Dynamics of Teamwork

 Resources
 Relationships
 Results

Grid Relationship Skills

 Critique
(Learn from experience by anticipating and examining how behavior and action affects results)
 Initiative
(Take action to exercise effort, drive and support for specific activities)
 Inquiry
(Question, seek information and test for understanding)
 Advocacy
(Express attitudes, opinions, ideas and convictions)
 Decision Making
(Evaluate resources, criteria and consequences to reach decision)
 Conflict Resolution
(Face and work together disagreement with others towards resolution)
 Resilience
(React to problems, setbacks, failures and understand how these factors influence the ability to
move forward)

Critique (provides a foundation by defining up front what teams plan to accomplish & how)
 Critique is discussing an event to increase understanding and learning and represents the single
most valuable relationship for increasing effectiveness in the workplace.
 Critique gets information out into the open and creates an opportunity for synergy.
 The ability to openly express reservations or doubts, as well as creative ideas, allows teams to
anticipate and react quickly to resolve problems.
 Provides an objective reference point for moving forward.
 Provides an objective for personal behavior based on what’s right not who’s right.

Components of Critique
 Pre-Critique
 Pre-Critique is used in early stages of an activity and addresses fundamental question,
“What are we doing and how are we going to do it?”
 This stage includes establishing a strategy before jumping into an activity.
 Pre-Critique can be as simple as taking two minutes just to set agenda, “Now what do
we want to accomplish?”
 Pre-Critique defines a schedule for progress. This step forces people to think in realistic
terms of actual implementation, extra work they are committing to in direct relation to
current workloads, resources in place, scheduling etc.
 Periodic Critique
 Periodic Critique is a schedule of critique points set during pre-critique.
 These points allow teams to commit ahead of time to stop the flow of work at specific
intervals to discuss the quality of progress.
 Periodic Critique allows people a planned opportunity to make adjustments if needed to
get back on course.

 Concurrent Critique ( a vital form of critique for synergy)

 Concurrent Critique occurs spontaneously when someone involved interrupts activity to
discuss the quality of work.
 Its means interrupting a process whenever discussion is needed rather than waiting for
a scheduled time.
 In teams where candor and trust are high, concurrent critique provides for instant
readjustment with minimal disruption to a course of action.

 Post-Critique
 Post Critique is often only type of critique used in teams.
 In Post Critique, examining what worked is as important as examining what didn’t work.
In this way, teams can reinforce what worked and examine causes of what caused
problems.
 It is valuable for keeping teams focused on continuous improvement.
 Is more effective when the comments are based on criteria determined in pre-critique.

Initiative (how a person embraces a new assignment or opportunity)

 Initiative occurs whenever a person takes action to either establish a new activity or to move to
a current activity forward.
 The character of initiative taken by individuals sets the tone of relationships by being the
starting point for establishing and maintaining productive momentum.
 Is critical for gaining involvement with others.
 Sound initiative develops with mutually in relationships based on mutual trust and respect.
 When people trust each other, initiative focuses on what’s right rather than who’s right.

Inquiry (listening with objectivity)

 Promotes insight into all relevant perspectives, and leads to new understanding.
 Allows people to share personal insights openly and spontaneously so that all relevant
information is considered.
 Encourages rather than punishes people for sharing information.
 Establishes the foundation of an objective evaluation of facts.
 Try to understand the speaker point of view, even if you don’t agree.
 Encourage the speaker to talk more.
 Clarify your own understanding of the speaker’s feeling by asking.

Advocacy
 Convictions are advocated in ways that clarify opinions while also inviting alternative views.
 Openly to discuss personal experiences, ideas and fear so that topic is explored completely.
 Teams practicing sound advocacy take responsibility for ensuring every members views is taken
before moving on.
 Constructive and candid advocacy can dramatically increase personal commitment in teams.

Decision Making (includes how effectively individuals and teams consider all of the available
resources to define a course of action)
 Having strong relationship in place to support the decision, regardless of who makes it or under
what circumstances.
 Establishing criteria up front for measuring the effectiveness of the decision.
 Only those people who have experience and skill to contribute to the decision need to be
involved.
 Common misunderstanding is that one-alone decisions are never sound.
 The fundamental key to making sound decisions is to involve every resource necessary to make
the right decision.
 Consensus decision making occurs naturally in teams that share mutual trust and respect.

Conflict Resolution (is how people anticipate and react to conflict when it occurs)
 Objective focus on what’s right.
 Conflict is like an ice berg.
 Grid provides a way to use conflict to align goals, focus issues and clarify convictions with
productivity in mind by giving people skills to confront differences objectively.
 Can be used to reach mutual understanding and ensure shared commitment.

Resilience (is measured by how individuals and teams handle setbacks and failure when
results are lower than expected)
 Grid gives people skills to learn from experience and strengthen effectiveness in the future.
 Is a critical relationship skill for achieving success in a constantly changing business world.
 Ability to learn from setback and to translate failure into valuable learning is powerful.
 In order to recover and move on, individuals and teams must be able to discuss and explore
what went wrong in candid, objective and constructive terms that focus on recovery and
improvement.
 Recovery is swift when mutual trust and respect is high and the failure causes people to pull
together, regain strength and move forward.