Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Teamwork Skills: Working Together As A Team Means Winning Together As A Team."
Teamwork Skills: Working Together As A Team Means Winning Together As A Team."
• Roles
– Expected behaviors for a given position
• Task roles
– Task-oriented group behavior
– Keep the group on track
• Maintenance roles
– Relationship-building group behavior
– Keep the group together
9-13
Team and Individualistic Roles
Effective Teamwork—A Ten-Step Model
3. Establish Accountability.
S
M
A
R
T
Skills needed for teamwork
Listening
Questioning
Pervading
Respecting
Helping
Sharing
Participating
Teams
A group becomes a team when:
1.Leadership becomes a shared activity
2.Accountability shifts from strictly individual to
both individual and collective
3.The group develops its own purpose or
mission
4.Problem solving becomes a way of life, not a
part-time activity
9-18
Team Building
• Team building
– experiential learning aimed at better internal
functioning of groups
9-19
How to Build Trust
1. Communication
2. Support
3. Respect
4. Fairness
5. Predictability
6. Competence
9-20
Teamwork conflict
What is conflict?
* In everyday speech, conflict is seen as a fight, a struggle, or
the clashing of opposed principles (e.g. Concise Oxford
Dictionary, 1983).
To keep peace in the team, Florence didn't press the issue. As time went on,
however, she began to resent the fact that Shirley still didn't do her share. Finally
one day, while cleaning out the display, she stopped what she was doing and
stormed into the other room to confront Shirley. This time she was very angry and
emotional, which then caused Shirley to react the same way. Each took a position
and locked into it. The argument continued until the team leader stopped it and
moved them to another room. After talking through the situation, it was finally
resolved.
The seeds of this conflict were planted when the issue was originally discussed but
left unresolved...at least to Florence. Florence stuffed the emotions into her belly
and didn't really deal with them. Eventually, her feelings grew in intensity and
finally "blew" all at once.
Case study 2: What causes conflict?
Pierre was a consultant with a successful business who had started doing work for Sam,
another consultant. Sam would hire out Pierre's services and take a fee in the process.
One day Sam called and said he had a lead if Pierre wanted to take it. Sam indicated on
the phone that "this isn't the kind of work we are interested in, so if you want to bid it and
get the work, just pay me a finders fee." Pierre was successful in getting the work and
communicated this to Sam. Sam immediately began telling Pierre how he wanted him to
do the work. Pierre thought the work was his alone because of what Sam had said and
communicated this to Sam. Their discussions were cordial and businesslike.
Two weeks later, Pierre received a nasty letter from Sam's lawyer indicating he had stolen
the work from Sam. Pierre attempted to contact Sam, but Sam wouldn't talk with him.
Pierre was hurt and angry, and began talking to lawyers. Then he realized that more
money would be spent on the conflict than the contract was worth, so tried another
method. Pierre wrote Sam an email telling his rendition of the story, and offering to do the
work under Sam's company name, and pay Sam the agreed finders fee. After some
continued discussions, Sam agreed. The work was performed, everyone received their
appropriate share of the fee, and the problem was resolved. After the work was complete,
Pierre decided never again to work with Sam.
Case study 3: What causes conflict?
Two supervisors, Bill and Don, had been given instructions to reduce their group size by two
people. Having only 10 people in each group, this was a sizeable reduction. Bill's personality
tended to favor people. He was generally more sensitive to people, and was a caring,
thoughtful supervisor. Don was just the opposite. He was more concerned with group
production, and considered people's feelings secondary to the work.
They met to discuss the staff reduction. Bill discussed that he had assembled his group and
discussed openly with them the need for the reduction. He said the group talked about what
could be done for the people who would be leaving. Could they help with job searches,
resume writing, and referrals? The group even discussed reducing everyone's hours and
maintaining the ten people for a while. Bill said that he had finally asked for volunteers, and,
in fact, two people said they would allow themselves to be "downsized" out. Bill was happy
with the outcome.
Don was outraged. He couldn't believe Bill had done something so irresponsible. "What," he
said "if they were your two best people, or people you had just invested training dollars in?"
He said Bill should be more concerned with what the group will look like after the dust
settles. They argued about how this downsizing should occur with all the emotion and
passion they could muster. It was a real conflict.
Reactions to conflict
Reactions to conflict
Avoiding: those who avoid conflict, denial is never a good way to resolve
any conflict, since it is just a way to hide and not facing. Communication is
important and sometimes you need to be really sharp and sensitive,
observe your teamwork.
Competing: means domination, and therefore another way to make
conflict management another issue itself.
Accommodation: means the member is going to be less committed and
involved since feeling left behind leads to isolation
Collaboration: having team members ready to collaborate always
empowers effectiveness, since they are willing to get involved in conflict as
much as in work and achievements.
Compromising: once a member feels part of the team and understand its
role and value, making him aware of the conflict relevance is easier so that
he can commit to help resolving it.
Conflict is Not Always Bad
It improves the group’s situation. Conflict forces team members to face
possible defects in a solution and thus produce better answers.