questions
BUSMGT 711 Managing People and Organisations
Groups and Teams
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FOUR big questions
Why should we work together?
What makes great teams ‘work’?
What are your individual skills, attributes and abilities that make you a good team member?
How do we build high performing teams?
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Why do we love teams?
Teams have more skills, more perspectives, are more innovative and bring energy to projects or to achieving goals.
Homogenous teams (those with similar members) are easier to manage.
Heterogeneous teams (with more diversity among members) are more complex to manage, but this complexity can add a greater variety of perspectives, experience and value to problem solving and task performance.
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Why do we hate teams?
Teams can bring conflict, blame and ‘free-riding’.
Social Loafing: The tendency of some people to avoid responsibility by ‘free-riding’ in groups.
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We all want to belong to some ‘tribe.’
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“Teaming” is how a lot of work gets done in and around a lot of organisations.
Formal groups are officially recognised and supported by the organisation. A work group is an example of a formal group. These groups may be called departments, units or teams.
Informal groups are unofficial and emerge from relationships and shared interests among members. May be interest groups, friendship groups or support groups.
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“Work teams consist of a small number of people with complementary skills who hold themselves mutually accountable for pursuing a common purpose, achieving performance goals and improving interdependent work processes.”
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Group dynamics can change dramatically when 2 people add a 3rd person Beyond around 12 people groups start to split into sub-groups (or ‘cliques’)
A small number of people…
Team size affects how members work together, handle disagreements and reach agreements. The number of potential interactions increases as teams increase in size and communications become more congested. Teams larger than about six or seven members can be difficult to manage for the purpose of creative problem-solving. When voting is required, teams with odd numbers of members are often preferred so as to prevent ‘ties’. In all teams, the membership characteristics are important.
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…with complementary skills...
Teams must have members with the right abilities or skill mix to master and perform tasks well. They must also have values, personalities and diversity appropriate to the task that are sufficiently compatible for everyone to work well together.
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Specialists vs Generalists:
Generalists
- know a little bit about everything, but not much about anything
- seek new frontiers, new ways of doing things
- can build ‘bridges’ between specialists
- can cause disruption by constantly changing focus, or losing focus altogether (short attention spans)
‘T’ people
- contribute expertise and deep knowledge in one or more areas
- understand a broad range of general topics and issues related to other fields or functions
- can build ‘bridges’ between specialists
- see detail, while keeping the ‘big picture’ in mind
Specialists
- are all about ‘getting things right’
- will do what it takes; always seeking perfection
- can’t see others’ perspective
- can be too cautious and careful, slowing down momentum
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In the 1980s the term "T-shaped man" was used for recruiting and developing consultants and partners. The vertical bar on the letter T represents the depth of related skills and expertise in a single field. The horizontal bar is the ability to collaborate across disciplines with experts in other areas and to apply knowledge in areas of expertise other than one's own.
What Google didn’t find…
After years of study, Google found what mattered most:
It was not Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (so-called STEM subjects).
These were 8th out of 10 on the list of attributes.
The top team attributes were listening, caring and the ability to build trusting relationships.
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What Google did find…
That the most important factor contributing to a team's effectiveness was ‘psychological safety’.
Psychological safety refers to an individual's perception of taking a risk, and the response his or her teammates will have to taking that risk.
Google describes it this way:
In a team with high psychological safety, teammates feel safe to take risks around their team members.
They feel confident that no one on the team will embarrass or punish anyone else for admitting a mistake, asking a question, or offering a new idea. In other words, great teams develop and thrive on trust.
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What makes a good team leader?
being a good coach;
communicating and listening well;
possessing insights into others (including others’ different values and points of view);
having empathy toward and being supportive of one’s colleagues;
being a good critical thinker and problem solver; and
being able to make connections across complex ideas.
Which of these are your strengths? Your challenges?
What can you do to further develop your management skills?
How will you know when you’ve advanced your skills?
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…who hold themselves mutually accountable…
Mutual accountability includes a ‘no blame’ culture, a focus on results, and supporting others, without taking away their responsibilities.
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How to avoid the blame game in a team
Establish GROUND RULES for discussions
Productive not accusatory or negative LANGUAGE
Focus on WHAT not WHO caused the problem
Focus on HOW to FIX the problem
What can be LEARNED for the future?
Discuss how to AVOID a repeat
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…for pursuing a common purpose...
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..achieving goals and improving interdependent work processes
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For some, collaboration comes naturally. For others, it’s a challenge.
