Teamwork is crucial to success in an organization Teamwork is crucial to success in an organization. Some teams produce products, provide services, or recommend solutions to problems. Other teams—perhaps in addition to providing a service or recommending a solution—also produce documents. Teams are usually more productive when they establish ground rules for behavior.

Working and Writing in Teams To learn how to Work in teams. Be a productive leader. Resolve conflicts constructively. Write collaborative documents.

Working and Writing in Teams Start by answering these questions: What kinds of messages should groups attend to? What roles do people play in groups? How should we handle conflict? How can we create the best co-authored documents?

Types of Group Messages Informational Focus on the problem or challenge, data, and possible solutions. Procedural Focus on methods and process. Interpersonal Focus on people, promoting friendliness, cooperation, and group loyalty. Different messages are appropriate at different points in a group’s development. In general, group messages fall into these three categories.

Stages of Group Development Orientation Members develop social cohesiveness. Formation Members choose a leader and define the problem. Coordination Members do most of the work; the longest phase. Formalization Members seek consensus. Different messages dominate during the various stages of group development. These four stages address how members may interact.

Positive Roles in Groups Seeking Information and Opinions Giving Information and Opinions Summarizing Evaluating Coordinating Positive roles and actions help the group achieve its task goals. To seek information and opinions, ask questions and identify gaps in the group’s knowledge. To give information and opinions, answer questions and provide relevant information. To summarize, restate major points, pulling ideas together. To evaluate, compare group processes and products to standards and goals. To coordinate, plan work and give directions.

Roles That Help Build Loyalty Encouraging Participation Solving Interpersonal Problems Relieving Tensions Checking Feelings Listening Actively Positive roles and actions also help the group build loyalty, resolve conflicts, and function smoothly. To encourage participation, demonstrate openness and acceptance. To relieve tensions, joke and suggest breaks and fun activities. To check feelings, ask members how they feel about group activities. To solve interpersonal problems, open discussion on problems in the group and suggest ways to solve them. To listen actively, show group members that they have been heard and are taken seriously.

Negative Roles in Groups Blocking Dominating Clowning Withdrawing Negative roles and actions harm the group’s product and process. Blocking is when a member disagrees with everything that is proposed. Dominating includes trying to run the group by ordering and shutting out others. Clowning results in unproductive jokes and diverting the group from its task. Withdrawing includes being silent in meetings, not helping with work, or not attending.

To Reduce Group Conflicts Make responsibilities and ground rules clear at the beginning. Discuss problems as they arise. Realize that group members are not responsible for each others’ happiness. Conflicts can arise in any group of intelligent people who care about a task. Yet, many of us feel so uncomfortable with conflict that we pretend it doesn’t exist. Therefore, we must deal with conflict if we want to resolve it. Use these techniques to reduce the conflicts in a group.

Steps in Conflict Resolution Make sure that the people involved really disagree. Check to see that everyone’s information is correct. Discover the needs each person is trying to meet. Search for alternatives. Repair bad feelings. Dealing successfully with conflict requires both attention to the issues and to people’s feelings. Use these five steps to help resolve conflicts constructively.

To Respond to Criticism Paraphrase. Check for feelings. Check for inferences. Buy time with limited agreement. Use you-attitude to see the other person’s point of view. To paraphrase, repeat in your own words the verbal content of a critic’s message. When you check for feelings, identify the emotions that the critic seems to be expressing. To check inferences, identify the implied meaning of the criticism. You can buy time with limited agreement by restating the part of the criticism you believe to be true. Use you-attitude to help see the other person’s point of view.

To Create Co-Authored Documents Allow time to discuss problems and find solutions. Get to know group members. Be a responsible group member. Be aware of differences in seeing things and expressing ideas. Remember that oral agreement may not lead to a strong written document. The keys to producing good co-authored documents include talking about your purposes and audiences and discussing drafts and revisions as a group. Follow these steps, and understand that in today’s business world, you’re very likely to co-author in a team or group.