team management and evolution
DESCRIPTION
A powerpoint presentation for lecture I held for Master\'s class in JAMK University of Applied Sciences.TRANSCRIPT
SELF-ORGANIZING TEAMS
H E I K K I - P E K K A N O R O N E NN O R O N E N . H E I K K I P E K K A @ G M A I L . C O M
Team management and evolution
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Introduction
Q: Have you been part of self-organizing team?
What is a self-organizing team? Is internal hierarchy and leadership required? Is external hierarchy and leadership required? Always finds the most effective ways to work?
Self-organizing team is a team that is free of externally defined hierarchy and is given freedom to adjust its own processes and practices (and usually continuously does so).
Q: Have you been part of self-organizing team?
Discussion: High-performance teams
Have you ever been in team that you consider high-performance team?
What are the characteristics of of high-performance teams? If you have experience of being in one, what were the
characteristics of that team?How do you think the usual charasteristics of
high-performance team matches to characteristics of self-organizing team?
High-performance teams
What would wikipedia say? High-performance teams have ten characteristics that are recognised to lead to
success Participative leadership – using a democratic leadership style that involves and engages team
members Effective decision-making – using a blend of rational and intuitive decision making methods,
depending on that nature of the decision task Open and clear communication – ensuring that the team mutually constructs shared
meaning, using effective communication methods and channels Valued diversity – valuing a diversity of experience and background in team, contributing to a
diversity of viewpoints, leading to better decision making and solutions Mutual trust – trusting in other team members and trusting in the team as an entity Managing conflict – dealing with conflict openly and transparently and not allowing grudges
to build up and destroy team morale Clear goals – goals that are developed using SMART criteria; also each goal must have
personal meaning and resonance for each team member, building commitment and engagement Defined roles and responsibilities – each team member understands what they must do (and
what they must not do) to demonstrate their commitment to the team and to support team success
Coordinative relationship – the bonds between the team members allow them to seamlessly coordinate their work to achieve both efficiency and effectiveness
Positive atmosphere – an overall team culture that is open, transparent, positive, future-focused and able to deliver success
How does this description match to characteristics of self-organizing [email protected]
Building a team – dream team
What would our dream worker of self-organizing team look like? Top professional Good team player Holistic specialist, skilled in numerous things and able
to jump from role to another with no difficulties .. also ability to read mind of other team members
even over long distance would be a big plus
Building a team - reality
How often you have had chance to build a team from a scratch and getting all the positions filled with exactly the kind of persons you want to? It has never happened to me, and I’m pretty sure it
will never happen.Our possibilities to have effect in building a
team vary a lot, but in short term (perspective of single project) they are usually quite limited Focus from building to shaping.
Evolution of self-organizing team
Every team has some sort of evolution Some more, some less; some for worse, some for
betterSome good models existEver heard of: forming, storming, norming,
performing? Tuckman’s stages for group development
Tuckman’s stages of group development
Good for describing stages in many kind of teams. Especially well noticeable in self-organizing teams
Norming Storming
Performing Forming
Tuckman’s stages of group development
Forming Lots of learning; to know each other, to learn about the goal and tasks. Staying in comfort zone, evading conflicts.
Storming Testing ideas and others Conflicts are common Strong debate about what is the goal and how to reach it In practice, sharing positions inside the team
Norming Common goal shared by team, and team works together to reach it Team members have good idea of each other’s most important skills
Performing Team members know each others, and skills of each others very well Conflicts are very rare Team has become autonomous and the requirement for supervision has
become minimal
Discussion
How should a self-organizing team be managed? Should there be external control to team decision
making? Should manager participate in solving team’s internal
conflicts? What would be characteristics of good manager for
self-organizing team?
Discuss in groups
How does our characteristics of good manager work in different stages of evolution of the team?
FormingStormingNormingPerforming
Adaptive management and leadership
To manage or lead team through evolution effectively, you have to evolve and adapt new ways of working as well This is one of the most hard things to achieve as a
manager. Lots of managers never manage to do it, for some it comes as natural.
This is very essential thing in steering self-organizing team through other phases to the ”performing” team.
Management by stages
Forming Directive. Team members need someone to introduce the original processes, goal and
expectations. Level of supervision should be high, to ensure that things move forward as team is
not yet strongly commited to any common goal Manager should not interfere with internal roles, to ensure self-organization and
quick transition to storming phase Telling often ”WHAT” is goal, but leaving the ”HOW” to get there for team to thunk of
Storming Diplomatic negotiator. Team members need someone to help to solve conflicts in case
they cannot be creatively solved by themselves Supportive. Team members are out of comfort zone and will make mistakes due to
that. It is very important that manager is not judging but supports and guides. Level of supervision should stay high, but visibility of supervision should be lowered
to ensure that team members have courage to challenge each others.
Management by stages
Norming Supportive. The manager should support team by providing and taking care of
”WHAT” part of the development, and actively ensuring that team has what it requires for ”HOW” part
Participating. The manager should take part on team activities to ensure that all team needs really are brought to him. However, manager also has to learn to ”fade away” when ever possible.
Performing Supportive faciliator. The most important responsibility of manager is to ensure that
team can put their full effort into development, removing impediments from their path.
Delegating. The manager should be brave enough to share even some of the ”WHAT” part with team as well.
Protective supervisor. As team has become very autonomous, there is no need for very strong supervision. Supervision in this phase is more of following possible external threats for the team, and eliminating risks that could cause team to fall back to less productive stage.
Discussion
What are the most remarkable challenges for team to be effective?
What kind of things can hinder team’s evolution?
What kind of things could push team back in stages of evolution?
What of these are especially important for self-organizing teams?
Some remarkable challenges
The team has strong predefined roles Shared past with high difference in skill levels-> someone being
known as superior to others Cultural, for example positions through social class (caste system
etc.) Clustered teams (not to be confused with distributed teams)
Not all team members are equal in communication. Majority in one place, individual(s) separated
Manager who is unable to change Manager is not able to change with the evolution of the team;
cannot for example move decision power to the team. Changes in structure of team or commitment level of team members
Taking away or adding new team member can trigger (and usually does) reforming of the team
If commitment of team members change, for example due to committing to other project as well, the team reforming can be triggered as [email protected]
Open discussion
Anything more you would wish to discuss about or share with others?