How can we create high performance

teams?
How can team processes be improved?
How can team communications be
improved?
How can team decisions be improved?
Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Characteristics of High Performance Teams

Set a clear and challenging direction.
Believe in the goals and motivated to work hard to

accomplish them.
Turn a general sense of purpose into specific objectives.
Set standards for measuring results and obtain feedback.
Members have the right mix of technical, problem-solving

and interpersonal skills.

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Team Building
Collaborative way to gather and analyze

data about the teams work. The goal is

improved teamwork and increased team

effectiveness.

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Step 1:
Problem or
opportunity
in team
effectiveness

Step 5:
Evaluation of
results

Step 2:

Teamwork

Data
gathering
and analysis

Participation by all
members

Step 4:
Actions to
improve
team
functioning

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Step 3:
Planning for
team
improvement

Formal retreat approach

Team building occurs during an offsite retreat.

Outdoor experience approach

Members engage in a variety of physically

challenging situations that require teamwork.

Continuous improvement approach

The manager, team leader, or group members

take responsibility for ongoing team building.

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

New members may worry about:

Participation
Goals
Control
Relationships

Processes

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Tough
Battler

Friendly
Helper

Objective
Thinker

Acts
aggressive
Seeks
authority

Acts
insecure
Tries to be
helpful

Acts
reflective
Wants
clear goals

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Distributed leadership
Sharing of responsibility for meeting group task and

maintenance needs.

Task activities
Various things members and leaders do that directly

contribute to the performance of important group tasks.

Maintenance activities
Support the social and interpersonal relationships among

team members.

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Task
Contributions

Offering ideas
Clarifying suggestions
Giving information
Seeking information
Summarizing discussion

Maintenance
Contributions

Encouraging others
Reconciling differences
Expressing standards
Offering agreement
Inviting participation

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Disruptive behaviors:
Bullying and being overly aggressive toward

other members.
Withdrawing and refusing to cooperate with

others.
Using the group as a forum for self-confession.

Talking too much about irrelevant matters.

Trying to compete for attention and recognition.
Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Role
Set of expectations associated with a job or position

on a team.
.
Role ambiguity
Occurs when a person is
uncertain about his or her
role and what is expected.

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Role overload
Occurs when too much is expected of the

individual.

Role underload
Occurs when too little is expected of the

individual.

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Role conflict
Occurs when a person

is unable to respond to
role expectations that

conflict with one

another.
Forms of role conflict
Intrasender,
Intersender, Personrole, Inter-role.
Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Role negotiation
Process for discussing and agreeing upon

what team members expect of one another.

Team members meet to discuss, clarify, and

agree on their individual role expectations

each holds for the other.

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Norms
Represent ideas or beliefs about how

members are expected to behave.

Considered rules or standards of conduct

that are supposed to guide members.

Help members to guide their own behavior

and predict what others will do.

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Key norms that can have positive or negative

implications.
Performance norms.
Ethics norms.
Organizational and personal pride norms.
High-achievement norms.

Support and helpfulness norms.

Improvement and change norms.

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Positive role
model

Reward and
positively
reinforce desired
behaviors

Leaders can
Influence
Norms

Select members
who can and will
live up to desired
norms
Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Set aside time to

discuss goals
and norms

Cohesiveness
The degree to which members are attracted

to a group and motivated to remain a part

of it.
There is a strong relationship between

cohesiveness, conformity to group norms,

and performance.
Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Inter-team dynamics
The relationships between groups

cooperating and competing with one

another.

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Ways to achieve positive inter-team dynamics

Refocusing members on a common enemy or goal.
Negotiating directly.
Engaging members, of different teams, in activities

learning how to work cooperatively together.

Refocusing reward systems to emphasize

contributions to overall organizational performance

and on how much teams help one another.

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

To assure high performance, team

interaction patterns and communication
networks must be aligned with

interaction patterns and team tasks.

Centralized
Decentralized
Restrictive
Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Decentralized communication network

Members communicate directly, as needed,

and share information with one another.

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Centralized communication network

Team leader acts as a central control point.
Team leader collects and distributes

information among members.

Members work independently. Results are

passed to the team leader and pooled to

create finished product.

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Restricted communication network

Subgroups disagree with one anothers

positions.
Poor communication is characteristic of this

type of situation.

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Proxemics involves use of space as people

interact.
Architects and consultants that specialize in office

design help executives create spaces conducive to

intense communication and teamwork needed in

todays work environment.
Design of office space, and the size and availability

of meeting rooms can positively impact the

effectiveness of team communication.

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Virtual communication networks

Technology provide numerous

resources for real time

communication.
Empowers team members to be in

constant electronic contact with one

another or a central database.
Online team building activities are

critically important to high quality

results.

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

What innovations in electronic

communication do you predict in your
working lifetime?

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Teams make decisions by choosing from alternative

actions.
Decision by lack of response

One idea after another is suggested without any

discussion-taking place.
Decision by authority rule

The chairperson, manager, or leader makes a decision for

the team.
Decision by minority rule

Two or three people are able to dominate or railroad

the group into making a decision to which they agree.
Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

 Decision by majority rule

Formal voting usually takes place, or members may be

polled, publicly or confidentially, to find the majority
viewpoint.
Decision by consensus

Discussion leads to one alternative being favored by most

members and the other members agree to support it.
Decision by unanimity

All group members agree totally on the course of

action to be taken.

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Assets and Liabilities of Consensus and Unanimity

Advantages:
More information, knowledge and expertise is applied to solve problem.
Discussion leads to broader understanding of final decision.
Increases acceptance and strengthens commitment of members to follow

through and support decision.

Disadvantages:
Imperfect decisions may result from social pressures to conform to group,
or undue influence of team leader.

Team decisions take more time than individual decisions.

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Groupthink
The tendency of members in highly cohesive

groups to lose their critical evaluative

capabilities.

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Avoiding
groupthink

Leader refrains from announcing any position.

Every team member acts as critical evaluator.
Different sub-groups explore same problems.
Bring in outside experts to evaluate
information, realism of goals, and plans for
action.
Assign someone to be a devils advocate at
each team meeting. Rotate an appointed
team "devil's advocate" so that no one
particular person appears to dissent.

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Brainstorming
Used in teams to actively generate as many

ideas and alternatives as possible.

All criticism is ruled out
All ideas are welcomed

Emphasis on creativity and imagination

Quantity is wanted
Building on others ideas or piggybacking is encouraged

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Think about how team cohesiveness and

groupthink might be related.
Can cohesiveness ever reduce groupthink?
For example, when there is a cohesive team,

and members are familiar with each other, they

may be less likely to censor their opinions and
more likely to disagree.
Agree or disagree?
Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Nominal group technique

Members are asked to respond individually

and in writing to a nominal question.

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Delphi technique
Involves generating decision-making

alternatives through a series of survey

questionnaires.

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.