How do we create a sense of ‘team’ among a group of individuals?

Teams are comprised of individuals. You cannot escape the influence that their individual personalities, attitudes & motivations will have on your team… but you can plan for it.

How do we create a sense of ‘team’?  Identify common goals  Establish explicit norms  Create structure requiring interdependence & reliance on one another  Subordinate own objectives to the team’s  Have open dialogue/communication  Members protect/support each other  Demonstrate respect & trust

The creation of artifacts or symbols that represent the team often help build a sense of collective  provides a sense of uniqueness – how we are different than other teams  provides a sense of identity that member can relate to

If we understand someone’s personality, it can help us understand their behavior in our team.

personality attitudes motivation Team behavior

Important to understand how our type influences our preferences and behaviors in teams. Important to understand what other types prefer and their likely contributions to teams. Myers-Briggs types and teams

SJ SP NF NT Sensing - Judging Sensing - Perceiving Intuitive - Feeling Intuitive - Thinking Myers-Briggs 4 Main Personality Types

What to expect from an SP in a team flexible, open-minded & adaptable tends to be not judgmental can spur team to action effective at detecting potential problems w/i teams may forget commitments can be unpredictable

wants people to stick to the point What to expect from an SJ in a team adheres to rules, regulations, SOPs likes to work with stable, sensible, reliable people may give harsh feedback in public great at creating plans & strategy

What to expect from an NF in a team relates to/understands colleagues may resists working under deadlines and in ‘rigid’ manner seeks social satisfaction from teams and wants to provide this for others gives others praise openly & often may make decisions based on social reasons

What to expect from an NT in a team may be oblivious to feelings of others responsive to new ideas likes to handle problems that arise in the team will stand up for convictions even if other team members don’t agree likes the creative aspects of tasks but will let others handle the details

Although have a diversity of personality types can be challenging in teams, it also can serve the team in many positive ways as individuals bring their diverse strengths, perspectives, orientations to bear

Each team member is characterized by a constellation of personality traits that manifest in a pattern referred to as their “preferred working style.” …sometimes team members have difficulty understanding or interacting with those who have styles that are different than their own.

WORKING STYLE ORIENTATION ADAPTOR 192 INNOVATOR IB AB BRIDGER

INNOVATOR  Paradigm breaker  Risk-taker  Challenger of the status quo  Rebellious  Inefficient  Loner  Uncomfortable with routine, structure, authority ADAPTOR  Paradigm maintainer  Risk-averse  Maintainer of the status quo  Conforming  Efficient  Relationship-oriented  Comfortable with routine, structure, authority BOTH ADAPTORS AND INNOVATORS CAN BE EFFECTIVE TEAM MEMBERS, BUT WILL LIKELY HAVE DIFFERENT ROLES Working Style Descriptions

“Creating value with diverse teams in global management”article Diverse teams come in 3 models: The Destroyers The Equalizers The Creators

Creating value in diverse teams: The MBI approach MAP Define the territory Draw the map Assess the terrain BRIDGE Prepare the ground Decenter to other shore Recenter to span INTEGRATE Manage the participation Resolve disagreements Build on ideas

Team Mapping Exercise The purpose of this exercise is to have your team go through the 3 Mapping steps in order to understand member differences and how best to utilize, and accommodate for, these through the class. Please be specific as possible while doing this exercise in order for your team to generate as much useful information as possible.

Team Mapping Exercise Define the territory Within your team, decide upon 4 key dimensions on which your team members differ (all members do not have to differ on these dimensions) that are most likely to raise barriers, and/or can be leveraged to help the team achieve its objectives. Be specific on these dimensions -- for example, instead of putting 'culture,' which is very general, focus on some defining aspect of culture that would have significance for your team. See Appendix A for an example of this step of the mapping procedure.

Team Mapping Exercise Draw the Map In this step, your team should attempt to assess each member's characteristics on these dimensions. The purpose of this step is to attempt to determine how your team members differ in these 4 respects. One method for doing this is to use a continuum scale that places team members from a score of '1' to '10.' 1 10 LowHigh

Team Mapping Exercise Assess the Terrain Use the map of the member' scores to generate some possible, specific ways in which these differences among team members has influenced the dynamics of your team so far, or could in the future (in either a positive or negative way). This process may help understand problems that may have occurred, or are currently occurring in the team.

Diverse teams are often plagued with miscommunication. This step of the MBI process consists of team members taking steps to communicate effectively across their differences to bring members and their ideas together -- the preliminary focus of building a 'bridge' among members. Team Bridging Exercise

Prepare the ground Preparing well sets the foundation for building a good bridge. A team that is prepared to bridge the potential gap among team members demonstrates the motivation to communicate effectively across team members and also the confidence that difficulties posed by their differences can be overcome.

Team Bridging Exercise Prepare the ground (cont’d) Choose 1 of the 4 difference characteristics your team identified in the mapping exercise and discuss your teams' members thoughts and concerns regarding the motivation level and confidence level to handle this difference characteristic effectively within the team.