Team Building - Definition

Team building" (or "'teambuilding'") refers to the process of establishing and developing a greater sense of collaboration and trust between team members. Interactive exercises, team assessments, and group discussions enable groups to cultivate this greater sense of teamwork.

Team work & Team building

To understand the basic concepts and ideas of team work and team building. To appreciate the strengths and difficulties of working as a team. To learn the basics of promoting team work in the organization.

Types of Teams
Formal versus informal Mechanical versus organic Inter-team versus intra-team Inter-agency versus intra-agency Same discipline versus different disciplines User-involved versus user-led

Synergy of Teams
Synergy: the creation of a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. Usefulness of synergy includes:
o increasing resources for problem solving o improving quality of decision making o enhancing members commitments to tasks o fostering creativity and innovation o satisfying individual needs for growth

Task Activities of a Team

Initiating Information sharing Summarizing Elaborating Opinion giving Distributed leadership

Maintenance Activities of a Team

Gatekeeping Encouraging Harmonizing Reducing tension Norming Self-managing

Avoidance of disruptive activities or behavior

Being aggressive Blocking Self-confessing Seeking sympathy Competing Withdrawal Seeking recognition

Obstacles to Team Work

Personality conflicts: Individual differences in personality and work style may disrupt the group. Task ambiguity: Unclear agendas and ill-defined problems. Free riding: Diffusion of individual efforts and responsibilities. Poor readiness to work: Wasting of time in unprepared meetings

Characteristics of High Performance Teams

A clear and elevating goal A task-driven, result-oriented structure Competent and committed members A collaborative climate External support, recognition and delegation Strong, principled and yet democratic leadership

Team cohesiveness versus performance norms

Low productivity: strong commitments to harmful norms Low to moderate productivity: weak commitments to harmful norms High productivity: strong commitments to supportive norms Moderate productivity: weak commitments to supportive norms

Teamthink/Groupthink
Teamthink or Groupthink is the tendency for highly cohesive groups to lose their critical evaluative capabilities for undermining their weaknesses and promoting their strengths. Because of undesirable competition and disruption between teams, alienation will be resulted accordingly.

Symptoms of Groupthink
Illusions of group invulnerability Belief in inherent group morality Applying direct pressure to deviants to conform to group wishes Self-censorship by members Accepting consensus prematurely Protecting the team from hearing disturbing viewpoints from outsiders

How to handle groupthink

Encourage a sharing of viewpoints Create subgroups to work on the same problem and then share their proposed solutions Assign one member to play a devils advocate role at each group meeting Review the decision after consensus is apparently achieved

Inputs of Team building

Organizational setting: resources, technology, structures, atmosphere Nature of task: clarity and complexity Group size: number of members Membership characteristics: abilities, values and personalities User participation: primary versus secondary users

Throughputs of team building

The way members interact and work together to transform inputs into outputs. The process through which ideas and contribution of team members are recognized.

Outputs of team building

Accomplishment of desired outcomes as follows: - task performance and productivity - human resource maintenance and development - prevention of disruptive groupthink and team alienation

Task Functions
Information and opinion giver information and opinion seeker starter direction giver summariser co-ordinator diagnoser energiser reality tester evaluator

Task Needs
Defining the task Making a plan allocating work controlling work quality checking performance against the plan adjusting the plan

Maintenance Functions
encourager of participation Harmoniser tension reliever communication helper evaluator of emotional climate process observer standard setter active listener trust builder interpersonal problem solver

Maintenance Needs
Setting standards maintaining discipline building team spirit encouraging, motivating, giving a sense of purpose ensuring communication with the group training the group as a group

Characteristics Of Good Team Building:

High level of interdependence among team members Team leader has good people skills and is committed to team approach Each team member is willing to contribute Team develops a relaxed climate for communication Team members develop a mutual trust Team and individuals are prepared to take risks Team is clear about goals and establishes targets Team member roles are defined Team members know how to examine team and individual errors without personal attacks Team has capacity to create new ideas Each team member knows he can influence the team agenda

Self-oriented Behaviour
dominating blocking recognition seeking pairing up Withdrawing

Individual Needs
attending to personal problems encouraging individuals giving status recognising and using individual abilities training the individual