Developing

Collaboration in Teams

1 MS 232 14 November 2017

 What is it?

Collaboration and teamwork is the ability to work cooperatively

with others and create group synergy in pursuing collective
goals.

2 MS 232 14 November 2017

 Collaboration and Teamwork
in action

People with high C&T People with low C&T

Enjoy working with others Prefer to work alone

Withhold information from other

Participate actively in building the team members
capacity of the team
Engage in win-lose competition
Take shared responsibility for team
Avoid conflict resolution with other
results
team members

Enjoy team accomplishments and shared

rewards

3 MS 232 14 November 2017

 The 3Ps of teamwork

Purpose People
Who?
Why, What, When

Process

How?

4 MS 232 14 November 2017

 There are three main components in any team's work:

1.Goal: Result-oriented tasks or content aspect (e.g. team goals and

objectives). These are usually developed through interaction with
team members;
2.Methodology: Process aspect, which includes the team's
interactions and how members work together (e.g. leadership,
team roles, etc.) Teams, especially technical teams, frequently
struggle more with process issues than with task issues;
3.Resources: Time, budget, computer facility, educational tools and
administrative support.

5 MS 232 14 November 2017

Collaboration
The first step to getting started is equipping each team member for robust participation. Here are six
ways to cultivate a collaborative environment.
1. Communicate company expectations. Make it clear that collaboration is the minimum standard.
Define roles and responsibilities within the team. Every team member should understand their
position and what is required of them. In a collaborative environment every team member takes
responsibility for good outcomes. At PrintingForLess.com, we have a Project Insta Team, or PITstop
process. Our employees, from sales through manufacturing, have the power to stop any order to
ensure accuracy and quality. Every member of our team knows they are equally accountable for
customer satisfaction.
2. Set team goals. Ensure concise, measurable goals are set on a quarterly basis. Getting the team to
focus on goals will keep individual efforts aligned with desired outcomes. Be willing to re-evaluate
goals as needed. All our quarterly goals are published on our PrintingForLess.com intranet. Each
quarter the outcome of each goal is also published.This keeps us focused and transparent.
3. Foster a creative atmosphere. Allow team members to question and brainstorm in a non-judgmental
framework. Encourage the team to look at obstacles as being conquerable. Nurture a can do
company attitude. Ask why, or why not, on a regular basis. One way we cultivate a creative
atmosphere at my company is by providing leadership training that encourages character
development.We purposefully hire employees who aspire to be and produce their very best.
6 MS 232 14 November 2017
4. Build cohesion. Include every person on the team in as many large decisions as possible.
Create a means of communicating current work flows to avoid duplication of effort.
Initiate daily team huddles where each member shares what they will be accomplishing
that day. This keeps everyone on the same playbook and enables team members to re-
direct their efforts as needed.
5. Know one another. Different personality dynamics, skill sets and experiences are
present in every team. It is worth the effort to have each member complete a simple
personality profile. Share the results and openly discuss likes and dislikes with regard to
communication, tasks and personal focus. At my company we utilize Insight
Discovery to provide personality and work style assessment. We print the resulting
insight color graph on each team members nameplate.
6. Leverage team member strengths. Position each team member for success by assigning
tasks that play to their respective strengths. Reward both individual and team
accomplishments regularly.

Establishing a collaboration policy is just the beginning. Collaboration must be consistent

and purposeful, with resources dedicated to its success. You may have many superheroes in
your office already; but you can build your productivity exponentially by getting them to
work as a collaborative team.
7 MS 232 14 November 2017
 INTRODUCTION

When individual aiming together have some common goal. If

the goal perceived as unshareable and can be attained by one
party. The two may compete (fight) for the goal. Both
competition and collaboration an tribute to a person
effectiveness.

8 MS 232 14 November 2017

 Function of competition and
cooperation

Competition Collaboration
develops develops
Mutually
Sense of identity
Alternative idea & solutions
Sense of responsibility
Mutual support &
Internal standards
reinforcement
Excellence
Synergy
Individual creativity
Collective action
Individual autonomy
Expansion of resources

9 MS 232 14 November 2017

 Functional and dysfunctional cooperation
and competition
Both are effective or ineffective
Direct and indirect realization of goal
It is used to achieve excellence
Define tendency of the person
In terms of negative collaboration
Social loafing
It can be conceived and complimentary
behavior

10 MS 232 14 November 2017

 Bases of cooperation
Collaborative motivation
Group norms
Higher pay-off
Subordinate goals
Perceived power
Mutual trust

11 MS 232 14 November 2017

 Types (area) of competition
Economic and business
Law
Politics
Sports
Education
Literature
Consumer competition etc.

