Learning Teams What Effective Strategies

Learning Teams

What effective strategies can be used to manage a team group process?

Motivational and inspirational quotes, poems, posters, motivational speakers and stories, team building games and activities, all develop employee motivation to achieve a common goal (Chapman, 2008, "Motivational theory"). However, for such ice-breaking activities to work, it is essential that the group set a common goal for itself, at the very beginning, to avoid getting off-track. Procedural rules for making good decisions should be established, and group roles should be clearly defined, to mitigate controversies over power.

Describe the form, storm, norm, and perform of a team.

Bruce Tuckman's model of team development suggests that team dynamics proceeds through a series of stages. The first is that of forming, when there is a great deal of dependence on the group leader for direction, little agreement or clarity about the purpose of the team and its goals, and individual roles and responsibilities are unclear. Processes and dynamics are still being established. During the storming mode, team members fight to establish positions, and it is difficult to arrive at agreement, even though there is greater understanding about the purpose of the group. Personal factions may form and personal issues may threaten the goal of the group and its progress (Chapman, 2008, "Tuckman").

Compromises are necessary to enter the norming stage, where there is more agreement and consensus. This is facilitated by the fact that by now, individual roles and responsibilities are better established. Agreements can be reached more swiftly and it is easier to delegate smaller and less crucial decisions now that big decisions are agreed upon by the entire group. There is mutual respect and unity. Finally, during the performing phase, the team knows why and what it is doing, and has a shared vision and sense of mission and strategy to achieve goals (Chapman, 2008, "Tuckman").

Using Jungian Personality Profile assess the strengths and challenges that this profile might suggest for a team.

Carl Jung believed that people come to decisions based on opposing ways of functioning. People may prioritize the information they receive through their senses or their intuition or make decisions based on logic or their feelings. People may make decisions based on objective judgments, or by perceiving individual situations as unique. Different people favor or prioritize sensing vs. intuition, logic or feelings, judgments or perceptions, and thus come to different decisions, just as some people are more oriented in an extroverted or introverted fashion. A team with diverse personality types will often come to conflicting decisions because of the way the team members prioritize, for example, feeling over thinking, or may have trouble discussing conflicting opinions because of different levels of extraversion or introversion in the group ("Information about personality types," 2006, BSM Consulting).

A group with many extroverts may cause the introverts to withdraw despite the fact the introverts have needed skills and input for the group. Being more self-aware about the different group types can help the group overcome such obstacles ("Information about personality types," 2006, BSM Consulting).

What are types of conflict management tools?

First of all, when discussing a dispute, choose a neutral, private environment. Allow everyone to express their point-of-view, as they see it. Clarify before discussing the issue at stake. Agree on what the difference is. Explore potential alternatives and compromises. Focus on similarities as well as differences. Make issues, not personality the focus. Have a clear idea of what concrete, definable, and achievable outcomes should result from the discussion. Put in controls to implement those decisions (Heathfield 2008).

Having a mediator can make conflict resolution easier. Also, having certain standard operating procedures to deal with a conflict, like talking to the group leader before confronting the individual, can help keep conflict in check.

What are the important factors for a team to consider when it is beginning its work?

Aligning the skills of the team with moving to a general group goal, defining the team's goal and mission, establishing roles and responsibilities, setting a timetable, setting how the group will arrive at decisions are all important. The group should be able to define its general purpose, as well as specific, short-term goals. There should also be procedures for meetings, as well as making big decisions.