It applies to individuals working at a managerial level who facilitate work teams and build a positive culture within their work teams. At this level, work will normally be carried out using complex and diverse methods and procedures requiring the exercise of considerable discretion and judgement, using a range of problem solving and decision making strategies.

No licensing, legislative, regulatory or certification requirements apply to this unit at the time of publication.

Unit Sector

Industry Capability – Workplace Effectiveness

Performance Criteria

Element

Elements describe the essential outcomes.

Performance Criteria

Performance criteria describe the performance needed to demonstrate achievement of the element.

1. Establish team performance plan

1.1 Consult team members to establish a common understanding of team purpose, roles, responsibilities and accountabilities in accordance with organisational goals, plans and objectives

1.2 Develop performance plans to establish expected outcomes, outputs, key performance indicators (KPIs) (KPIs) and goals for work team

1.3 Support team members in meeting expected performance outcomes

2. Develop and facilitate team cohesion

2.1 Develop strategies to ensure team members have input into planning, decision making and operational aspects of work team

2.2 Develop policies and procedures to ensure team members take responsibility for own work and assist others to undertake required roles and responsibilities

2.3 Provide feedback to team members to encourage, value and reward individual and team efforts and contributions

2.4 Develop processes to ensure that issues, concerns and problems identified by team members are recognised and addressed

3. Facilitate teamwork

3.1 Encourage team members and individuals to participate in and to take responsibility for team activities, including communication processes

3.2 Support the team in identifying and resolving work performance problems

3.3 Ensure own contribution to work team serves as a role model for others and enhances the organisation’s image for all stakeholders

4. Liaise with stakeholders

3.1 Establish and maintain open communication processes with all stakeholders

3.2 Communicate information from line manager/management to the team

3.3 Communicate unresolved issues, concerns and problems raised by team members and followup with line manager/management and other relevant stakeholders

3.4 Evaluate and take necessary corrective action regarding unresolved issues, concerns and problems raised by internal or external stakeholders

Foundation Skills

This section describes language, literacy, numeracy and employment skills incorporated in the performance criteria that are required for competent performance.

Reading	1.1, 4.4	· Analyses and interprets textual information from the organisation’s policies, goals and objectives to establish team goals or to determine corrective action
Writing	1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 2.4, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4	· Prepares written reports and workplace documentation that communicate complex information clearly and effectively
Oral Communication	1.1, 2.3, 3.1, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3	· Engages in discussions or provides information using appropriate vocabulary and non-verbal features · Uses listening and questioning techniques to confirm understanding and to engage the audience
Navigate the world of work	1.1, 2.1, 2.2, 3.3	· Understands how own role contributes to broader organisational goals · Modifies or develops policies and procedures to achieve organisational goals
Interact with others	1.1, 1.3, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 3.2, 4.2, 4.3	· Selects and uses appropriate conventions and protocols when communicating with diverse stakeholders · Uses interpersonal skills to gain trust and confidence of team and provides feedback to others in forms that they can understand and use · Adapts personal communication style to build positive working relationships and to show respect for the opinions, values and particular needs of others · Plays a lead role in situations requiring effective collaboration, demonstrating high level conflict resolution skills and ability to engage and motivate others
Get the work done	1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 2.4, 3.2, 4.1, 4.3, 4.4	· Develops, implements and monitors plans and processes to ensure team effectiveness · Monitors and actively supports processes and development activities to ensure the team is focused on work outcomes · Plans for unexpected outcomes and implements creative responses to overcome challenges

Assessment Requirements

Performance Evidence

Evidence of the ability to:

· Use leadership techniques and strategies to facilitate team cohesion and work outcomes including:

· encouraging and fostering shared understanding of purpose, roles and responsibilities

· identifying and resolving problems

· providing feedback to encourage, value and reward others

· modelling desired behaviour and practices

· Develop policies and procedures to ensure team members take responsibility for own work and assist others to undertake required roles and responsibilities

· Establish processes to address issues and resolve performance issues

· Support team to meet expected performance outcomes including providing formal and informal learning opportunities as needed

· Develop performance plans with key performance indicators (KPIs) (KPIs), outputs and goals for individuals or the team which incorporate input from stakeholders

· Communicate effectively with a range of stakeholders about team performance plans and team performance

· Facilitate two-way flow of information between team and management relevant to team performance

· Evaluate and take necessary corrective action regarding unresolved issues, concerns and problems raised by internal or external stakeholders.

Knowledge Evidence

To complete the unit requirements safely and effectively, the individual must:

· Explain how group dynamics can support or hinder team performance

· Outline strategies that can support team cohesion, participation and performance

· Explain strategies for gaining consensus

· Explain issue resolution strategies.

Assessment Conditions

Assessment must be conducted in a safe environment where evidence gathered demonstrates consistent performance of typical activities experienced in the industry capability - workplace effectiveness field of work and include access to:

· Workplace documents

· Case studies and, where possible, real situations

· Office equipment and resources

· Interaction with others.