Personality – Study - Successful teams were characterized by higher levels of general cognitive ability, higher extraversion, higher agreeableness, and lower neuroticism than their unsuccessful counterparts.
Extroverted
Enjoys meeting new people
Energised by other people
Enjoys making new friends
Agreeableness
Cares about others
Enjoys contributing to the happiness of others
Assists others in need of help
Neuroticism
Easily upset
Anxious
Dramatic mood swings
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Enduring differences…Where do you sit?
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Introvert
Listening
Process
Analytical
Attention to detail
Autonomy
Extrovert
Talking
Task
Intuitive
Broad brush
Dependence
Susan Cain on The Power of Introverts
In a culture where being social and outgoing are prized above all else, it can be difficult, even shameful, to be an introvert.
Susan Cain argues that introverts bring extraordinary talents and abilities to the world and should be encouraged and celebrated.
Good news is that most of us are ‘ambiverts’
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What about Multi-Cultural Teams?
Challenges:
Direct v Indirect Communication
Trouble with accents and fluency
Differing attitudes to hierarchy and authority
Conflicting norms for decision making
Strategies:
Adaption – working around the differences
Structural intervention – changing the shape of the team
Managerial intervention – establishing norms
Exit of team member if all else fails
Essential Reading Brett, J., Behfar, K., & Kern, M. C. (2006). Managing Multicultural Teams. Harvard Business Review, 84(11), 84–91.
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What about VIRTUAL Multi-Cultural Teams?
“A group of geographically, organizationally and/or time dispersed workers brought together by information technologies to accomplish one or more organization tasks"
Advantages:
efficient use of resources
flexibility
form teams with the best worldwide available talent
the ability to work 24 h nonstop
different perspectives and problem-solving skills
Challenges:
cross-cultural communication and interpretation of each other’s meaning
categorization of team members from other backgrounds into out-groups
power hierarchies associated with multiple levels of proficiency in a common language,
differences in national holidays and time off,
location specific customs that result in misunderstandings and coordination issues
Source: V elez-Calle , A., Mariam, M., Gonzalez-Perez, M.A., Jimenez, A., Eisenberg, J. and Santamaria-Alvarez, S.M. (2020), "When technological savviness overcomes cultural differences: millennials in global virtual teams", critical perspectives on international business, Vol. 16 No. 3, pp. 279-303.
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The Dark Side of Groups
The desire to be accepted makes us conform, even against our better judgement.
Groups will make riskier decisions than individuals.
‘Us’ and ‘them’ identity divides us quickly and clouds our judgement of the ‘other,’ even if our differences are insignificant.
Groups will follow and defend ’bad’ leaders, just because they are part of the group.
Group Think
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What else makes great teams work?
Spending time getting started
Processes that make sense for the members and which everyone buys into
Interdependent tasks (need each other to be successful
Forget status and hierarchy
But, everyone knows where they fit (personality, roles, structure)
Clarity
Trust (do what you say you will do)
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“You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”
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Advice for creating productive norms in your MikesBikes team:
Start with a ‘check-in’
Have an agenda
Prioritise agenda items (according to time)
Keep track of time; start and end on time
Keep notes or minutes (action points)
Don’t get trapped by your screens.
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More Advice for your MikesBikes Senior Management Team
Stay in role (be the CEO, CFO, etc.)
Debrief results – be brutally honest;
Don’t assume your competitors are logical (or friendly)
Challenge each others’ assumptions
Have a prioritised agenda of key decisions
Justify your decisions (spending) with data
For example, sales forecast to justify marketing spend
Record all of your decisions (the software has no memory)
Watch for trends, outliers and ‘black swans’
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Team diagnostics: Signs that things aren’t working
Too little clarity on goals, purpose, direction
Too much drive to ‘get things done,’ with too little attention to ‘how things are done’
Too strong a leader (autocratic, pushy)
Too weak a leader (apathetic, insecure)
Meetings are way too long, with little achieved
Meetings too short to make necessary decisions
Inter-personal tension
Absenteeism (members not showing up)
Dysfunctional conflict
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If your team is having issues, please come see us … sooner rather than later.
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Linking course content to the business simulation
Takeaways for your team:
Organisations often utilise teams
Effective managers understand how teams ‘work’ and how to work in teams
Team work doesn’t just happen it requires discipline, practice and reflection on what is working and what could be improved
There are extra challenges of working in virtual multi-cultural teams (but also potential benefits)
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