How does a team link to profitability? (Shown in the service profit chain)
Staff satisfaction
Staff who are happy and motivated by internal quality factors will deliver high quality service and value to customers
This is driven by:
-job role
-training
-reward and recognition
-career expectations
-how they are treated
-team work
Customer loyalty
Customers who recieve high levels of service and value will be more loyal to an organisation
Creation of profitable growth
Loyal customer create profitable growth for an organisation
Staff satisfaction –> Customer loyalty –> Creation of profitable growth
What are the main characteristics of a team?
- Each member contributes their own skills and knowledge towards shared goals
- Identify that is seperate from the identify of the individual members
- It has established ways of communicating to the external audience and between members
- It has clearly defined structure
- It has team specific goals
- There is mutual accountability between members
A team that has some or all of its members working remotely can face certain challanges what are they?
- Reduced communication as less face to face time
- Team rapport and bonding reduced opportunities for day to day contact
- Member morale lack of face to face reduces opportunities to identify quickly if a team member is in low spirits
- Time management meetings and training can take longer as travel time needs to be accounted for and can need an extra few hours
- Needs greater levels of trust as not as visible to eachother
- Information technology if not efficient it can cause delays logging in/ downloading documents
- Reduced opportunities to share experience and ideas as is harder to quickly check and discuss thought processes
What are some benefits to a remote working team?
- Improved customer service as staff are usually based where the work is which allows them to deliver a timley service
- Cost savings on running an office and travelling
- Time management as less interruptions or general distractions
- Flexibility as employees can have their work best suited to their life
- Quality of life due to no commute
How does a team become effective?
Numbers
The team should be kept as small as possible while still having enough people to achieve its objectives
Skils and knowledge
The mix of competences should be appropriate for the goals and objectives to be achieved.
How can a larger team create challanges in its efficiency?
Communication: becomes more time consuming with greater potential for misunderstandings and conflict
Decision making: it is harder to reach a consensus, meaning sometimes only a portion of people are involved
Supporting skills and knoweldge contributing to an efficient team
The cranfield school of management carried out a survey (Alderson 1992) to establish if there were key competencies in top management teams that influenced organisational performance.
The managers surveryed were asked to rate satisfaction, stress, confidence, ability to meet challanges and structural issues.
6 competence areas were identified that the top team needed, What were they?
1) Good interpersonal relationships - with an understanding of eachothers values and management styles
2) The ability to discuss issues openly - without causing tension
3) A high level of trust
4) To be approachable and able to accept feedback or criticism
5) Sufficient discipline and cohesion to implement agreed decisions
6) The capacity to discuss and understand both long and short term issues
Bruce Tuckman developed the best known team development theory for the stages of team development. What does it explain and in what 5 stages?
It explains the natural stages that a team goes through when developing and what a leader should do to facilitate this.
The stages are:
1) Forming
2) Storming
3) Norming
4) Performing
5) Adjourning
-Not all teams will go through all of the stages. Some may get stuck at one of stages if the team or leader is unable to move on
-Teams will adopt different approached and will develop at different speeds
-A team can return to any phase within the model if they experience a change
-The storming phase is inevitably uncomfortable and a necessary step in developing a hjigh performing team
Outline stage 1 in the stages of team development and the leadership behaviours
Forming
The team is assembled and a task is allocated. Team members tend to behave independantly as dont know eachother or other’s strengths yet.
Leadership
* Spend time on planning and establishing a purpose of the team
* Provide structure and direction
* Collect information
* Encourage team members to bond
* Provide support/ reassurance
* Set ground rules
Outline stage 2 in the stages of team development and the leadership behaviours
Storming
May be uncomfortable as the team become more familiar with eachother and the new task. They develop ideas of how things should be done - they are also more willing to challange the purpose and eachother.
Leadership
* Provide structure and direction
* Keep the team task focused
* Enable constructive dialogue without being destructive
* Too much consensus can lead to comprimises which may be less effective
* Reinforce roles and norms
Outline stage 3 in the stages of team development and the leadership behaviours
Norming
Harmonious working practices with agreement on rules and values on how they operate. Team becomes cohesive as they accept the contribution of each member in the team.
Leadership behaviour
* Step back from the team as individual members take greater responsibility
* Build on the team spirit and results that start to show
* Look to enhance procedures and working relationships
* Encourage co operation
* Ensure that the team does not become complacent
Outline stage 4 in the stages of team development and the leadership behaviours
Performing
Regarding high performance and maturity. The team works well together with high levels of understanding, openness, trust, independence, motiviation and competence.
Leadership Behaviour
* Give team members room to perform
* Adopt a more collaborative approach
* Take a more hands off and strategic view
* Provide feedback and develop team and individuals as appropriate
* Provide support and contribute to joint problem-solving
Outline stage 5 in the stages of team development and the leadership behaviours
Adjourning
Completing the task and moving on
Leadership
* Ensure orderly closure of the task
* Celebrate success
* Review learning
* Prepare team for the uncertainty of ‘whats next?’
