teamwork. why is teamwork important? teams involve more people, thus affording more resources,...

Teamwork

Why is teamwork important?• Teams involve more people, thus affording more resources, ideas, and

energy than would an individual.

• Teams maximize a leader’s potential and minimize her weaknesses. Strengths and weaknesses are more exposed in individuals.

• Teams provide multiple perspectives on how to meet a need or reach a goal, thus devising several alternatives for each situation. Individual insight is seldom as broad and deep as a group’s when it takes on a problem.

• Teams share the credit for victories and the blame for losses. This fosters genuine humility and authentic community. Individuals take credit and blame alone. This fosters pride and sometimes a sense of failure

Sourced from: Maxwell, John (2009-10-13). Teamwork 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know (101 (Thomas Nelson)) (Kindle Locations 92-93). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

“There are plenty of teams in every sport that have great players and never win titles. Most of the time,

those players aren’t willing to sacrifice for the greater good of the team. The funny thing is, in the end,

their unwillingness to sacrifice only makes individual goals more difficult to achieve. One thing I believe to the fullest is that if you think and achieve as a team, the individual accolades will take care of themselves.

Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.”

MICHAEL JORDAN

Great teams create community


• How do great teams create community?

• How do not so great teams hinder the building of community?

What are characteristics of a good team?

Characteristics of a good team

• Team members care for one another• Team members know what is important• Team members communicate with one

another• Team members grow together• There is a team fit• Team members place their individual rights

beneath the best interest of the teamSourced from: Maxwell, John (2009-10-13). Teamwork 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know (101 (Thomas

Nelson)) (Kindle Locations 92-93). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

Characteristics of a good team

• Each team member plays a special role• An effective team has a good bench• Team members know exactly where the team

stands• Team members are willing to pay the price


What are some things that make or can help make a person a good teammate?

• Effective communicator• Empathy• Humility• Tact• Hard-worker• Dependable/Trustworthy• Open-minded

Do you have examples of characteristics (without naming names) of people who were

not a very good teammate?

How can one build a great team?

• Empower team members• Give credit to the team for successes• Stop investing in members who do not grow

or who bring down the team• Create new opportunities (challenges) for the

team

Weak Links in a Team

• Stronger team members have to take time to help the weak one(s)– can cause resentment– can impact strong team members productivity – can cause questioning of leader’s effectiveness

• This is not to say a wink link can’t become a strong link nor is meant to imply teammates shouldn’t help one another (THEY SHOULD)

• However, there may come a point where parting ways with a teammate is best for everyone

Does a team need a leader?

• In my opinion, teams generally need a trusted and respected individual who can make a decision when consensus is not reached by the group and/or have the courage to go a different route if she/he believes it is the more appropriate course

• This is not meant to imply the leader doesn’t encourage and consider ideas/collaboration from the team. The leader should encourage and consider them.

Does a team need a leader?

• However, if the team is just “spinning its wheels” on something it is important to have someone who can ensure forward progress continues to be made.

• Forward progress might mean picking an idea to go with only to find out it wasn’t the right fit. The forward progress is identifying/determining a particular course of action wasn’t the best one.

What are some characteristics of a great leader?Do you have an example of a great leader you’d

like to share?

• Courage• Effective Communicator• Integrity• Humility

Things that can help a team be successful

• Focus attention on purpose of team– ex. build an inventory tracking app– ex. create/deliver a presentation on Kindle Fire’s

competitiveness to the Ipad

• Encourage participation • Establish a timeline• Keep project on track• Negotiate/resolve conflicts

Ways to reflect on your own performances as a teammate

• Ask yourself,– How much information, analysis, and

interpretation did I provide to the team?– Did I communicate my ideas even if they

conflicted with someone else’s?– Did I participate in the implementation of a

timeline? Did I meet deadlines?– Did I facilitate the decision-making process? Or did

I just go with the flow?

Sourced from: Snyder, LG, Teaching Teams about Teamwork: Preparation, Practice and Performance Review, Business Communication Quarterly March 2009

The Water Cube (Formerly the Beijing National Aquatics Center)

Sourced from: Edmondson, AC, How to Master the New Art of Teaming: Teamwork on the Fly, Harvard Business Review April 2012

“Ultimately, Tristram Carfrae, an Arup structuralengineer based in Sydney, corralled dozens of people

from 20 disciplines and four countries to win thecompetition and deliver the building. This required

more than traditional project management. Successdepended on bridging dramatically different

national, organizational, and occupational culturesto collaborate in uid groupings that emerged anddissolved in response to needs that were identi ed

as the work progressed.”

“The Water Cube was an unusual endeavor, but the strategy employed to complete it-a strategy I call teaming-epitomizes the new era of

business. Teaming is teamwork on the fly: a pickup basketball game rather than plays run by a team that has trained as a unit for years. It’s a

way to gather experts in temporary groups to solve problems they’re encountering for the first and perhaps only time. Think of clinicians in an

emergency room, who convene quickly to solve a specific patient problem and then move on to address other cases with different

colleagues, compared with a surgical team that performs the same procedure under highly controlled conditions day after day. When

companies need to accomplish something that hasn’t been done before, and might not be done again, traditional team structures aren’t practical. It’s just not possible to identify the right skills and knowledge in advance and to trust that circumstances will not change. Under those conditions, a leader’s emphasis has to shift from composing and managing teams to

inspiring and enabling teaming.”


