For the purpose of this essay, author would try to incorporate the learning from session 1 and 2 of People, Organisations and High Performance Teams for part 1 of the MBA at University of Waikato. This essay would discuss a team scenario from Dragon’s Den team that author was part of during the 2013 Dragon’s Den at Hamilton Campus. Author would try to incorporate various theories to critically analyse various phases that the team went through and try to derive learning from those situations.
Team formation process began when Dragon’s Den assessment was issued to the cohort and the first two members started the process of recruiting team members. Recruitment process was autonomous and team members were chosen based on their area of expertise. The team acknowledged the fact that there was a need to recruit people that can bring different skills to the project. The goal was to come up with the business idea that can generate investor interest and thus would lead to operationalize it into a profitable business. The recruitment originally ended with the recruitment of the author. However, later there was one more entry into the team as there was one member who was not a part of any team and an option was given to that member to choose the team of their choice by the instructor. The team ended with six members from different backgrounds, age, skills, gender and experiences. According to the definition of team from the learning of session 1, a team consists of two or more people who communicate and coordinate their work to accomplish a specific goal. Dragon’s Den team can fit these criteria.
The process of choosing the project started with the original five team members going through their first meeting over a dinner party. Team members ...
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...t of the fault lines were not activated, it was possible to come to the resolution in terms of decision-making. However, lack of a clear leadership role made decision-making difficult. The coordinator used preference matrix to decide on some issues where there was no clear resolution in the team.
The team observed several anchors during the decision making process. These were typical related to the area of expertise, past experiences and ethnicity. Status quo was not observed explicitly. However, sunk cost was observed in several decisions that the team took typically toward the end of the project life cycle. Other traps like confirming evidence, framing and estimating were non-existent in the team.
Works Cited
Belbin, R. M. 1981. Management teams. New York: Wiley.
Tuckman, B. W. 1965. Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological bulletin, 63 (6), p. 384.
The purpose of this paper is to give a review of the book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by author, Patrick Lencioni and provide teams and team members with a sense of the strengths and weaknesses that can be used to make or break teams in certain areas. The following will give you a summary of Patrick Lencioni’s teamwork model and how it can be a road map for your team and your leadership skills.
From personal experience the word team is best described as a group of colleagues focused together to solve a challenge and effectively reaching an outcome that goes beyond the team’s original expectations as well as those of the client/customer and...
Proactive management of the decision-making process can minimize the threat of groupthink compromising the quality of decisions. Managers can place importance of having a wide variety of options and idea brought to the table. Encouraging employees to thoroughly analyze all aspects of the options, from the moral and ethical implications, to the response they can expect from their opposition. With each decision appoint one or more group member to play devil’s advocate to the suggested options, ask that person to analyze and make a case against each of the suggestions (Sims & Sauser, 2013). Rotate this position throughout the group so that one person is not refuting the groups ideas consistently. Continually encouraging and rewarding contrasting views can hedge the complacency groups fall into after working together for periods of time. Management should be active listeners in the decision-making process being careful to not assert their preference towards a certain option to avoid the group conforming to the preferences of their superiors before the options are fully analyzed (Rose, 2011). Finally, after a decision has been made and the analysis has been completed before implementing or going public with the idea reconvene and go through the choose plan of action one last time to ensure that new information has not become available and
A model for explaining the context and process of teamwork must operate on two plains. There is a group dynamic impacting the team process as a whole and a personal dynamic that tracks the phases and changes that the team members experience throughout the team process. After reviewing the University of Phoenix Team Life Cycle Model, reflecting on the course readings, and conferring with teammates, two tracks were identified that have application for University of Phoenix teams; and possibly, a broader representation for industry and not-for-profit organizations.
The group has reached the Norming stage when they begin the second stage. “The team is faced with creating cohesion and unity, differentiating roles, identifying expectation for members, and enhancing commitment. Providing supportive feedback and fostering commitment to a vision are ne...
