Team Building and Business

Communication
Team Building Skills
•What is the difference
between a group and a
team?
Group vs. Team
Group: individuals who are together due to common interest, skill, or
characteristic.
Team: a special work group whose members are joined together in a
united and coordinated effort towards a goal and whose work is
mutually dependant with mutual accountability.
When to Form a Team
• Specific, measurable objective [SMART: specific, measurable, achievable,
reasonable, Temporal] to build up a team / to construct
• Encouraged by organizational structure and culture [a flat structure]
• corporate culture: VALUES- PRINCIPLES- CODES OF CONDUCT
• Adequate time for training, deliberation, and discussions (DECISION-MAKING
PROCESS)
• Interdisciplinary / multidisciplinary skills are regarded as valuable assets to team
work
Team Selection Criteria

Teams are selected on the basis of : Technical

abilities/SKILLS/QUALIFICATIONS/ CAPABILITIES
• Personal attributes: Psychometric tests
• Medium-sized; large-sized companies (read out someone)
• To summon someone for an interview
• Interpersonal behaviors (extrovert/restrained/inhibited/reserved…etc)
• Communication skills
• Administrative skills
Personality Types
•Extrovert vs. Introvert
•Sensational vs. Intuitional
•Thinking vs. Feeling
•Judgment vs. Perception
Stages of Team Development

•Stage 1: Forming
•Stage 2: Storming
•Stage 3: Norming
•Stage 4: Performing
Forming
• Team members uncertain about roles and expectations (need to live
up to/meet the manager’s expectations)
• Team members try to assess themselves and others
• Reliance on strong, formal leadership (visionary)
• Guidelines for a successful forming stage:
• Provide structure to the team by assigning and clarifying task/role
• Encourage participation (they need to be stimulated to participate)
• Share all relevant information (blurred: unclear, foggy)
• Encourage open, honest communication among team members
 Storming
• Deals with power and decision making.
• Members challenge the differences in an attempt to gain their
individuality and influence.
• The team members need control and sense of direction.
• Guidelines:
• Assist the team members to establish methods that support the communication
of their different points of view.
• Determine within the team how the team will make decisions.
• Encourage members to share their ideas about issues.
• Facilitate methods to resolve conflicts.
Norming
• Members produce as a cohesive unit. (COHESION/ WORKING AS ONE)
• Functional relations are established (a network of positive
professional relationships/ ESTABLISHED SOCIALIZING PROCESSES)
• Members work collaboratively to gain and share insight. (prospects)
• Guidelines: (interfere)
• Talk openly and honestly about team issues and the members’ concerns.
• Encourage feedback.
• Assign tasks for consensus (agreement) decision making.
 Performing
• Members have learned to work together. (team commitments)
• Members skills to define tasks, manage conflict, and work towards
producing results. (to crop up / flare up/ EMERGE)
• The members are committed to the team and its goals.
• Guidelines:
• Jointly set goals that are challenging and accepted to all members. (to incite into)
• Continue to look for ways to promote the team’s chances to excel. (the team
leader needs to look for excellence)
• Keep an ongoing assessment of the team. (continuous assessment)
• Acknowledge each member’s contributions. (motivation)
• Develop members to their fullest potential. (to mount up / to increase)
 Collaboration and Cooperation
Effective Skills
• Listening: hear, interpret
• Questioning: interact, discuss, pose questions (ACTION / REACTION
/INTERACTION
• Persuading: exchanging, defending, rethinking
• Respecting: respect opinion of others; encourage and support effort
• Helping: offer assistance
• Sharing: offering ideas and reporting their findings
• Participating: contributing to project
 Five Strategies to Conflict Resolution
• Competition: when immediate, decisive action is needed, issues are
imperative and unpopular
• Collaboration: when need to find an integrative solution, objective is to
learn or combine knowledge from people with different perspectives
• Avoidance: when issue is insignificant, to let others cool down and regain
perspective
• Accommodation: when issues are more important to others, build social
support for later
• Compromise: opponent team members are committed to different means
to similar end, arrive at an expedient solution under time pressure
Six Steps to Manage Team Conflict

1. Clarify and identify the cause of conflict.

2. Determine the common goal.
3. Determine options. (alternatives) to find a way out
to a problem
4. Determine and remove the barriers. (latent conflict
/ manifest conflict)
5. Determine solution that everyone can accept.
6. Acknowledge solution: win-win solution.
Key Areas of Resistance

Organization
• Top-down structure with many formal levels
• Bureaucratic practices (structure= a set up)
• Rigid and cautious corporate culture
• One-way communication flow
• Department segregation
 Key Areas of Resistance

Management
• Fear of losing control (over: to loose control over….)
• Fear of not being needed (useless)
• Failure to support team initiatives and members (to back up)
• Failure to set clear goals (to head up)
• Failure to understand the issues / project team / team
• Unwilling to take risk (to venture) venture capital
• Too passive and does not hold members accountable
Key Areas of Resistance
Individual
• Fear of losing individuality and individual recognition (to recognize) to acknowledge
• Lack of confidence in abilities (they question their abilities: their abilities are at stake)
• Fear of sharing ideas to protect own interest [battlefield] power relations
• Comfort zone
• Inability to express ideas
• Fear of conflict
A Team That Does NOT Work
Teams fail to be highly performative because of:
• Confused and conflicting goals
• Unresolved roles and responsibilities (overlapping / intertwined roles)
• Lack of team trust (trustworthy)
• Lack of support
• Lack of communication
• Critical / negative attitudes are filtered through / permeate the team members

Reluctant: hesitant
Disruptive
To assign a role to someone
PRIDE Principles

• Purpose: have a common purpose and goal

• Respect: act with mutual respect, trust, and support
• Individuals: recognize and respect the difference which enhances
creativity and collective imagination
• Discussion: should have open, honest, and frequent discussions
• Excellence: team should strive for excellence