“...organizations increasingly must bring together not only their own far-flung employees from various

disciplines and divisions but also external specialists and stakeholders, only to disband them when they’ve achieved their goal or when a new opportunity arises. More and more people in nearly every industry and type of company are now working on multiple teams

that vary in duration, have a constantly shifting membership, and pursue moving targets.”


Sourced from: Harbert, T, Teamwork for Techies, Computerworld December 20, 2010

“IT folks carry the stigma of being particularly noncollaborative, but the stereotype of the loner programmer barricaded in a

cubicle is not necessarily accurate.”

“...effective collaboration is increasingly seen as an imperative throughout the enterprise, including IT. As IT departments are downsized, with low-level tech jobs outsourced or replaced by

managed services, the remaining staffers —who are often dispersed throughout the world — must not only work more closely with business

units, but also share knowledge with one another to avoid having to continually reinvent the wheel.”

Sourced from: Ferrazzi, K, Candor, Criticism, Teamwork, Harvard Business Review January-February 2012

“The desire to avoid conflict is understandable, but it’s one of the most debilitating factors in

organizational life. Lack of candor contributes to longer cycle times, slow decision making, and

unnecessarily iterative discussions. A too polite veneer often signals an overly politicized workplace:

Colleagues who are afraid to speak honestly to people’s faces do it behind their backs. This

behavior exacts a price.”


“...in our research at more than 50 large companies over the past three years, we

identified “observable candor” as the behavior that best predicts high performing teams. But

asking people to be candid in the absence of a supportive organizational culture is a

challenge. We believe that forthrightness should not just be encouraged but required.”

“True collaboration is impossible when people don’t trust one another

to speak with candor. Solving problems requires that team members be unafraid to ask questions or propose wrong

answers.”


Team Building Exercises?

• Thoughts?• Personally I think they can be helpful, but all

to often are used as “window-dressing” to make it seem as though issues within a team are being addressed all the while the actual cause of dysfunction goes unidentified/unaddressed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1_YvUorqEc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1_YvUorqEc

Why do teams fail?

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/854153/why_teams_fail/

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/854153/why_teams_fail/

At the local nursery school, I was chatting to my daughter's friends and noticed a number of things. Jessica has mousey colored hair and the girl with black hair was wearing a green dress. Lucy is not blonde and Lauren does not have brown hair, Chloe was wearing a blue dress. The blonde girl was not wearing red and Lauren was not wearing green. I can't remember which girl was wearing a yellow dress. Can you determine the colors of the girl's dresses and their hair?

Name Dress Color Hair ColorJessica red mouseyLauren yellow blonde

Lucy green blackChloe blue brown

At the recent downhill mountain bike race, four entrants entered the challenging slalom event. Alan came first. The entrant wearing number 2 wore red, whereas John didn't wear yellow. The loser wore blue and Steve wore number 1. Kev beat Steve and the person who came second wore number 3. The entrant in yellow beat the entrant in green. Only one of the entrants wore the same number as their final position. Can you determine who finished where, the number and color they wore?

Name Jersey # Jersey ColorAlan 2 redKev 3 yellow

Steve 1 greenJohn 4 blue

At the recent inter-departmental jam making contest, four lucky candidates took part to make the juiciest strawberry jam. The ages of the contestants were 14, 17, 20 and 22. As it happens the person who came last was the oldest, whereas Stuart was three years older than the person who came second. James was neither the oldest nor the youngest and Kev finished ahead of the 17 year old, but didn't win. John was also unlucky this time and didn't win either. Can you determine who finished where and how old they are?

# Name Age1 James 202 Kev 143 Stuart 174 John 22

Below you will see six glasses. Three of these glasses contain orange. Moving only ONE glass, can you arrange the glasses such that those containing the orange are together?

Group Project/Presentation (190 points in total)

The project your group is tasked with is to teach or convince the class on something. I am opening it up for you and your team to decide what topic you want to present to the class. I encourage you to pick something that is of interest to the group, thereby making the research and presentation more enjoyable. The following are some potential project ideas:

•Teach the class about a new or upcoming technology•Teach us about Twitter or Skype•Pick an issue facing the school, county, state, or nation, present us with background information and potential solutions•Pick a career concept you want to learn more about (interviewing, networking, corporate culture, etc.) and present more information on it

The project is to include:

•Paragraph summary on what you plan to do for your group project (20 points, submitted via email by one group member, due on 4/25/2012 by 6:00 pm)•Status Report (20 points, individually submitted via email, due on 4/30/2012 by 6:00 pm)•PowerPoint Presentation (20 points, submitted via email by one group member, due on 5/11/2012 by 5:00 pm)•1-2 page summary of how the group project went (30 points, individually submitted via email, due on 5/11/2012 by midnight). Should include

– how the overall project went– your view on how well each team member, including yourself, contributed to project (papers

will not be shown to other classmates/teammates)

•15 - 20 minute long presentation (not including Q&A time) (100 points, given during final class period)


Recommended flow/organization for presentation:

1.Introduction2.Agenda3.Teach us something, or try to convince us of something4.Conclusion5.Q&A


• Additional details/specifications on project deliverables will be given in coming weeks


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