2.

Using Tuckman and Jensen and Hackman’s work, what interventions are
needed to get the team back on track and reach the performing stage?

Phil believed his team had reached the storming stage however he has also highlighted key
areas that they have had issues which all stem from the forming stage. Part of the forming
stage is when everyone meets one another and there is a discussion about the project they will
be commencing, with some deliberation of the project's objectives/goals. This is an important
stage as this is where each individual starts to think about what role they will play within the
project team. However it appears that Phil moved the team too quickly onto the storming
stage as they started to commence work while they were still only learning about each other
and the way in which they work and how they might work together. During this initial stage
of team growth it was important for Phil as team leader to be very clear about team goals and
provide clear direction regarding the project which he felt he had. However, Phil has had
team members ‘stating that they are still not 100% sure of their role in the team and
consequently work has been duplicated and that has cost the project time and money.’ As a
team leader he needs to ensure that all of the members are involved in determining roles and
responsibilities and thus he is going to have to increase communication between members.

After addressing the issues which have arisen from the forming stage he can then address any
problems from the storming stage. Every team goes through this stage and is especially
important for teams like Phil’s who have never worked together before. Phil has recognised
the need for differencing opinions to be brought forward, he needs to encourage team
membors to form their own opinions and to have no fear stating their beliefs. As team leader
Phil needs to demontrate clear guidance as his members process through this stage, different
opinions which can cause conflict should be addressed together as they come together to
solve problems and function independently and together as a team. Phil needs to become
practised at aiding the team through this stage by ensuring the participants learn to listen to
each other and respect their differences and ideas. This includes not permitting any one team
member to control all conversations and to assist in making all members of the team
contribute to the discussion before moving on. It is important for Phil to recognise that he
will need to coach some team members to be more assertive especially as there has been a
sense of team members agreeing to things in the past to prevent arguments from arising. With
other team members there is requirement for them to become more effective listeners so that
they will be open to the opinions of other members who may have differing ideas.

This stage can only come to a closure when the team becomes more compliant of each other
and learns how to work together for the good of the project. It is only at this point, should
Phil as the team leader start transitioning some decision making to the team to allow them
more independence, but still stay involved to resolve any conflicts as quickly as possible. In
the past it can be seen that this power had be handed to quickly to members and had led to
confusion. Phil had repetitively announced to members that they were empowered to make
decisions only to cause confusion due to being inconsistent and overturning the decisions his
members had made. He needs to offer a clear guideline on the type of decisions he should be
informed off so that work can be more efficient and that he isn’t contacted over small task
changes.

3. ​What are some of the problems involved in leading a virtual project team and what
practical measure might the team leader take to overcome them?

One major problem that can arise when leading a virtual project team is the sheer lack of
everyday conversations that are experienced within a workplace. Virtual project teams are
disadvantaged by not having hints about how their colleagues are feeling and what mood
they are in. Ultimately virtual team members can go days without communication which can
result in feeling isolated, leading to less contribution in team exercises. In order to
overcome this issue, the team leader may implement small goals that team members can
achieve together and help to increase everyday communications. The team leader can also
strive to create a strong one-to-one relationship with each member to help with feelings of
isolation, making members more likely to contribute to the decision making processes that
take place.

While there can be many benefits to working independently and remotely from other team
members, this can also be very draining due to the lack of social interaction. Members of a
virtual team miss out on building friendships because they aren't seeing their colleagues
everyday and are missing out on key relationship building moments. In addition to this it can
be difficult for each member of the team to see how their individual work comes together to
create the final result, which can result in members not being motivated and losing hope in
the work they are doing. This can be an issue for the team leader in particular as they may
find that productivity is not where it should be and unmotivated staff are not going to be
producing a high standard of work. A solution that the team leader could implement to help
this lack of social interaction, could be incorporating social time into the calendar and
allowing time at the start of meetings for everyone to share something about their personal
life. This allows friendships to form and for each member of the team to feel valued by their
peers. Another solution to this lack of social interaction would be to encourage that team
members communicate regularly to share progress on projects and to allow them to see
how their work is contributing to the overall efforts of the team.

Managing a virtual team can be a challenge due to the lack of trust between group
members. This lack of trust usually originates from not being able to see what other team
members are doing whilst also rarely if ever actually working in person with one another. It
is fairly easy to see why you may not be able to build a trusting relationship with people that
you have perhaps only met a few times and don't really get to know very well. The team
leader can try to tackle this trust issue by ensuring that individual team roles are clearly laid
out and communicated, this can help to communicate each members contributions to help
build some trust. The team leader should also ensure that they are giving regular feedback
and recognising individual achievements. It could also be suggested that the team leader
showing support of the members would help to increased trust within the team and
increase participation in team activities.

Cultural differences are another problem that can make the job being a team leader more
difficult however when the different cultures are recognised within the team this can
actually prove to make the team more productive and innovative. The team leader should
ensure that cultural differences are used to the teams advantage by building a team profile
which highlights the different experiences and expertise of each individual. In order to
ensure that the conflict side of any cultural differences is kept to a minimum, the team
leader should arrange an agreement on any rules for interactions and on the general
behaviours of the team. These rules can include guides to maximum response times to
communications with team members and the agreement on technologies that will be used.
The team leader should find that by having these processes in place, the clashes within the
team are minimal.

With the possibility of the team being spread across the world, it can be difficult for the
team to have a connection with each other and prove to be difficult to feel united as one. In
order to overcome this the responsibility lies with the team leader to portray a clear
direction that the team should be aiming for, and making sure that each individual is aware
of the overall vision that team has, this involves making sure that the individual goals link to
the overall team goal. It is also important for the team leader to know that a team spirit isn't
going to be there from the start and understand that it will take time for this to develop. To
allow this development to happen the team leader has to encourage the team to come
together every time they communicate and also allow every team member to take some
responsibility for the success of the team.

827