Assessors must satisfy NVR/AQTF assessor requirements.

Links

Companion volumes are available from the IBSA website: http://www.ibsa.org.au/companion_volumes - http://www.ibsa.org.au/companion_volumes

Housekeeping Items

Your trainer will inform you of the following:

Where the toilets and fire exits are located, what the emergency procedures are and where the breakout and refreshment areas are.

Any rules, for example asking that all mobile phones are set to silent and of any security issues they need to be aware of.

What times the breaks will be held and what the smoking policy is.

That this is an interactive course and you should ask questions.

That to get the most out of this workshop, we must all work together, listen to each other, explore new ideas, and make mistakes. After all, that’s how we learn.

Ground rules for participation:

· Smile

· Support and encourage other participants

· When someone is contributing everyone else is quiet

· Be patient with others who may not be grasping the ideas

· Be on time

· Focus discussion on the topic

· Speak to the trainer if you have any concerns

Objectives

Discover how to establish team performance plan

Know how to develop and facilitate team cohesion

Learn how to facilitate teamwork

Understand how to liaise with stakeholders

Gain the skills and knowledge required for this unit

1. Establish team performance plan

1.1 Consult team members to establish a common understanding of team purpose, roles, responsibilities and accountabilities in accordance with organisational goals, plans and objectives

1.2 Develop performance plans to establish expected outcomes, outputs, key performance indicators (KPIs) and goals for work team

1.3 Support team members in meeting expected performance outcomes

1.1 - Consult team members to establish a common understanding of team purpose, roles, responsibilities and accountabilities in accordance with organisational goals, plans and objectives

Consultation may refer to:

Accountabilities may refer to:

· Conducting meetings, interviews, brainstorming sessions, email/intranet communications, newsletters or other processes and devices which ensure that all employees have the opportunity to contribute to team and individual performance plans

· Mechanisms used to provide feedback to the work team in relation to outcomes of consultation

· Responsibilities as defined in position descriptions, codes of conduct/behaviour, duty statements or similar

· Statement of conduct outlining responsibilities/actions/performance

Team purpose: What is a Team?

The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organization by J. R. Katzenbach, Douglas K. Smith

In their book “The Wisdom of Teams” Katzenbach and Smith make the point that the word team conveys different things to different people. Some people think of a sporting situation where personal bests and winning no matter what are important.

Others consider teamwork values such as sharing, co-operating and helping one another as essential to a team effort. Teams could be formed by as few as two people and often marriage is referred to as a partnership or a team.

Because of these different perspectives it is useful to consider in the context of what you may be addressing just what is the best definition of a team?

How to determine what the team wants to achieve?

Consult team members

There are many reasons why teams are bought together to address issues.The first stage is to determine why?

Examples may include:

· Addressing particular customer feedback

· Conceiving and implementing a particular project

· Developing new services or products

· Generating ongoing ideas within the work unit

· Improving budgetary performance

· Improving or changing work conditions

· New ideas that impact beyond the workplace (e.g. That have a broader social or community impact)

Establish why

Your views

Team purpose, roles, responsibilities and accountabilities

Specific Goal or Goals

Are they team goals versus the broader organisational goals or just one individual’s goals (e.g. The leaders)

Are they simple, clear and measurable if not measurable, can their achievement be determined

Are they realistic as well as ambitious

Do they allow small wins along the way

Do they call for a concrete set of team work-products

Is their relative importance and priority clear to all members

Do all members agree with the goals, their relative importance and the way in which their achievement will be measured

Do all members articulate the goals in the same way

Activity 1a

Roles, responsibilities and accountabilities

Roles

Sometimes roles evolve over time to meet the needs of the team as necessary.

Develop initial roles

One method is to ‘democratically’ brainstorm’ a list that covers the A-Z and then select each item to ensure each team member has a clear understanding and feels comfortablewith the suggested role

There is a significant expectation in today’s business environment to be extremely conscious of team members’ cultural differences and the respect all individuals deserve when they are part of the team. People with language difficulties, disabilities and other cultural or personal differences should not rule out participation and involvement to the levels of which they feel comfortable.

Responsibilities

Communicate responsibilities

Most of us are familiar with what teams are however we are imprecise in our thinking about them.

For that reason it is useful to get a clear understanding of what a team is and is not. This can provide useful insights into how to strengthen the performance and innovation of your team.

Examples

What are we supposed to do?

Where are the goals?

Where do I fit in?

Where do I go for the answers/help?

What information needs to be gathered?

Accountabilities

A sense of mutual accountability

Mutual accountability creates a team; until this is present the group will remain simply that, a group.

This accountability underpins two critical aspects of teams, commitment and trust.

By holding yourselves accountable to the team goals you earn the right to have a say in the team activities or functional performance and receive a fair hearing when doing so.

This in turn creates trust between participating team members.

Activity 1a continued...

