Building Better Teams

Module One: Defining Teams

What is a Team?

This Module Will Cover:

 What is a Team
 Types of Teams
 Making Connections

What is a Team?

We like Glenn Parker’s definition of a team: “A group of people with a high degree of interdependence
geared toward the achievement of a goal or the completion of a task.” (From “Team Players and
Teamwork” by Glenn Parker)

What Does That Mean?

This means that members of a team agree on a goal and agree that the only way to achieve that goal is
to work together. Some groups have a common goal, but they do not work together to achieve it. For
example, many teams are really groups because they work independently to achieve their goal. Some
groups work together, but they do not have a common goal.

Types of Teams

Knowing the type of team you are in can help you choose how to plan your work and what you expect as
outcomes. Teams are everywhere, and their role as part of an organizational framework continues to
evolve just as businesses and marketplaces do. From a practical perspective, most of us belong to
multiple teams, with sometimes competing for priorities.

Let’s look at some of the most common types of teams.

Natural Work Groups

This is a group of people who work together each day in the same location, using the same machines
and processes. The supervisor is in charge, but they may allow other team members to take the
leadership role.

Business Team

Often a cross-functional team that looks after a specific product line or service.

Management Team

A group of managers and the person they mutually report to. Within a single organization, there can be
different levels of management teams (executive, middle, and front-line, for example).

Self-Managed Team

This is a group of people who manage themselves. No one person in the group has the authority to
make all the decisions about the events that impact the group. This is also referred to as a self-directed
work team because everyone has authority and responsibility for all the decisions they have to make.

Product/Service Design Teams

This is a group that comes together for a specific time to work on a special project or task. This group
has traditionally been called a task force or committee. This team is usually a cross-functional group
assigned to design or redesign a product or service.

Virtual and Remote Teams

With this type of team, members see one another in person rarely or not at all. They connect most
frequently using web portals, the internet, telephone, and e-mail. What makes these teams different
(and sometimes challenging) is that they have to work together to accomplish goals, but they may not
know each other very well. This team can also fit any of the models listed above.

Making Connections

 Be genuine and authentic in every interaction

 Recognize individual efforts of each of the team member
 Be compulsive about scheduling time for your team
 Consciously reduce time spent on outside activities
 Maintain a weekly meeting with the entire team
 Have monthly reviews with each team member
 Module Two: Establishing Team Norms
This Module Will Cover:
 Characteristics of Teams
 Advantages and Disadvantages of Teams
 Ground Rules
 Team Contracts
 Sample Team Contract

Characteristics of Teams

Effective teamwork is built on the following characteristics:

Clear Direction

Without a clear sense of what the team needs to accomplish and how a successful outcome will be
defined, it’s impossible to enlist the right group of people to get there. At first, decide on team goals and
desired outcomes. Use it for clear direction for the team you select.

Start at the endpoint: What is the outcome you want and why? Leave the team flexibility to develop the
best way to get there.

Open and Honest Communication

Communication is crucial to building a sense of trust and reliance between members. Team members
ought to communicate with each other freely and frequently as well as they supposed to feel
comfortable to share their insights and ideas with each other. It determines the effectiveness of the
team.

The most pivotal part of communication is listening. Listening is a way to find out things as well as it is a
sign of respect. Always listen as you mean it. React, paraphrase and re-state to what you hear. Ask for
clarification. Get involved.

Support Risk Taking and Change

Good teams support appropriate risk-taking and experimentation for change. They consider the first time
mistakes as opportunities for learning.

Defined Roles

Roles might change once the team is gathered, but understand the skill sets and thinking styles are
needed on the team. It’s possible your team will have other roles to fill, but you should have a good
handle on those roles.
Mutually Accountable

Teams accept responsibility as individuals and as a team. For team mistakes and failures, they don’t
blame one another. They ought to celebrate their successes together and recognize special performances
and contributions that each team member makes to the total work of the team.

Common Goals

A major characteristic of any successful team is that members give more priority to the common goal
rather than individual interests.

Encourage Differences in Opinions

Agreeing on a common goal is essential. But it shouldn’t suppress alternative ideas and opinions. Having a
difference in opinions within a team inclines team performance; it is a competitive advantage. Different
opinions encourage imagination and new ideas. Imagination and new ideas encourage creativity.

Collaboration

Close collaboration is a core characteristic of every successful team. The idea is simple enough: the more
you collaborate and the more you communicate, the more you create.

Team Trust

Team members who cannot trust each other or believe in the goals of the team hardly get the taste of
success. Effective teams focus on solving problems. Trust is a vital term for effective communication; trust
between team members develop when they are freely allowed to interchange their views.

Advantages

Division of Work:

One of the best advantages of teamwork is that there is most often an equal division of labour
so instead of having to look into all the aspects of a project individually, each person merely has
to deal with one aspect of it. Smaller tasks obviously require less time and effort to complete so
working in a team cuts down workload significantly.