12 MS 232 14 November 2017

 Cooperation as function of shareable goal, perceived power
and trust.

13 MS 232 14 November 2017

 Characteristics of dysfunctional teams
Here are the five dysfunctions of a team :
1. Absence of Trust: Trust is critical in building a high-performance
team and lack of trust is very visible in a dysfunctional team. Most
telltale sign of lack of trust is that no one would bring up any
issue/problems which will show him/her weak or vulnerable.
Having the guard on all the time is a characteristic of a team
member in a dysfunctional team.

2. Fear of Conflict: Fear of conflict means that conversation and

feedback cannot be candid and difficult questions cant be asked,
because they can give rise to conflicts. This in turn happens because
lack of trust causes people to suspect the motive of the person
doing the questioning/commenting and it becomes a personal
14 matter
MS 232 rather than teams. 14 November 2017
 3. Lack of Commitment: Lack of commitment from the team members is a dangerous
problem in a dysfunctional team. Because of fear of conflict and lack of trust, most
decisions do not get discussed enough, team members feel they have not been heard,
and hence they do not buy-into the decision being made. This lack of buy-in causes the
lack of commitment among team members. This in turn gives rise to situations where
even though the team (or leadership team) has taken a decision but the actions of
individuals in the team seem to oppose the decision. The team is deemed incompetent
and lost and loses the respect of their peers and reports.

4. Avoidance of Accountability: Lack of commitment and lack of thorough

discussions/buy-in fosters a culture where individuals and the team shies away from
being accountable for their actions, blaming all failures and problems on others in the
team or to external factors (senior management and market conditions are my all-time
favorites). Since team members do not challenge each other for the fear of being
misunderstood (first 2 dysfunctions), this creates a team which keeps discussing the
problems and failures as if someone else caused it and remain blissfully ignorant of how
dysfunctional they are. When this happens in a leadership team, problem becomes
acute because there is no one else to guide and correct them, or to hold them
accountable. For regular teams, this gives becomes visible in lack of results and focus.
15 MS 232 14 November 2017
 5. Inattention to Results: This is by-product of rest of the
dysfunctions. When there is no accountability and no commitment to
decisions, results suffer, and what is more, with no one to hold anyone
accountable within the team (lack of mutual accountability), no one
will even discuss failures. For an outsider listening in, it may look like a
great team functioning well (no arguments, no heated debates, lots of
talk of accomplishments). This is also the best way to identify a
dysfunctional team; just watch the kind of discussions happening in the
team over a period of time, and try to compare it with the results of
this team. High-performance teams have heated debates, passionate
arguments, and lots of good results; dysfunctional teams have polite
conversations, presentation of accomplishments, and very few good
results to show.

16 MS 232 14 November 2017

 Characteristics of High-performance Teams
A small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a
common purpose, performance goals and working approach for which
they hold themselves mutually accountable.
1. Small number: This is important. It is very hard for a large group of people
to come together and form a team, primarily because it is hard to meet other
criteria with a large group. Typical size that works well is 5-8 in my opinion.
Anything big, and you should consider splitting or having a working group
(another term defined in the book).
2. Complementary skills: For a team to function properly, it should have all
the necessary skills for the common purpose it exists for. However, many
times, team members are picked because of their organizational positions,
being closer to the problem, and other extraneous reasons. Beware of such
team, they are more likely to have team members with similar skills and/or a
big skill gap in the team, both of which are dangerous for team success.

