COMM 227
COMPREHENSIVE NOTES
, CH 12: TEAMS
Pit Crew video
- “Choreography” = coordination
- Shared purpose = get the car out in 9 seconds
- Small team, mutual accountability
Teams: group of people, collectively accountable (share responsibilities) for a defined outcome & have
high degree of interdependence and interactions.
Task interdependence: extent to which members need to interact with each other to complete task
Group: 3+ people work independently for organization’s goal. Members more separated than in a teams.
5 stages of team development
1. Forming: initial entry, ask questions, discover acceptable behaviour, identify tasks and roles.
2. Storming: high emotion and tension, friction, infighting, changes in membership and priorities,
pressure conflicts.
3. Norming: come together as one unit (coordinated), balanced forces, harmony, minority
viewpoints and deviations discouraged, holding team together is most important.
4. Performing: mature, organized, well-functioning team, deal w complex tasks, handle
disagreements creatively, stable structure, motivated by goals, satisfied, high level performance
5. Adjourning: complete the task and break up the team, recognition of members and
achievements, say goodbyes.
When do teams make sense?
- When no individual expert exists, team is better than one individual
- Risk taking, innovation, knowledge, and creativity (prone to extreme decisions)
o Di usion of responsibilities: more than one person responsible for decisions
- Connection and value of human contact , community, support, belonging
Team E ectiveness Scorecard
1. Production output: quotas & standards, as measured by quality of products & outcomes
2. Satisfaction of members: belonging, experience (personal & professional)
3. Capacity for continued cooperation: ability to work together in the future, not exhausting
resources and goodwill, learn from mistakes
*** Characteristics of e ective (high-performing) teams (5 disciplines)
- Small size: 5-8 members (rarely 10+)
- Complementary skills (*KSA): task management and interpersonal skills (functional expertise is
not enough)
- Shared purpose:
o Outcome goal: specific end result (how do we know success?when do we achieve?)
o Activity goal: actions to get there (what activities to complete?).
, - Productive team norms:
o Norms: common sense of direction, unwritten rules&standards of behaviour that apply to
members
Prescriptive: should
Proscriptive: shouldn’t
o Team confidence: belief that team can perform successfully.
o Team cooperation: reciprocal exchange, safe environment, mutual trust, willingness to
challenge others
o Team Coordination: integrate individual e orts towards team goal, share information.
o Team cohesion: share commitment and a inity (but not strong predictor of performance)
o Team Conflict: disagreement, frictions. Tip: keep it over issues, not people. (Constructive
conflicts to maintain team cohesion)
- Mutual accountability:
o Cooperative team rewards: rewards entire group equally
Social loafing: when there are low e ort individuals in the team (esp. if low
interdependence + coop reward).
o Competitive team rewards: rewards individuals (if high interdependence, can create
competition)
- Other (not as important): openness and communication, conscientiousness, agreeableness.
KSA: knowledge, Skills, Abilities
- Conflicts resolution: encourage desirable conflicts, but discourage undesirable ones
- Collaborative problem solving: overcome obstacles and take corrective actions
- Communication: actively listen without evaluating.
- Goal setting/performance management: implement specific challenges/goals
- Planning & task coordination: coordinate & synchronize (task interdependence)
Threats to Team Performance
- Risky shift: more extreme decisions, can become more risky or risk-adverse
- Innocent bystander: bcs of di usion of responsibilities, personal responsibility is limited and
they trust others to act (Genovese).
o Innocent bystander e ect: extreme case of di usion of responsibility
- Escalation of commitment: persist with losing course, even when there’s evidence of error
- Conformity & obedience: when member leaves decision making to the group (no ability to make
decisions.
o Social conformity: conforming due to social pressure, for harmony & cohesion.
Avoid by: rotation for critical evaluator, encourage objections, have impartial leader,
subgroups, di erent leaders, outside experts, devil advocate on rotation, alternative
scenarios, second-chance meetings, pre-votes (anonymous), electronic meetings
, o Groupthink: lose critical evaluative capabilities (in highly cohesive teams), self-censor,
unwilling to criticize, avoid unpleasant disagreements, etc.
o Abilene paradox: when everyone agrees although nobody wants to (bcs they think
everyone else wants to go; hidden pressure)
- Social loafing: free-riders
o Identifiability: counter social loafing
- Ringlemann e ect: people don’t work as hard in groups compared to individually
- Self-limiting behaviour: reduce engagement (“why bother”, “no one listens anyway”)
o Can be avoided by clarifying the payo of active participation.
BONUS: how to fight productively?
- Work with more information rather than less
- Develop alternatives to enrich debate
- Keep coming back to common goals —> collaboration
- Use humour
- Maintain balanced corporate power structure —> fairness
- Resolve issues without forcing consensus.