Shared Responsibility:

If for some reasons a project fails, then a good team stands together and jointly take the
responsibility. The best kinds of teams always stick together in every matter, and they have the
highest ratio of success.
Gaining a New Perspective:

Another major advantage of teamwork is that you can learn to look at things from an entirely
new and different perspective. You can learn many things from your other team members. It
will also help you to develop your ideas.

Improvement in Communication Skills:

It is essential that each team member communicates and consults with the rest of the group
and make every decision is taken on everyone’s agreement. It is important to ensure that you
are consulting with your teammates and notify them about your progress at each stage of work
to make sure everyone’s work is running smoothly and that no person has been burdened with
an excess amount of work.

Development of Leadership Qualities:

Being the team leader is a challenging job, but it is also an extremely enriching experience
which will develop leadership qualities in you. No one is a born leader. This skill is needed to be
acquired and being a team leader is a wonderful opportunity to develop these qualities.

Play Your strengths:

Everyone’s talents lie in different fields so you can take up whatever task you feel comfortable
working on and whatever task you think you will not be able to do properly, someone else can
take that up.

Disadvantages
Blaming Each Other When Things Go Wrong

Things become most challenging when one person does his part of work correctly, and the other makes
a mistake, as many individuals cannot bear the thought of accepting the blame. People also start to
blame one another in a team when they believe that there has been an unequal and unfair distribution
of work. Problems like these are very common when people work in teams.

Unequal Involvement and Participation of Different Members:

There are two kinds of people while working in a group- those that work tirelessly to get things done
and then there are those that are laid back and do not adhere to any deadlines. It is due to some lazy
individuals some team members do extra work to avoid failure.
Clash of Ideas:

In a team, different team members have different working styles, things also become complicated when
there is a clash of ideas, and neither members are willing to compromise.

One Team Member’s Desire to Outshine the Rest:

Things get complicated when one member has the burning desire to outshine the other members of the
team. When an individual starts giving priority to his/her individual needs before the needs of the group,
then the groups can no longer function efficiently.

Overbearing Team Leader:

A common disadvantage of working in a team is that you might have to deal with an overbearing and
authoritative leader who is unwilling to listen to your point of view or ideas. It hinders the flexibility and
productivity of an individual.
Ground Rules

Having ground rules helps every team to succeed. Ground rules ensure that people on the team know
what is expected of them and that they all understand where they are going.
 The team is an entity that is greater than the sum of its parts.

 Active cooperation from every team member is vital for team success.

 Team members must work closely together and make every effort to support one another.

 Seek first to understand then to be understood.

 Ask for ideas from everyone.

 Recognize and consider those ideas.

 Offer help without being asked.

 Consider the needs, motivations and skills of other team members when offering help or advice.

 Give your undivided attention to the person speaking.

 Respect each other by not interrupting.

 Set a time frame for each deliverable.

 Start on time and end on time.

 Plan each day, every day.

 Minimize distractions.

 Be open to constructive criticism.

 Breaks – called by the team or by individual judgement, recognizing that it affects the team
dynamics.

 During meetings or while writing emails, it is prohibited to use ‘I’, ‘ME’ nor ‘MY’; it is highly
preferred to use ‘WE’, ‘US’, ‘OUR’ unless for stating personal opinions – if asked for.
Team Contracts

A team contract outlines the ground rules for the team. It is created and then monitored by the team.
Some people get offended by the idea of a team contract; it is not ideal in every situation. We have
included a sample contract below. Each team member should sign and date the contract.

Sample Team Contract

Code of Conduct

As a team, we will:

 Be proactive and positive

 Keep other team members informed

 Focus on what is best for the team as a whole

Ground Rules

We will:

 Be respectful, fair, and honest in all communications

 Encourage opinions and discussion from all members
 Be open to new approaches and listen to new ideas
 Look at conflict and change positively
 Work together to achieve maximum results
 Follow best practices for decision making, communication, and meeting management
 Celebrate accomplishments and milestones

Meeting Guidelines

 Each meeting begins and ends on time

 Team has an agenda for every meeting and sticks to it
 Team members agree to prepare for meetings
 Cell phones will be muted (or perhaps not, if you are encouraging people to openly
participate, share their thoughts, and accept the prevalence of these devices in the
workplace)
 Module Three: Working as a Team

This Module Will Cover:

 No need for Black & White Thinking
 Degrees of Support

Success in the workplace depends on your ability to build a team and to interact with others on that
team. Together, people can accomplish what one person alone cannot; this is called synergy.

However, it is not always easy. Sometimes when we think about controversial subjects, our first
response is to try to get away or to make our involvement as short as possible. Another way to look at
agreements and disagreements is to look at how strongly you feel about something instead of having to
choose a firm position on one side or the other.

