Effective (Virtual) Team Behaviors
Prepared
by Professor Stephen R. Ball, Cleary College, 8/29/99, from Scholtes, Peter, et
al. (1988) The Team Handbook. Madison,
WI; Joiner and Associates.
Stages of Team Growth
Sholtes notes four stages of team
growth, with the final stage being the ideal for high performance and low
conflict.
Stage |
Feelings |
Behaviors |
Forming- members cautiously explore boundaries of acceptable group behavior. |
Excitement, optimism; pride, initial attachment to the team; suspicion, anxiety about the job ahead. |
Attempts to organize and define the job/tasks; to define group behavior; lofty or abstract discussions of concepts, and some impatience with such discussions. |
Storming- most difficult stage. Realizing the task is more difficult than first imagined, members become testy and blameful, resisting the need to collaborate. |
Resistance to the tasks and the variety of approaches of individuals on the team; sharp fluctuations in attitudes. |
Increased arguing; defensiveness and "choosing sides"; setting unrealistic goals; disunity, increased tension, and jealousy. |
Norming- competing loyalties and responsibilities are reconciled. Norms for group behavior are individually accepted. |
Ability to express criticism constructively; acceptance of the team; relief in the belief that "everything is going to work out." |
Attempts to gain harmony by avoiding conflict (avoid Groupthink, though!); more friendliness and personal sharing; sense of common team spirit; establishing and maintaining team ground rules. (This latter is a crucial element for team success.) |
Performing- relationships and expectations are settled, strengths and weaknesses of members are known and accepted, roles are understood. |
Insight into members' abilities; satisfaction at the team's progress. |
Constructive self-change; ability to prevent/handle group problems; attachment to the team. |
Some teams, both professional and academic, get stuck in the "storming" stage, and their work suffers for it. The following "Recipe for Team Success," "Working Through Group Problems" and "Ten Common Group Problems" will help you identify issues early and take constructive steps to move forward.
Element |
Ideals |
Potential trouble |
Clarity of team goals |
Agreement on mission and vision of the project's goals. |
Frequent changes in direction or arguments about what should be done, frustration at lack of progress. Fix: stop and discuss the goals. |
Clearly defined roles |
Everyone understands what they are to do and when. In addition to other team roles, it is often useful to have one person as the facilitator (not "leader") who keeps things on track. |
Confusion over who is responsible for what, members feeling stuck with the same chores. Fix: Have a focused discussion on roles. |
Clear communication (especially important for internet-based teams.) |
Make clear and direct statements or questions, be succinct, listen (or e-mail) actively to explore rather than debate others' ideas. |
Use of tentative or conditional statements, words do not match tone or feelings, opinions are expressed as facts, "plops" and "discounts" (see below). |
Beneficial team behaviors |
|
Reliance on one person- no shared responsibility, discussions that are stuck- wheel spinning. Fix: See Working Through Group Problems and Ten Common Group Problems. |
Well-defined decision procedures |
Discuss and agree on how decisions will be made, explore important issues by polling, decide important issues by consensus, explicitly test for consensus ("This seems to be our agreement. Does anyone feel unsure about this?") |
Acceptance of opinions as facts, one or two people making decisions without team consensus, frequent use of "majority rules" to make decisions, silence interpreted as assent. Fix: early on, talk about and establish decision rules. |
Balanced participation |
All members contribute equally, in their natural style. |
Watch out for some individuals exercising too much, some too little, influence over the group. Fix: over e-mail have someone moderate the discussion and make sure everyone has been involved. |
Established ground rules |
Ground rules for the team are discussed early and agreed to. |
Existence of taboo subjects, no one can articulate what the group norms are, recurring differences about what is acceptable, general conflict. Fix: early on, talk about and establish ground rules. |
Working
through Group Problems (some techniques
Use constructive feedback
techniques
General
Guidelines for Group Problems