Term
| Synergy definition in regards to a team |
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Definition
| A team of less talented individuals will often outperform one of higher-talented members |
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Term
| What is Dan Lyons and Team Concepts dedicated to? |
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Definition
| Helping teams find all kinds of synergy (flow) |
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Term
| When effective, what 3 things can teams do? |
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Definition
• Make better decisions than individuals and greatly outperform their best member
• Generate higher productivity and more rapid innovation and creativity
• Create more satisfying work environments and places where people are attracted to work and stay |
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Term
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Definition
1. Teams are always the answer
2. The key to team performance is cohesiveness
3. The team leader is the primary determinant of team performance
4. The more the merrier
5. The best individual performers will create the highest-performing team |
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Term
| What are the 3 conditions in which a team would make sense? |
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Definition
1. When no individual expert exists
2. A need for stimulating innovation and creativity
3. When there is a need to create a context where people feel connected and valued |
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Term
| 3 classifications of teams |
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Definition
o Teams that recommend things
o Teams that make or do things
o Teams that run things |
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Term
| 2 critical issues of teams who recommend |
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Definition
| The necessity of getting off to a fast and constructive start and execution |
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Term
| Where does much attention need to be paid to teams who recommend? |
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Definition
| To the handoff from the team to those actually responsible for the implementation |
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Term
| When are teams that make or do things most effective? |
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Definition
| Dealing with “critical delivery points” (places in the organization where the cost and value of the company’s products and services are most directly determined) |
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Term
| What is the key judgment in deciding to form a team who runs things? |
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Definition
| Determining whether the sum of individual efforts will suffice for the performance challenge at hand or whether the group must deliver substantial incremental performance requiring real joint work products |
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Term
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Definition
| Group of people who are collectively accountable for definable outcomes and have a high degree of interdependence and interaction |
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Term
| 3 dimensions of a high-performing team (scorecard) |
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Definition
Production Output
Member Satisfaction
Capacity for Continued Cooperation |
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Term
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Definition
| The products or outcomes of the team meet or exceed the standards set in that context |
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Term
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Definition
| Members find belonging to the team to be a good experience both professionally and personally |
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Term
| Capacity for Continued Cooperation |
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Definition
| The team accomplishes its tasks in a way that will maintain or enhance its ability to work together in the future |
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Term
| 5 Disciplines of high-performing teams |
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Definition
Small size
Capable and complementary members
Shared purpose and performance objectives
Productive norms and working approach
Mutual accountability |
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Term
| What are the guidelines of number of people that should be on a team? |
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Definition
| A team should rarely consist of more than 10 people and ideally are between 5 and 8 members |
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Term
| What is the typical team selection trap? |
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Definition
| Neglect consideration of specific skills and instead opt for people who either are readily available or seem to have the right functional background |
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Term
| What are the 5 dimensions of teamwork according to The Knowledge, Skills and Abilities Requirements test |
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Definition
1. Conflict resolution
2. Collaborative problem solving
3. Communication
4. Goal setting and performance management
5. Planning and task coordination |
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Term
| What is the single and most powerful engine for a team? |
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Definition
| A clear and compelling performance challenge |
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Term
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Definition
| Describe the specific outcomes by which success will be determined |
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Term
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Definition
| Describe just the activities of a team |
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Term
| 5 phases of the development of teams |
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Definition
Forming
Storming
Norming
Performing
Adjourning |
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Term
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Definition
A primary concern is the initial entry of members into a group
- People are interested in discovering what acceptable behavior is, determining the real task of the group, and defining group roles |
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Term
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Definition
A period of high emotion and tension among the members
- Attention tends to shift toward obstacles standing in the way of group goals
- Conflict may also develop over leadership and authority, as individuals compete to impose their preferences on the group and to achieve their desired status position |
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Term
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Definition
The point at which the group begins to come together as a coordinated unit
- The group as a whole will try to regulate behavior toward a harmonious balance |
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Term
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Definition
Sees the emergence of a mature, organized, and well-functioning team
- Structure is stable, and members are motivated by group goals and are generally satisfied. |
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Term
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Definition
Involves completing the task and breaking up the team
- A planned conclusion usually includes recognition for participation and achievement and an opportunity for members to say personal goodbyes. |
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Term
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Definition