No Need for Black and White Thinking

As team members, we need some way to find out where people stand on an issue. This is a great tool to
put on the flip chart, overhead, or just provide as a hand-out. It can help people decide where they
stand on an issue. The Degrees of Support can help a team leader or member explain that consensus
does not mean that everyone agrees to the same degree. The circular nature of the diagram (which
reflects the symbol for the degree, or o) demonstrates how we may increase or decrease the strength of
our commitment to a decision in response to getting more information, considering a different
perspective, and moving through the area of disagreement.
Degrees of Support
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Little in life is so totally clear that it needs to be discussed in terms of an absolute yes or no. As
illustrated in the diagram, we really consider things in terms of degrees. Making agreements or clearing
out conflict allows us to do the same thing.

The team leader can also ask questions of team members, such as “What changes to the
project/task/plan do you need to have implemented in order to move toward an agreement?”
 Module 4: Your Team Player Type

This Module Will Cover:

 What’s Your Team Player Type?
 What Does It Mean To Have a Number?
 My Team Style

What’s Your Team Player Type?

There are many ways to discuss the personality types of people that we work and play with. Whether
you use initials such as the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator), colours such as Personality Dimensions,
edutainment such as True Colours, the names of animals, or Greek philosophers, the idea is that there
are base temperaments that we can relate to and that we prefer. The science behind this kind of
assessment relates back to the work of Carl Jung, which has been substantiated through tens of
thousands of people who have completed and validated his questionnaires.

Scoring Example

Add the total number of points that you wrote beside each letter of the alphabet in the questionnaire.
Pay close attention since the letters are not always in order!

Scale

 4 = Most like you

 3 = A lot like you

 2 = Somewhat like you

 1 = Least like you

Terms

1. A driving need for you is:

3 C To find meaning in life

4 A To learn and gain knowledge

2 B To belong

1 D Freedom to do what you want

Scoring

A IIII

B II

C III

D I
What Does It Mean to Have a Number?

In reality, people are usually a blend of all types, moving within the numbers and flexing into the other
styles that our circumstances and our comfort levels dictate. This means that we are more like a blended
drink than distinct ingredients. You will recognize that you may behave one way at work (super
organized, for example), and might be more relaxed at home, but return to your super organized self
when stress at home increases.

As you read the descriptions below, see if they agree with how you behave as a member of your team at
work, whether you are in meetings or working on a project. You will also get some insight into how to
connect with the different types in the descriptions.

Mostly A’s – Inquiring Rationales

Inquiring Rationales are often drawn to jobs such as banking and engineering. They like to figure out
how things work. They consider the structure and configuration of things. They process information
intuitively and look at the big picture. These are visionaries, such as Albert Einstein and Bill Gates. When
it is time to make decisions, they apply logic, and they are not persuaded by emotions. If they do not
respect you, you will not keep their attention. Experience and competency are very important to
Inquiring Rationales.

This temperament profile makes up approximately five to seven per cent of the population. Other
notables in this group are Walt Disney, Ben Franklin, Margaret Thatcher, and Napoleon. To connect with
Inquiring Rationales on your team, demonstrate your expertise in your work.

As a member of the team, you are the person who keeps track of things, most often with checklists and
guidelines. You can be counted on to know what the assignment is and when it is due. You get frustrated
with team members who are not focused on details, or who want to try something new. You like to
follow a recipe, and you know where your tools are. You probably do not like surprises very much.

Most of the time, you complete assignments in a timely and efficient manner, with all the needed detail.
You also share the information and materials you have with other members of the team and provide the
technical training or background that they need. People usually see you as dependable, systematic,
proficient, practical, and efficient.

Too much logic might mean that you are demonstrating some rigidity. Tap into your sense of humour
and try to keep other people’s styles in mind, especially if you are leading a team. You may go into data
overload with long reports, push for unrealistic standards, and tend to lose patience with team climate
and process issues.
Mostly B’s – Authentic Idealists

Authentic Idealists are natural teachers, counsellors, and leaders. They are benevolent and intuitive,
and they focus on global issues such as world poverty and humanitarian issues. Idealists love metaphors,
stories, and symbols, rather than statistics and figures. They make decisions that reflect their values and
rely on emotion and instinct as opposed to logic. In fact, statistics and facts bore them. They are looking
for significance, and they seek the truth.

The Authentic Idealist temperament makes up about 10 per cent of the population. Notable members
of this group include Eleanor Roosevelt, Billy Graham, Mahatma Gandhi, Jane Goodall, Oprah Winfrey,
and Albert Schweitzer.

Authentic Idealists are people-oriented. They do not want to rock the boat, and their focus is on
establishing harmony on the team. They can focus more on people’s feelings than results. They will step
in to resolve process problems (for example, with conflict or lack of involvement), attentively listen while
withholding judgment and offer praise and recognition to other team members.

