1.9 Team Approaches

Teams are people who interact and influence each other, hold each other accountable for goals, and are viewed as a social group within the organization.  There are many different types of groups, including department teams, advisor teams, virtual teams, task force teams and leadership teams, to name a few.

Types of Groups: Formal and Informal

A group is a collection of individuals who interact with each other such that one person’s actions impact the others. In organizations, most work is done within groups. How groups function has important implications for organizational productivity. Groups where people get along, feel the desire to contribute to the team, and can coordinate their efforts may have high-performance levels, whereas teams characterized by extreme levels of conflict or hostility may demoralize workforce members.

In organizations, you may encounter different types of groups. Informal groups comprise two or more individuals associated with one another in ways not prescribed by the formal organization. For example, a few company members who play tennis on weekends would be considered an informal group. A formal group comprises managers, subordinates, or both with close associations among group members that influence the behaviour of individuals in the group. We will discuss many types of formal work groups later in this chapter.

Understanding Team Development

Several management professionals and academics have studied project team development. Let’s review the model created by Bruce Tuckman (1965), who observed that teams go through a series of developmental stages: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning. Each stage has predictable characteristics.

• Forming: The group is brought together for the first time. The team is orienting themselves to the task at hand. At this stage, there may be little agreement on how to approach the project and team members may struggle with understanding the purpose of the project.
• Storming: Team members are trying to figure out their roles in the group. Conflict and power struggles are common, but so is a clearer vision for the group.
• Norming: At this stage, the team will have developed a consensus regarding roles, processes, and approach to the work ahead.
• Performing: At this point the group has a clear vision and purpose and is focused on meeting performance goals, project milestones and other benchmarks.
• Adjourning: Once the project is completed, the team should collect lessons learned and transition to other projects or roles.

Benefits of Teams

Team members share information and knowledge to coordinate efforts use their independent skills, and have a wide range of knowledge. Mostly, people are more motivated in a team because they have a bond, encourage, and inspire each other. Members of teams have a higher sense of responsibility to each other. Sometimes, individuals work “smarter and harder” in teams so as not to be judged or compared to other members. The result is performance is higher.

Challenges of Teams

The cost of teams can be high because teams need development time, and time is money.  They need time to resolve conflict and disagreements, learn to trust each other, and negotiate the various roles each team member will play in the team. Also, they can adapt to social loafing, where team members do not put in the same effort as they would if they were working independently. Groups may work together for long periods and begin to make decisions without providing any critical reasoning, do not “weigh out” the consequences of their decisions, and some members do not want to upset other members, so they agree on ideas.  This type of thinking is groupthink.

High Performing Teams

Choosing team members based on several criteria is essential to ensure a high-performing team. The team size, competencies, diversity, and roles all play an essential part of developing effective teams. Human Resources can help ensure a high-performing team by assisting in developing, improving effectiveness and guiding teams to success.

Team Size

The team size depends on the task or project to be completed.  The larger the project, generally, the larger the team numbers.  The team size could be dependent on the complexity of the project.  A simple project may only require 3-5 members, while a complex project may require 15-20.

Human Resources and Team Project Development

The characteristics and behaviours of teams are important to project success.  It is important to choose effective teams that reflect good team compatibility.

Cooperation: Willing and able to work together for the good of the project. They are willing to share resources, be flexible, accommodate each other’s needs and meet deadlines.

Communication: They are able to relay information clearly and concisely and be good listeners when discussing project goals, outcomes and tasks to be performed.

Coordination: They need to work together on the project to “keep things on track” and integrate each other’s work into the daily outcomes.

Console: They need to maintain positive attitudes and be mentally and psychologically stable; and support each other to be and do the same. They must be able to be empathic, soothe each other, and help each other build self-esteem and self-confidence in the project duties.

Conflict resolution: They need to have the skills to motivate and resolve conflict when it arises. Disagreements are part of any project as each member has different ideas on how to perform tasks in the project. Effective team members can discuss issues, brainstorm ideas for resolve, and continue work in harmony.

Human Resource Specialists are skilled in identifying these compatibility skills and talents. They can support the hiring, along with the Project Manager, to ensure the team members are mutually accountable to each other.

Team Roles

A role is a set of behaviours that each member is expected to adhere to because of their position. Team roles help each member reach goals, expectations are clearly defined, and each role is assigned based on skills/experience or preference. Typical team roles could be Leader, Team Builder, Organizer, and Innovator.  Often, teams decide among themselves what the roles will be and volunteer or are assigned to the role.

Team Diversity

Teams with diverse backgrounds tend to make better decisions. They view a problem or challenge from different perspectives. Each member may have different solutions to a problem. Diverse teams have a broader set of technical competencies. A challenge for team diversity is that people do have different perspectives, beliefs, and values. They are open to conflict and may be less able to develop relationships.

Self-Directed Teams

These teams are cross-functional and are organized around processes.  They have much autonomy over their work and how they complete it. They are a close group and depend on each other to accomplish tasks. They often plan and complete their work with little outside supervision. They are often used in manufacturing plants.  Because they are self-directed, productivity increases and employees are happier.

Virtual Teams

Virtual teams work together across space and time.  They are connected through technology. Virtual teams have increased due to globalization and the knowledge-based society. It is easy to communicate through technology and saves companies money in airfares, accommodation and other expenses incurred to meet in different geographic regions. Virtual teams need excellent communication skills, leadership skills and high motivation.  They need quick and reliable access to email, video conferencing and other technical tools to perform their jobs effectively.  They need more structure than physically present teams to ensure clarity of goals and expectations. When the above is in place for virtual teams they will bond and develop trust like face-to-face teams.

“9.2 Group Dynamics” from Organizational Behavior by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

“4.4. Developing Team” from Strategic Project Management: Theory and Practice for Human Resource Professionals by Debra Patterson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.