Making
your Team Run
Effectively and
Efficiently
- Panel Assignment
- Networking Assignment
- Entrepreneur Interview
- International Issues Assignment
- Marketing Plan Assignment
- Presentations
- Making your Team Run Effectively & Efficiently
- Assignment Assistance:
You may have noticed that the course contains a great deal of team and presentation work and you be wondering why. The answer is simple - both are skills that are essential for success at university and in the workforce. For example, the Canadian Conference Board of Canada identifies the ability to work well with others as one of the top three employability skills.
Employers and professors stress team work because:
- Team work leads to better results
- Team members learn from one another
- Teams allow for the capitalization of individual strengths and the balancing of weaknesses
Teams versus Groups:
One of the keys to success in this course is building and maintaining your 'team' and not becoming a group. Teams are characterized by frequent meetings, democratic assignment of work, discussions and feedback which almost always produce excellent results. Groups are distinguished by infrequent meetings, individual work and lack of discussion and feedback which almost always produces inferior results. It is very important that your team stays a team and does not become a group.
If your team exhibits the following qualities then you are working towards a superior project.
- Frequent meetings that feature both discussion and feedback
- Democratic sharing of tasks
- Establish and follow guidelines
- Assembling the final project together
If your team exhibits the following qualities you may be in danger of becoming a group and corrective action may be needed in order to ensure first-rate results.
- Teams only come together to assign work and/or assemble final project
- Lack of discussion and feedback
- Domination by one or two people
- Lack of guidelines
Rules:
The following rules should ensure that your team is successful:
Accountability - Teams should determine who will do what and by what due dates. Team members must be held accountable for missed work.
Meetings and Attendance - Teams must establish a frequent meeting schedule that everyone has to abide by. Missing a meeting is much like missing a deadline and must have consequences.
Democratic Assignment of Tasks - Often teams assign tasks by a first come first serve basis or by whoever volunteers first. Thus shy or late members often get left completing undesirable activities or ones which they are not qualified for. To avoid this, tasks should not be delegated until the end of the meeting and members should establish a democratic draw system to ensure that everyone has an equal chance at first selection of activities.
Appointment of a rotating facilitator - In order for meetings to be efficient, teams must appoint a rotating facilitator to ensure that members stay on task and everyone participates. To ensure that everyone gets a chance to facilitate a meeting this task should be rotated amongst team members.
Establish meeting agendas - The facilitator should establish a meeting agenda to ensure that the team stays on task and doesn't forget to attend to important business.
Making your team effective
This resource is useful as a first activity before a team begins its tasks. Including a social and personal focus on working as a team can circumvent later problems.
When new teams are organized, members of each team are given a handout with questions designed to make the team more effective. Have a general class discussion of each question first, discussing why these questions are important and eliciting some suggestions for answers.
Each team will then discuss and answer the questions on the handout. There must be consensus within each team, and when this occurs, each team member writes the same answers to each question on the handout. This can be formalized if necessary by having all team members to sign each handout. Other teams may, of course, have different answers to the questions.
Questions to help make your team more effective
· What vision does your team share? · How will you communicate with each other? How often? For what reasons? · What support do individuals in the team need to get their work done? · How are you going to manage conflict and disagreements? · How do you want team members to behave towards each other? · How are you going to make decisions? · What do individual team members want to achieve or learn from this project or activity? How can you make sure that they do? · How will you recognize and celebrate individual and team achievements?
Troubleshooting Problems
"We can't find an acceptable meeting time!"
· Find out why people can't meet. If one or two members are always a problem let them develop a solution. Perhaps you can go to their house for a meeting · Break some tasks into smaller groups. · Use email, Internet chat rooms, etc. If one group member cannot meet and everyone else can perhaps you can set up a conference call using a speaker phone.
"Someone isn't doing their fair share…"
· Ask why - perhaps they don't feel knowledgeable in the area, have had a personal problem or feel the other team members don't care what they do. · Stop the problem before it starts - built team camaraderie through the assignment below, fun events, etc. When people like each other they are less likely to let others down. · If someone misses a meeting - produce notes to keep them informed. Ask for their feedback and try to avoid setting decisions in stone prior to speaking to them. · Try to make all the important decisions as a group. · Recognize that not everyone can contribute equally. Some members will always do a little more others a little less. This happens in school and the workforce.
"Nobody else cares but me…."
· Ask members if they do not care. Often what one perceives as a lack of interest is a lack of confidence in the project or one's abilities. · Complete extra work - if others see the effort that you are putting forth they may improve the quality of their work · Respect the contributions of others - sometimes people are contributing to the best of their ability and it may not be up to your standards.
"All one member does is criticize others…"
· Ask people to contribute a solution for every problem they point out. · Respect their opinion - feedback is needed for group work. · If you are hurt by somebody's comments ask if they are justifiable -- if so accept them. If not, express your feelings after a 20 second timeout. J