1. Building an Effective Team Reference: B. O’Keefe, TEAMWORKS: Skills for Collaborative Work, University of Illinois, http://www.vta.spcomm.uiuc.edu/ (etc) http://www.vta.spcomm.uiuc.edu/

2. Lecture Overview Why Work in Teams? –Distributing the Workload –Reinforcing Individual Capabilities –Creating Participation Important Questions for New Teams –Members’ Attitudes –Members’ Interaction Styles –Members’ Motivations

3. Why Work in Teams? 1 - Distributing the Workload –Project is too big for one person –Need simple numbers of people 2 - Reinforcing Individual Capabilities –Project is too complex for one person –Need a wider range of skills than one person has 3 - Creating Involvement –Project is too important for one person –Need a whole group to be committed to the result

4. 1 - Distributing the Workload Project is too big for one person Assumes the task is divisible into parallel subtasks –Divisible Task: building a car –Indivisible Task: carrying a heavy log Extreme approach: “Divide and Scatter” –partition the tasks into one subtask per person –work tasks independently –come back together at the end –does not work for most projects Tend to see sublinear speedup due to dependencies

5. 1 - Distributing the Workload Types of dependencies between tasks –Independent (completely parallelizable) can use divide and scatter –Redundant (must be copied by all members) e.g. reading the background material –Sequential (single exec. in a specified order) usually based on input/output sequence –Mutually Exclusive (MUTEX) (single exec. in any order) resource constraints prevent parallelism

6. 1 - Distributing the Workload Precedence Graphs –Independent –Redundant –Sequential –MUTEX –Hierarchical Dependencies

7. Team Building Activity: Divisible & Independent Tasks

8. Your Example: Precedence Graph

9. 2 - Reinforcing Individual Capabilities Task is too complex for one person’s skill set –Requires diversity in abilities –Different members contribute different strengths –True multidisciplinary team = team in which no one person can accomplish the task alone (ABET) Relevant skills may be personal as well as technical –writing skill –speaking skill –analytical vs. practical skills

10. 2 - Reinforcing Individual Capabilities Need to Identify and State Goals –team goals –individual goals Inventory of Resources –individual strengths & interests –individual weaknesses & disinterests Comment on diversity –Your best friend may make a lousy team member –The two of you are too much alike

11. Your Example: Project Goals 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

12. Team Building Exercise : Clarifying Project Expectations

13. Your Example: Personal Strengths 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

14. Your Example: Personal Weaknesses 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

15. 3. Creating Participation Sometimes group “ownership” is important Get group involved in a decision –even though a single person decision may be easier If choice is obvious, then it will probably be the same If not obvious, then contributions will be valuable Either way: –Members all understand the thought behind decision –They are less likely to complain later

16. Important Questions for New Teams What is each members’ attitude toward teaming? –Maybe some dislike teams completely? How do members’ Interaction styles differ? –What is their individual focus? –How do they react to a group? What motivates each individual? –What does this person really want? –What motivation will he/she respond to?

17. Attitude Toward Teams Read The Statements Below Rate Each item as: –4 = strongly agree –3 = agree –2 = undecided or 50/50 –1 = disagree –0 = strongly disagree

18. Attitude Toward Teams –I enjoy working in teams –I often do work in teams –Group decision making is important to organizations –I prefer to work in a group rather than alone –I am comfortable in leadership roles –When working in a group I usually participate actively –I like being evaluated based on the group’s work –I am good at reading other people –I have important things to say when I am in a group

19. Interaction Styles Two different ways of interacting –1. Is the person more: task oriented - focused on the job and the results? People oriented - focused on relationships? –2. Is the person more of a: Thinker - always thinking of the big picture Doer - wants to be given a task to accomplish Team needs some of each to complement each other

20. What Motivates an Individual? Everybody is motivated by different things –some are self-motivated –some need a kick in the pants (figuratively) It helps to identify what motivates each individual –no one technique works for everyone –need several different carrots –and several different sticks

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26. Summary Things to know about –Team Goals –Individual facets Personal goals Personal strengths and weaknesses Attitude toward teming in general Interaction style Motivation

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