To connect with the Authentic Idealists on your team, share your values and personal convictions. Be
authentic and reach out to them by telling stories that demonstrate your empathy. Appeal to personal
ethics and a higher calling. Show that you care about them and each person in the room. Authentic
Idealists are more interested in how much you care than how much you can cite statistics.

If your teamwork style is that of an Authentic Idealist, your strengths include making deep connections
with your team at an emotional and personal level. You motivate and encourage. You are a good
storyteller, so you find innovative ways to present your information. You have the wisdom to share and
are eager to do so. Your lack of ego about what you know makes you likeable. You have a sincere
enthusiasm and empower people to act. People see you as encouraging, enthusiastic, supportive,
humorous, and relaxed.

Areas for development include a tendency to be overly sensitive to others. You are intuitive and will
interpret the meaning behind everything. This also means that you can get distracted by reactions of
other individuals in the audience, and that can make you lose track. You may see team processes as an
end to themselves and fail to challenge or contradict other team members. Make sure that you are well
prepared for areas you are responsible for, and that you accommodate other members of the team by
being sufficiently serious and aware of the bottom line.
Mostly C’s – Organized Guardians

Organized Guardians are extremely dependable and loyal, and they play by the rules. They have an
amazing work ethic, stay down-to-earth, and they like routine. They are thorough and orderly. At times
they are too serious, but they are practically always serious. They are good at taking care of other
people. They want to hear about the bottom line, and they want the facts.

Organized Guardians will consider charts and graphs and follow a well-prepared presentation longer
than most people, but they can shut down when too much emotion is presented and may get bored
with stories. This temperament makes up 40 to 45 per cent of the population and includes people such
as Queen Elizabeth II, Mother Teresa, George Washington, and Colin Powell. With their respect for
tradition, they are drawn to the military and police. These are also the people who will pass traditions to
their children and grandchildren.

To connect with Organized Guardians on your team, be concise, organized, and support statements
with data. Present information in a logical sequence, and do not wander off on a tangent. Quote other
experts. Expect and encourage them to collaborate.

As a team member Organized Guardians will be very logical and organized. You will take notes, and you
will know how to find them. You are a big-picture thinker, looking for the better way to do things. You
can be persuasive, and you do not need to be tied down by excessive details. You see the vision,
mission, and goals of the team as paramount. You are flexible to new ideas and willing to help out even
in areas outside of your defined roles. You are willing to share in the limelight with the members of the
team. You work hard to meet your objectives. People usually describe you as forward-thinking,
cooperative, independent, flexible, and imaginative.

Your weaknesses can be predictability. The data will be there, but you may have to remind yourself
(repeatedly) to give the group opportunities for self-discovery and application. Draw on your
compassion for others to add emotional depth to your work and an appreciation of the strengths of
others. Sometimes you may be tempted to publicly complain about team failures. Resist the urge! You
may overlook the mission at times by being too future-oriented, or lose sight of tasks. Resist the urge to
dream, and get on with the doing.

Mostly D’s – Resourceful Artisans

Resourceful Artisans crave action and live in the moment. They are very social, confident, and
persuasive. Steven Spielberg and Madonna are notable Resourceful Artisans. They are witty, playful, and
fun. If they had a message to share, it would be that the world could lighten up a little. Like Organized
Guardians, they can also perceive the world concretely. They can get bored with visionary tasks. They
enjoy stories that they can easily relate to and imagine happening to them. This temperament makes up
about 35 per cent of the population.

To connect with Resourceful Artisans, be real and spontaneous. Engage them with questions and
discussion. Be prepared for them to challenge your ideas, and at times, authority. They will play the
devil’s advocate and look for weak links in anyone’s argument.

If you are a Resourceful Artisan, your strengths include energy, personality, and creativity. Build-in
some interaction when you present your work to leverage your spontaneity. You are a natural
storyteller, so tell some stories. You will encourage action, and you have good listening skills, so you are
responsive to your team. While most people will appreciate your candour, it may take some practice
before you know when to back off an issue. You will challenge the team to take well-considered risks
and push them toward high ethical standards. People usually see you as candid, honest, principled,
assertive, and ethical.

Your weaknesses can show up in your organization and structure. Because you are living in the moment,
you might avoid the homework that goes into the development of a brilliant report or presentation. You
might avoid preparation and be willing to rely on spontaneity, but then you are less focused on content.
Be careful not to be so spontaneous that you miss a good opportunity to deliver a powerful message.
You can be too direct in communicating with other team members and sometimes become rigid and
inflexible. Avoid painting yourself into a corner by knowing when to back off.

What’s Important?

We all have preferences for how we do things, and now we hopefully understand a bit more about
them. It is also important to remember that we ALL have the range of preferences described here. You
might be mostly A, but call on behaviours that are more closely associated with B, C, and/or D as
needed. You might also be very close in your results to more than one type, so you will find it easier
than other people to flex your own style in response to what the group needs.