1.2 - Develop performance plans to establish expected outcomes, outputs, key performance indicators (KPIs) and goals for work team

Performance plans may refer to:

Individual performance plans linked to team goals

Team plans based on work assignments and responsibilities

Outcomes, outputs, key performance indicators (KPIs) may refer to agreed:

Changes in work roles and responsibilities

Improved individual and team, performance and participation

Improvements to systems, operations

Measures for monitoring and evaluating the efficiency or effectiveness of systems or services

Quality standards and expectations

Targets for productivity improvements such as reduced downtime, higher production levels, decreases in absenteeism

Targets for training and development

Performing

The team is functioning well and producing measurable outcomes.

Individual performance plans linked to team goals

Team plans based on work assignments and responsibilities

Feelings:

· Better understanding of each other, satisfaction with team progress, pride with team progress.

Behaviours:

· Modelling of team behaviours, work through problems, close attachment to the team.Tries to find group norms, may complain about the company, may find it difficult to define problems, impatience with discussion.

Raising the questions?

· What improvements can be made?

· How can we go about making these changes?

W.I.S.H Team Review

The W.I.S.H Team Review process is a way to analyse your team that gives you a realistic view of where your team work is situated, at this point in time.

This process is an invaluable planning tool when it comes to growing and developing your team to the next level.

This review involves examining.

WELL – Looking at what you do WELL as a Team

IMPROVE – Looking at what needs to be IMPROVED in your team

STRATEGY – What strategy do you need to develop to improve your teamwork

HOW - Now that you have a strategy – HOW are you going to implement it into your team environment?

Identify strengths and weaknesses of team against current and expected work requirements

The Team Challenge…strengths and weaknesses

Small enough in number?

Can you convene easily and frequently?

Can you communicate with all members easily and frequently?

Are your discussions open and interactive for all members?

Does each member understand the others’ role and skills?

Do you need more people to achieve your ends?

Are sub teams possible or necessary?

Adequate levels of complementary skills

Are all three categories of skills either actually or potentially represented across the membership (functional/technical, problem solving/decision making and interpersonal)?

Does each member have the potential in all three categories to advance his or her skills to the level required by the team’s purpose and goals?

Are the skill areas that are critical to team performance missing or underrepresented?

Are the members, individually and collectively, willing to spend time to help themselves and others learn and develop skills?

Can you introduce new or supplemental skills as needed?

Truly meaningful purpose

Does it constitute a broader, deeper aspiration than just near term goals?

Is it a team purpose as opposed to a broader organisational purpose or just one individual’s purpose (e.g. the leaders)?

Do all members understand and articulate it the same way? And do they do so without relying on ambiguous abstractions?

Do members define it vigorously in discussions with outsiders?

Do members frequently refer to it and explore its implications?

Does it contain themes that are particularly meaningful and memorable?

Do members feel it is important, if not exciting?

Key performance indicators (KPIs)

Areas to consider

Your Attitude

Your skills

Your communication

Your abilities

Your level of co-operation

Your compatibility

Activity 1b

1.3 - Support team members in meeting expected performance outcomes

Support may include:

Coaching

Mentoring

Training and development opportunities

Clarification of roles and expectations

Long term or short term plans

Meetings

Support team members

Recognise innovation as a process which can be systematically pursued using a range of key elements.

Involve the team in the design and development of the objectives

Generate results through involvementutilising partnerships and collaboration

Collaborative

Fair

Fun

Hardworking

External stimuli can also mean using and seeking advice from subgroups within a team.

Team empowerment

Encouraging new ideas

Permitting interaction – between the team, the sub-groups or external networks or technical experts

Interaction between different work groups and colleagues outside of the team

Meeting expected performance outcomes

· Technical and Functional Expertise: Teams must contain the skills necessary to complete the task at hand. For example, a product development group with only marketing experts is less likely to succeed than a group comprised of marketing experts and engineers. The complementary skills of both groups will enable the team to function.

· Problem solving and decision-making skills: Teams must be able to make decisions and identify the onset of a problem or opportunity, evaluate the opportunity and decide on an appropriate course of action. Team members usually possess some level of these skills and develop them more on the job.

· Interpersonal Skills: Skills which enable effective communication and management of any conflict arising will enable the team to develop common understandings of purpose and function. This could include risk taking, helpful criticism, objectivity, active listening, giving the benefit of the doubt, support and or recognising the needs of others.

Most team members will react positively to communicating responsibilities within a team if you:

Are specificwith enough detail to be clear

Provide a responsibility that is measurable using quantitative goals when available such as milestones

Ensure they are attainable and realistic in terms of their own control, timeframe, and resources available

Communicate responsibilities that are both reasonable and realistic in terms of what can really be achieved

Give time-based goals that set dates for achieving milestones, results, completion

Most importantly, provide encouragement for team members to stretch beyond the norm and have challenging responsibilities to achieve beyond the current levels, raise the bar.

