Faculty of Science

Week 11
Teams & Negotiation
ITECH 3203-7203
Professional Development
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Summary

Learning and project teams

Learning and projects
Learning organisations
Teams and organisational learning
Learning & Project Teams
Learning and Project Teams

Consider the organisational structure

• If work is routine
• functional or matrix organisational structure
• often includes routine work
• may be highly bureaucratic organisations
• less of a focus on learning and innovation
• If work is not routine
• project organisational structure
• creative and ongoing learning is highly valued
 Functional (or Line) Organisation
Structure

(Dobie, 2007, p165)

 Project Organisation Structure

(Schwalbe, 2014)
 Matrix Organisation Structure

(Dobie, 2007, p167)

 Mixed or Balanced Organisation
Structure

(Dobie, 2007, p167)

Learning and Project Teams
continued…

Organisational direction
• High Level objectives of the organisation
• Must also take environment into account
• complex and rapidly changing business environment
• focus on rapid change
• threats and challenges from different directions

• Need both general and specific skills within the team

Learning and Project Teams
continued…

Specific skills
• Technical skills
• Specific project or program knowledge
• Not be readily transferred
• e.g. company knowledge
• particular programming language
• Some value very highly—more so than general skills
Learning and Project Teams
continued…

General Skills
• Toolkit of skills, for example:
• personal and interpersonal skills
• project management skills
• management skills
• learning how to learn

• Transferred between organisations readily.

• Some value these skills very highly—more so than
specific skills.
Learning and Projects

Focus of the organisation will affect how teams are

managed
• Creativity and innovation
• IT projects creative
• Core component managing change
• Implementing strategic change
• General and specific skills in teams
Learning Organisations

“… a place where people continually expand their capacity

to create results they truly desire, where new and
expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where
collective aspiration is set free and where people are
continually learning how to learn …” (Du Plessis et al
quoting Senge 1990).
In other words – An organisation that learns and
encourages learning among its people.
Learning Organisations Aspects

• Personal Mastery: Become expert at what you do and

continually learn and improve at it.
• Mental Models: Internal representations that enable you
to predict behaviour and make decisions.
• Shared Vision: Having goals in common with others in
your team.
• Team Learning: The team’s abilities are greater that the
sum of its parts.
• Systems Thinking: A common language for describing
aspects of a system.
Learning Organisations

Other features of learning organisations

• Continual Quality Improvement (CQI)
• Continuous learning
• Action learning
• Learning = Programmed Learning + Questions (L=P+Q)
• Total Quality Management (TQM)
• Deming’s 14 points
Continual Quality Improvement

CQI an approach to quality management that builds upon

traditional quality assurance methods by emphasizing the
organization and systems: it focuses on "process" rather than
the individual; it recognizes both internal and external
"customers"; it promotes the need for objective data to
analyze and improve processes.
CQI is a management philosophy which contends that most
things can be improved. This philosophy does not subscribe
to the theory that "if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it." At the core of
CQI is serial experimentation (the scientific method) applied
to everyday work to meet the needs of those we serve and
improve the services we offer.
Action Learning

Action learning is an educational process whereby people

work and learn together by tackling real issues and
reflecting on their actions. Learners acquire knowledge
through actual actions and practice rather than through
traditional instruction.
Action learning is done in conjunction with others, in small
groups called action learning sets. It is proposed as
particularly suitable for adults, as it enables each person to
reflect on and review the action they have taken and the
learning points arising. This should then guide future action
and improve performance.
Total Quality Management (TQM)
Deming’s 14 points
•Focus on the customer (long-
term).
•Adopt a new outlook on QM.
•Improve quality design in the light
of inspections (not just discard
failures).
•Use reliable suppliers.
•Improve processes to reduce
variation.
•Train workers to be self-managed.
•Ensure good management.
•Eliminate fear, encourage
cooperation.
•Remove barriers between work
groups.
•Get rid of slogans and targets
•replace quotas with quality
requirement.
•Remove barriers to worker pride.
•Highlight education and
retraining.
•Everyone use PDCA (Plan, Do,
Check, Act) & satisfy the
customer .
Teams

