Building Effective Teams
Prepared by:
Dr. Shahid Ansari **
and
Dr. Jan Bell
**We wish to acknowledge the help of Shell Oil Company for sharing materials from
their leadership and team building courses and to the many works of Chris Argyris
in the area of engagement and defensive reasoning in organizations.
Copyright, Shahid Ansari and Jan Bell, 2002. Permission granted to CSUN faculty for use in
teaching their courses.
Steps In Creating Winning
Teams
Organize
for Task
Practice
Provide
Constructive
Feedback
Practice
Agree on
Team
Process
Build
Trust
Correct
Reflect
Agree on Rules
of Behavior
Practice
Dialog Skills
Copyright, Shahid Ansari and Jan Bell, 2002. Permission granted to CSUN faculty for use in
teaching their courses.
Build Trust

Objective:
– Make personal connection to other team members
– Understand how personal experiences shape individual responses
and behaviors
– Appreciate the diversity in personality and decision styles
– Learn about the personal goals and values that others bring to the
team
– Identify areas that will cause conflicts in team

Tools
–
–
–
–
–
Icebreakers
Team Building Exercises
Share formative experiences
Share goals
Share values
Copyright, Shahid Ansari and Jan Bell, 2002. Permission granted to CSUN faculty for use in
teaching their courses.
Agree on Rules of Behavior
 Sources of conflict and how do we resolve them
– Work Preferences
– Communication Preferences
– Scheduling difficulties
 Other norms of behavior
– Punctuality (How do we handle being late?)
– Attendance (What happens when people miss meetings?)
– Problem solving (How do we do this?)
– Voting
 Consensus
 Majority
 Two stage
– Communication
 How (Phone, email . . .)
 When (Mornings, evenings . . .)
Copyright, Shahid Ansari and Jan Bell, 2002. Permission granted to CSUN faculty for use in
teaching their courses.
Practice Dialog Skills
 Employ a positive tone
– Listen and don't interrupt
– Be open-minded and respect each other's opinions
– Challenge ideas not people
– Make certain that all team members have a chance to be heard
 Inquire before you advocate
– Understand what the other person is saying before arguing your position
– Check for understanding (repeat other person’s position) before responding
 Recognize defensive reasoning
– People hold assumptions that are not justified by data but they think are valid
– People reach conclusions that do not follow from their assumptions or data
– People draw conclusions that they have not tested
– People behave in a manner that contradicts what they espouse
– People read a situation based on their feelings rather than on data
 Find a way to air “undiscussables” positively
– Encourage people to share doubts and misgivings publicly
– Recognize when people are being polite when they are uncomfortable with a
decision
Copyright, Shahid Ansari and Jan Bell, 2002. Permission granted to CSUN faculty for use in
teaching their courses.
Agree on Team Process
 Start Meeting with a “Check in”
– Allows people to share state of mind they are bringing to the meeting
 Agree on Goals
– Assign time to each goal
– Make sure that time reflects group’s priority
– If out of time, capture goals on a “parking lot”
 Assign Roles
– Facilitator – person who will run the meeting and enforce rules
– Note-taker – person who will take notes and distribute to team
– Time keeper – person who call time
 Set Rules
– Is this a divergent conversation? (exploratory and open)
– Is this a convergent conversation? (decisions to be made)
– Will we go around and have everyone take turns?
– Will we have someone report out and others question?
 End Meetings with a “Check out”
– Did we accomplish our goals? Are their undiscussables that need airing?
– What went well? What did not go well?
Copyright, Shahid Ansari and Jan Bell, 2002. Permission granted to CSUN faculty for use in
teaching their courses.
Organize for Task
 Determine tasks
– Read and understand assignment?
– Collect data?
– Do additional research on . . . ?
– Perform data analysis?
– Write up assignment?
– Edit final product for quality?
 Define the output of each task
– Written summary of facts
– Draft of straw solution
– Spreadsheet output for numerical analysis
– Final written answer in word processing file
 Assign task responsibility – (individual or all team members)
 Create “To Do” list
– Task  Person  Output  Due Date  Status
 Review and Update “To Do” list at each meeting
Copyright, Shahid Ansari and Jan Bell, 2002. Permission granted to CSUN faculty for use in
teaching their courses.
Provide Constructive Feedback
and Advice (Four Types)
 Constructive Feedback
– Balance strengths and weaknesses
– Tell them what they do that you like
– Recognize accomplishment and praise successes
 Advice
– Tell them what they are doing to hurt the team
– Cite specific data (Example: team rule (behavioral or interpersonal) violated
– Be interested, helpful and use a positive tone
 Destructive
– Points out how the person’s actions are wrong
– Finds fault, nit picks and is never satisfied
– Uses a negative tone of voice
 Punishment
– Designed to hurt the person and put them down
– Destroy their self-confidence
Copyright, Shahid Ansari and Jan Bell, 2002. Permission granted to CSUN faculty for use in
teaching their courses.