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Team birdsIndividual behaviours in teams

Tino Martí, Josep Mª Monguet, Updated IV-2016

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A metaphor of birds may remind us how to be more efficient working in a group.

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Note

Individual behaviours in groups

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Identifying individual behaviours

Owl Parrot Blackbird

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Identifying individual behaviours

Owl is good to decision making and task focus.

Too silent.Often don't express thinking.

If the owl doesn't speak: • Ask for his opinion and tell him his participation is appreciated.• Ask him anything about himself.

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Identifying individual behaviours

Parrot is good with feelings and bonding

Knowledgeable but too much eager to show itUnable to listen to others and use the feedback to control their behaviour.

If parrot don't stops talking:• Use some fine-tuned humour.• Do interrupt the parrot to give someone else a speaking opportunity.• If subtle ways don't work someone should to speak privately.

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Identifying individual behaviours

Blackbird keeps the environment danger-free

Unstoppable criticism of ideas and proposals.Danger of criticising to people.

If the blackbird criticism don't provides good feedback: • Ask him to manage his criticism. • Stop him if criticism goes to teammates. Make it clear that his

behaviour is against the objectives of the team.

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Identifying individual behaviours

Owl behaviour is pertinent to decision making and task focus.

Parrot behaviour is related to outing of feelings and bonding.

Blackbird behaviour is akin to keeping the environment safe and danger-free.

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Focus

Unfocused

Friendship

Poor relationship

Decision

Indecision

Patience

Too quick decisions

Managing the meetings of a team

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Managing the meetings of a team

vs. too quick decisions

Sometimes there is one person in the group who are less patient and more action-oriented than the others. This person can reach a decision more quickly and pressure to move on before it's a good idea to do so.

Someone might say: • We are all ready to make a decision on this?• What to do before we can move forward?• Let's check and see if everyone is on the same page.

Patience

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Managing the meetings of a team

vs. unfocused work

Group members can get caught talking on not relevant things. A bit of casual speaking helps put people in touch with each other, but if this kind of conversation continues to dominate the group can be detrimental to progress.

In order to focus someone might say: • We can go back to where we were a few minutes ago and

see what we were trying to do.

Focus

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Managing the meetings of a team

vs. not deciding

Sometimes the team is in difficulties deciding which is the best decision for the group as a whole, not for a single person.

There are different possibilities to make decisions: • Multi-voting. Have each person vote a number of options and

choose the three or four more voted ideas . Compare ideas analysing positive and negative aspects.

• Plan A. List all the ideas generated by the group. Give each person 100 points to distribute among the options and the alternative receiving the highest number of points is the choice of the team.

Decision

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Managing the meetings of a team

vs. poor relationship

The groups often are not as productive as they could when team mate's relationships is limited or poor.

Someone might say something like:• What do we need to keep going? • Let's see if we can all agree on what we are trying to

achieve.• The preparation of a list of tasks can help.

Friendship

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Focus

Unfocused

Friendship

Poor relationship

Decision

Indecision

Patience

Too quick decisions

Managing the meetings of a team

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Task

Identify the best birds of the team.

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Using the birds metaphor, discover and analyse at individual as well as at group level the behaviour exhibited by individuals and its influence over the efficiency of the team’s work.

Objective

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1 2 3Self perception Observation Reflection

Who am I?What kind of bird am I?

Which kind of bird are the others?Observing good and bad behaviours of team members.

Improving team behaviour.How to improve the way the team works.

Tasks

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Tasks 1. Self perception

Who am I?

Behaviour Position

Owl

Parrot

Blackbird

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Tasks 2. Observation.

Which kind of bird are the others?

Behaviour PositionTeam members. Select one bird and score 1, 2 or 3

S

Owl

Parrot

Blackbird

Select one bird for each one of your teammates as a star or as a lemon. S

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Tasks 3. Reflection.

Better team behaviour.

Behaviour Position S What can be done to improve the behaviour of the team?

Owl

Parrot

Blackbird

Select one bird for each one of your teammates as a star or as a lemon.

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