It is important to have a range of types in our workplace and on each team that we work with. The
strength of having some people looking after facts and figures while others appeal to emotions,
spontaneity, or reinforce the importance of rules and tradition, makes our business effectively. It is the
blend, that presence of different temperaments within a multitude of strengths, which keeps our world
fascinating.
My Team Style
Identifying team style is easy. You just need to figure out these questions:
 What are your individual strengths?
 What are your individual weaknesses?
 What are your team’s strengths?
 What are your team’s weaknesses?
 How can you shore up the weaknesses and leverage the strengths?

Individual Strengths
 Work Experience
 Education
 Technical Skills
 Personal Characteristics
 Personal Network

Individual Weaknesses
 Limited Work Experience
 Limited Education
 Lack of Technical Skills
 Negative Personality Attributes

Team’s Strengths:
 Team Work
 Help and Support
 Creativity
 Versatility
 Flexibility
 Focused
 Taking Initiative

Team’s Weaknesses:
 Self-criticism
 Insecure
 Level of Innovation
 Individual Goal Setting and Assessment
 No Chance of Conducting One Man Show
 Team has to take responsibility for one’s fault

Turn Weaknesses into Strengths

 Treat Your Weaknesses Like a To-Do List
 Partner with Other People’s Strengths
 Treat Weakness Like a Blind spots
 Turn Toward to Your Weaknesses
 Overwhelm Your Weaknesses with Strengths
Module Five: Building Team Trust
This Module Will Cover:
 Why is Trust Important
 Building Trust

Why Is Trust Important?

Trust is one of those mainstay virtues and a hallmark of high performing teams. It is the bond that allows
any kind of significant relationship to exist between people. Once broken, it is not easily, if ever,
recovered.

Trust is produced in a climate that includes four elements:

 Honesty: Integrity, no lies, no exaggerations

 Openness: A willingness to share and receive information, perceptions, opinions, and ideas

 Consistency: Predictable behaviour and responses

 Treating people with dignity and fairness

For a team that is starting out, we can ask members to assume trust; to treat everyone as though they
trust one another and to be trustworthy to each other. This is a reasonable way of sharing with the team
that you are also putting your trust in them.

Just keep in mind that trust is fragile. If anyone of the elements listed above is breached even once, a
relationship is apt to be severely compromised, even lost. With trust gone between individuals, teams
have little hope of functioning well and realizing their true potential.

What happens when teams trust each other?

 They can focus on the issues at hand and accomplish tasks quickly and efficiently.

 Team members are more likely to take risks and share their thoughts and feelings.

 They can devote their energies to coming up with creative solutions and working together to
solve problems.

 They experience a greater level of synergy.

 Team members often find that if they need help, others are more willing to pitch in.
Building Trust

Building trust is important as it is a defining term. If you take into account a situation when someone
violated your trust.

 Open Up
 Create The Circle Of Safety
 Listen Before Speaking
 Lead The Team By Example
 Support Your Team Members
 Respect Your Team Members
 Accept Disagreement
 Value Every Team Member
 Praise Each Other
 Module Six: The Stages of Team Development

This Module Will Cover:

 Stage One: Forming
 Stage Two: Storming
 Stage Three: Norming
 Stage Four: Performing
 Stage Five: Adjourning
 Forming An Effective Team
 Making Connections

As early as the 1970s, researchers were discovering that groups of individuals working together go
through four distinct stages of development. The most famous representation of this model is Tuckman
and Jensen’s Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing model. Over time an additional stage has
been added to reflect the natural end to a group: Adjourning. The stages are similar to human
development: infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age.
One of your roles as a team member or leader is to help the group grow and develop. Sometimes the
team is together for a very short time, so you will try to move them to a productive stage as quickly as
you can. Other times, the focus will be on relationship building.

Think of how you felt when you learned you were coming to this workshop. While that is not a perfect
example of the other stages of team development, you may see a resemblance between how you felt
upon learning you would be in this workshop and how a new group or team member might feel.

Stage One: Forming

At this stage, team members:

 May be anxious, adopt a wait-and-see attitude, and/or be formal

 Have no clear idea of goals or expectations

 Need to get to know one another

 May not be sure why they are there

A leader can help by:

 Planning introductions and an orientation

 Using icebreakers

 Establishing ground rules

 Determining decision-making methods

Stage Two: Storming

At this stage:

 Team members are eager to get going, and they may be impatient with delays

 Conflict can arise as people bring different ideas of how to accomplish goals

 People notice differences rather than similarities

 Some members may drop out mentally or physically

A leader can help by:

 Modelling appropriate behaviours

 Separating problems from people

 Enforcing ground rules and their role by maintaining control of the process

 Keeping in mind that conflict can be healthy

To move to the next stage, participants have to put the needs of the group ahead of their personal
interests.
Stage Three: Norming

At this stage, team members:

 Begin to recognize ways they are alike

 Realize that they are in this together as a team

 Get more social

 May forget their focus in favour of having a good time

Many groups do not make it to this stage, where there is much more cooperation and understanding
than previous stages.

