” skills.
• Are often done at a retreat location, away from the
normal work environment.
• Traditionally done face-to-face.
• Range from organized physical activities to sharing
personality traits and socializing.
Examples of Team-building
Activities
Physical Trust games
Example: With members blindfolded, a few members are given instructions to
create a perfect square with a rope. When finished, everyone must have one hand
on the rope. Members must learn to communicate verbally to accomplish the task
together.
Ice-Breaker games
Example: Members write on paper what they think is most fascinating or unusual
about themselves. Other members to guess which belong to which person.
Debrief by asking team what purpose was, how the activity will help them work
better. Did anyone hold back? Were you surprised by any information?
Problem-solving games
Example: Team is given a survival scenarios and a task. For example, “a plane
crashed and you need to choose the 12 most useful items to survive.” Members
brainstorm and rank items and must come to consensus within a time period.
More team building exercises: http://wilderdom.com/games/InitiativeGames.html
Virtual Teams
Virtual teams are made up of members not in the
same geographic location.
Such teams may never meet one another face-toface. Thus, members never get the kind of
information gleaned from cues given in body
language and voice tone from teammates.
Common Issues in Managing
Virtual Teams
1. Team members are not physically able to meet.
• Introductions and ice-breakers are important.
• Goals and responsibilities must be extra clear.
2. Potential cultural differences with teams spread throughout
geographic regions.
• Introductions should incorporate cultural personality.
• Do not take soft skills for granted.
3. More potential conflict without face-to-face contact.
• Constant communication, updates, and reminders of
common goal(s).
• Empower all team members to help manage conflict.
• Recognize accomplishments.
Your Team Building Activity
1. Follow the link to the special Google Map. (The
full url is in the notes section for this slide.)
•
You need a Google account to edit the map. If you do not have a Google account,
you can send your information to Erik, Susan, or ask one of your Interview/White
paper team members if they can place you on the map. You will be able to view the
map without a Google account.
2. Follow the directions on the left side of the map.
Make sure you don’t delete or alter anyone else’s
information! Please complete this portion of the task by
Sunday evening.
3. Check back early next week and see what your
Interview and White Paper group members have
posted. Post your reaction to the exercise on the discussion
board. Some things to think about:
•
•
Does seeing where your teammates live and what they do change the
way you think about working with them in the virtual environment?
Do you expect a different group dynamic now that you know what your
partners’ strengths and weaknesses are?
References
Bolman, L., & Deal, T. (1991). Reframing organizations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Inc.
Fisher, K. (1999). Leading Self-Directed Work Teams. McGraw-Hill.
Free Management Library online resource for team building:
http://www.managementhelp.org/grp_skll/teams/teams.htm
Hackman, R. (2002). Leading teams. Boston, Ma.: Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation.
Hollingsworth, C. (2009). “5 Ways to Make or Break Your Team.” PM Network, 23(4), 52-7. Retrieved
September 28, 2009, from Business Full Text database.
Krzyzewski. M. (2001). Leading with the Heart: Coach K's Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and
Life. Business Plus.
“Team Building Activities, Initiative Games, & Problem Solving Exercises” on Wilderon Web site “
http://wilderdom.com/games/InitiativeGames.html
Topchick, G. S. (2007). The First Time Manager’s Guide to Team Building. New York : AMACOM.
Tuckman, B. "Developmental Sequence in Small Groups" Group Facilitation, Spring 2001. Reprinting of 1965
article of same title, with 1977 update "Stages of Small-Group Development Revisited," coauthored with Mary
Ann Jensen. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3954/is_200104/ai_n8943663/