Working and

Writing
in Teams

Module Eighteen

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2014 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Working and Writing in Teams

 Teamwork is crucial to success in an organization.

 Some teams:
 produce products,
 provide services, or
 recommend solutions to problems.
 Other teams produce documents.

 Teams are usually more productive when they

establish ground rules for behavior.
 Working and Writing in Teams

 Interpersonal communication is communication between

people using
 Listening
 dealing with conflict

 These skills will make you more successful

 on the job,
 in social groups, and
 in community service and volunteer work
Possible Group Ground Rules

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 What roles do people play in groups?

 Encouraging
Participation
 Relieving Tensions
 Checking Feelings
 Solving Interpersonal
Problems
 Listening Actively

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 Group Ground Rules Continued

 Positive roles and actions that help the group achieve its
task goals include:
 Seeking Information and Opinions: ask questions and identify gaps
in the group’s knowledge.
 Giving Information and Opinions: answer questions and provide
relevant information.
 Summarizing: restate major points, pulling ideas together.
 Evaluating: compare group processes and products to standards
and goals.
 Coordinating: plan work and give directions.
 Negative Roles in Groups

 Negative roles and actions that hurt the group's product

and process include:
 Blocking: disagreeing with everything that is proposed.
 Dominating: trying to run the group by ordering and shutting out
others.
 Clowning: making unproductive jokes and diverting the group from
its task.
 Withdrawing: being silent in meetings, not helping with work, or
not attending.
 Leadership in Groups

 Being a leader does not mean doing all the work yourself.
Indeed, someone who implies that he or she has the best
ideas and can do the best work is likely playing the
negative roles of blocking and dominating.

 Some groups formally or informally rotate or share

responsibilities, so that everyone—and no one—is a
leader.
 Leadership in Groups

 Informational leaders
 generate and evaluate ideas and text.
 Interpersonal leaders
 monitor the group’s process, check people’s
feelings, and resolve conflicts.

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 Leadership in Groups

 Procedural leaders
 set the agenda, make sure that everyone knows
what’s due for the next meeting, communicate
with absent group members, and check to be
sure that assignments are carried out.

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 Characteristics of Successful
Student Groups

1. The leader sets clear deadlines, scheduled

frequent meetings, and dealt directly with
conflict that emerged in the group
2. Listens to criticism and makes important
decisions together
3. Has a higher proportion of members who
work actively on projects

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 Leadership in Groups

 Several studies have shown people who talk a

lot, listen effectively, and respond nonverbally to
other members in the group are considered to be
leaders.

 Leaders can encourage groups to make fair

decisions.
 Peer Pressure and Groupthink

 Groupthink
 The tendency for
groups to put such a
high premium on
agreement that they
directly or indirectly
punish dissent.

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 Peer Pressure and Groupthink

The best correctives to groupthink are to

Consciously search for additional alternatives
Test assumptions against those of a range of other
people
Encourage disagreement
Protect the right of people in a group to disagree

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 Conflict handling

 Conflict will arise in any group that many of us feel

uncomfortable with it.
 To reduce conflicts in group:
 Make responsibilities and ground rules clear at the beginning
 Discuss problems as they arise
 Realize that group members are responsible for each other’s
happiness

 Next are suggested solutions to conflicts that student

groups often experience:
Troubleshooting Group Problems

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 Troubleshooting Group Problems

 We can’t find a time to meet that

works for all of us.
 Possible Solutions:
 Find out why people can’t meet at certain times.
Some reasons suggest their own solutions.
 Assign out-of-class work to “committees” to work
on parts of the project.
 Use e-mail to share, discuss, and revise drafts.
 Troubleshooting Group Problems Continued

 One person just criticizes everything.

 Possible Solutions:
 Ask the person to follow up the criticism with a suggestion
for improvement.
 Talk about ways to express criticism tactfully. “I think we
need to think about x ” is more tactful than “You’re wrong.”
 Value criticism about ideas and writing (not about people).
Ideas and documents need criticism if we are to improve
them.
 Troubleshooting Group Problems Continued

 People in the group don’t seem willing to disagree.

We end up going with the first idea suggested.
 Possible Solutions:
 Brainstorm so you have several possibilities to consider.
 After an idea is suggested, have each person in the group suggest a
way it could be improved.
 Have each person in the group write a draft. It’s likely the drafts
will be different.
 Talk about good ways to offer criticism. Sometimes people don’t
disagree because they’re afraid that other group members won’t
tolerate disagreement.
 Troubleshooting Group Problems Continued

 I seem to be the only one in the group who

cares about quality.
 Possible Solutions:
 Find out why other members “don’t care.”
 Encourage others to volunteer to do extra work.
 Be sure that you’re respecting what each person can
contribute.
 Troubleshooting Group Problems Continued

 One person isn’t doing his or her fair share.

 Possible Solutions:
 Find out what is going on. Is the person overcommitted? Does he
or she feel unappreciated?
 Encourage the person to contribute. Then find something to praise
in the work.
 If someone misses a meeting, assign someone else to bring the
person up to speed.
 Consider whether strict equality is the most important criterion.
 Even if you divide up the work, make all decisions as a group.
 To Respond to Criticism

 Paraphrase
 Check for feelings
 Check for inferences
 Buy time with
limited agreement

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