LEARNING

TEAMS
 Learning • Define and explain the importance of
learning teams and the responsibilities
Objectives: of each team member.
• Articulate team characteristics and
team members roles.
• Explain team characteristics and the
team formation process.
• Form effective teams.
• Submit learning team documents.
Teams • Team: is a group of individuals who
work together for a particular
purpose.
• Individuals in a Team: are
interdependent in order to get the
job completed
• Teams are able to deal with
complex problems and come up
with more creative solutions than
individuals alone.
Identifying Team • Good Teams: enhance commitment and
create a feeling of community
Characteristics: • Friendship Teams:
– Adv.- is that you are comfortable with
each other, and because of that you want
to support and aid one another.
– Dis- is that relationships are built on
socializing and having fun. Project teams
can strain and distract friendships.

• When you have a project to complete, would

you rather a “Friendship Team” or created one
by the teacher? Why?
Identifying Team • Working Group: is created to share
information, understand assignments, and
Characteristics: learning together. Each person in the group
will take away certain knowledge to help your
own understanding. The group has no real
accountability for its output.
• Pseudo Team: is created with a task that
needs to be accomplished. As a group you are
responsible for its output. The team is not
working towards a goal that needs to be
achieved. The group appears to have no
interest in setting goals, working together, or
coming up with plans.
Identifying Team • Potential Team: is created to complete
some sort of assigned task. It is
Characteristics: understood that as a group you are
responsible for the output. It is
understood that you need to be
working together, and develop some
sort of plan so that everyone is
accountable. This is all attempted but
the task is hard to accomplish, because
the team struggles to remain focused,
and work together.
Identifying Team • Real Team: is created to complete a
task which has been assigned to the
Characteristics: team. As a group you are responsible
for the output. All members are
committed to the task, and
understand that they hold each other
responsible for the outcomes. As a
group you have determined what
resources you have available (skills
and knowledge) that can be brought
to the team.
Identifying Team • High-Performance Team: is created
with a task in mind. As a group you are
Characteristics: responsible for the output. All members
of the team are committed to the task,
and all hold each other mutually
responsible for the outcome. The team
understands its member’s strengths, and
how to best use them. The team is truly
interdependent and helps to encourage
each person for personal growth and
everyone is valued as is their
contributions.
 Team • Team Functions: These are things
Functions which a team must do so that they
can begin to work well together.
 Team • Achieve Task:
– Define the Task

Functions II – Allocate roles and responsibilities

– Make a plan
– Divide up work
– Identify Resources
– Check Performance against plan and adjust as
needed

• Maintain Team:
– Encourage other towards the group’s goal
– Enable effective internal communication
– Develop each other capabilities / skills
– Maintain discipline
– Build team spirit
– Listen to each other
 Team • Develop the Individual:
– Recognise your skills and use them
Functions III – Assist and support others
– Understand team members as
individuals
– Deal with difficult members
– Give constructive feedback to individuals
– Deal with difficult members
– Encourage quiet members
– Value all members
 Team • To become an effective team, you first need to
set ground rules. Ground rules will be the basis
Functions IV for a strong working relationship based on trust,
honesty, and an awareness of each other’s
expectations

• Establish ground rules:

– What are some important rules that need to
be created?
 Teams • Determine your team’s profile
Profiles – Activist: Doer
– Reflector: Revisionist
– Pragmatist: Planner
– Theorist: Concluder
• What jobs in the group would you
assign each person?
Becoming an • Develop a plan of action: It is essential to the success of
any team

effective • When Planning:

group – Read carefully the brief given by your instructor
– Agree what needs to be accomplished
– Divide the task into multiple sections
– Setup timetables
– Set out how to setup meetings and group
discussion
– Create reporting procedures
– Create a way in which communication can be done
– Plan how the work will be presented
Making Good • Making Good Decisions
– Consensus: agreement must be made and
Group those that disagree need to be able to

Decisions
continue working even without getting their
way
– Unanimous: everyone must agree on the point
– Majority: agreement must be made with a
majority of the group (51%)

– Which decision making process would best fit a

team?
– Why?
 Learning • At NU all students are required to participate
in learning teams at some point in their
Team at NU: studies but normally in the 3rd and 4th years.
• These are the documents that are available at
NU to help you become successful teams.
– Learning Team Charter
– Learning Team Project and Task planning
– Weekly Learning Team Logs
• You can find the Learning Team Tool Kit on
the VLS in the ‘ Learning Team Folder’.