Areas that can reinforce team-based support

Accessing training and learning opportunities

Enough but not too much guidance and structure

Equitable sharing of workload

Follow-through with ideas

Activity 1c

2. Develop and facilitate team cohesion

2.1 Develop strategies to ensure team members have input into planning, decision making and operational aspects of work team

2.2 Develop policies and procedures to ensure team members take responsibility for own work and assist others to undertake required roles and responsibilities

2.3 Provide feedback to team members to encourage, value and reward individual and team efforts and contributions

2.4 Develop processes to ensure that issues, concerns and problems identified by team members are recognised and addressed

2.1 - Develop strategies to ensure team members have input into planning, decision making and operational aspects of work team

Team cohesion

Team cohesion goes hand in hand with team building

The collective cohesion is what keeps any group or team together

The challenge is maintaining the cohesion or the reason the team has come together

Preventing group fragmentation is a key element of managing a team

Such activities would include setting out clear common goals and strategies to achieve and maintain this.

Strategies may refer to:

Clarification of roles and expectations

Electronic communication devices and processes, such as intranet and email communication systems, to facilitate input

Long-term or short-term plans factoring in opportunities for team input

Mentoring and buddy systems to support team members in providing input

Newsletters and briefings

Training and development activities

Develop strategies

Discuss Comments

Clarification of roles and expectations

· Teams range in size from two to twenty five people however the majority of effective teams have averaged about ten people.

· Some organisations have teams numbering fifty or more however, these are usually broken into smaller units or sub teams

· The reason for this is that larger numbers of people have trouble communicating effectively, often disagreeing on specific actions and outcomes.

· Ten people are far more likely to work through their differences, agree to a common approach or plan and implement that plan. The simple logistics of a team larger than ten meeting is a complication

Long-term or short-term plans factoring in opportunities for team input

Is your team willing to get involved with new ideas and to be part of a team environment to maybe question what has been in place for some time?

· Some staff may approach all new ideas and innovative strategies in a totally negative manner that may not be in your power to resolve, so they need to be removed from the group

The cynics

· Distinguish between team cynicism and unwillingness

· Cynics will point out the weakness and risks of a new idea which is helpful to measure how the group is doing in the overall assessment process

Mentoring and 'buddy' systems to support team members in providing input

Mentoring - Get involved

· Share suggestions, ideas, solutions and proposals with your team members.

· Take time to interact with other team members and accept their requests for more information or assistance.

· You can establish trust and maybe there will be a time in the future when you will need some help or advice from them.

Training and development activities

· Put staff training into context and understand its role clearly

· Assess the improvement effectiveness of any proposed training programs planned

· Assess the training needs within a team

· Evaluate the training model and assessment approach with participants

Barriers to training include:

· Money, time, relevance, ability

Strategies

As discussed earlier in this session, it has been found that using a “process” such as a planning tool will focus attention when it comes to growing and developing your team to the next level.

You can include several areas such as decision making and operational aspects of the work teamon which to base your ‘strategic’ planning.

This strategy review mentioned earlier, involves examining.

Well- Looking at what you do well as a team

Improve- Looking at what needs to be improved in your team.

Strategy- What strategy do you need to develop to improve your teamwork

How- Now that you have a strategy – how are you going to implement it into your team environment?

Example

Well

Improve

Strategy

How

Decision making

Operational aspects

2.2 - Develop policies and procedures to ensure team members take responsibility for own work and assist others to undertake required roles and responsibilities

Policies and procedures allow the organisation to systematically review and improve the quality of workgroups and teams.

The development of policies and procedures are generally handled the same way as the initial team establishment strategy.

Policy

A policy is a guiding organisational principle used to set some form of direction

Policies are used to guide and influence decisions

Procedure

A procedure is a particular way of accomplishing something, e.g., that which is contained within a ‘policy’

To be effective, it should be designed as a series of logical steps to be followed and reviewed

A procedure would likely have an approach or cycle to accomplish an end result

Procedures are also promoted during evaluations or assessments and should be reiterated and discussed regularly to ensure they remain relevant.

Copies of policies should be easily accessible to the workforce via your website or other electronic sources such as intranet accessible data bases

Examples

Company websites

By email

Blogs

Formal meetings

During induction

Conferences

Policies and procedures may refer to:

Organisational guidelines and systems that govern operational functions

Procedures that detail the activities that must be carried out for the completion of actions and tasks

Standard operating procedures

As a living document procedures, created from a policy, will need on-going review and updating.

Identify any gapsin policies and procedures or changesto internal or external factors, by encouraging a regular review of the current policiesand procedures.

Undertake workgroup research to ensure best practice ideals are being met and consult with the organisations stakeholders to gain agreement on policies and procedures.

