Chapter 10

 Teams
 Effective team characteristics
 More about consensus
 Motivating team members to care
Teams

A team may be viewed as a work group that functions within clearly defined parameters, with each
member expected to work well with other team members to accomplish the team’s goals. Some teams
function effectively in achieving the stated goals and other teams do not and may fail to accomplish stated
goals or be less efficient in accomplishing goals. Most teams would like to be effective and increasing a team’s
effectiveness is often the goal of team building and team training sessions.

EFFECTIVE TEAM CHARACTERISTICS

There are several team characteristics that have been identified as being important to effective teams. These
are:

Motivated and Dedicated Team Members

In forming a team, it is important to identify and select team members who are committed to the
purpose and goals of the team. Team members need to become and remain fully motivated to perform the
tasks that they are assigned or agree to perform as members of the team. There are times during a team’s
work that members may become discouraged or demoralized and lose the optimism about the team’s ability
to accomplish its goals. It is important for the team’s leader to use his or her leadership skills of energizing,
inspiring and motivating team members. Teams cannot succeed, or cannot succeed as well as they should, if
members of that team lose their dedication and are not fully motivated.

Effective Leadership
An effective team requires effective leadership that combines the attributes and skills that were
discussed in chapter seven. The team leader may be assigned, nominated or elected by team members or may
volunteer for the position. The process by which the team leader is identified sometimes influences his or her
relationship to team members and, in turn, his or her effectiveness. The effective team leader develops and
cultivates a viable relationship with team members and creates a positive climate in which the members of
the team can work successfully together.
Clearly Articulated Purpose and Goals That Are Shared By Team Members
Every team should have a clearly stated purpose and related achievable and measurable goals. The
very first order of business on any team must be to ensure that each team member knows, understands and
supports the team’s purpose and the related goals. A team’s success is determined by the extent to which the
team is able to fulfill its purpose and accomplish its goals. The purpose and goals provide direction and serve
as benchmarks to monitor and assess how well the team is doing. Having total buy-in by team members to the
purpose and goals is important and necessary for team success. Some may argue that total buy-in is not
always possible or desirable. However, one uncommitted and unmotivated member can sabotage, hinder and
hurt the team’s progress. It is important to know how committed every team member is to the team’s work
and address and alleviate any concerns and resistance that the team members may have. In some instances,
when every other attempt to break a team member’s resistance or to motivate and energize a team member
fails, that team member may have to be asked to resign or be removed from the team.
Clearly Identified Roles and Responsibilities
Team members need to be clear about what their expected roles and responsibilities are in order for
them to be energized and motivated to participate in the team’s work. When roles and responsibilities are not
clear, there can be confusion, unnecessary duplication of effort and inefficient use of time and resources.
Team members can also become demoralized, disillusioned and disinterested if they begin to feel that their
skills and talents are unutilized or underutilized.
Workable Action Plan
Effective teams usually work from a blue print for success in the form of a workable action plan. The
action plan is designed with input, gathered in one way or another, from key stakeholders who may be
impacted by the decision or product that the team is working to develop. The plan serves as a GPS that
includes the team’s goals or destination, the strategies that will lead to the accomplishment of the goals,
timelines for achieving objectives that are tied to the goals, tasks to be performed, and clear roles and
responsibilities among team members for completing tasks. Such an action plan gives the team direction,
solidifies its purpose and helps to maintain interest and momentum among team members.
Process for Resolving Conflict
Most teams experience conflict as members work to produce the best result in a free and open
process with diverse input from members. A diversity of ideas, which at times may be in conflict, can be
healthy and useful for the development of the team. As noted in the discussion on the stages of group
development in
chapter two, conflict in groups is viewed as a positive element in the group’s progression toward getting the
work done. However, conflict without a workable solution does not serve the group’s interest. A team should
have an established protocol for addressing and resolving conflicts as they arise. In some types of groups the
group leader uses leadership skills such as confronting, suggesting and summarizing to help the group
develop consensus, resolve the conflict and move the group forward. On teams, which are essentially work
groups, leadership skills combined with a clear decision making process, such as the use of consensus, seem
to be most effective in resolving conflicts and helping to get the work done.

