DEVELOPING HIGH -PERFORMANCE TEAMS

High Performance (HP) Teams A group of people

who share a common vision, goals, metrics and who collaborate, challenge and hold each other accountable to achieve outstanding results.

High Performance Team Concepts

Team Charter Team Norms Sense of urgency Community of interest Resources Self-directed Teams Empowered Teams

TEAM CHARTER

A team charter is a written document that defines the team's mission, scope of operation, objectives, time frame, and consequences.

TEAM NORMS
Norms are the rules that the team agrees to follow as it conducts its work.

Norms may be written or may evolve as unwritten understandings over time. .

Sense of urgency
High Performance Teams need to work under a deadline for achieving objectives. Deadlines create a energy building sense of team commitment toward getting results. In short, they drive the team to perform.

 When a team is commissioned it is often made up of a group of representatives from different parts of the organization. Each person may be a subject matter expert who understands the processes and activities within a department or a different part of a cross-

Community of interest

EMPOWERED TEAMS
A team is empowered by virtue of that power that is granted to it by management. A team charter is a very useful tool for helping a team and management understand just exactly what the team

Resources are : Time Talents Money Information Materials

HP TEAM RESOURCES

CHARACTERISTICS OF HP TEAMS
Have a clear and vision of where they are headed and what they want to accomplish Act from clearly defined priorities Have clear measures of success and receive feedback about how theyre doing

CHARACTERISTICS OF HP TEAMS
Maintain open communication and positive relationships with each other Identify and solve problems Make decisions when and where they occur Successfully manage conflict

TEAM LEARNING

High Performance Team has a lot to learn:

how to work together how to make team decisions how to develop and enforce norms, as well as the capabilities, talents, and skills of each fellow team member

 Some team members will be needed who are primarily oriented towards task and target date accomplishment. Other team members will be needed who hold process, planning, organization and methods in the highest regard.

Diversity of Perspective

 Teams also need members who

Diversity of Perspective

nurture, encourage and provide communication nodes. Otherwise, anarchy and intense frustration can result as individuals demand that "their way" is "the only way." Teams will certainly need some members who are creative and innovative.

 The last type of team member needed by a High Performance Team is a floatersomeone who is capable of identifying with all of the above orientations and can fill in when one of the viewpoints is missing.

Diversity of Perspective

Self-Directed Teams Defined

Formal groups that complete an entire piece of work requiring several interdependent tasks and have substantial autonomy over the execution of these tasks.

Self-Directed Work Team Attributes

Completes an entire piece of work Receives teamlevel feedback and rewards Team assigns tasks to members

Self-Directed Work Teams

Responsible for correcting problems

Controls work input, flow, and output

 Teams whose members operate across space, time, and organizational boundaries and are linked through information technologies to achieve organizational tasks.

Virtual Teams Defined

Why Virtual Teams? because Increasingly possible

of
Information technologies Knowledge-based work

Increasingly necessary because of

Knowledge management Globalization

High-Performance Virtual Teams

Virtual teams perform better with:
Team Environment
Creative combination of communication channels

Team Tasks

Structured tasks Moderate interdependence

Team Size

Smaller size than traditional team performing similar tasks

High-Performance Virtual Teams

Virtual teams perform better with
Team Composition Team Processes
Good communication and crosscultural skills in team members

Some face-to-face meetings to assist team development

Team Trust

Important in all teams, but especially virtual teams

TRUST, RESPECT and SUPPORT

Team members need to be coached in the need to trust and support each other. Support involves actively keeping an eye on the other team members and demonstrating a willingness to help each other out when help is needed--even when it might not be requested.

Team Decision Making Constraints

Time constraints
Time to organize/coordinate Production blocking

Evaluation apprehension
Belief that other team members are silently evaluating you

Conformity to peer pressure

Suppressing opinions that oppose team norms

Team Constraints: Group Polarization

Tendency for teams to make more extreme decisions than individuals alone Riskier options usually taken because of prospect theory effect fallacy -- dislike losing more than they like winning

Group Polarization Process

Team discussion processes
High risk High risk

Individual opinions before meeting

Social support Persuasive arguments Shifting responsibility

Individual opinions after meeting

Low risk

Low risk

General Guidelines for Team Decisions

Team norms should encourage critical thinking Sufficient team diversity Ensure neither leader nor any member dominates Maintain optimal team size Introduce effective team structures

Constructive Conflict

Occurs when team members debate their different perceptions about an issue in a way that keeps the conflict focused on the task rather than people. Problem: constructive conflict easily slides into

Rules of Brainstorming
1. Speak freely 2. Dont criticize 3. Provide as many ideas as possible 4. Build on others ideas

Evaluating Brainstorming

Strengths Produces more innovative ideas Strengthens decision acceptance and team cohesiveness Sharing positive emotions encourages creativity

Evaluating Brainstorming

Weaknesses Evaluation apprehension exists in many groups Fewer ideas generated than when people work alone

Nominal Group Technique

Individual Activity
Write down possible solutions

Team Activity
Possible solutions described to others

Individual Activity
Vote on solutions presented

Describe problem