Team Building

Charlotte Leggatt

MDN Facilitator

Practice Manager

Objectives

• Understand what a team is

• Understand what aids and prevents good teamwork

• Understand the important of team work

• Understand the cycle of teams

• Group Dynamics

• Any others?

Thinking about teams

• What do you understand by the word team?

• Or how would you describe a team?

What is a team?

• A team is a collection of individuals who join together to achieve a common goal. By working together, the members achieve synergy; that is the team performs more effectively than the sum total of the individual members contributions.

What is a team

• A common goal or aim

• A clear structure, often including a recognised leader

• An agreed way of working

• An understanding of each others roles

• Support each other

• Recognised stages of development

Benefits of working as a team

• How many benefits of teamworking can you identify?

• If your team (or a team you have worked in previously) is not functioning effectively you may not be enjoying a benefit but still list the benefits and aspire to them

Benefits

• Each member contributes and shares knowledge and skills

• Teamwork allows division of labour• People know who to approach in the team• People cannot play one member off against

another• Communication is improved• Opportunities for learning together and enhances

mutual esteem

Short comings

• Think about a team you have worked in which has not worked well?

• Why was that?

• What went wrong?

Shortcomings

• Individuals not recognising others perspectives (all different, all bring different qualities) – clashes of personality

• The battle for power! Sharing or surrendering authority

• Divided loyalties• Poor communication• Is the team complete? Absences• It takes time to set up and function

Team Formation and Stages

• Forming

• Storming

• Norming

• Performing

• Mourning

• A normal cycle of team formation

FORMING

• The Team FORMS as a new person joins.

• Everyone works out their role

• Everyone gets to know their job

STORMING

• A very rocky period

• Some teams do not survive this

• Each individual works out their role within the team

NORMING

• Individuals discover the way things are done

• What is and what is not acceptable

PERFORMING

• Only once individuals are settled can the group become a team

• The work gets done

• There are good results

• There is a shared purpose

• There is job satisfaction

• The team begins to perform

MOURNING

• When someone leaves the team is no longer a team

• This can be sad• The group reverts to stage 1 – FORMING• This will happen whether or not the team member

is replaced• The cycle returns to the beginning• High staff turnover makes team development

difficult

Communication

• How do individuals in your team express their concerns?

• Inform other of what is happening?

• Provide good or bad news?

• How do you get to hear about things?

Poor Communication

• Can prevent teams working effectively

• Can lead to isolation

• Jealousy of position and fear

• Establishing power basis by holding into information

Aids To Useful Teamwork

• A good leader who inspires others but who also respects others and their opinions

• Regularly re-focus on the common goal

• Equality – is each person part of the team?

• No one person’s contribution should be seen as less worthy than anyone elses

Conflict

• Recognise that it does and will happen

• We all have different perspectives

• Ignore it at you peril!!!!

• Can conflict be a good thing? Yes, yes…..because conflict brings challenges, challenges bring change.

• Learn how to give and take feedback

Group Dynamics

• Within teams people tend to occupy particular roles

• Behavioural scientists have classified these – Meredith Belbin is the most well known

• Some people are natural leaders, others are followers, some keen to generate ideas, others good at finishing tasks

Group Dynamics

• Best teams contain a mix of team types and are not dominated by one particular type

• Remember the perspectives pictures – we are all different and come from a variety of different backgrounds with different viewpoints

• Different is good = each role is equally important to a team

Belbins

• Individually complete the belbins self perception inventory

• This should take about 15 minutes – do not analyse the questions too deeply – go on your gut instinct

• There is not right or wrong answer – only the aswer that fits you.

Team Roles

Implementer Co-ordinator

Shaper Plant

Resource Investigator Monitor/Evaluator

Team Worker Completer/Finisher

Where could your team improve?

• Undertake a SWOT analysis of your team

• Strengths

• Weaknesses

• Opportunities

• Threats

Training for teams

• Training is vital. Training as a team and training as individuals in skills and knowledge bases can make the difference between a team that merely gets there and a team that succeeds with style.

• Look at your SWOT – where could things be improved by training? Or grasping an opportunity? Or staving off a threat?

In summary

• Teams are made and not born

• Teams need a common goal

• Teams need a leader

• Individuals are “individual”

• Individuals make up teams

• Each individual has their own skills = each is equal in the team

Your contribution

• Do you believe in the goal – if you don’t share in the goal are you in the right job?

• Responsibility is jointly shared by the team, not harboured by a few individuals

• Be prepared to give up autonomy

• Share information and skills – be prepared to give up individual power basis.