Decision Making Process

 The process that the team uses to make decisions is important to the team’s success. On some teams,
an autocratic decision making process is used in which the team leader decides and the team implements
what the leader decides. This approach to decision making may work in some situations and may be deemed
to be most efficient and much less time consuming than other approaches in those specific situations. For
example, in the military there is not much room for any other form of decision making than what the military
prescribes in order to build a cohesive and unified force. However, in most other situations, this approach is
likely to result in more dissatisfied team members, decreased team morale, reduced team member
commitment to team goals and depressed motivation. There is a variation to the autocratic approach that
may be called a “modified autocratic” approach in which the team leader decides from among a set of
decisions that the team members may suggest. In this approach, there is team input but the final decision is
the team leader’s decision. The effect of this approach is likely to be similar to the autocratic approach given
the fact that the team leader still has veto power over decisions and retains the final decision making
authority.
There are more democratic approaches to decision making that may take longer but that have more
positive consequences for the team. One such approach is the typical majority rule approach in which
decisions are decided by majority vote after alternatives are brainstormed and discussed. The advantage of
majority vote is that each member is heard and gets to contribute ideas during the brainstorming process.
The disadvantage is that when the votes are counted, the team members in the majority become winners and
the team members in the minority become losers. Losers often do not like to lose and may resist the
decisions which they perceive the majority is “imposing” on the team. The result may be a small group of
team members, who may passively, or may be not so passively, resist majority rule and who may decide not
to invest fully in the team’s work.
The other democratic approach is one that uses decision making by consensus. In the consensus
approach there is a brainstorming process in which all team members suggest ideas and make the case for
their ideas, but unlike majority rule, there is no voting. Instead, the ideas that are advanced during
brainstorming are evaluated according to certain criteria and rank ordered based on those criteria. These
criteria may include: relevance, feasibility, plausibility, cost benefit, time, legality and ethics, consistency with
organizational policy and procedures, and likelihood of controversy. These criteria are explained and
discussed below in the special section on consensus. The consensus process demonstrates respect for each
member’s opinions and ideas and eliminates the zero-sum game perception that is inherent in the winners-
losers, majority-rule paradigm.

Diverse Knowledge and Skills that Support the Team’s Purpose and Goals
The interests of a team are best served when the team is comprised of team members who bring a
diverse set of knowledge and skills to the team’s work. A team whose members are totally homogeneous with
respect to their skill sets or knowledge is a team that lacks originality, creativity and innovative thinking. For
some tasks and in some situation’s homogeneity and strict conformity to a rigid predetermined formula may
be required. Assembly line tasks and military units are examples where diversity of ideas, originality and
creativity may not be as important as conformity and adherence to preset standards or expectations. In most
cases, however, team diversity in skills and knowledge is an asset. This is no more obvious than on sports
teams that require players with a variety of skills to play in different positions. Not every player on a football
team needs to be a quarter back and not every player on a soccer team needs to be a goal keeper. The team is
best served when players are assembled because of the diversity they bring to the team and are able to blend
and orchestrate that diversity into a winning combination for the team.

Effective Communication Structures

In chapter four, different kinds of communication structures were described and discussed.
Communication structures range from highly centralized, in which one person or authority controls
communication among members of a group, to highly decentralized, in which all members of a group
communicate freely with one another. On teams, the degree to which communication is centralized or
decentralized is often tied to the degree to which the leadership of teams and the decision-making process
are autocratic or democratic. On most teams it is most helpful for the communication structure to be free and
open with team members able to communicate directly with one another. However, there are some situations
in which the protocols that govern how the team functions may call for communication to be structured in a
more centralized way. Team members usually appreciate being part of the communication structure and
having their voices heard and respected as a part of the decision-making process. The manner in which team
members communicate with one another is an important indicator of how cohesive the team is and the
likelihood that the team will accomplish its goals.

