1. Working in Teams A Brief Introduction
The Cain Project in Engineering and Professional Communication
ENGINEERING SERIES

2. Why Learn Team Skills?
Sample of Job Qualifications That Employers Requested:
“Ability to work effectively in a multi-disciplinary team setting”
“Ability to work with moderate supervision on multidisciplinary teams is desired”
“Possess good communication (oral and written) skills and be able to work well in a team environment”
“Must be a team player”

3. Why Work in a Team?
Teams outperform their best member what ___% of the time?
Especially if members are:
competent
motivated
diverse
trained
Michaelsen, L.K., Watson, W. E., & Black, R. H. (1989) 97

4. What Is a Team? A diverse group of people who:
share leadership responsibilities
work towards a mutually defined goal
are interdependent
work within larger group or system
have created an identity

5. A Successful Team Accomplishes team goals
Member
Task Functions
Maintenance Functions
Team Goals
Accomplishes team goals
Balances task and maintenance functions through effective communication
Lumdsen, G, & Lumdsen, D (1993)

6. Team’s Task and Maintenance Functions
Task Functions
Accomplish the task (giving or seeking info, evaluating, elaborating, etc.)
Maintenance Functions
Build relationships between members (establishing norms, gatekeeping, supporting, etc.)

7. Resolve Maintenance Problems
Don’t try to solve difficulties in the way your group performs (maintains relationships) by altering the way you do your task.
Don’t think, “I’ll show him how it feels to get things at the last minute. I’ll just wait to deliver my portion of the report until 2 hours before we have to hand it in!”
Do say, “Armand, we need to talk about delivering things to one another. Let’s set aside about 20 minutes on the agenda before we go on to other issues.”

8. What Tips the Balance Between Average and Excellent?
Stays focused on goals
Engages in open communication
Supports one another
Creates strong team spirit
Makes decisions collectively
Collaborates; no power hoarding
Appreciates debate or differences
Balances participation
Adapted from: Lewis, P., Aldridge, D., & Swamidass, P. (1998)

9. Good Engineering Teams
Make sure everyone knows the task/goal
Plan realistically
Make sure roles and norms are understood
Help each other meet group goals

10. References
Michaelsen, L.K., Watson, W. E., & Black, R. H. A realistic test of individual versus group consensus decision making. Journal of Applied Psychology, 74(5):
Lewis, P., Aldridge, D., & Swamidass, P. M. (1998) Assessing teaming skills acquisition on undergraduate project teams, Journal of Engineering Education, 82, pp
Lumdsen, G, & Lumdsen, D. Communicating in Groups and Teams: Sharing Leadership, 4th ed. Wadsworth Publishing (2003).

11. Lead through Excellence in Engineering Communication
More resources are available for you
under “Engineering Communication” at Connexions at
at the Cain Project site at
in your course Communication Folder in OWLSPACE.