Module 6- Team Communication
Agenda
Stages of Team Formation
Managing Team Conflict
Group Discussion
Conducting Effective
meetings by getting everyone
to participate and following
meeting etiquette
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Introduction
A team is a unit of two or more
people who work toward a
shared goal and unlike other
work groups, depend on one
another to achieve that goal.
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Types
• Committee: A permanent team established • Creative: Similar to a project, teams but
to address recurring issues, such as used in fields such as advertising and web
corporate governance or workplace safety. design; combines the efforts of various
creative professionals and may work on a
• Problem-solving: Team assembled to series of project altogether.
analyze a problem or issue, recommend a
solution and in some cases, implement the • Cross-functional: Pulls together people
solution. Sometimes also called the task from across multiple departments or
force. functional areas; the best way to tackle
companywide issues or opportunities but
• Project: Team assembled to complete a can be challenging to manage.
specific project, such as a new product
launch or installation of new computer
system.
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Activity
What do you think are some advantages and disadvantages of working in teams? Write and
share your responses.
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Advantages of Working in Teams
1. More Information and Knowledge for pooling experiences.
2. Learning opportunities from people with different specialties.
3. Boldness to hesitant members to take calculated risks.
4. Accountability to others.
5. Enables trust building.
6. Broader range of viewpoints bring diversity of perspective in decision-making.
7. A sense of community provides support during challenging times.
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Disadvantages
• Groupthink: when peer pressure causes individual team members to withhold contrary
opinions- and to go along with decisions they don’t really believe in.
• Hidden Agenda: Private, counter-productive motives, such as desire to take control of the
group, to undermine someone else on the team, or to pursue incompatible goal.
• Cost: Aligning schedules, arranging meetings, and coordinating individual parts of a project
can eat up a lot of time and money.
• Overload: Some companies have embraced collaborative work approaches to such an extent
that they are overloading employees with team assignments.
SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 7
Stages of Team Development
Stages of Team
Development:
Teams typically evolve
through several phases
on their way to become
productive. Dr. Bruce
Tuckman identifies these
five phases in the
process of evolution of a
new team.
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Resolving Conflict in Teams
CONSTRUCTIVE CONFLICT DESTRUCTIVE CONFLICT
• Outcome: win-win • Outcome : lose-lose or win-lose
• Forces important issues into the open, • Diverts energy from more important
increases the involvement of team issues, destroys the morale of teams or
members and generates creative ideas for individual team members, or polarizes or
solving a problem. divides the team.
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Steps to Resolve Team Conflict
▪ Decide if the conflict is worth addressing: If the conflict is minor or will disappear on its own ,
it might make more sense to live with it.
▪ Examine your own beliefs and behaviour: Examine your own stance before taking action. You
might be contributing to the conflict in ways you hadn’t considered.
▪Identify where the conflict truly originates: Conflicts aren’t always about what they appear to
be. It could be because of different cultural priorities. For instance, the importance of group
harmony versus individual career success.
▪Establish common ground: Find out what everyone agrees on, then use that foundation to
build solution.
▪ Choose a strategy for resolving the difference:
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Four basic choices for strategy to resolve
a conflict
1. You can avoid the circumstances that create conflict, such as not assigning people who don’t
get along to the same task.
2. One side can choose to accommodate or sacrifice for the good of the organization or to
maintain harmony in the relationship.
3. The two sides can choose to compromise, with both sides giving up something. Balanced
compromise is one of the hallmarks of successful teams.
4. Both sides can choose to collaborate on a new solution that satisfies everyone’s needs and
expectations – win-win strategy.
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The S-TLC strategy of Conflict Management –
Ruth Anna Abigail and Dudley D. Cahn
▪ Based on collaboration and communication
▪STOP : Do not respond immediately when angry or annoyed. Count up to nine or wait to regain
your self-control. Interreact after cooling down.
▪THINK: Think before you leap! Think about the possible dangers, difficulties or consequences
before doing or not doing something. The conflict is about the issue not the person. Think of
the larger goals and don’t allow the conflict to divide you from the person. Develop an
informed state of mind before communicating with the person. Analyse the background, your
opinion, best time and way to deal with the argument. Also consider other persons possible
arguments, options and goals.
▪ LISTEN: Do not speak on the basis of your assumptions about the thoughts and feelings of the
other person. Hear him/her out.
▪COMMUNICATE: Finally decide how you want to say it all. Prefer give and take attitude.
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Think about it!
