1. Managing Project Teams

2. Teams & Teamwork Team Teamwork Team and teamwork roles for managers:
A small group of people with complementary skills, who work together to achieve a shared purpose and hold themselves mutually accountable for performance results.
Teamwork
The process of people actively working together to accomplish common goals.
Team and teamwork roles for managers:
Supervisor : the appointed head of a formal work unit.
Network facilitator : a peer leader and network hub for a special task force.
Participant :a helpful contributing member of a project team
External coach —the external sponsor of a problem-solving team staffed by others.

3. Synergy in Teams Synergy
The creation of a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
A team uses its membership resources to the fullest and thereby achieves through collective action far more than could be achieved otherwise.
= 10 (positive synergy)
= 2 (negative synergy)

4. Committees and Teams Committees, project teams, and task forces —
People outside their daily job assignments work together in a small team for a specific purpose.
Task agenda is narrow, focused, and ongoing.
Projects teams or task forces.
People from various parts of an organization work together on common problems, but on a temporary basis.
Official tasks are very specific and time defined.
Disbands after task is completed.

5. Types of Work teams

6. Common Problems in Teams
Personality conflicts.
Individual differences in work styles.
Ambiguous agendas.
Ill-defined problems.
Poor readiness to work.
Lack of motivation.
Conflicts with other deadlines or priorities.
Lack of team organization or progress.
Meetings that lack purpose or structure.
Members coming to meetings unprepared.

7. Characteristics of High-Performing Teams
Share a sense of common purpose
Make effective use of individual talents and expertise
Have balanced and shared roles
Maintain a problem solving focus
Accept differences of opinion and expression
Encourage risk taking and creativity
Sets high personal performance standards
Identify with the team

8. Characteristics of High-Performing Teams

9. Usefulness of Teams Usefulness of teams:
More resources for problem solving.
Improved creativity and innovation.
Improved quality of decision making.
Greater commitments to tasks.
Higher motivation through collective action.
Better control and work discipline.
More individual need satisfaction.

10. Effectiveness of High-Performing Teams
Team Effectiveness =
Quality of Inputs + (Process Gains - Process Losses)
Effective teams …
Achieve and maintain high levels of task performance.
Achieve and maintain high levels of member satisfaction.
Retain viability for the future.

11. Open-systems Model for Team Effectiveness

12. Resources & Group Processes
Resource input factors that influence group process in the pursuit of team effectiveness:
Nature of the task.
Organizational setting.
Team size.
Membership characteristics.
Group process:
The way the members of any team work together as they transform inputs into outputs :
Also known as group dynamics.
Includes communications, decision making, norms, cohesion, and conflict, among others.

13. The Five-Stage Team Development Model
FIGURE 11.1

14. The Five-Stage Team Development Model
Forming:
the members get acquainted with each other and understand the scope of the project.
Establish ground rules through acceptable behaviors with respect to both the project and interpersonal relations.
This stage is completed once members begin to think of themselves as part of a group.
Storming:
this stage is marked by a high degree of internal conflict. Members accept that they are part of a project group but resist the constraints imposed by the project and group.
There is conflict over who will control the group and how decisions will be made.
As these conflicts are resolved, the project manager’s leadership becomes accepted, and the group moves to the next stage.

15. The Five-Stage Team Development Model
Norming: The informal rules or standards that groups adopt to regulate and regularize group members’ behavior. It may result in team sanctions.
close relationships develop and team members agree on purpose, structure, and leadership and are prepared to start performing.
Feelings of shared responsibility for the project are heightened.
The norming phase is complete when the group structure solidifies and the group establishes a common set of expectations about how members should work together.
Performance norms: Define the level of work effort and performance that team members are expected to contribute to the team task.

16. How cohesiveness and norms influence team performance
Performing:
The team operating structure at this point is fully functional and accepted.
Group energy has moved from getting to know each other and how the group will work together to accomplishing the project goals.
A period of productivity, achievement, and pride as the team members work together to get the job done.
Adjourning:
For conventional work groups, performing is the last stage of their development.
However, for project teams, there is a completion phase.
During this stage, the team prepares for its own disbandment.
High performance is no longer a top priority. Instead attention is devoted to wrapping up the project.

17. The Five-Stage Team Development Model

18. Guidelines for building positive norms:
Act as a positive role model.
Reinforce the desired behaviors with rewards.
Control results by performance reviews and regular feedback.
Orient and train new members to adopt desired behaviors.
Recruit and select new members who exhibit desired behaviors.
Hold regular meetings to discuss progress and ways of improving.
Use team decision-making methods to reach agreement.

19. Examples of the norms of high-performance teams
Confidentiality is maintained; no information is shared outside the team unless all agree to it.
It is acceptable to be in trouble, but it is not acceptable to surprise others. Tell others immediately when deadlines or milestones will not be reached.
There is zero tolerance for bulling a way through a problem or an issue.
Agree to disagree, but when a decision has been made, regardless of personal feelings, move forward.
Respect outsiders, and do not flaunt one’s position on the project team.
Hard work does not get in the way of having fun.

20. Team Cohesiveness
Cohesiveness: The degree of interpersonal attractiveness within a group, dependent on factors like proximity, similarities, attraction among the individual group members, group size, intergroup competition, and agreement about goals.
The degree to which members are attracted to and motivated to remain part of a team.
Can be beneficial if paired with positive performance norms.

21. Guidelines for increasing team cohesion:
Induce agreement on team goals.
Increase membership homogeneity.
Increase interaction among members.
Decrease team size.
Introduce competition with other teams.
Reward team rather than individual results.
Provide physical isolation from other teams.

22. Sources and Consequences of Team/group Cohesiveness

23. How cohesiveness and norms influence team performance
Positive norms + high cohesiveness  high performance and strong commitments to positive norms.

24. How cohesiveness and norms influence team performance
Positive norms + low cohesiveness  moderate performance and weak commitments to positive norms.
Negative norms + low cohesiveness  low to moderate performance and weak commitments to negative norms.
Negative norms + high cohesiveness  low performance and strong commitments to negative norms.

25. Conditions Favoring Development of High Performance Project Teams
Ten or fewer team members
Voluntary team membership
Continuous service on the team
Full-time assignment to the team
An organization culture of cooperation and trust
Members report only to the project manager
All relevant functional areas are represented on the team
The project has a compelling objective
Members are very close to each other