Activity 2a

2.3 - Provide feedback to team members to encourage, value and reward individual and team efforts and contributions

Constructive feedback usually consists of comments from others who are familiar with the work and efforts of the teams in question

Feedback is encouraged and should be made with the intention of assisting team membersto improve or make informed changes

Remember, both positive and negative feedback is to be expected, however, human nature as it is will likely produce much more positive feedback than negative

Consider the following as well as your own experiences or workplaceactions by others

Suggestions	Discuss your views
Talk about the current status
Provide team members with feedback from other sources
Slowly open positives and negatives
Careful wording. Words should make team members think and not to react negatively.
Relate to experience and examples
Feedback on areas such as time management is always a positive approach to a variety of issues

Use qualitative or quantitative measurement of feedback

Provide any data from systems or measurable software

Include feedback from peers, customers or clients

Address key performance indicators (KPIs)

State facts or observations not assumptions

Do not include personal perspectives of the manager and the person being reviewed

Create a simple feedback mechanism or template approach

Action

Your views on feedback

Do not get defensive

Provide advice and support

Recognise and celebrate individual and team accomplishments at all levels

Calculate a new strategy to overcome any areas of ‘negative’ feedback

Explain fully the evaluation measurement or results

Value constructive feedback

What is the final outcome?

Encourage, value and reward individual and team efforts

Agree on performance for such areas as shared tasks

Reward areas such as planning and scheduling

Establish personal reward programs but only if appropriate and complies with organisational policies and standards

Team members not only cooperate in all aspects of their tasks and goals, they share in what are traditionally thought of as management functions, such as planning, organising, setting performance goals, assessing the team's performance, developing their own strategies to manage change, and securing their own resources.

Reflect on teamactivities

Gather and use feedback

Discuss the challenges

Take ideas for improvement

Celebrate successes

Champion the success of team members

It is important to take time to privately and publicly recognise and congratulate small wins and achievements along the way.

Emphasise success rather than failures.

Give rewards of a practical nature, gifts or other forms of recognition (only if appropriate and complies with organisational policies and standards).

Activity 2b

2.4 - Develop processes to ensure that issues, concerns and problems identified by team members are recognised and addressed

Processes may refer to:

Brainstorming options with the team for addressing concerns

Creating a matrix of issues and concerns and distributing for comment

Discussions with individuals regarding their concerns

Distributing drafts for comment with a range of options for resolution of concerns

Training and development sessions

Develop a process

The purpose of problem analysis and subsequent process development is to find the main cause of a problem or a concern before that escalates to a more serious or holistic effect on the team or the organisation.

The process in identifying issues, concerns and problems identified by team members can be used as a form of mediation or it may be used as feedback in a review.

In most cases, the process to ensure issues are recognised and then addressed is because something should(correctly) be occurring or happening and notwhat actually (incorrectly) is currently occurring.

Usually, the process is used when this deviation from the norm is significant or the cause is not immediately obvious or known

It is simply a systematic approach to answering the question "Why?" with confidence

If concerns and problems are immediately known or identified by team members then this process is not necessary

Example - Recognition

Identify the problem	What is currently happening	What should be happening
	E.g., a concern or problem
Consider interim action
E.g., buy time by dealing with the effectsof the problem if corrective action is not immediately possible

Example – Addressing

Find the cause of the problem

Decide on corrective action

Search for the true cause

Review the alternatives

Implement the chosen corrective action

Problem analysis sequence

A brief statement of the problem, identify the object and the deviation in the problem

Specify the problem giving a clear and accurate picture of the deviation

Develop possible causes, look for the unique features of the problem and look for changes

Test possible cause, check against the picture of the deviation and reject those causes which fail to explain the problem completely

Verify the most probable cause through physical testing.

Activity 2c

3. Facilitate teamwork

3.1 Encourage team members and individuals to participate in and to take responsibility for team activities, including communication processes

3.2 Support the team in identifying and resolving work performance problems

3.3 Ensure own contribution to work team serves as a role model for others and enhances the organisation's image for all stakeholders

3.1 - Encourage team members and individuals to participate in and to take responsibility for team activities, including communication processes

Teams

“A small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable”

Encourage team members

Small number

Teams range in size from two to twenty five people however the majority of effective teams have averaged about ten people. Some organisations have teams numbering fifty or more however, these are usually broken into smaller units or sub teams. The reason for this is that larger numbers of people have trouble communicating effectively, often disagreeing on specific actions and outcomes.

Ten people are far more likely to work through their differences, agree to a common approach or plan and implement that plan. The simple logistics of a team larger than ten meeting is a complication.

Complementary skills

Teams must develop the appropriate mix of skills to complete the tasks assigned to that group. These skill requirements fall into three categories:

Technical and Functional Expertise:

Teams must contain the skills necessary to complete the task at hand. For example, a product development group with only marketing experts is less likely to succeed than a group comprised of marketing experts and engineers. The complementary skills of both groups will enable the team to function.

Problem solving and decision making skills:

Teams must be able to make decisions and identify the onset of a problem or opportunity, evaluate the opportunity and decide on an appropriate course of action. Team members usually possess some level of these skills and develop them more on the job.

Interpersonal Skills:

Skills which enable effective communication and management of any conflict arising will enable the team to develop common understandings of purpose and function. This could include risk taking, helpful criticism, objectivity, active listening, giving the benefit of the doubt, support and or recognising the needs of others.