University of Washington. (2013). Four (Five) Stages of Team Development – Bruce Tuckman. Retrieved April 2014, from University of Washington: depts.washington.edu/oei/resources
Seven tasks must be included in consideration of team dynamics and structure. The first of which is defining the goal, mission or function of a specific team. The team must know what it is being asked to accomplish. The second area of consideration is assessing what skills, abilities, knowledge or potential to acquire such would be needed amongst selected team members. Identification of potential team members should include an assessment of the skills, knowledge and abilities or the potential to acquire such so that ultimately the team has the building blocks with which to succeed in its mission, goal or function. This assessment must include an understanding of realistic potential contributions by potential team members with the included assessment of whether or not the acquisition of skills and knowledge can be made available through research and analysis.
Effective teams must be developed, not just formed. A group is not a team. Members of a group may sometimes work together, but members of a team always work together. The team need not all be in the same place to be working together. “With a group, the whole is often equal to or less than the sum of its parts; with a team, the whole is always greater” (Oakley, Brent, Felder and Elhajj, 2004). A team, as defined above, has certain characteristics that make it effective. Not all of these traits are present when a team is in the forming stage. Tea...
Keys to Successful Team Communication People tend to have different ideas about what constitutes good communication. It is important to define communication and ways to build effective communication within teams, in order to have a successful team output. Some people think of communication solely as speaking, but it should be stressed that up to 90% of communication can be listening to fellow team members, and only 10% talking (Lay, 2008). There are different aspects of effective communication that should be discussed by the group when it is initially formed.
The Everest team simulation was a valuable experience that taught me how to apply the foundations of the management course into real and first-hand team situations. The success of a team and their performance depends on their initial stage of development as well as their structure. A team with an established team structure and maturity over the different stages of group development proved to be extremely successful. The decision making and conflict resolution techniques were also influential in the overall performance of a team. Ultimately, effective communication is the key to success when working in a team. On the other hand, ineffective communication may be the team’s downfall. The simulation exercise was a solid example towards work group situations and is a valuable first-hand experience.
Coutu, D. (2009). Why teams don’t work: an interview with J. Richard Hickman. HBR's 10 MUST READS On Teams
When we think of the word team, individually many different ideas may come to mind about what a team really is. Some may think of an NFL team (Tennessee Titans), an NBA team (Sacramento Kings), or a NASA astronaut team with such pioneers as Edwin Aldrin, Jr. and Neil Armstrong as members. You might even think of the U.S. Navy, Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, or Marines as teams. In fact they all are, and they have a great deal in common as teams. However, for the purposes of this paper I will examine the characteristics of work teams, as they apply to organizations and I will supply answers to the following questions: What is a team? Where did the team concept come from? What are the types of teams? What are the advantages and disadvantages of having teams in organizations? What does it take to make a team effective?
Realizing that a group can become a high performance team is important. Accomplishing this goal is invaluable, advantageous and profitable. Once able to operate from a group to the high performing team is a great step into preparation into the big business world. Leaders and members must also realize not only how to accomplish this but that some problems will and can arise from different demographic characteristics and cultural diversity. That is if one is in such a group, which the probability would be quite high.
Conflicts transpire as the team develops and moves through the different stages listed in section 3.0. Additionally, conflicts could also arise from lack of leadership that leads to unclear and conflicting goals. The lack of communication from the leader would result in uncertainty to the contribution and commitment of each individual (The University of Melbourne, 2013). This conflict can be resolved by regularly reviewing the work and improving the communication between each individual (Johnson, 2015). Another large conflict that arises is the unfair distribution of work to each person. Whilst it is important for each individual to adapt to every Belbin role that is needed, one must not receive more or less work. The unequal distribution could lead to resentment, inefficiency and the unfairness of a member not contributing but still receiving the marks. All these conflicts can be resolved promptly before it hinder on the work quality. The team should identify the causes of conflict, state their effect on the team and negotiate a solution that suits all. Most importantly, the team should communicate regularly and be proactive about any situations (The University of Melbourne,
A team is a group of people with a full set of complementary skills required to complete a project. Team members work toward a common goal. A team becomes more than just a collection of people when a strong sense of mutual commitment creates synergy, thus generating performance greater than the sum of the performance of its individual members. Team members not only need clear goals, they needs roles to help facilitate