The Power of Team Building: Uniting for Success

1. TEAM BUILDING

2. “You cover my back and I’ll cover yours”! • Where have you heard this statement before? • Law enforcement. • Military. • Could it simply be rephrased, “let’s work together”.

3. Team Building:(The Demming Management Method, ISBN 0-399-55000-3) • Self directed teams. • A concept developed by a professor of statistics from the United States named Edward Demming. • Demming implemented this model in Japan after World War II. • It wasn’t until the 1980’s that it was adopted into the United States.

4. Teams are normally groups that:(HRM, ISBN 0-205-14218-4, pages 334-359) • Are a group that assumes responsibility for a common work process. • Works to improve their operation or product. • Handles day to day operations. • Gets paid as a group. • Allows decision making with broad participation. • Peers evaluate your performance.

5. Quality Circles = the formula: • Should have a goal or mission statement. • Must have the support of top management. • Creates an atmosphere of participative management. • Requires a strong communication structure. • Begins with easier issues and a common ground. • Start slowly and proceed gradually. • Needs an enthusiastic leader that supports the concept of team structure.

6. Building a Climate of Motivation: • Ensuring each employee knows what is expected and how performance will be evaluated. • Get to know employees as individuals and learn their needs. • Provide training and assistance. • Provide resources. • Encourage personal growth. • Recognize and reward good performance and correct bad performance. (HRM, ISBN 0-205-14218-4, page 87) • Stress the possible, not the impossible. (HRM, page 87) • Normally challenge ideas, not people.

7. Rules of the Road:(Achieving Consensus, ISBN 1-56052-381-6, page 35) • Everyone gets a chance to participate. • All ideas have value. • Everyone arrives on time. • Everyone comes prepared. • No personal attacks. • Build on ideas, don’t tear them down ruthlessly. • Discussion is encouraged. • Decisions are by consensus when possible. • Use confirmable facts and data. • If you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it.

8. What to pack on the journey on the road to consensus:(Achieving Consensus, ISBN 1-56052-381-6, page 19) • Communication skills. • Problem solving skills. • Experience = knowledge gained through work. • Power base = networking skills. • People skills = ability to work with others. • Education = classroom, reading, Internet.

9. What not to pack on the journey on the road to consensus:(Achieving Consensus, ISBN 1-50052-381-6, page 25) • Resistance to change. • I don’t want to lose attitude. • Biases. • Love/hate conflict.

10. Sometimes, you need to ask yourself is this really worth pursuing? • Sometimes a situation just does not lend itself to teamwork. • Is this conflict worth fighting? You may win the conflict but lose the war. • What event or circumstance do you want to select to end your career or friendship? In other words, what sword do you want to impale yourself on?

11. A true self-managing work team will be one in which the members themselves: • Make a decision on how to divide up the tasks within the team. • Make decisions on scheduling work for the team. • Are able to perform more than one job for the team. • Train one another to learn jobs performed by the team. • Evaluate one another’s job performance on the team. • Are collectively held accountable for the team’s performance results.

12. Benefits of Self-managing Teams: • Improved productivity. • Improved production quality. • Greater production flexibility. • Faster response time to technological changes. • Fewer management levels. • Lower employee absenteeism. • Lower employee turnover. • Improved work attitudes.

13. Consensus is achieved when:(Team Training, ISBN 0-07-91220-5, page 6) • “I have had an opportunity to express my views fully and they have been thoughtfully considered by the group”. • “Even though this solution may not be the one I believe is best, it is ethical, moral, and legal, and I will support it”.

14. Consensus includes:(Team Training, ISBN 0-07-91220-5, page 67) • Pooling decisions. • Effective listening. • Discussing ideas and differences. • Not getting all you want. • Agreement to the point everyone can live with it.

15. Consensus does not include: • Voting. • Majority rule. • Minority rule. • One person rule.

16. Sources of Conflict:(Team Training, ISBN 0-07-91220-5, page 1050 Source Personalities CONFLICT Values Solutions

17. How to Create Cohesion: • Get agreement. • Increase homogeneity. • Make the group smaller. • Reward group results. • Isolate from other groups.

18. How to Decrease Cohesion: • Create disagreement. • Increase heterogeneity. • Make the group bigger. • Reward individual effort. • Increase contact with other groups.

19. Listening Techniques:(Team Training, ISBN 0-09-912220-5, page 92) • Mental response. • Shows you are interested. • Encourages the dialogue to continue. • “I see what you mean.” • “That’s interesting.” • Restatement. • To check meaning. • “As I understand it then, your plan is” • “So this is what you decided to do and the reasons are”

20. Listening Techniques Continued: • Questioning. • To get more information. • “Could you explain more about” • “Do you mean that” • Summarizing. • To bring the discussion into focus. • “So these are the ideas you have expressed” • Reflection. • To demonstrate that you understand. • “So you are saying that you feel” • “That indicates that you were mad about”