During this stage, the leader should:

 Be observant of emerging group behaviours

 Encourage the team to express their differences positively

 Help the team to stay focused on their objectives

Stage Four: Performing

At this stage, team members:

 Are mature

 Understand their roles and responsibilities

 Want more input in processes

 Are self-motivated and self-trained

The transition to this phase happens as a demonstration of high levels of trust. However, the team can
be susceptible to “group think,” so a leader must help ensure that individual ideas are considered. The
leader must avoid intervening in the process unless the group becomes stuck and begins to flounder, or
they regress to a previous stage and erupt in conflict.
Stage Five: Adjourning

At this stage, team members are:

 Winding down and saying goodbye

 Setting goals for future work independently and/or as part of new groups

Groups may adjourn because they finish a defined project or because they are no longer challenged. If
there are new members, that can shift the group into a previous stage.

In this phase, leaders can support the group by:

 Celebrating participants’ participation

 Describing what is going on

 Looking for and encouraging contribution from everyone as the group winds down

 Encouraging continued productivity

Forming an Effective Team

Not all of us will take the same approach to form a successful work team, but success may hinge on
taking all of the steps we just discussed.

There is a tendency to want to surround ourselves with people who are just like us. If you get to choose
a team, you will need to look at things carefully and create a team of people with a variety of strengths.
For a team that is already in place, organizing may be more subtle. For example, you might call the team
together to discuss what you want to accomplish (goals) and how everybody can help.

You will find that imposing goals on people does not work nearly as well as having them tell you what
goals they will strive for. But setting goals is hard work. Too often they end up too unrealistic, too vague,
impossible to measure, or stretching into eternity with no deadline.

As well, it is important to take time for reflection and evaluation. Was that last project as successful as it
might have been? What could have been done differently? Make sure that you apply these lessons
learned to your next project.
Making Connections

 Keep Values Front and Centre

 Create a Sense of Belonging for All
 Make It Easy to Celebrate
 Keep information flowing
 Think of Your Team as a Family
 Give everyone a voice
 Make Mission-Critical Information Available
 Challenge Traditional Frameworks
 Hire or grow authentic, passionate leaders
 Module Seven: Virtual Teams

This Module Will Cover:

 What are Virtual Teams
 Strategies of Virtual Team Success
 Scheduling and Conducting Team Meetings
 Team Building in a Virtual Environment
 Informal Bonding Interaction

What are Virtual Teams?

Virtual teams are basically like every other team except that they are connected by communications
rather than proximity. Members communicate through telephone, e-mail, videoconferencing, internet
and other communication methods (NetMeeting, FaceTime, etc.) but still go through the same
processes as other teams.
A huge advantage of virtual teams, especially if they are scattered over a wide geographical area, its
diversity. Imagine your company is developing a new electric vacuum cleaner for world-wide
distribution. Having team members in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa will help assure the design
will be acceptable in a wide market, and it will also ensure the proper electrical hardware needs are met
for the various markets.

Strategies for Virtual Team Success

Once the virtual team is established, there are a few things that you can do to ensure its success.

Hold a Kick-off Meeting

If at all possible, have the first team meeting in person. Complete some team-building activities and
some social activities together. This is also the time to set ground rules, establish the team’s goal, and
set expectations.
Build Relationships

It is all too easy for mobile workers to feel isolated, and for that isolation to turn into disengagement
and chronic low morale. Help the team build relationships by:

 Engaging in small talk before and after a meeting

 Having meetings in person when possible

 Holding social events (in person or virtual)

 Making communication easy by providing instant messaging applications with video chat

 Creating social spaces for people to hang out in

 Relying on each other for information and help, and using you (as the team leader) as a last
resort

Manage Performance

Earlier, we talked about ways to manage performance and how important it is to be proactive with
mobile workers. Make sure that you set, manage, and monitor expectations. Keep lines of
communication open and let your team know that you are there to support them.

Be Consistent

Being consistent is extremely important when leading a virtual team. If you usually respond to e-mails
within a few minutes, for example, but do not reply to one team member for days, they might start to
wonder if they have done something to upset you.

Give Trust to Get Trust

Trust people to do the job that you have assigned them to do. Ensure that processes, resources, and
tools are in place so that they can be successful and let them do their work. Trust them to reach out to
you if they need help.

