Title VII/Lakolkiciyapi Room Team Building
(Enhancing Cooperation & Motivation with Staff)
Inventory Survey
By: Dr. Arthur W. Zimiga
Director of Indian Education
November 24, 2003
Staff working with Native American students and non-native students in either the Title
VII or Bush Initiative Grant has been involved in providing guidance and a positive
learning environment with other school entities. This partnership with other
organizations with in the Rapid City Area Schools requires a spirit of unity and
cooperation.
Our goal is to make all students involved in the services we provide feel that they belong
and are valued as students. Therefore, all staff are expected to give priority to
communicating their responsibilities and as well as contributing to the development of
the program and meeting the needs of the students. This process calls for establishing an
academic team building approach. Enhancing cooperation and motivation by utilizing
effective methods for building cooperation amongst all RCAS staff as well as in all one’s
dealings with students and parents.
This inventory is to develop strategies to help instill motivation in everyone that works
with, including all members of our “TEAM” from the volunteer to program employees to
the senior management. We need to all to practice the most effective communication
techniques for enhancing cooperation and creating motivation in others.
These attributes of cooperation and motivation relate to various subject areas:
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Use of positive body language
Selecting words that inspire and motivate
The positive impact of praise
The positive impact of demonstrating honesty and building trust
How to delegate in the most effective and positive manner
Personality identification
Identify what motivates you and others
Building a positive self image
Avoiding conflict, criticism and manipulation
Confidence-building techniques.
These various subject areas are virtual project management views to molding a project
culture, which is distinct for the programs cultural identities. The following are: Levels
of importance of the factors contributing to effective teambuilding. What are your
attitudes and factors which effect teambuilding? Circle you response related to your
experiences in the current program.
1. Characteristics of the team members:
a. Strong commitment by all team members to meeting agreed
project aims and objectives. Yes or No
b. Having clearly defined and non-conflicting roles. Yes or No
c. Willingness to admit errors and make changes. Yes or No
d. Ability to adapt to cultural and organizational diversity.
Yes or No
e. High degrees of trust and loyalty amongst team members.
Yes or No
f. Having similar interest, goals and aspirations. Yes or No
2. Lead ship and project management characteristics/approach:
a. Ability of the team leader to earn the respect and cooperation of
His/her followers. Yes or No
b. Design and implementation of flexible but effective project
organization structure. Yes or No
c. Clear explanation of project aim and objectives to team
members. Yes or No
d. Adequate support from senior management to the team. Yes or
No
e. Simple but effective work breakdown structure and well defined
responsibilities. Yes or No.
f. Effective collaboration through adequate training on shared
leadership roles. Yes or No
g. Proper risk sharing amongst team members. Yes or No
h. Adequate training through workshop and seminars on
teambuilding and synergy. Yes or No
3. Communication and collaboration requirements:
a. Provision of efficient and effective project communication
networks. Yes or No
b. Efficient and early communication of project objective, roles and
responsibilities to all stake holders. Yes or No
c. Early detection and resolution of problems and disputes through
frequent meetings and mediations. Yes or No
4. Influence of characteristics of management and their levels of influence on team
building:
a. You face the challenges of dealing with different students’
academic levels and attendance, units of measurement, and other
virtual constraints. (list them)
b. High initial learning requirements, but low monitoring review.
(list them)
c.
Emphasizes on the use of modern information and
communications technology. (list them)
d. Involves various people operating on the project from different
organizations. (list them)
e.
The composition of team members are not consistent but can
change overtime. (Explain)
f.
Lack of physical interactions and frequent meetings may erode
trust and confidence amongst project team members. (Explain)
g.
Team members do not meet frequently as in the conventional
approach. (Explain)
h.
Emphasis is place on outsourcing and core competencies/skills
(Explain)
i. Has inherent cultural and organizational differences (Explain)
This survey is to explore the factors underlying teambuilding, the characteristics of
virtual project management, and how these characteristics influence effective
teambuilding. The goal is to identify effective teambuilding so as to:
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Characteristics of the team members; the most significant of these being strong
commitment by all the members to meeting agreed project objectives;
Leadership and project management characteristics or approach: the most
significant of these is the ability of the team leader to earn the respect and cooperation of all members
Communication/collaboration requirements: the most significant of these being
the provision of efficient and effective project communication network.
This virtual project management approach has some characteristics, some of which have
positive influences on effective teambuilding, while others exert negative influences.
The characteristics having the most positive influence on effective teambuilding is the
fact that the concept maybe faced with challenges of dealing with different student needs,
measurements, and other virtual constraints, which though could be negative on the face
value, but could have some positive spin-offs in contributing to effective teambuilding.
The inherent cultural and organizational differences could pose some serious problems of
co-ordination in management, and therefore is perceived to exert the most negative
influence on effective teambuilding.
Please complete this survey so we can address effective teambuilding.