Effective Teaming & Project Management

Chapter_20.pptx

Team Building

Team Dynamics

Anytime you get two or more individuals together to work, they make a team. But with teaming comes good and bad. This is called team dynamics. The dynamics of a team changes over time, like any relationship, so the key is to manage it well. Everyone brings likes, dislikes, and biases into a team and the key is to use that variety to generate the best well-developed ideas. Individuals will have strong opinions and there may be clashes that are OK to a point.

Attributes of a successful team

A common goal
Leadership
Each team member makes unique contributions to the team's project
Effective team communication
Creative spark: There are excitement and creative energy. Team Members inspire, energize, and bring out the best in one another. A "can-do attitude"
Harmonious relationship among team members. Team members are respectful, encouraging, and positive about one another and the work
Effective planning and use of resources. Appropriate breakdown of the tasks and effective utilization of resources (people, time, money, materials, tools, etc...)

Successful team member attributes

Individual team members of the successful team should have these attributes:

Attendance: Attends all team meetings, arriving on time or early. Dependable, like clockwork. Faithful, reliable. Communicates in advance if cannot attend a meeting.
Responsible: Accepts responsibility for tasks and completes them on time, needing no reminders nor cajoling. Has a spirit of excellence, yet is not overly perfectionistic.
Abilities: Possesses abilities the team needs, and contributes these abilities fully to the team's purpose. Does not withhold self or draw back. Actively communicates at team meetings.
Creative, Energetic. Acts as an energy source, not a sink. Brings energy to the team. Conveys a sense of excitement about being part of the team. Has a "can do" attitude about the team's task. Has creative energy and helps spark the creative efforts of everyone else.
Personality: Contributes positively to the team environment and personality. Has positive attitudes, encourages others. Acts as a peacemaker if conflict arises. Helps the team reach consensus and make good decisions. Helps create a team environment that is productive and fun. Brings out the best in the other team members.

Working Through Conflicts

Here are some general guidelines that will keep your team “one happy family.”:

Make a list of everyone’s skill set (best organized, good computer skills, most creative, etc.). This will help in determining the best tasks for each member (it is OK to create small work teams inside your larger team).
Good teams start with communication via various methods. Not everyone is a talker; have team members submit ideas/thoughts on a variety of mediums: paper, via e-mail, video, in writing, etc.
Listen first—don’t open your mouth until you listen and think (good rule to help avoid conflicts).
Conflicts are OK as long as it is not personal (never make a personal attack).
Follow the design process; it will help guide the conversation.
Set time limits for the design process steps.
Record all ideas and options (either electronically or in writing).

Your Role in a Team (you can have multiple roles)

Team Manager—oversees the progress, reports to the instructor.
Team Recorder—records all the ideas and helps verify the design process is being followed.
Team Specialist—has a specific task (it varies, recorder and manager can also be specialists) within a team, other times they work independently as a consultant to a team.

Five Steps in Team Evolution

Every team goes through the following five steps, but don’t get stuck on any one step. Use the guidelines of good teaming to help you through the process.

Orientation (Forming) In this stage team members get acquainted with one another, with the team purpose, and with the overall level of commitment (workload) required. Team members learn of one another's personalities, abilities, talents, and weaknesses

Discussion (Storming) In this stage, typical dialogue (or thoughts) may consist of the following:

- "do I have to work with this team?"
- "do to deserve this?"
- "clearly aren't any super-heroes on this team"
- " How are we supposed to solve this messy problem?"

During the storming the enormity and complexity of the task begins to sink in, sobering and discouraging the participants. "We are supposed to do what? By when?" Teams are rarely formed to easy problems, only very difficult and complex ones. Typically, time schedules are unrealistically short, and budgets are inadequate. Further complicating the issue, teammates have learned enough about their fellow team members to know that there are no superheroes, no saviors they can count on to do it all. (One person doing all the work is a team failure.) To be a successful team, it is not necessary for team members to like one another or to be friends. A professional knows how to work productively with individuals with widely differing backgrounds and personalities. Everyone must learn the art of constructive dialogue and compromise.

Resolution (Norming) In this stage, typical dialogue (or private thoughts) may consist of the following:

- "You know, I think we can do it. True, there are no superheroes, not by a long shot, but once we stopped fighting and started listening to one another, we discovered that these folks have some good ideas. Now if we can just pull these together ."

Norms are shared expectations or rules of conduct. All groups have some kinds of norms, though many times unstated. During the norming stage, team members begin to accept one another instead of complaining and competing. Rather than focusing on weaknesses and personality differences, they acknowledge and utilize one another's strengths. Individual team members find their place in the group and do their part. Instead of directing energies toward fighting itself, the team directs its collective energy toward the task. The key to this shift of focus is a collective decision to behave in a professional way, to agree upon and adhere to norms. Possible norms include:

- working cooperatively as a team rather than individually,
- agreeing on the level of effort expected of everyone,
- conducting effective discussions and meetings,
- making effective team decisions, and learning to criticize one another's ideas without damaging the person.
- that all team members are expected to be at all meetings,
- to communicate clearly in the event that he/she cannot attend.

During the norming stage, feelings of closeness, interdependence, unity, and cooperation develop among the team.

Production (Performing) In this stage, typical dialogue (or private thoughts) may consist of the following:

"This is a fun team. We still have a long way to go' but we have a great plan. Everyone is pulling together and working hard. No superheroes, but we're a super team."

In this stage, teams accomplish much. They have a shared, clear vision. Responsibilities are distributed. Individual team members accept and execute their specific tasks in accordance to the planned schedule. They are individually committed, and hold one another accountable. On the other hand, there is also a blurring of roles. Team members "pitch in" to help one another, doing whatever it takes for the team to be successful. In a performing team, so many team members have taken such significant responsibility for the team's success that the spotlight is rarely on a single leader anymore. Typically, whoever initially led the team is almost indistinguishable from the rest of the team.

Termination (Adjourning) completion of the project

"Failure to plan is planning to fail"

Team: A group with a common purpose that achieve a specific goal using each individual's skills and mutual cooperation to produce the end product.

Synergy: Results when the unit or team becomes stronger than the sum of the individual members.

Norms: Principles of right action. They are binding upon the members of a group and serve to guide, control, or regulate proper and acceptable behavior.

Values: Guiding principles or ideals.

Consensus: Agreement in opinion; collective opinion.

Here are 8 questions that must be addressed with a plan:

What do you and/your team do first ? (prioritize)
What should come next?
How many people do you need to accomplish the project? (individuals with different skills, mentors etc...)
What resources do you need to accomplish your project
How long will it take
What can you get completed by the end of each day, week, month, semester?
When will the project be finished?
How will we know we are done with the project?

Project Management triangle (Constraints)
In reality there are six basic"constraints" that need to be managed closely with a project, and they are:
- scope,
- schedule,
- resources,
- budget,
- quality (does it meet standards)
- risk.