Team Building

2/4/2016

Transcript

1. Project Team Building
2. Tonight’s Topics n  Team Building n  Behavior in Organizations n  Managing Team Development n  Harmony is no magic solution!
3. Team Building
4. Team Building n  Most neglected aspect of project management is probably team building n  As Americans, we typically want to “get on with it” n  This keeps us from project planning, and from team building n  Planning is seen as a waste of time because it doesn’t produce anything
5. Team Building (continued) n  Team building is seen as a waste because it has no bottom-line relevance n  Best argument for team building is a sports team, which practices to perform as a team and not a group of individuals n  Sports teams spend more time on process (practice) than on tasks (games) n  Team building is a constant activity
6. Team Building (continued) n  Americans aren’t good team players by nature n  This starts in school, where working together has been discouraged n  Our competitive mind-set also discourages a team attitude; we view rewards available to us as fixed n  Competition seems to be more powerful than cooperation
7. Team Building (continued) n  Countless studies have shown if one party in an interaction decides to compete, the other side begins to compete n  If competition starts in a team, it can spread like wildfire n  If you want people to cooperate, you must limit competition
8. Essential Skills for Team Players n  Listening n  Resolving conflict n  Problem solving n  Decision making n  Assertiveness n  Openness
9. Steps in Building a New Team n  Introduce team members to each other n  Together, develop a mission statement for the team n  Develop specific goals and objectives that the team must achieve n  Develop a plan to achieve these goals Team Building is a Continuous Activity
10. Team Building Steps n  Challenge for a project manager is to take a band of individuals and form them into a team that will work toward a common goal n  The most common underlying features of successful teams tend to be:
11. Team Building Steps (continued) n  Clear sense of mission ¨ This is the number one predictor of project success ¨ Not enough for the PM to know goals; must be shared with all team members ¨ PM mistake: giving team members small tasks without the “big picture” ¨ The more time spent defining goals and clarifying roles, the less time needed to resolve problems and deal with disputes
12. Team Building Steps (continued) n  Understand the team’s interdependencies ¨ PM may have to form team with people from different departments or backgrounds ¨ Team members need an understanding of mutual interdependencies, which leads to a mutual appreciation for the strengths and contributions of each team member
13. Team Building Steps (continued) n  Cohesiveness ¨ This is the degree of mutual attraction that team members hold for each other and their task ¨ PM’s job is to give the team a sense of WIIFM ¨ This can be aided by rewards, promotions, or other recognition to induce greater effort
14. Team Building Steps (continued) n  Trust ¨ Shown by the sense among team members that they can raise issues of concern or conflict without threat of retaliation ¨ Managers make a big mistake in trying to put off or submerge conflict, believing they are counterproductive to group activities ¨ Mark of success lies not in dampening conflict, but in how it is handled
15. Team Building Steps (continued) n  Enthusiasm ¨ This is the key to creating the energy or spirit that drives the team ¨ Positive attitude is infectious ¨ PM sets example that team follows
16. Features of Successful Teams n  Members of a team must meet together frequently to see themselves as a team n  People will be more committed to a team when it is doing an important job n  Shared goals are essential for good teamwork
17. Features of Successful Teams (continued) n  If there is nothing in it for someone, why should they be committed to the team? n  Keep competition within the team to a minimum; competition and cooperation are opposites
18. Behavior in Organizations
19. Employment is an Exchange Relationship People accept jobs for one reason: What they expect to do for the organization is well balanced by what they expect to get from it
20. Dissatisfaction Threshold Threshold Person will stay Person will leave Time Dissatisfaction
21. What Does This Mean to a PM? n  A person on your team must experience that assignment as a fair exchange n  If not, there will be a lack of commitment and motivation, and the quality of work will suffer n  Your job as a project manager is to ensure that the exchange is equitable for both the employee and the project
22. Motivation: Mystery and Myth n  People are motivated to behave in ways that will satisfy their internal needs, wants and concerns n  Motivation comes from within, not from the outside n  There are no external motivators
23. Demotivators n  A person can’t be turned on and turned off at the same time. Being turned off takes priority over being turned on. n  People can be turned off by certain aspects of the job n  If you can show someone there is a payoff for completing a task, then you can change their attitude toward it
24. Helping Team Members Find Meaning in Their Work n  Project manager should have a perspective on the entire project that the team may lack n  Take the time to explain why the project is important and how each individual’s part fits in n  For work to be motivating, it must have meaning for the worker
