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Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved

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1 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved
Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.

2 Working and Writing in Teams
Chapter 8 Working and Writing in Teams Team Interactions Roles Leadership Decision-Making Feedback Student Teams Diverse Teams Conflict Resolution Effective Meetings Technology in Teams Collaborative Writing Chapter 8. Working and Writing in Teams.

3 Chapter 8 Learning Objectives
LO 8-1 Different kinds of productive and nonproductive roles in teams LO 8-2 Group decision-making strategies LO 8-3 Characteristics of successful teams LO 8-4 Techniques for resolving conflict LO 8-5 Techniques for making meetings effective LO 8-6 Technologies to use in teamwork LO 8-7 Techniques for collaborative writing

4 Team Interactions: Three Dimensions
Informational—focus on content: problem, data, solutions Procedural—focus on methods, processes Interpersonal—focus on people, cooperation, team loyalty Teamwork is vital for success in most business organizations. Successful teamwork begins with skilled interpersonal communication, which includes listening, networking, organization, and conflict resolution. When teams are formed in an organization, they can focus on different dimensions. In an informational dimension, teams focus on content, including discussing the problem, analyzing data, and proposing possible solutions. In a procedural dimension, teams focus on method and process to determine how they will make decisions and to make assignments. In an interpersonal dimension, teams focus on people to promote friendliness, cooperation, and loyalty. These different dimensions show up at different stages during a team’s life cycle.

5 Life Stages of Team Interactions
Formation Coordination Teams go through multiple stages during their life cycles: formation, coordination, and formalization. Formalization

6 Team Interactions, continued…
Begin to define task Develop social cohesiveness Set up and clarify procedures Adopt ground rules Use interpersonal communication to resolve tensions Analyze problem well before seeking solutions Formation In the formation stage, teams define the task, create friendships and social cohesiveness, set up and clarify procedures and rules, use interpersonal communication to resolve tensions, and analyze the problem well before seeking solutions. While this is a shorter stage of teamwork, it is vitally important and all too often overlooked in favor of attacking the problem directly. Formation provides a foundation of trust and clear expectations for the team to operate on for the rest of the project.

7 Team Interactions, continued…
Longest phase Most comments need to deal with information Conflict occurs as team debates alternate solutions Interpersonal and procedural comments help team stay on track Consider many solutions Coordination The coordination stage is the longest phase of teamwork. In this stage, the team is working through the problems and moving toward a solution. In this stage, comments and questions should focus on gathering, analyzing, and making decisions about information. While debating different solutions, teams frequently experience conflicts, but interpersonal and procedural comments can help the team stay on track. Teams should consider many solutions to find the best possible solution for the problem.

8 Team Interactions, continued…
Consensus state Team implements decisions, which determines its success Team seeks to forget earlier conflicts Formalization In the formalization stage, the team comes to a state of consensus and beings to implement its decisions. This is the stage that provides evidence of the team’s success. In this stage, teams often seek to forget earlier conflicts to focus on the consensus solution.

9 Positive Roles in Teams
Seeking information, opinions Task Goals Giving information, opinions Evaluating Each individual in a team can play multiple roles. These roles can be positive or negative. Some of the positive roles include seeking information and opinions (asking questions, identifying gaps in knowledge), giving information and opinions (answering questions, providing relevant information), summarizing (restating main points and decisions), evaluating (comparing processes and products to established standards), and coordinating (planning work, making assignments, and giving directions). Summarizing Coordinating

10 Positive Actions in Teams
Encouraging participation Relieving tensions Checking feelings Solving interpersonal problems Listening actively Positive roles in teams lead to positive actions, including encouraging participation, relieving tensions, checking feelings, solving interpersonal problems, and listening actively.

11 Negative Actions in Teams
Blocking Dominating Clowning Overspeaking Withdrawing Some actions on teams are negative, and hurt the overall work on the team. Some negative actions include blocking (disagreeing with everything), dominating (dictating the team through ordering, shutting out others, and insisting on one’s own way), clowning (making unproductive jokes and distracting the team), overspeaking (always being first to speak and respond to comments), and withdrawing (being silent and not contributing).

12 Team Leadership Effective teams balance three types of leadership:
Informational—create, assess ideas and text Interpersonal—check feelings, resolve conflict, monitor process Procedural—set agenda, keep members informed, check on assignments Roles need not be filled by one person “Leader” was not one of the roles listed in the earlier slides. Every team has at least one leader, and some have more. But the best teams balance between three types of leadership that encourage positive roles and actions within the team. An informational leader creates and evaluates ideas and text. An interpersonal leader monitors progress, checks feelings, and helps to resolve conflicts. A prodecural leader sets the agenda, keeps people informed and on task, and takes charge of sending communications. These three leadership roles don’t need to be filled by a single person, and they may not stay the same person throughout the project. Leaders emerge from the team as necessary to complete the tasks.

