Term
| Why Team Effectiveness Matters at Work: |
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Definition
-Half of US organizations use teams to complete work
-Most teams fail |
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Term
| Why Team Effectiveness matters in your lives: |
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Definition
-You're working in teams now
-You'll end up working in teams in the future
-Teams are often sources of great frustration, but they don't have to be that way |
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Term
| What do we mean by team effectiveness? |
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Definition
Performance: Output meets quantity and quality standards
Development and well-being: Involvement contributes to growth and satisfaction of individual members
Viability: Team retains ability to work together in the future |
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Term
| 5 Enabling Conditions for Team Effectiveness |
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Definition
1. Real team
2. Compelling direction
3. Enabling structure
4. Supportive Context
5. Expert Coaching |
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Term
| Enabling Condition #1: A real team |
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Definition
Team Task: Is the task appropriate for a team to work on? Are members interdependent in task processes and goals?
Clear Boundaries: Who's in, who's out?
Clear authority to manage own work processes: is the team in charge of its tasks?
Stable membership over time: are members constantly leaving? |
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Term
| Enabling Condition #2: A Compelling Direction |
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Definition
Motivating goal, important objective, vision: energizing, orienting attention and action, engaging talents
Usually set by a leader, manager, coach, or client: Why not by members themselves? Teams are more effective in agreeing on how to do work than on what to do |
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Term
| Enabling Condition 3: An Enabling Structure |
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Definition
| Job Design: Tasks, roles and responsibilities clearly specified and designed for individual members::variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, feedback |
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Term
| Enabling Condition #4: A supportive context |
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Definition
Reinforces the first three conditions (real team, compelling direction, enabling structure)
Rewards: Incentives encouraging desirable behaviors and discouraging undesirable behaviors
Education: Training and development opportunities
Information: Key data and perspectives
Resources: Key tools and affordances |
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Term
| Enabling condition #5: Expert Coaching |
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Definition
Individuals outside team boundaries helping members perform tasks more effectively
Different coaching roles are appropriate at different times in team's life cycle, project phase, or performance period |
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Term
| Three key roles for coaches: |
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Definition
Motivator(s): enhance effort, minimize social loafing
Consultant(s): improve performance strategy, minimize mindless adoption of routines, make sure work matches task requirements
Educator(s): enhance knowledge and skill |
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Term
| Timing matters in coaching... |
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Definition
Beginning of project: motivator-providing compelling direction, educator-making sure that members have relevant knowledge and skill
Midpoint of Project: consultant-making sure the group is on track
End of project: Educator-making sure members learn from experience |
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Term
| Common Mistake to avoid: Overteaming |
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Definition
| creating teams for work that's more appropriate for individuals: only use teams when the task requires interdependent contributions from multiple members |
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Term
| Common Mistake to avoid: Oversizing |
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Definition
| creating teams larger than 5-6: coordination difficulties, social loafing; consider "optimumundermanning": staffing a team with just short of ideal number can promote high commitment and effort |
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Term
| Common Mistake to avoid: Wasting talent |
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Definition
| failing to involve all members: need to divide up roles and responsibilities so that everyone can contribute |
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Term
| Common mistake to avoid: Group polarization |
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Definition
| converging on one extreme approach instead of valuing multiple perspectives: often called "group think"; set norms of openness, assign a "devil's advocate" |
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