A team simply won’t work without these basic skill components. The challenge for any team though is to strike the right balance between selection based on existing skills and those, which might be developed as a result of team membership.

Committed to a common purpose and performance goals

A team’s purpose and its performance are closely related.

Without a common purpose a team will quickly break apart and operate as a collective of individuals or smaller teams.

A common, meaningful purpose sets the tone and aspiration.

Most teams shape their direction and purpose based on an external demand or opportunity. For example, management assigns a task, which must be completed by the assembled group.

Once a meaningful purpose is in place the team creates ownership and commitment to that purpose. Some teams are capable of creating their own direction by creating a meaningful purpose independent of management.

Usually though some form of direction from management creates the momentum for the team to begin operating. Groups that fail to operate effectively as teams have usually failed to develop a common purpose that is owned by the team.

This usually means that no measurable goals and outcomes have been formulated by the team.

Encourage team members and individuals to participate in and to take responsibility for team activities:

Teams need to develop a clear working approach to ensure they work together to accomplish their purpose. It is almost as important to develop their preferred working style as it is to formulate team goals.

In formulating an approach the team must take into account the social as well as economic and administrative details.

The next step is for team members to agree on who in the team will perform specific jobs, how schedules will be adhered to, what skills will need to be developed, how the group will make and modify decisions and how continuing membership will be earned.

The social role is often overlooked in teams however it is an important role.

The social role helps promote mutual trust and constructive conflict, which is necessary for the team to succeed. In the best teams different members assume the social roles at different times and contribute their own unique method for energising and supporting the team.

These roles evolve over time to meet the needs of the team as necessary.

A sense of mutual accountability

Mutual accountability creates a team; until this is present the group will remain simply that, a group. This accountability underpins two critical aspects of teams, commitment and trust. By holding ourselves accountable to the team goals we earn the right to have a say in the team activities or functional performance and we receive a fair hearing when doing so. This in turn creates trust between participating team members.

Communication

Improve

The quality of communication you have within your team.

Strategy

Implement a regular communication process.

How?

1. Each Tuesday morning have a meeting tocover key issues relating to your team direction and team goals

Then, as of next month,conduct a personalityanalysis, so that people can get a better understanding of their peers

Organise a document folder of information that relates to your team tobe placed in a central location or online through the office intranet or on each computer

3.2 - Support the team in identifying and resolving work performance problems

Identify the performance problem

Determine if there are too many jobs

Address the performance problems ASAP

Determine if there are too few resources

Use the time to discuss this in a positive way

Ask the team to resolve and participate

Are they: personal, performance, behaviour?

Express concern for perfomance, not threats

Support the team

Discuss with the team members who will know the reasons behind any performance problems as they are the people actually doing the work or tasks.

Discuss the problems with the team members and support them in identifying what they think about the issues.

Ask them for suggestions on possible solutions and if possible give them the responsibility of implementing the agreed solutions.

Identifying and resolving

Try to understand why the team members could not perform as expected.

Do not assume that any one person on the team is at fault until you and the team have had sufficient time in discussion.

Focus on the issue and the reasons behind it.

Identify the reasons that may have caused this lack in performance and find solutions to it.

After identifying the problem and discussing a suitable solution, it is time to take action in solving the problem.

Create a plan to implement the solution and regularly revisit the team to either check milestones or make further changes if necessary.

Give support to your team members to understand the issues and overcome them.

Activity 3a

3.3 - Ensure own contribution to work team serves as a role model for others and enhances the organisation's image for all stakeholders

Stakeholders may include:

Board members

Business or government contacts

Funding bodies

Union/employee groups and representatives

Work team

Stakeholders

A stakeholder is any person or party with a vested interest in an organisation.

Stakeholders can be both internal and external.

Stakeholders are extremely important to achieving successful outcomes.

A key stakeholder can greatly influence what you achieve or don't achieve.

A stakeholder is not only an owner or shareholder or investor, it is everyone with a vested interest in the organisation or entity that you may be gathering information from.

They can also be support services, product and service providers, sponsors, media, transport authorities, police or other services.

A stakeholder survey can provide useful feedback for an organisation or part of an organisation that is involved in the process or activity of that organisation.

A stakeholder therefore can be an individual or a group of people who have an investment or stake in what you do.

It is a broader definition than a customer who is someone who pays you to deliver a service.

Much has been written on contributing to work teams.

Ensuringyour contribution to a work team serving as a role model for others may not necessarily fit the key description of a team:

A sense of mutual accountability.

Activity 3b

4. Liaise with stakeholders

4.1 Establish and maintain open communication processes with all stakeholders

4.2 Communicate information from line manager/management to the team

4.3 Communicate unresolved issues, concerns and problems raised by team members and follow-up with line manager/management and other relevant stakeholders

4.4 Evaluate and take necessary corrective action regarding unresolved issues, concerns and problems raised by internal or external stakeholders

4.1 - Establish and maintain open communication processes with all stakeholders

Maintain open communication processes

Establishing open communication lines between stakeholders and you or the teamis very important.

