Keys to building an Effective Team

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The Ten Keys to building an Effective Team

This was written by Robert Maddux and Barb Wingfield from their Team Building book.

It is important to have a strong foundation when you start to build your own team.

Follow these 10 keys to build your effective team.

1. Develop and maintain basic management and leadership skills.

2. Practice good employee selection techniques.

3. Discuss expectations or establish goals that have been mutually set.

4. Plan for the training and development needs of team members.

5. Advocate support, and nurture team-building activities.

6. Involve team members in any activity where they could make a contribution.

7. Provide and receive feedback from the team.

8. Do not let conflict and competition get out of control but do not try to eliminate it altogether it either.

9. Recognize and reward the team and its members.

10. Understand that some team members might not be fit for the team, and they need to be reassigned.

Be prepared to evaluate your team, and take corrective action as needed.

Creating Team Synergy Program

Have you ever witnessed a winning sports team, a well-rehearsed orchestra, or a synchronized surgical unit and felt the commitment and energy the team demonstrated? What you saw was more than just teamwork — it was team synergy, a phenomenon that occurs when a team achieves greater results than the sum of its parts. Give your team the opportunity to experience that phenomenon with Creating Team Synergy. A complete one-day program, Creating Team Synergy focuses on 5 key issues that hinder team effectiveness.

Using experiential tools that include learning instruments, hands-on activities, and an interactive team simulation, teams gain a clearer sense of direction, clarify roles and responsibilities, improve operating processes, and bolster both interpersonal and interteam relationships. Learning Outcomes

Pinpoint the team’s current level of development Recognize and reduce or eliminate blockages to maximum performance Define criteria for meaningful mission, vision, and goal statements Identify team member communication styles Theory

With its range of learning tools, Creating Team Synergy is based on a variety of theories, including interteam and relationship theory as well personality style theory. The program shows the influences of Richard Beckhard, Carl Jung, William Marston, and others. How it Works

Creating Team Synergy gives participants a well-rounded learning experience, balancing facilitator instruction with private reflection and group interaction. Through the combination of two HRDQ learning instruments, two hands-on games, an adventure simulation, and small-group activities, participants learn more about themselves as team members and how effectively their team functions. Uses for Creating Team Synergy

Creating Team Synergy is appropriate for intact groups or teams at all levels. The program’s flexible training design allows facilitators to present Creating Team Synergy in one day or 2 half-days, or combine the program with other training sessions to create an expanded learning experience.

What to Order/Product Contents

To get started, order one Facilitator Kit per trainer and one Participant Guide per participant. Participant Guides are sold separately. For larger groups, order additional Participant Guides and facilitator support materials.

Facilitator Kit includes:

Facilitator Guide Reusable facilitator support materials to train up to 18 participants at one time Tote bag Facilitator Guide includes:

Administrative guidelines Theoretical background 2 learning instruments 2 games Adventure simulation Activities Experiential learning/training methodology Training design options Blank training outline Participant Guide content (incorporated into Facilitator Guide) CD-ROM containing Microsoft® PowerPoint® presentation and reproducible masters, including Certificate of Achievement, Training Evaluation, as well as activity card and overhead transparency masters Participant Guide includes:

2 learning instruments Adventure simulation Activities Pressure-sensitive response form Interpretation of instrument results Self-reflection questions Action planning

HRDQ can help you with teamwork program. Click here and go to teams:

My friend Michael Cardus wrote the following article about decision making. Please visit his website for more teambuilding information. Create -Learning,com

Find some great tools here:

Leadership Sampler Set

Team Decision Making Methods

Decision Making Methods for Teams

While a decision within organizations often relies upon facts and data, teams must agree upon a method for making decisions based upon the data. Ensuring that the decisions made are done with a process and purpose that the team can utilize to make the best possible decision with the given facts and data.

There are many different decision making styles, two methods must be chosen to serve as guideposts for decisions made. The primary method must be agreed to by the team and a back up method must also be chosen. The methods can and will vary upon the people and stakeholders making the decision as well as the knowledge of the facts and data that the team possesses when making the decision.

Below is a decision making spectrum as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each method.

Authoritarian
Authoritarian decision making is a decision that is placed within the hands of one person who chooses quickly and without regard for input from others. Typically this method is utilized when either there is a crisis and calls for an immediate decision or when the decision is mundane in nature.

Advantages and uses;
• Quick decision made when the leader may possess more information than those being affected by the decision. • When the authority figure has the trust and “best interest” of those who are affected by the decision. • The speed of the decision being made, decision can be made quickly • Decision is not watered down with compromises

Disadvantages;
• Decision lacks involvement of those who are affected • Those affected have decreased chance of “buy in” to decision made • Chance of incorrect decision based upon poor judgment and incorrect facts

Consultative
Consultative decision making is the type where decision making power is in the hands of one person and the person actively solicits the ideas, suggestions, and opinions of others.

Advantages;
• People who are affected by the decision are sought out for their input, allowing for greater buy-in to the ultimate decision made. • By seeking input from varied sources a better and more knowledgeable decision can be made

Disadvantages;
• It takes longer • Buy-in of the ultimate decision with the consultative method only occurs if your input is finally decided on by the decision maker • If the decision maker already has a pre-determined choice in mind and is only “going through the motions” showing a false consultative style, this method backfires rapidly.

Consensus
Many misconceptions haunt consensus; it is not a tool in total agreement among the team, nor is it a type of voting. Consensus is a decision making method where all parties involved have input of the decision to be made and whatever agreement is reached (i.e., compromise) will not be sabotaged by the team.

Advantages;
• Full participation by the entire team; involves total involvement of the team • Total participation increases buy-in to the decision made • With input from the total team the ultimate decision is not made until there is agreement therefore showing total buy-in from all team members.

Disadvantages;
• Necessitating buy-in from the total team take a longer time frame • Final decision made are often “watered down”

Majority Vote
Consensus will often prove to not be a viable option. Therefore a backup is needed; usually majority vote is a suitable back up. Majority voting is rarely ever used as the primary decision making method.

Advantages;
• Decision can made with a less watered down solution • Speed of decision can be increased, following a lengthy consensus process

Disadvantages;
• Voting creates winners and losers • Those who lose may be more inclined to sabotage the decision, creating the possibility that whatever decision reached will not be properly implemented.

100% Agreement
It is a rarity when a diverse team is asked to make a decision that 100% agreement is ever truly reached. Thus it is strongly recommended that this method should never be used, not even as a back-up.

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