| Generally unwritten rules or standards of behavior that apply to team members |
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Term
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Definition
| Norms dictating what should be done |
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Term
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Definition
| Norms dictating behaviors that should be avoided |
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Term
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Definition
| Rewards distributed equally among team members. The group is rewarded as a group for its successful performance, and each member receives exactly the same reward |
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Term
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Definition
| Members are rewarded for successful performance as individuals on the team |
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Term
| The high-performing team challenge can be boiled down to... |
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Definition
(1) keep the group small
(2) focus on complementary skill sets
(3) set clear outcome-based goals
(4) enforce productive norms and conflict management
(5) match rewards to contributions, making at least some portion cooperatively based |
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Term
| Dysfunctions and action strategies for high-performing teams |
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Definition
o Teams get too big – Optimal size = 3-10
o Casual or convenient team assignments - Obsess over team membership and aim to ensure complementary skill sets
o Inattention to results - Establish a shared purpose and clear outcome
o Absence of commitment and trust - Establish productive norms and a working approach
o Unclear or diluted accountability – Create mutual accountability |
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Term
| What are the two ways a team can improve its performance? |
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Definition
| Through either building synergies or reducing threats |
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Term
| What are the two ways a team can improve its performance? |
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Definition
| Through either building synergies or reducing threats (often easier to control threats) |
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Term
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Definition
| When people are in groups, they make decisions about risk differently than when they are alone. They are likely to make riskier decisions |
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Term
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Definition
| Group members may not want to let their colleagues down and hence can become risk-averse |
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Term
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Definition
| Membership in a team can sometimes create a diffusion of responsibility - whereby members feel their personal responsibility is limited because others will step up and act |
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Term
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Definition
| Individual motivation and performance are enhanced by the presence of others |
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Term
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Definition
| The presence of others can create so much pressure and anxiety that team members’ performance can actually be hindered or below what they could do in isolation |
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Term
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Definition
| A situation where team members will persist with a losing course of action, even in the face of clear evidence of their error |
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Term
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Definition
| A team member who has neither the ability nor expertise to make decisions, especially in a crisis, will leave decision making to the group and its hierarchy |
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Term
| 2 of the most challenging information processing biases |
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Definition
1. People are remarkably poor at seeing others’ perspectives
2. In any team a handful of people will do the majority of talking, and this inevitably leads to uneven communication |
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Term
| How do high-performing teams avoid information processing biases? |
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Definition
| By directing discussion toward unique information, minimize status differences, and frame tasks as problems to be solved (via accumulated evidence) rather than opinion-based judgments to be made |
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Term
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Definition
| Used to describe the situation in which some people do not work as hard in groups as they do individually - individuals would exert less effort pulling a rope as more people joined |
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Term
| What leads to sucker aversion? |
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Definition
| Team members being concerned they will be left doing all the work and getting little or no credit |
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Term
| What is arguably the best strategy for addressing social loafing? |
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| Finding ways to get each member’s contribution to a task somehow communicated or displayed where others can see it |
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Term
| What are good identifiability strategies to help avert free-riding? |
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Definition
A team contract that stipulates consequences for free-riders
Peer evaluations |
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Term
| When do Self-Limiting Behaviors occur? |
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Definition
| Whenever team members choose to limit their involvement in the team’s work - because they just do not see any payoff to participating |
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Term
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Definition
| Involves social pressures to conform to the perceived wishes of the group. In doing so, they make poor decisions |
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Term
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Definition
| The tendency of members in highly cohesive teams to lose their critical evaluative capabilities |
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Term
| What are the most likely conditions in which self-limiting behaviors occur? |
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Definition
o The presence of someone with obviously superior expertise
o Presentation of a compelling argument
o Lacking confidence in one’s ability to contribute
o An unimportant or meaningless decision
o A dysfunctional decision-making climate |
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Term
| What is usually the alternative to team conflict? |
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Definition
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Term
| 5 types of intervention proving useful in building high-performing teams |
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Definition
1. Holding effective meetings
2. Understanding member profiles
3. Building team cohesion
4. Conducting after-action reviews and process checks
5. Dealing with a free-rider |
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Term
| 2 effective questions to ask to begin a meeting |
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Definition
(1) What are the two or three most important things we need to get done at this meeting?