13 Decision-Making: Problem Solving
Identify problem Understand what team has to deliver What form? When due? Gather information Share among team members Examine it critically Solving problems effectively on a team can be done with two different processes. The standard method involves seven steps: Identify problem (what are you trying to accomplish?) Understand what you have to deliver (what form? When is it due?) Gather information. Make sure you share it with all of the team members and examine it critically.

14 Decision-Making: Problem Solving, continued…
Establish criteria Generate alternative solutions Measure alternatives against criteria Choose best solution 4. Establish criteria (what is the ideal solution? How will we measure that solution? What legal, financial, moral, or other limitations affect our decision?) 5. Brainstorm solutions. 6. Measure the alternatives against the criteria you set up in step 4. 7. Choose the best solution, based on the information and criteria.

15 Decision-Making: Dot Planning
Lets large team set priorities quickly Team brainstorms ideas Ideas recorded on large pages Pages posted on wall Each member affixes colored adhesive dots by ideas An alternate decision-making strategy is called dot-planning. This helps teams choose priorities quickly. The team brainstorms ideas and records those ideas on large pages. The pages are posted on a wall, and each member of the team affixes colored dots by the ideas to show the highest and lowest priorities. High Dots show highest and lowest priorities Low

16 Feedback Strategies Generate and heed as much feedback as possible
Seek external—supervisors, suppliers, clients, customers Seek internal—within in the team As the team begins working through decisions, they should generate and heed as much feedback as possible. External feedback, from supervisors, suppliers, clients, customers, or others outside of the team, helps teams to evaluate performance and to see gaps in their thinking and processes. Internal feedback from the members of the team can help evaluate performance, track progress, and correct or improve team procedures.

17 Successful Student Teams
Assign specific tasks, set clear deadlines, schedule frequent meetings Meet and talk through plans and conflicts face-to-face Build trust through goodwill, listening, and participation Recognize contributions Most people get their first experience on teams as students, doing class projects. The most successful student teams are not necessarily the smartest or most skilled. Rather, they are the teams that follow established communication practices. They assign specific tasks, set deadlines, and schedule meetings. They meet and talk through plans and conflicts. They build trust through goodwill, listening, and participation. They recognize the contributions of other members of the team.

18 Successful Student Teams, continued…
Listen carefully to each other Establish proportionate work loads Make decisions together Listen to criticism Deal directly with conflicts Successful teams listen carefully to each other to respond to emotions, words, and nonverbal signals. They divide the work evenly and work around scheduling conflicts. They make decisions together, listen to criticism, and deal directly with conflicts.

19 Peer Pressure and Groupthink
Groupthink—tendency for teams to value agreement so highly they punish dissent Correctives to groupthink Search for alternatives Test assumptions Protect rights of individuals to disagree As teams work together, they often succumb to groupthink, which is the tendency for teams to value agreement over dissent. This often shows up when teams accept the first idea, or don’t properly discuss ideas in order to avoid conflict. Groupthink produces suboptimal results. To avoid groupthink, teams should consciously search for alternatives, test assumptions, and protect individuals who disagree.

20 Diverse Teams Differences affect how people behave in team, what they expect from team Gender Age Class Religion Race Sexual orientation Ethnicity Physical ability Every member of your team comes from a different background, and this affects how they behave on a team and what they expect from the team. Diversity on a team can bring challenges and miscommunications, but it can also provide opportunities to gain additional insights and different perspectives.

21 Diverse Teams, continued…
Play to one another’s strengths Find practical ways to deal with differences Some ways to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by diversity are to play to one another’s strengths and to find practical ways to deal with differences.

22 Conflict Resolution Make sure people involved really disagree
Ensure that everyone has correct information Discover needs each person is trying to meet Search for alternatives Repair negative feelings In any team, there will be conflicts. Successful teams need to use conflict resolution techniques to move forward together. This process involves 5 steps: Make sure the people really disagree. Sometimes conflicts result from poor communication or faulty interpretations rather than actual disagreements. Check that everyone has correct information. If some people have faulty or outdated information, they may come to wrong conclusions. Discover the needs each person is trying to meet. Determining real needs makes it possible to see a new solution. Search for alternatives. Sometimes people enter into conflict because they don’t see enough alternatives. Take time to brainstorm to find new alternatives that meet needs and resolve conflicts. Repair negative feelings. Help resolve and repair hurt feelings in order to reunify as a team. The presenting problem may not be real problem

23 Criticism Responses Paraphrasing Checking for feelings
Checking inferences Buying time with limited agreement Using you-attitude Look at things from others’ viewpoint I statements are effective Many times conflict involves one person directly criticizing another. At those times, responding well to the criticisms is vital to helping the team move forward. Some tactics for responding to criticism include: Paraphrasing. Repeating the criticism back in your own words helps you ensure that you have heard correctly and shows that you are taking the criticism seriously. Checking for feelings. Identify the critic’s emotions to make sure you understand them. Checking inferences. Tell the critic what you see as the implied meaning of the criticisms so you can identify the real problem and communicate your own feelings about the conflict. Buying time with limited agreement. A limited agreement avoids escalating the conflict but does not yield to the critic’s views. Buying time allows you to deal with the criticism logically, rather than in the heat of the moment. Using You-Attitude. Look at the criticism from the critic’s viewpoint. Use “I” statements (like “I feel that I’m doing more than my fair share of the work”).