Balance Between Task Orientation and People Orientation

Striking a balance between an emphasis on getting the task done and an emphasis on the needs and feelings
of team members who are expected to get the work done is important to the effectiveness of a team. Some
teams tend to be so focused on the task that team members feel that they are treated as robots, with their
needs and feelings neglected. On the other hand, some teams seem to spend so much time and effort on the
needs and feelings of team members that the task that the team is expected to address does not get
accomplished in a timely fashion. There is a point at which both task completion and team member needs
can be adequately and satisfactorily addressed simultaneously and finding that balance enhances the team’s
effectiveness.

Adequate Attention to Content and Process

Just as the effective team needs to have a balance between its task orientation and its people
orientation, it also needs to have a balance between the content of what is being addressed and the process
by which it is addressing the content. In other words, the team has to be concerned in a balanced way with
“what” it does and “how” it does it. The content of the group’s work often receives more attention than the
process by which the work gets done. This is the case because most often the team is judged by the product
that is delivered at the end of the process which is the content in completed and finished form. However, the
process is important because how the team works, including the interpersonal dynamics among team
members, determines how the content takes shape and the quality of the finished product

MORE ABOUT CONSENSUS

As mentioned earlier, consensus is a form of democratic decision making that does not involve voting and
does not depend on majority rule. There is no zero sum game. It avoids winners and losers. Consensus means
that we are thinking through the problem and arriving at a solution together. There are several rules
that should guide the process of consensus. These are:
 All team members take part in the decision making process from brainstorming decision alternatives
to selecting the best decision alternative.
 All team members make a concerted effort to understand the opinions, views and suggestions of
others.
 All team members with ideas to share should have an equal opportunity to share their ideas and
suggestions.
 The team should arrive at decisions that meet the expectations of all team members based on group
discussion and the collective input of team members.
 Following discussion, decision alternatives are ranked based on established criteria and all group
members support the ranking of decision alternatives.
 The decision alternative that is ranked first is the first to be implemented and given a fair chance to
work. If that decision does not work, then the team goes to the next decision alternative and repeats
that process until the workable decision is found.

Criteria for Evaluating Decision Alternatives

 Relevance: In evaluating alternatives that result from brainstorming among team members, how
relevant a suggested alternative course of action is to the team’s purpose and goals should be
considered. Not all decisions that sound good may be relevant. A relevant decision is one that would
advance the work of the team.
 Feasibility: Some relevant decisions may not be possible to implement. There may be obstacles to
practically taking the decision from the idea or concept stage to the implementation stage. Feasible
decisions are those that are practical given the situation and the circumstances in which the decision
is to be implemented.
  Plausibility: How reasonable a decision alternative may be has to be considered when selecting the
best alternative. A reasonable decision is one that does not impose undue hardship or make
excessive demands on those who are expected to implement the decision. Therefore, a feasible
decision may not be plausible. For example, if a team has a project to complete and to submit for
evaluation by their peers and by the professor, it may be feasible for the team to work on a project
that examines the effects of sleeplessness on group cohesion. This may require the members of a
group to stay awake all night and then work on solving a problem the following day. The decision to
select this topic for presentation is feasible. It is doable. It is practical. However, it is not plausible. It
places an undue hardship on the individuals who must go sleepless all night.
 Cost-Benefit: Cost-benefit considerations should guide the selection of decisions that have costs
associated with them. The monetary and nonmonetary costs associated with a decision should be
considered in relation to the benefits that may accrue from implementing that decision. Those
decisions in which the costs of implementation outweigh the benefits should probably not be
selected.
 Time: The amount of time that is required to implement a decision alternative must be considered.
Some decisions may require more time than is available to implement them well. The team must be
concerned with the most effective use of time and how to utilize the available time to get the job done
efficiently and well.
 Legality and Ethics: Any decision alternative that the team decides to accept and implement should
be legal and ethical. The decision should pass muster when held up against the legal and ethical
standards of practice.
 Consistency with Established Organizational Policies and Procedures: The established policies and
procedures of the organization in which the team is functioning have to be considered and the
selected decision alternative should be consistent with those policies and procedures as long as they
are legal and ethical.
 Likelihood of Controversy: Decision alternatives that are likely to stir up controversy and result in
disaffection, hurt feelings and disunity may be counterproductive and should probably be avoided
unless the team’s task is to shake up the system, and bring about needed changes in the system. Even
so, this has to be done carefully, and with a plan in mind to pick up the pieces and put them together
again into a workable and viable functional unit.
MOTIVATING TEAM MEMBERS TO CARE