As with all open communication it is critical to be honest and constructive to reduce the potential of rumours or misunderstandings.

As already mentioned, a stakeholder can be anyone connected with or having an interest in your organisation, so, as such it is inevitable that stakeholders with a vested interest will have differing views and outlooks, different priorities and certainly in the case of non-paid stakeholders a different levels of interest.

There will be different objectives existing between the team and the stakeholder that may lead to conflict, ambiguities, and power struggles.

Position your communication with stakeholders as such that they will value the intended business result.

Consider these options and detail the advantages or disadvantages as you see them

	Advantages	Disadvantages
Monitor your key stakeholders
Update regularly with all external stakeholders
Secure commitment of your stakeholders and clients
The more your stakeholders are committed to your objectives the more likely you are to achieve your specified outcomes

Establish open communication processes

Use a strategic approach when communicating with stakeholders:

Distinguish between proactive and reactive communication.Whatever mode is selected it should facilitate two-way communication

Ensure the communication is two-way and offerstakeholders the opportunity to ask questions and provide their opinions

Effective communication methods are strategically linked to the target audience:

The purpose of being strategic in this approach is tobe more proactive and to anticipate stakeholder issues rather than react

Create a cooperative framework between the team and the stakeholders minimising any perceived gaps in communication intent such as addressing policies, management decisions and organisation actions

Establish the needs and wishes of stakeholders before selecting the best methodsfor communication

Establishing the right dialogue processes e.g., face to face, internet, phone, email or other method with the stakeholders to ensure efficiency and accuracy

Ensure the stakeholders are aware of relevant issues of importance and not caught off guard

In developing your communication strategy consider the organisations policy that supports this

When communicating information ensure that it is consistent, understandable and delivered in timely manner.

Anything that is in the organisation policy which prohibits this, would be seen as an obstacle to good communication and may contain pitfalls.

Typical potential policy breaches may include:

Poor use of, or inappropriate language

Any inconsistencies in sharing and distributing the information discussed and communicated between the team and the stakeholders

Unacceptable or confidential terminology

A range of potential legal issues/obstacles when communicating with a range of stakeholders

Poor timeline or time management

Breaches in confidentiality

Breaches in commercial sensitivities such as intellectual property

Reluctance to communicate or share information

Although you may have the right strategy and intent to open communication, not all stakeholders would be willing or able to offer such open communication in return?

You may encounter:

The inability to obtain or deliver the necessary information

An unwillingness toshare communication

Information overload

Too much useless information in the view of the stakeholder

Defensiveness or some form of distorted perception

A bias or need to offer distortions from thepast into your current communications

Cultural differences and language difficulties

Inconsistency of approach with a result that you send different messages

Poor standards or incomplete data that will not suit your required information quality

Lack of empathy or understanding of the stakeholder

In order to ensure, as much as possible, your communication strategy is effective consider the following:

Your communication, as much as possible is:

Clear

Concise

Has a clearly defined action plan

Targets appropriate audience

Allows constructive feedback

Followed up to determine effectiveness

Proactive rather than reactive

Follows agreed timeline

Activity 4a

4.2 - Communicate information from line manager/management to the team

Line manager/management may refer to:

Chief executive officer

Direct superior

Other management representatives

Activity 4b

Communicate information from line manager/management to the team

The single most important observation is that the objective of communication is not the transmission but the reception.

The whole preparation, presentation and content of communication in any format must therefore be geared not to the speaker but to the recipient.

Communicating informationfrom a line manager or other management person to the team would be a failure if the team does not understand or are not persuaded of its intent and its content.

The objective of communication is to make your message understood and remembered

How to keep communication channels open

Sender

Message

Method

Recipient

Meaning

FEEDBACK

Make sure your team is aware of the objectives of the overall business and that the team’s objectives help make the business objectives successful

Each team member should understand how their role enables the business to meet those objectives.

Second, establish a regular communication channel with management.

Here are some suggestions:

Communicate regular status reports.

Invite management to one of your team meetings.

Present ideas for regular communication in the future

Link your communication to where the objectives commence not half way

Ask your management how and how often they want communication from and to your team

Indicate your team’s desire to help the company be successful

Team communication plan

Example

Sender

Message

Method

Recipient

	Deliverable	Description	Delivery Method	Frequency	Owner	Audience
Reports	Status report	Regular update	Meeting	Monthly	Manager	Teams, A,B
	Quality report	quality performance	E-mail	Weekly	Quality Manager	Teams A, B, C
	<Deliverable>	<Description>	<Delivery Method>	<Frequency>	<Owner>	<Audience>
	<Deliverable>	<Description>	<Delivery Method>	<Frequency>	<Owner>	<Audience>
	<Deliverable>	<Description>	<Delivery Method>	<Frequency>	<Owner>	<Audience>
Reviews and Meetings	Team meeting	Meeting to reviewstatus	Meeting	Monthly	Manager	Teams A,B
	<Deliverable>	<Description>	<Delivery Method>	<Frequency>	<Owner>	<Audience>
	<Deliverable>	<Description>	<Delivery Method>	<Frequency>	<Owner>	<Audience>
	<Deliverable>	<Description>	<Delivery Method>	<Frequency>	<Owner>	<Audience>