Reward the Team

Rewards are important for traditional teams, and virtual teams are no exception. Reward them
whenever you can, whether it is words of recognition, an extra day off, or a free lunch delivered to
everyone on the team.
Encourage Communication

One of the biggest challenges for a virtual team is communication. One way to make communication
easier is to make sure that everyone is accessible via the phone, e-mail, and instant messaging during
working hours. You may want to have a contact sheet posted on your team’s website with everyone’s
contact information, as well as the best time to contact them. (This is particularly important for teams
spread out across different time zones).

Set a good example by checking in with everyone at least once a day, even if it is just to say hi or ask
how their weekend was. Make sure that everyone knows that they are expected to be available during
working hours. Address any attendance issues right away.

E-mail can help communication, but it can also hinder it. There is nothing worse than sitting at your
computer and pressing the Receive button over and over, waiting for an important reply that you need
to continue working. The easiest solution for this is to encourage people to use an alternate method of
communication for important items, such as the telephone or chat.

You can also set expectations for communication response times. For example, many businesses dictate
that a voice mail message must be answered within eight business hours.

You can also set e-mail response times based on message priority, like this:

 Low importance: Answer within eight business hours

 Normal importance: Answer within four business hours

 High importance: Answer within one business hour

Another way to facilitate communication is to schedule it. For example, a communication schedule for a
virtual customer care team might look like this:

 Daily: Update cases on the server as you complete work on them

 Weekly: Send report to the manager with a summary of weekly metrics

 Bi-Weekly: Attend team meetings via video conference and report on any issues that need to be
escalated

 Monthly: Attend an individual meeting with the manager via video conference to review
performance
Model the Way

Behave in a way that reflects the expectations that you have set. If you expect team members to be
online by 9 a.m. and reply to e-mails within an hour, but you log on at 11 a.m. and take all day to answer
their questions, you are sending the wrong message.

Scheduling and Conducting Team Meetings

Choosing a Method

Team meetings are a crucial part of your virtual team’s success. Here is an overview of team meeting
methods, from most to least interactive:

Most Common
Methods for Virtual
In-person Video conferences
Teams Text-based group
meetings Telephone chat
conferences

Most Interactive Least Interactive

Things to Consider

If you choose a telephone or video conference, make sure that:

  Toll-free numbers are provided to participants if their telephone lines are not paid for by the
company
 The service is reliable and good quality
 Team members have the necessary tools (such as headsets and webcams) and software to
participate in the meeting

Setting Expectations

Ensure that all team members know when the meeting will be held and what format it will take. Send
out the agenda and action items that team members are responsible for at least one day ahead of the
meeting.

Scheduling recurring meetings can help maximize attendance. If this is not possible, give team members
as much notice as possible before a meeting. If the time, date, and/or method of the meeting changes at
the last minute, contact team members by phone or instant message to inform them. Scheduling
meetings using information management software (such as Novell GroupWise or Microsoft Outlook) can
help automate updates and keep everyone informed.

Choosing the Time and Place

Meetings should always be scheduled at the most convenient time for participants and in a fairway. For
example, if you have one person who is four hours ahead of everyone else, they should not always be
the one at their desk at 8 p.m. If necessary, rotate meeting times.

Conducting the Meeting

Once everyone is online, have each team member introduce themselves. Then, start the meeting with
some small talk to break the ice. You may even want to conduct a short icebreaker, like asking each
person to share something funny that happened to them during the past week.

Make sure that everyone has a copy of the agenda and that you stick to it. Frequently stop to check in
with group members to see if there are additional points or questions. Some teleconferencing software
offers a “Raise your hand” or “Ask a question” feature, which can alert the facilitator when their
attention is needed. This is especially useful when teleconferencing or when having a video conference
with a large number of people.

Following Up
Wrap up with a summary of what was discussed. You should also review action items and remind
everyone of the next meeting date (if it has been set). If appropriate, you may want to e-mail everyone a
summary of the meeting with any documents that were provided or discussed.

Some teleconferencing software allows you to record meetings. If so, you may want to post these
recordings on the team site for easy reference later on.

Team Building in a Virtual Environment

One of the most difficult things to accomplish in a virtual environment is team building. Virtual teams
can be a very lonely experience, and it is easy for meetings to become dry and only about the facts.
While it is great that meetings stay on task and progress well, this can stifle creativity and team bonding.
Team members rarely who are in remote areas get to interact informally and tend to think of
themselves as a silo rather than part of the larger group. The bonding and mutuality of bumping into
each other around the office are missing. This is why, as a leader of a virtual team, you must create
these informal bonding interactions virtually.

Informal Bonding Interaction

Develop an Informal Bonding Interaction:

Although informal communication at work has been shown to serve important functions of sociality,
little is known about the messages that comprise routine, everyday interaction. The implications are
essential for how informal communication functions between peers. Team members can use the results
to facilitate communication opportunities to establish a comfortable relationship with each other which
is an inevitable term for working as a team. It encourages the free interchange of ideas.

Five key themes were identified:

 Personal Disclosure
 Sociality
 Support giving and getting
 Commiserating/Complaining
 Business updates and exchanges.