Sometimes on teams, some members may take a longer time to become fully on board with the purpose and
goals of the team. There are six steps that can be taken to motivate and inspire fuller participation in the
teams work.

Step 1: Introduce: Consciousness Raising: Provide background information to raise awareness.

Step 2: Inform: Provide sufficient information to enhance understanding
Step 3: Impress: Give reason to care
Step 4: Instill: Give a local imperative. Explain why it is important to the people involved
Step 5: Invite: Extend an invitation to get involved. Say: “Let’s see what we can do?
Step 6: Involve: Provide an opportunity for action.
For example, assume that a team has been formed to provide psychological and emotional relief to
the fishermen and their families on the gulf coast who have been affected by the oil spill. The team will spend
at least six months in the area living among and interacting with the fishermen and their families, offering
psychological and emotional support.
Step 1: Introduce: The proposed work with the families in the gulf region will be introduced to prospective
team members. The introduction will include information about the gulf spill, the facts about the amount oil
in the gulf and the impact on fishing in the gulf. This information will help to raise awareness about the extent
to which many families depend on fishing for their livelihood and of the possible damage to the fishing
industry there. Introduction may be used as a recruitment step in the team building process.
Step 2: Inform: Additional and more detailed information will be presented on the technical aspects of the
spill, the efforts to clean up the gulf and the possible long-term impact on the lives of the people in the gulf
region. This information will increase team members understanding of the gravity of the issue and may serve
to orient team members to key concerns among the people in the gulf region.
Step 3: Impress: Now that team members have factual information that has raised their awareness and
increased their understanding of the issues involved, the question may still remain, “why should I care
about the oil spill and its impact on people in the gulf region?” First, there is a humanitarian consideration
involved. These are people who could lose their livelihoods and whose lives can be permanently altered and
devastated. The team’s work can help to buffer the psychological and emotional impact. Also, there is a larger
national economic impact that could affect not just the people in the gulf but that could affect the nation.
Without a return to fishing in the gulf, there could be a ripple effect directly and indirectly on related
businesses. This could conceivably slow the national economic recovery. Therefore, supporting the families in
the gulf by maintaining their confidence and self-esteem would increase their resilience to be able to bounce
back and to rebuild the economy of the region. Team members need to be given a reason to care.
Step 4: Instill: Given the humanitarian concerns as well as the national implications for the disaster in the
gulf, people from across the country need to mobilize to help. The team’s proposed efforts to provide
psychological and emotional support is very much needed given the scarcity of such services for families and
the tendency for mental health needs to be overlooked or treated as secondary to the more visible economic
and physical impact during such disasters. It is imperative that the team members become involved.
Step 5: Invite: Each team member is being invited to become involved and to be a part of this extremely
important humanitarian effort. Every person’s input and support is needed and valued so “let’s see what
we can do as a team.” Each team member has an opportunity to consider how he or she may best serve
the effort.
Step 6: Involve: Each team member now has a clear idea of how he or she can be involved with specific
tasks to be performed in preparation for going to the gulf region and for after arriving in the gulf region.
Roles and responsibilities are clearly explained. For example, a group member’s role might involve
organizing and coordinating housing for team members while they are in the gulf region .