Team Dynamics

Team Dynamics

Teams differ from other type of groups in that members are focused on a common goal, such as a presentation, completing in-class exercises, taking notes, discussing a topic, writing a report, or creating a new design or prototype. The most common definition of team is: "A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they are mutually accountable." (Katzenbach and Smith, 1993) Effective team members need the following three basic skills: Communication and Negotiation - Team members need the ability to state ideas or questions clearly, listen to others attentively, and to resolve disagreements in a non-confrontational manner. Team members also need to be in constant contact with each other about where they are at in the development of their project. This is a skill that many people may lack. Analytic and Creative Skills - Team members need to evaluate information and propose creative solutions. Many people have these skills, but may not be able to effectively communicate their views or concerns. Organization - The team needs to be able to track and complete all its tasks on time. Tensions can often arise if deadlines are missed. There are some tips that can help team members communicate more effectively. Listen actively, ask questions, give constructive feedback, don't express an opinion as a fact, explain your reasons, restate the original idea to be sure it's understood, compliment another's idea, respond, don't react, don't interrupt, critique the idea and not the person. Teams mature as their members learn to work together on the assigned task.

During the process of maturing, teams tend to go through predictable stages of growth. The four stages of the development cycle are: forming, storming, norming and performing. Stage 1: Forming - The individuals who have agreed to be team members initiate their activities as an immature group getting acquainted. A sense of belonging and the main emphasis for members is to determine if they have membership. They have already decided that they will contribute to the group once others recognize their membership. Sometimes, too much agreement occurs during the forming stage, and in almost all cases, minimal actual work is accomplished. The appropriate leadership style during this stage is directing. The leader provides high levels of directive behaviors that focus on close supervision and instructing the team members of what, where, how and when to do things. In addition, the leader offers the team low levels of supportive behavior that focus on listening to what its members have to share, encouraging team members, and involving them in decision-making activities. The leader also provides information and develops skills, while seeking opportunities to make sure roles and goals are clearly understood. During this stage, task behaviors focus on understanding goals and can be described by the word orientation. Relationship behaviors focus on establishing membership and understanding roles, and are described as dependency. Stage 2: Storming -- Individuals jockey for influential positions within the group. The honeymoon is over. Conflicting goals and ideas emerge. Again, minimal work is accomplished during this stage. The appropriate leadership style is coaching. The leader continues to provide high levels of directive behavior, but increases supportive behavior, including more listening and soliciting more input from team members. Task behaviors of the storming stage can be described as organization. The relationship behaviors focus on influence and are described as conflict. Stage 3: Norming -- The group becomes a unit as a code of behavior is agreed upon and conflicts are resolved. The coalition of individuals begins to become more productive as the members share ideas and beliefs more freely. The appropriate leadership style is supporting. The leader decreases the level of directive behavior, but continues to provide high levels of supportive behavior by helping team members work together. An emphasis is made on preparing the team for the next level of activity by helping them assume decision-making responsibility. During this stage, moderate levels of work are accomplished. Stage 4: Performing -- The group has become an effective team, capable of solving problems. As the group of individuals becomes a closely-knit team, synergy is created. The result is a high level of work accomplishment. The appropriate leadership style is delegating. The leader reduces the levels of both directive and supportive behavior. The members of the team are now able to provide their own leadership. But the team leader still needs to monitor goals and performance level. For the performing stage, the task behaviors are defined as problem solving, and the shared leadership-based relationship behaviors as interdependence. The forming, storming and norming stages produce minimal task results. So, it's tempting to try to bypass those stages and focus activities directly on task performance. But experience tells us that time invested in the first stages will pay off in large dividends as the project progresses. The predictable stages of team development depend on factors such as individual and team maturity, task complexity and leadership. These stages are inevitable, though they may vary in duration from team to team, or from project to project for a given team. Attempting to bypass them will ultimately yield less optimal results.

Although team dynamics can differ from team to team, functional teams share these characteristics (Bodwell 1996, 1999): Full Participation - All team members contribute their time and energy to the project. More importantly, all team members participate in the decision making process. Having a dominant leader may work for the very short term, but will eventually lead to morale problems later on. Trust - Members trust that each member will add value to the project, and members work to ensure that everybody does contribute and that appreciation is expressed for different contributions. Open Communication - The main glue that holds a team together. Communication is effective when all members: contribute ideas, provide feedback constructively, ask for clarification on anything that might be confusing, provide frequent updates and listen to each other carefully. Clear Roles - Teams tend to function better if member roles are defined. There are several ways "roles" can be defined, and they need not be mutually exclusive. By work function - Most corporate teams assign roles by work function. For instance, an online newsletter may require an editor, a reporter/writer, a graphic artist and a Web master. By meeting function - Many sources also suggest assigning some or all the following roles for projects, which require significant