You supervise a positive and enthusiastic new team leader who has sent an
email to one of her team members and has copied you in it. The message is
very short, has a demanding tone, and requires the completion of a rather
complex piece of work within a very short deadline. You think the deadline will
be very difficult to achieve, and knowing the recipient of message, you expect
that the request might cause a very negative reaction, resulting in conflict
within the team. Outline a course of action you could take to minimize a
negative response and summarize appropriate developmental feedback for the
new team leader.
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GROUP DISCUSSION
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A group discussion conducted for
the selection of candidates for a
job or for admission to a
professional institution is a well-
formulated tool for judging the
personality of candidates, their
communication skills, knowledge,
and their ability to work as a
team.
The four components generally
evaluated and analyzed in a GD
are as follows:
• Knowledge
• Group Behaviour (team spirit)
• Communication Skills
• Leadership Skills
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KNOWLEDGE
• Depth and range of knowledge as well as analytical and organizational abilities.
• Grasp the situation and analyze it from wider perspective and scope.
•Originality of ideas, knowledge and initiative, and approach to the topic or case.
•The greater our knowledge of the subject, the more interested, enthusiastic, and confident we will be, the
more fluent and forceful our contribution to the discussion will be.
•Do not be afraid to propose novel solutions. One of the key skills looked for in any profession is problem
solving. It is vital to be creative and to produce divergent and offbeat solutions.
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COMMUNICATION SKILLS
▪ Active listening : Whether the candidate is able to pick up the thread of discussion and continue.
▪ Clarity of thought and expression : The panel’s perception of a candidate’s personality and his/her ability to
influence and convince others depends considerably on the correct use of tone, voice, and articulation. It is
not sufficient to have ideas. In addition, fluency of speech and good delivery is also expected. Slang, jargon,
and an artificial accent are to be avoided.
▪ Appropriate language :The language used should be accurate and free of grammatical errors. Extensive use
of jargon, high-sounding words, or ambiguous expressions may project the individual as a show-off and will
certainly not endear the person to the group members.
▪ Appropriateness of body language : Our gestures and mannerisms are more likely to reflect our attitude
than what we say. Emotions such as anger, irritation, frustration, warmth, excitement, boredom,
defensiveness, and competitiveness are all conveyed through body language. The selection panel observes an
individuals' appearance, frequency of eye contact, postures, gestures, and facial expressions.
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TEAM SPRIT (GROUP BEHAVIOUR)
▪ You are expected to be more people-centric and less egocentric.
▪ Does our behaviour come across as objective, empathetic, and non-threatening? These are the traits of a
good team player.
▪ Our success in a GD depends on how well we play the role of an initiator, informer, illustrator, leader,
coordinator, and moderator. The ideal candidate will share time with others, listen, and react to their
views.
▪ The ability to analyze a problem and persuade others to see it from multiple perspectives without
offending group members is an important trait of a good communicator.
▪ Try to build up an argument from the point where the last speaker left. In case of a disagreement with
what the predecessor just said, by all means feel free to disagree, but do so in a modest and amicable
manner.
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LEADERSHIP SKILLS
▪The candidate who possesses both functional and coordinating abilities will emerge as the leader.
▪ Functional ability involves knowledge, mental and physical energy, emotional stability, objectivity,
communication skill, integrity, and emotional intelligence.
▪Coordinating ability involves traits such as group adaptability (the ability to adjust with other individuals in the
group) and group motivation (to serve as a cohesive force that binds the group into a single unit rather than a
collection of people).
▪ Leadership means influencing the proceedings by constructive participation, rational arguments, convincing other
participants of a particular point of view, building support by working with supporters in the group, logically
weakening the opponent’s point of view, etc.
▪ A democratic style : such leaders try to include everyone in the discussion and express their feelings and opinions
openly and directly without judging others. He/she should also be able to restrain exuberant speakers if they
deviate from the topic or if they try to dominate the discussion without allowing others to speak.
SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 20XX 21
Technology creates more problems than it solves.
ACTIVITY- GROUP DISCUSSION
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Competition is ultimately more detrimental than beneficial
to society.
ACTIVITY- GROUP DISCUSSION
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Thank you!
References:
• Business Communication Today by
Courtland L. Bovee, John V. Thill and
Abha Chatterjee, Published by Pearson,
ISBN 978-81-317-5799-4
• Business Communication: Skills, Concepts
and Applications by P.D. Chaturvedi and
Mukesh Chaturvedi, published by
Pearson , ISBN 978-81-317-7558-5
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