Team working
Problems with managing Clever
People
What is a team?
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More than one person
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So the crowd at at a football match?
Is a team different to a group? Or a
community?
More than one person working on a
shared task, in which the process
is improved because of the
involvement of different people with
different perspectives, skills and
aptitudes
What do we need to do when
working in teams?
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Identify and evaluate approaches to selfmanaging and team management
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Characterise yourself and your team in
terms of alternative approaches.
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Appreciate the conditions and needs for
managing particular categories and
mixtures of relationships encountered by
managers and consultants.
First Know thyself
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To understand a team you first need
to know yourself
SSP Blackboard site has details on:
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Learning styles
http://students.shu.ac.uk/services/career
s/job/psychometric.html
Only then can you begin to wonder
about others, and how you interact
with them in a team
So if you havent already visited
these pages, do so asap!
What is in it for me? And
them?
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Maslow (1943) idendified a hierarchy of needs
which can also be seen as motivational factors:
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Physiological
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Safety
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Self esteem, respect of others
Self-Actualisation
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Partnership, friendship, groups
Esteem
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Stability, law, structure, clarity
Belongingness
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Food, water, shelter, sleep
Meeting challenges, fulfilling promise
Need to know
Aesthetic needs
Lifecycle of a Team
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Different sources point at the
same basic model.
Tuckman(1965)
He describes four key stages in
a team's development:
Forming
 Storming
 Norming
 Performing
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Tuckman
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Forming
Team depends on leader for
direction, purpose and guidance.
 Individual roles unclear
 Objectives need clarifying and
reinforcing
 boundaries and roles tested
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Tuckman
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Storming
Much inter-team conflict
 Decisions don't come easily
 Uncertainty persists, but there is
the beginnings of understanding of
purpose and goals
 Task focus is used to avoid
distraction of relationship issues
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Tuckman
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Norming
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Roles and responsibilities are clear
Consensus broadly achieved
Some delegation used
Important decisions taken jointly
Commitment and team spirit at its
highest
Team working style openly discussed
Task can sometimes take second place
Tuckman
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Performing
Shared vision
 Task clearly understood
 Disagreements settled positively
and internally
 No instruction required
 Delegation happens naturally and
members often seek to overperform
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Lifecycle of a Directed Team
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Hersey and Blanchard (1977)
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Theory of Situational Leadership
Again, four key stages in a
leaders relationship to a team's
development:
Directing
 Coaching and selling
 Supporting and participating
 Delegating
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Managing Clever People
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Like Hurding Cats
Drucker (1999) states that
knowledge workers are NOT the
same as manual workers
They are assets to be sweated
not costs to be reduced
Managing Clever People
• Cloke and Goldsmith (2002)
suggest some key questions:
• Who are we? (team identification)
• Why are we here? (task
identification)
• Where are we going? (Vision)
• How do we get there? (Objectives
and goals)
• What is in the way (Challenge
identification)
Managing Clever People
• Cloke and Goldsmith (2002)
Continued:
• How do we know we are working
well (CSF setting)
• Who will do what? (Planning)
• How will we learn? (Feedback and
quality control)
• What worked? What didn’t?
(evaluation)
• Good work! What is next?
Managing Clever People
• Cloke and Goldsmith (2002) go on to
suggest skills required:
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Self management
Communication
[Appropriate] leadership
Responsibilty
Planning
Shaping successful meetings
Supporting diversity
Conflict resolution
Feedback and evaluation
ENJOYMENT!
Team roles
• Belbin suggests that: members of a
team have: "A tendency to behave,
contribute and interrelate with others
in a particular way.
• “http://www.belbin.com/belbin-teamroles.htm
• The suggestion is that a good team
has an appropriate mix of of roles
• A team full of leaders is useless!
Team roles
• Belbin suggests that: members of a
team have: "A tendency to behave,
contribute and interrelate with others
in a particular way.
• “http://www.belbin.com/belbin-teamroles.htm
• The suggestion is that a good team
has an appropriate mix of of roles
• A team full of leaders is useless!
BELBIN Team-Role
PLANT
CO-ORDINATOR
MONITOR
EVALUATOR
IMPLEMENTER
COMPLETER
FINISHER
Strengths
Creative, imaginative,
unorthodox. Solves difficult
problems.
Mature, confident, a good
chairperson. Clarifies goals,
promotes decision-making,
delegates well.
Sober, strategic and
discerning. Sees all options.
Judges accurately.
Disciplined, reliable,
conservative and efficient.
Turns ideas into practical
actions.
Painstaking, conscientious,
anxious. Searches out errors
and omissions. Delivers on
time.
BELBIN Team-Role
RESOURCE
INVESTIGATOR
SHAPER
TEAMWORKER
SPECIALIST
Strengths
Extrovert, enthusiastic,
communicative. Explores
opportunities. Develops contacts.
Challenging, dynamic, thrives on
pressure. The drive and courage
to overcome obstacles.
Co-operative, mild, perceptive
diplomat. Listens, averts friction.
Single-minded, self-starting,
dedicated. Provides knowledge
and skills in rare supply.
So what about us?
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You are in a team now
How do actual roles map back
to Belbin?
Do you recognise the maturing
of your team?
Have you the skills required?