These informal workplace interactions also reflected underlying dimensions of perceived organizational
membership: need fulfilment, mattering, and belonging and suggest ways the framework could be
strengthened.
 Module Eight: Communication

This Module Will Cover:

 Defining Communication
 Role of Communication
 Listening Skills
 Tips for Becoming a Better Listener

Defining Communication

What is Communication?

Communication is the process of transmitting information and common understanding from one person
to another. In this article, I discuss the communication process, barriers to communication, and
improving communication effectiveness. The study of communication is important because every
administrative function and activity involves some form of direct or indirect communication.

Role of Communication

A team is formed when individuals with a common goal come together on a common platform. The
team members must complement each other and avoid silly conflicts among themselves.

 Communication plays a very important role in team building and extracting the best out of the
team members.
 Verbal communication sometimes may create misunderstandings and confusions; thus it is
always better to rely on written communication for better clarity and transparency
 It is always better than the issues are discussed on an open forum and the participants are
allowed to speak freely.
 Every individual should have the freedom to speak.
 Effective Communication reduces the chances of conflicts and fights among team members.
Listening Skills

Two of the most powerful communication skills are our ability to listen and to ask questions.

Good listening skills are crucial to team building. Remember the saying, “God gave us two ears and one
mouth so we can listen twice as much as we talk.”

Active listening means that we try to understand things from the speaker’s point of view. It includes
letting the speaker know that we are listening and that we have understood what was said. This is not
the same as hearing, which is a physical process, where sound enters the eardrum and messages are
passed to the brain. Active listening can be described as an attitude that leads to listening for shared
understanding.

When we make a decision to listen for total meaning, we listen for the content of what is being said as
well as the attitude behind what is being said. Is the speaker happy, angry, excited, sad or something
else entirely?

Responding to Feelings

The content (the words are spoken) is one thing, but the way that people feel really gives full value to
the message. Responding to the speaker’s feelings adds an extra dimension to listening. Are they
disgusted and angry or in love and excited? Perhaps they are ambivalent! These are all feelings that you
can reply to in your part of the conversation.

Reading Cues

Really listening means that we are also very conscious of the non-verbal aspects of the conversation.

 What are the speaker’s facial expressions, hand gestures, and posture telling us?

 Is their voice loud or shaky?

 Are they stressing certain points?

 Are they mumbling or having difficulty finding the words they want to say?
Demonstration Cues

When you are listening to someone, these techniques will show a speaker that you are paying attention,
provided you are genuine in using them.

Physical indicators include making eye contact, nodding your head from time to time, and leaning into
the conversation.

You can also give verbal cues or use phrases such as “Uh-huh,” “Go on,” “Really!” and, “Then what?”

You can use questions for clarification or summarizing statements. Examples:

 “Do you mean they were charging $4.00 for just a cup of coffee?”

 “So after you got a cab, got to the store, and found the right sales clerk, what happened then?”

Tips for Becoming a Better Listener

 Make a decision to listen. Close your mind to clutter and noise and look at the person speaking
with you. Give them your undivided attention.
 Do not interrupt people. Make it a habit to let them finish what they are saying. Respect that
they have thoughts they are processing and speaking about, and wait to ask questions or make
comments until they have finished.
 Keep your eyes focused on the speaker and your ears tuned to their voice. Do not let your eyes
wander around the room, just in case your attention does too.
 Carry a notebook or start a conversation file on your computer. Write down all the discussions
that you have in a day. Capture the subject, who spoke more (were you listening or doing a lot
of the talking?), what you learned in the discussion, as well as the who, what, when, where,
why, and how aspects of it. Once you have conducted this exercise eight to 10 times, you will be
able to see what level your listening skills are currently at.
 Ask a few questions throughout the conversation. When you ask, people will know that you are
listening to then and that you are interested in what they have to say. Your ability to summarize
and paraphrase will also demonstrate that you heard them.
 When you demonstrate good listening skills, they tend to be infectious. If you want people to
communicate well, you have to set a good example.
 Module Nine: Becoming a Good Team Player

No matter what you do or where you live, the quality of your attitude determines the quality of your
relationships, not to mention just about everything else in your life.

In his book Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us (2008), Seth Godin encourages everyone to be a leader.
Leadership does not belong to someone who has “leader” in their job description: it is really up to all of
us.

If we all take a leading role, that means there are people who will follow.
Final Verdict

If you want to build a great team, the importance of learning about the definition of a team, establishing
team norms, working in and as a team, types of a team player, developing team trust, stages of
development, communication, virtual team and will provide a solid understanding of the advantages
and disadvantages of a team is immense.

Throughout this Building Better Teams course, you will learn how you can be an efficient team player as
well as teach you the secrets and strategies of building a better team. To wrap the course up, you will
think about ways to increase interaction among your team and build trust.