24 Effective Meeting Guidelines
Make purpose explicit Distribute an agenda Allow time for discussion Save time with an omnibus motion Pay attention to people and process as well as tasks Effective teams use effective meetings. To be effective, meetings must be planned well and have a specific purpose. Make sure you know what the purpose of the meeting is (are you sharing information? Making plans? Brainstorming? Making decisions?) before you meet. Create and distribute an agenda beforehand so people know what to expect and how to prepare. Make sure to allow time for discussion, particularly on important or contentious items. On items that you know will not be contentious, save time with an omnibus motion. These are routine decisions where agreement will be easy. In all meetings, pay attention to the people and the processes as well as accomplishing tasks.

25 Effective Meeting Guidelines, continued…
Summarize group’s consensus after each point Summarize all decisions at end of meeting During meetings, summarize the group’s consensus every time you make a decision. At the end of the meeting, summarize all the decisions. These summaries make the agreements and decisions explicit.

26 Technology in Teams Meetings Scheduling Collaboration
Skype, FaceTime, Google+ GoToMeeting Scheduling Online calendars Project management Collaboration Modern technologies can facilitate teamwork. Skype, FaceTime, and Google+ all provide video chat and video conferencing solutions and are free to use. For more formal or larger meetings, GoToMeeting.com provides a more robust solution. Teams must coordinate calendars and schedule tasks. Many online calendars offer tools for collaborative scheduling. More advanced scheduling that involves tasks and timelines can be accomplished with specific project management software. Teams also need to coordinate on documents, presentations, and products. Google Docs, Microsoft Office, and other online production tools allow team members to write, comment, and edit documents in real time. DropBox, SkyDrive, and Google Drive all provide storage and cloud sharing solutions.

27 Collaborative Writing
Working with other writers to produce a single document Requires attention to Team formation process Conflict resolution Steps in writing process One of the most difficult tasks to do as a team is collaborative writing. Like other team tasks, however, this can be accomplished through attention to the process. Make sure you establish guidelines and processes for collaborative writing in your team formation. Make sure you know how to resolve conflicts over how and what you write. And pay attention to the steps in the writing process.

28 Collaborative Writing, continued…
Planning Make analysis explicit; know where you agree and disagree Plan organization, format, and style before anyone writes Consider work styles and other commitments Decide how you will give feedback Build leeway into deadlines Before you write collaboratively, make sure you plan carefully. Make your analysis explicit so you can anticipate disagreements. Plan out your organization, format, and style before anyone beings writing. Consider each team member’s work styles and other commitments. Make a plan for giving and receiving feedback. Make sure you build some leeway into the deadlines to allow for editing and conflict resolution.

29 Collaborative Writing, continued…
Composing Decide who will write what Decide how to share drafts Label and date drafts If quality is crucial, have best writer compose after others gather data In the composing process, decide who will write which parts of the document and how you will share those parts with each other. Be careful about file management. Label and date your drafts so everyone is working with the latest document. If you are worried about quality or consistency, determine the best writer on your team, and use them to compose while others do different tasks like gathering and analyzing data.

30 Collaborative Writing, continued…
Revising Evaluate content, discuss revisions as team Evaluate organization, discuss revisions Recognize that different people favor different writing styles When satisfied with content, have best writer make all changes to writing style When you have composed your document, make sure you take time to revise. Evaluate the content carefully and discuss the necessary revisions as a team. Look at the organization and different writing styles. Discuss how to improve the document as a team and then ask your best writer to make the changes to the style.

31 Collaborative Writing, continued…
Editing and Proofreading One person checks mechanics, format, and style for correctness, consistency Use a spell checker Proofread document also When you have reached a final document, edit and proofread carefully. One person should check the document thoroughly for mechanics, format, and style. Make sure you use a spell checker and proofread the document manually as well.

32 Making the Team Process Work
Allow ample time to discuss problems, find solutions Get to know team members, build team loyalty Attend all meetings; carry out your duties Teamwork can be challenging, but you can make it work. Make sure you: Allow time to discuss problems and solutions. Get to know your team members, and build loyalty. Attend all meetings and carry out your duties.

33 Making the Team Process Work, continued…
Note that people have different ways of expressing themselves Don’t assume that smooth discussion means total agreement Use collaborative technologies wisely to help the process Allow plenty of time for all stages 4. Note that people express themselves differently. 5. Don’t assume that smooth discussion means agreement. 6. Use technologies to help the team process. 7. Allow plenty of time for all stages.


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