(2) How much time does everyone have? |
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Term
| What can help in building a better understanding of member profiles? |
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Definition
| Myers-Briggs Type Indicator |
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Term
| What is strongly influenced by a group's level of cohesiveness? |
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Definition
| The extent to which members of a group actually conform to its norms |
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Term
| What are the 3 preliminary steps that should be taken when dealing with a free-rider? |
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Definition
1. Correctly state the issue in terms of the demonstrated behaviors, not labels like “unmotivated” or “lazy”
2. Ask yourself whether it is legitimate for you to give feedback about the perceived problem
3. Consider whether you have collected a balanced set of facts about the situation |
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Term
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Definition
| Before a goal gets set, a task is assigned, or work divided, the team might discuss and agree upon the consequences for members who do not pull their own weight |
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Term
| What are the two critical success factors that promote more creativity in teams? |
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Definition
(1) A climate of trust and risk taking
(2) The disciplined use of creative problem-solving tools and processes |
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Term
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Definition
Starting with a defined problem and then generating alternatives to solve it
- Aimed towards deriving the single best (or correct) answer to a clearly defined question |
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Term
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Definition
| Involves producing multiple or alternative answers from available information |
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Term
| 3 techniques used to stimulate divergent (creative) thinking |
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Definition
Subdivision
Analogies
Reversing the problem |
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Term
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Definition
| The process of breaking things, such as problems, products, or services, into their smallest component parts or attributes |
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Term
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Definition
| Team members put something they don’t know in terms of something they do, or they expand thinking by taking a familiar issue and relating it in a new or distinctive contex |
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Term
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Definition
| Take a problem and think of the opposite approach, and force seemingly unrelated attributes together |
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Term
| 3 specific characteristics utilized by successful virtual teams |
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Definition
1. They began their interactions with a series of social messages—introducing themselves and providing some personal background
2. They set clear goals and roles for each team member, thus enabling all team members to identify with one another
3. All team members consistently displayed eagerness, enthusiasm, and an intense action orientation in their messages (mutual accountability) |
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Term
| 3 major advantages of electronic meetings |
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Definition
| Anonymity, honesty, and speed (can increase up to 55%) |
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Term
| What are electronic meetings not good for? |
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Definition
Establishing relationships
Dealing with sensitive issues
Persuading a team to fully commit to a course of action |
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Term
| What are the 8 secrets of high performing teams (Dan Lyons) |
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Definition
1. Everyone wants to be part of something bigger
2. Everyone wants to feel valued
3. Define performance objectives
4. Ennoble the effort. Paint a verbal picture of what the future could look like
5. Empower individuals within team synergy
6. Emphasize personal responsibility, challenging individuals to make a commitment to excellence
7. Celebrate the journey. Win every day, and create awareness of the rewards that occur along the journey.
8. Positive, engaged energy. Draw the best from others by showing the best from yourself. |
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Term
| 4 core principles Bill Gore created his company on |
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Definition
1. Fairness
2. The freedom to encourage others to grow in knowledge, skill, and responsibility
3. The ability to honor one’s own commitments
4. Consultation with others before taking action that could affect the company “below the waterline” |
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