Interventions for high performance
1. E ective meetings: clear agenda
a. 2-3 important things to get done
b. How much time do we have
2. After action reviews and process checks
a. Learn from mistakes (productive failures)
3. Dealing with free-riders
a. NO attaching labels
COMPREHENSIVE NOTES
, CH 12: TEAMS
Pit Crew video
- “Choreography” = coordination
- Shared purpose = get the car out in 9 seconds
- Small team, mutual accountability
Teams: group of people, collectively accountable (share responsibilities) for a defined outcome & have
high degree of interdependence and interactions.
Task interdependence: extent to which members need to interact with each other to complete task
Group: 3+ people work independently for organization’s goal. Members more separated than in a teams.
5 stages of team development
1. Forming: initial entry, ask questions, discover acceptable behaviour, identify tasks and roles.
2. Storming: high emotion and tension, friction, infighting, changes in membership and priorities,
pressure conflicts.
3. Norming: come together as one unit (coordinated), balanced forces, harmony, minority
viewpoints and deviations discouraged, holding team together is most important.
4. Performing: mature, organized, well-functioning team, deal w complex tasks, handle
disagreements creatively, stable structure, motivated by goals, satisfied, high level performance
5. Adjourning: complete the task and break up the team, recognition of members and
achievements, say goodbyes.
When do teams make sense?
- When no individual expert exists, team is better than one individual
- Risk taking, innovation, knowledge, and creativity (prone to extreme decisions)
o Di usion of responsibilities: more than one person responsible for decisions
- Connection and value of human contact , community, support, belonging
Team E ectiveness Scorecard
1. Production output: quotas & standards, as measured by quality of products & outcomes
2. Satisfaction of members: belonging, experience (personal & professional)
3. Capacity for continued cooperation: ability to work together in the future, not exhausting
resources and goodwill, learn from mistakes
*** Characteristics of e ective (high-performing) teams (5 disciplines)
- Small size: 5-8 members (rarely 10+)
- Complementary skills (*KSA): task management and interpersonal skills (functional expertise is
not enough)
- Shared purpose:
o Outcome goal: specific end result (how do we know success?when do we achieve?)
o Activity goal: actions to get there (what activities to complete?).
, - Productive team norms:
o Norms: common sense of direction, unwritten rules&standards of behaviour that apply to
members
Prescriptive: should
Proscriptive: shouldn’t
o Team confidence: belief that team can perform successfully.
o Team cooperation: reciprocal exchange, safe environment, mutual trust, willingness to
challenge others
o Team Coordination: integrate individual e orts towards team goal, share information.
o Team cohesion: share commitment and a inity (but not strong predictor of performance)
o Team Conflict: disagreement, frictions. Tip: keep it over issues, not people. (Constructive
conflicts to maintain team cohesion)
- Mutual accountability:
o Cooperative team rewards: rewards entire group equally
Social loafing: when there are low e ort individuals in the team (esp. if low
interdependence + coop reward).
o Competitive team rewards: rewards individuals (if high interdependence, can create
competition)
- Other (not as important): openness and communication, conscientiousness, agreeableness.
KSA: knowledge, Skills, Abilities
- Conflicts resolution: encourage desirable conflicts, but discourage undesirable ones
- Collaborative problem solving: overcome obstacles and take corrective actions
- Communication: actively listen without evaluating.
- Goal setting/performance management: implement specific challenges/goals
- Planning & task coordination: coordinate & synchronize (task interdependence)
Threats to Team Performance
- Risky shift: more extreme decisions, can become more risky or risk-adverse
- Innocent bystander: bcs of di usion of responsibilities, personal responsibility is limited and
they trust others to act (Genovese).
o Innocent bystander e ect: extreme case of di usion of responsibility
- Escalation of commitment: persist with losing course, even when there’s evidence of error
- Conformity & obedience: when member leaves decision making to the group (no ability to make
decisions.
o Social conformity: conforming due to social pressure, for harmony & cohesion.
Avoid by: rotation for critical evaluator, encourage objections, have impartial leader,
subgroups, di erent leaders, outside experts, devil advocate on rotation, alternative
scenarios, second-chance meetings, pre-votes (anonymous), electronic meetings
, o Groupthink: lose critical evaluative capabilities (in highly cohesive teams), self-censor,
unwilling to criticize, avoid unpleasant disagreements, etc.
o Abilene paradox: when everyone agrees although nobody wants to (bcs they think
everyone else wants to go; hidden pressure)
- Social loafing: free-riders
o Identifiability: counter social loafing
- Ringlemann e ect: people don’t work as hard in groups compared to individually
- Self-limiting behaviour: reduce engagement (“why bother”, “no one listens anyway”)
o Can be avoided by clarifying the payo of active participation.
BONUS: how to fight productively?
- Work with more information rather than less
- Develop alternatives to enrich debate
- Keep coming back to common goals —> collaboration
- Use humour
- Maintain balanced corporate power structure —> fairness
- Resolve issues without forcing consensus.
Interventions for high performance
1. E ective meetings: clear agenda
a. 2-3 important things to get done
b. How much time do we have
2. After action reviews and process checks
a. Learn from mistakes (productive failures)
3. Dealing with free-riders
a. NO attaching labels