25. How Systems Affect Behavior n  Beer Game business simulation from Senge’s The Fifth Discipline n  The result of this game, with people from around the world, is the same n  The system itself can be said to generate the behavior, regardless of the people involved
26. How Systems Affect Behavior n  When behavior is caused by the system, and you want to change behavior, change the system n  Your organizational systems must support the desired behavior. If this is not the case, change the system before trying to change the person! n  If project teams are to achieve desired results, we must ensure that the systems in which they work are capable of the performance levels we expect
27. Law of Requisite Variety n  The team member with the greatest variability in his behavior will control the system. If that person is not the project manager, the PM will lose control of the project. n  What does a PM do?
28. Law of Requisite Variety n  PM must have more flexibility that that exhibited by the team. Two options: ¨ Increase flexibility to match or exceed the team; or ¨ Reduce variability in team behavior to a level that PM can match
29. Reducing Variability n  Variability can be reduced in a positive or a negative way n  In the negative approach, policies and procedures are designed to limit the behavior of team members n  A positive approach would be to involve team members in project planning n  With a positive approach, team members automatically limit their behavior to activities that are mutually agreed upon
30. Actor/Observer Attribution Bias n  In work settings, managers tend to attribute employee failure to some factor in the person n  Employees are more likely to attribute their failure to a situational factor n  As managers, you need to look for a possible systemic cause for poor employee performance
31. Managing Team Development
32. Stages in Group Development n  Forming n  Storming n  Norming n  Performing
33. Stages in Group Development n  Forming – members get to know each other and lay the basis for project ground rules ¨ People wonder how they are going to fit in ¨ PM needs to help people get to know each other before getting down to work ¨ Need to provide lots of direction ¨ Planning the project is a great team-building activity
34. Stages in Group Development (continued) n  Storming – Conflicts may happen as team members resist authority, demonstrate hidden agendas, and prejudices ¨ Most difficult stage to manage ¨ Not all conflict is bad – key is how it is managed
35. Stages in Group Development (continued) n  Norming – Members work together, close relationships develop, and camaraderie and shared responsibility are evident ¨ Team members are beginning to cooperate and support each other ¨ PM can give team members more freedom
36. Stages in Group Development (continued) n  Performing – Only when the first 3 levels have been properly dealt with that the team will have reached the maturity and confidence to effectively perform its duties. n  Typical approach is to get started right away. This will not pay off in the end. n  Easiest stage to manage
37. Stages in Group Development (continued) n  Adjourning – Team wraps up, and prepares to disband
38. What if They Regress? n  No team stays in the Performing stage throughout their life n  Two causes of regression: ¨ Loss of a team member ¨ Increased task difficulty
39. Team Development Stages Stage Theme Task Outcome Relationship Outcome Forming Awareness Commitment Acceptance Storming Conflict Clarification Belonging Norming Cooperation Involvement Support Performing Productivity Achievement Pride
40. Appropriate Leadership Styles Stage Leadership Style Forming Directive Storming Selling or influencing Norming Participative Performing Delegative
41. Harmony is no magic solution!
42. Harmony is no magic solution! n  Brown, Klastorin and Valluzzi (1990) observed 44 members of 14 project teams working on the same complex project n  Team members surveyed 4 times during the life of the project n  Team members were asked to rate individuals on their team, and their team’s performance as a whole
43. Harmony is no magic solution! (continued) n  At project completion, teams were divided into groups of high and low performers, based on total project cost at the end of the study n  At project inception, the low performing (high cost) teams attributed more positive characteristics to themselves than the high performing teams n  The poor performers felt they were making the best quality decisions
44. Harmony is no magic solution! (continued) n  The average intrateam ratings were highest in the teams with the poorest performance n  In effect, there was greatest agreement among the members of the low-performance teams
45. Harmony is no magic solution! (continued) n  Conclusions: ¨ Getting along too well, particularly at the start, may keep a team from becoming sufficiently task-oriented ¨ Project teams with high intragroup harmony fail to carefully examine and criticize constructively each other’s decisions
46. Harmony is no magic solution! (continued) n  Research demonstrates clearly that teams that suffer from groupthink and an excessive desire for harmony are typically much poorer performers than those that encourage dissention and differences of opinion in order to get all alternatives out in the open
47. Harmony is no magic solution! (continued) n  The presence of conflict and strife indicates some team members are going through the process of presenting and evaluating different points of view
48. Questions?