Activity 4b continued

4.3 - Communicate unresolved issues, concerns and problems raised by team members and follow-up with line manager/management and other relevant stakeholders

4.4 - Evaluate and take necessary corrective action regarding unresolved issues, concerns and problems raised by internal or external stakeholders

Taking a holistic view of communicating unresolved issues, concerns or problems raised by team members is not too dissimilar to making assessments of risk.

Although unresolved issues and risks are not quite the same thing, the nature of both is largely unknown before you begin.

With risks, you usually have a general idea in advance that there is a cause for concern, whereas with an issue, especially those that are unresolved or emanating from other already solved issues, tend to be less predictable

Communicate unresolved issues - Issue management

Firstly, identify or define the issue

This is essential so you can track the concerns and problems raised by team members and to ensure you have communicated with or assigned responsibility to the right people in order to resolve them.

You might like to classify or use organisational categories to identify the unresolved issues, concerns or problems, for example:

Technical – areas relating to functionality or performance

Process issues – areas affecting the team project or objective

Change management – an area often in need of additional resolution and generally raises concerns or problems associated with misunderstanding, clarity of change or reluctance to change.

Customer or environmental changes

Resource – issues affecting the provision or performance of duties, actions that relate to equipment, material, or people problems.

Third party – issues or concerns that are raised with suppliers or someone outside of the organisation

It is then helpful to identify where the issue was discovered

Timing – discover when the issue was identified

Provide full details and a description about what happened, what caused the particular issue or concern and the potential impact if unresolved or communicated correctly.

List risks and what would happen if the particular issue or concern was left uncommunicated or unresolved.

Priority – As with all forms of communication, it is necessary to prioritise this so that it fits within the most advantageous opportunity to gather the team.

It may be simply an email or other notation that is all that is needed.

High priority – A critical issue that will have a high impact on the team success and has the potential to cause a major concern or other established risk impact.

Medium priority – An issue,concern, or problem raised by team members that will have a noticeable impact, but won't stop the objective proceeding.

Low priority – An issue, concern, or problem raised by team members that doesn't affect activities on a critical path schedule or timeline and probably won't have much impact if it's resolved at some point later.

Assignment/ownership

Determine who is responsible for communicating the issue, especially the phase of follow-up with line manager/management and other relevant stakeholders.

This person/s may or may not actually implement a solution (if a solution is in fact needed) but would be responsible for tracking progress.

Target resolution date

In all cases of communication based on unresolved issues, concerns or problems raised by team members, it is essential to have a resolution time/date in place.

As mentioned earlier, this communication may simply need an email or other form of speedy resolution or maybe it is a longer process?

Set in place a similar follow-up date with line manager/management and other relevant stakeholders.

Activity 4c

Skills and Knowledge Activity

Nearly there...

Major Activity – An opportunity to revise the unit

At the end of your Learner Workbook, you will find an activity titled ‘Major Activity’. This is an opportunity to revise the entire unit and allows your trainer to check your knowledge and understanding of what you have covered. It should take between 1-2 hours to complete and your trainer will let you know whether they wish for you to complete it in your own time or during session. Once this is completed, you will have finished this unit and be ready to move onto the next, well done!

Congratulations!

You have now finished the unit ‘Lead and manageteam effectiveness’

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MSA Training and Professional Development Phone: 03 9905 3180

Room 159, 21 Chancellors Walk Website: monashshortcourses.com

Monash University Clayton, Vic 3800

BSBWOR502 V3 24.01.19

Monash Short Courses Phone: 03 9905 3180

Room 159, 21 Chancellors Walk Website: monashshortcourses.com

Monash University Clayton, Vic 3800

BSBWOR502 V2 18.10.18

References

These suggested references are for further reading and do not necessarily represent the contents of this learners guide

· Virtual Team Success: A Practical Guide for Working and Leading from a Distance [Hardcover], Richard Lepsinger (Author), Darleen DeRosa (Author)

· The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organization, J. R. Katzenbach, Douglas K. Smith (Authors)

· Team Effectiveness and Decision Making in Organizations (J-B SIOP Frontiers Series) [Hardcover], Richard A. Guzzo (Author), Eduardo Salas (Author)

· Group Cohesion, Trust and Solidarity (Advances in Group Processes) [Hardcover], S.R. Thye (Author), E.J. Lawler (Author)

· Stakeholder Theory and Organizational Ethics [Hardcover], Phillips (Author)

· Stakeholder Relationship Management: 1 [Hardcover], Lynda Bourne (Author)