Benefits of teams
• More ideas and information
• Decision making and problem solving higher level
• Improves understanding and acceptance
• Higher motivation and performance levels
• Offsets personal bias and blind spots
• Alternatives that are “outside the box”
(Carlopio, Andrewartha, Armstrong, 2005, p.599)
Teams
continued…

Qualities of a good team

• Each person performs well and is capable of improving
• Each person communicates well
• The leader can self-manage and grow
• The leader can offer a vision
• The team meets effectively
• The team has the necessary skills
Characteristics of successful teams
Teams
continued…

Quality team environment

• Define roles and workflow
• Team divide the work
• Members decide how to do their work
• Fill the gaps in team requirements
• Improvement goals for each team member
• Team to set standards and solve problems
Teams
continued…

Dealing with errors

• We all make mistakes
• Learn from errors
• (Remember that when programming – errors are a wonderful
way to learn  )
• Better error found by the team than customer
• Let the member fix their own errors
• Prevent future errors by fixing as a team
Teams
continued…

Dealing with errors …

• Philosophy should reflect the organisational approach to
quality
• Errors are integral part of
• continuing to improve quality or services
• learning and being competitive—IT projects

• Effective teams will have a shared view about errors

Teams
continued…

Effective teams
• Key is to create a balance of different skills within the
team
• Need to put together a team of people who can do the
job that is required
• different team for a short fast project compared to a longer term
developmental project
• different team when there is a lot of marketing and promotional
work with the project compared to programming
Stages of team development
(Robbins et al, 1998, p.309)
Teams
continued…

Team skills and management skills

• Often very similar
• management styles
• leadership styles
• team styles
• learning styles
Learning Styles
Honey and Mumford (1986)
•Activitist (Do)
• immerse in new
experiences
• act first, consider later
•Reflector (Review)
• stand back and observe
• use information from past,
present & future
• Theorist (Conclude)
• assimilate facts into
theories
• keen on basic facts and
systems thinking
• Pragmatist (Plan)
• keen to put ideas into
practice
• keen to experiment
What learning style are you?
Learning Styles
continued…

Different styles within teams

• Specific versus diffuse
• specific are task focused, direct and blunt
• diffuse are indirect and ambiguous
• Achievement versus ascription
• achievement based on skills, abilities and knowledge
• ascription is based on status, title, qualifications (Carlopio,
Andrewartha & Armstrong, 2005, p.49)
Learning Styles
continued…

Stages of team development

• … at each stage
• team member questions
• interpersonal relationships
• task issues (Carlopio, Andrewartha, & Armstrong, 2005, p.602)
Summary

Organisational structure and direction is important to team

functioning.
Consider specific and general skills of teams.
Features of learning organisations include CQI, continuous
learning, action learning, and TQM.
Benefits of teams include more ideas, better decision
making, better problem solving, improved understanding,
higher motivation, and creativity.
Qualities of good teams include improving, communicate
well, self-manage, vision, and skills.
Summary
continued...

Different teams have different styles management and

learning e.g. Kolb or Honey & Mumford.
Influence dimension model and stages of team
development help understand team development.
References

Carlopio, J., Andrewartha ,G., & Armstrong, H. (2005).

Developing management skills: A comprehensive guide for
leaders (3rd ed.). French Forest, NSW: Pearson.
De Janasz, S., Dowd, K., & Schneider, B. (2002). Interpersonal
skills in organizations. McGraw Hill Higher Education.
Harvey, S., Millet, B., & Smith, D. (1998). Developing successful
teams in organisations. Australian Journal of Management &
Organisational Behaviour, 1(1), 1-8.
Schwalbe, K. (2010). Information technology project
management (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Thomson.