17 MS 232 14 November 2017

3. Common Purpose: The team must have a common purpose, the reason this team exists. I have been on
many teams where this tenet is ignored and teams are formed because an amorphous problem exists in
the company and different individuals have different understanding, ideas and solutions about this
problem. Putting them together without clearly stating the purpose is to set the team for failure.
4. Performance Goals: One of the most important predictor of the performance of a team is how clearly
the performance goals are defined. These goals must be specific and measurable to be useful. These can
be defined either by the team sponsor (the person(s) who create this team) or by the team themselves
based on the common purpose, but defining this from the beginning is extremely important. This is the
piece (along with purpose) around which the team rallies to deliver high performance.
5. Working approach: A common working approach is something the team comes up on its own and has
to be unique for each team. Working approach needs to factor in various skills and capabilities of the
team members, the expectations from other stakeholders and organizational culture. A working approach
must include communication models within and outside the team (meetings, status reporting, etc), roles
and responsibilities for team members (team leader, team spokesperson, troubleshooter, etc), as well as
tracking and measuring progress towards the purpose and performance goals.
6. Mutually accountable: This in my mind is the most important (and most difficult to achieve) attribute
of a high-performance team. Mutually acceptable means that even when I am not involved in doing the
actual work, I will be held accountable for the outcome of the work if it is being done by any other
member of the team. This is hard because this goes against natural human tendencies. In my experience,
this requires trust, transparency, and candor to be established among the team members. This is best
established when the team shares the common purpose and performance goals and is willing to invest
time and energy in creating trust, transparency and candor.
18 MS 232 14 November 2017
Team Intervention
The purpose of this team is to help Employees / Members of
the team that are struggling in some way. This usually refers to
performance but can include emotional/behavioral/social
concerns.
 When Team Members Give Up

In a study of 569 managers, they reported that they limited their efforts or
input in over 56% of the teams in which they participated. The major causes
for giving up were cited as:
Presence of someone with expertise (73%)--I wasn't needed
Presentation of compelling argument (62%)--I didn't have other
information for an argument
Lack of confidence in ability to contribute (61%)--I wasn't prepared or
there were other "high power" people.
Unimportant or meaningless decision (52%)--why waste my time?
Pressures to conform to team decision (46%) --groupthink at its best!
Dysfunctional decision making climate (39%)--you want me to risk what?!
This Intervention can be used effectively to:

Engage and align individuals, or cross-teams, to

collaborate effectively
Bring in high energy and charge up the team to achieve
stretched goals
Set up a high performance climate in the organisation
Team-Building Interventions
The four main areas:
Diagnosis
Task Accomplishments
Team relationships
Team and organization processes
THE FORMAL GROUP DIAGNOSTIC MEETING

Its purpose is to conduct a general critique of the performance of

the group and to uncover and identify problems on which they
will work on
THE FORMAL GROUP TEAM-BUILDING
MEETING
It has the goal of improving the teams effectiveness through
better management of task demands, relationship demands
and group processes.
PROCESS CONSULTATION INTERVENTIONS
Process consultation model is similar to team-based
interventions
It places greater emphasis on diagnosing and understanding
process events
Techniques and Exercises used in Team
Building

ROLE ANALYSIS INTERDEPENDENCY ROLE

TECHNIQUE EXERCISE NEGOTIATION
TECHNIQUE

APPRECIATIONS & RESPONSIBILITY

CONCERNS EXERCISE VISIONING
CHARTING

FORCE-FIELD ANALYSIS
Steps in Team Intervention
Step 1 - Identify At-Risk Population
Step 2 - Initial Intervention Team Meeting
Step 3 - Interventions Begin
Step 4 - Second Intervention Team Meeting
Step 5 - Request for Further Testing
Step 1 - Identify At-Risk Population:

It must be determined which members are at-risk. The lowest 10% in each
level will be the target group.
Identify them by considering Previous years review or with various
assessment technique.

Step 2 - Initial Intervention Team Meeting:

- Review data with all personnel in attendance

- Brainstorm interventions (interventions must be research-validated). Other
interventions may have been agreed upon during the initial Intervention Team
meeting.
 Airtel Enterprise

Team interventions usually focus on the following:

Clarify Direction: often facilitate teams, to clarify their visions
and goals, and their understanding of the business environment,
market and competitor forces within their operation.
Inspiring Performance: This involves clarifying individual and
team roles, their interdependencies and communication between
them.
Building Relationships and Trust: use techniques such as sharing
information, giving and receiving feedback, as well as practical
behavior frameworks such as MBTI, Enneagram, DISC
Transactional Analysis and Learning Styles, to help colleagues
understand each other better.
 Conflict Management: help clarify the rules of engagement and, if
necessary, use conflict management techniques to help protagonists
stand back and take a fresh look at how they are behaving and working
together, and explore options for change.
Relating to the External World: identify the key external stakeholders of
the team, how communication occurs between them and individual
team members, and facilitate changes which simplify and enhance
effectiveness.
 4.

31 MS 232 14 November 2017