Dr Meredith Belbin aimes to gain an understanding of the character mix in effective teams.
It was found that the most successful teams have a mix of different roles and skilss and the teams that were less successful had a more restricted range of roles and skills.
What are the 9 different roles that every team should have?
1) Co ordinator - Teams natural chairperson
✔ Stable, extroverted, disciplined, dominant
✘May not have ideas or specific expertise, may over delegate
2) Rescource investigator - (Teams networker)
✔ Likeable, sociable , relaxed, enthusiastic, prevents team from stagnating
✘No original ideas, easily bored, cannot work alone, can become involved in irrelevancies
3) Shaper
✔Extrovert, energetic, self confident, motivates the team
✘Anxious, impulsive, may seem aggressive, high control need
4) Plant - (Teams creative source)
✔Intelligent, trustful, energetic about new ideas
✘Introvert, can cause offence to others, bad at accepting criticism
5) Monitor/ evaluator - (Teams solution assessor)
✔High IQ, analytical, solid and dependable, can work in a solitary environment
✘Introvert, no original ideas, not enthusiastic, lack of social skills
6) Specialist
✔ Specialist knowledge, may be drawn into a team for special projects
✘ May have limited knowledge outside area of expertise
7) Team worker - (Harmoniser)
✔Interpersonal sensivity, stable, extrovert but not dominant, good and quiet communicator, loyal, works well with specialist expertise
✘Uncompetative, may appear indecisive, likely to compromise rather than conflict
8) Completer - (Teams timekeeper)
✔ Personal discipline, strength, perfectionist
✘Introvert, obsessive, non-assertive
9) Implementer - (Team organiser)
✔Stable, controlled, pratical, organiser, disciplined, loyal and sincere
✘Inflexible, needs stable structures, conscious of status
What is a secondary role?
When discussing essential team roles to a successful team?
Most people have preferred roles that they wish to play in a team. Others may be able to play the same roles but prefer not to, although they have the abbility, if necessary, to fill another role (perhaps to cover a short term need) but prefer not to focus on it full time.
If 9 roles make the most effective team, does this mean 9 people are needed?
No, team members will usually have more than one preferred role.
When looking at the 9 key roles to an effecient team, Belbin distinguished between two types of role that an individual may have within the team.
What are these?
Functional roles
These are the roles that a team member must perform because of their job
e.g an actuary will often act as a specialist because of their professional or technical abilities and a manager will often adopt the co ordinator role.
Team or natural roles
These reflect the natural preferences or innate abilities of a person. Some will be naturall gifted at particular roles irrespective of what their job requires of them.
In what 3 circumstances may considering Belbins 9 roles be useful?
- When a leader allocated tasks within a team: if they want these done to a good standard and quickly, this should go to a team member who has strength and preference in that area
- To develop the individual: a leader may deliberatley alloacate a task to someone who they know is not strong at it where appropriate
- When recruiting team members: if the team lacks certain roles
How much information is necessary when sharing to enhance effectiveness?
A balance between:
1) Information overload which can cause too much time being spent on figuring out what is important and a high change of information being missed
2) Insufficient information as people are not able to fulfil their roles without enough detail
3) Misinformation which can happen when the information has been misunderstood and incorrect advice given to staff or information is provided before the full situation is understood.
It is useful for teams to build a framework of the information that they require and how frequently. To do this the following shoul dbe considered:
What information is needed for the job such as technical updates, process changes, staff, procedure and policy changes
What information is wanted such as organisations performance, changes in other departments or market trends
How they want to recieve information varying from face to face to general newsletters
How often they want the information depends on the nature and type of information, some details may be needed immediatley and others monthly or quarterly. Information close to a role will be more regular and more remote will be required less often
What are the different types of information that a team will require?
Staff policies and procedures
Usually documented in the staff handbook e.g holiday allowances, absence management, conflict and disciplinary guidance, pay scaled and equal opportunity rules
Role profiles
Outlining the responsibilities of each role which help people understand what is expected of them and where their role fits into a team. Provides clarity as to how work is managed and who should be doing what.
Strucutre charts
Outline the hierarchy of a department, division or organisation.
Technical information
Updates on company products/ services, legal developmentals such as FOS decisions that will impact how claims are settled.
Team information
Such as team results, changes in the team, changes in work allocations, absences and news or developments that may affect the team. This tends to be delivered immediatley at team meetings or daily meetings.
The frequency and types of communication will vary between teams and will be governed by what 3 factors?
1) The nature of the work
2) The roles in the team
3) The geographical spread
What factors should be considered when passing on information?
- Send clear and complete messages - team members may worry about missing information
- Ensure the language is appropriate for the audience - which may result in several different messages for the same bit of information
- Select an appropriate channel - this may mean more than one channel is needed e.g an initial meeting followed bu a bulletin which may be stored in a procedure manual
- Provide an opportunity for feedback - and to seek clarification to ensure that the message has been understood
- Be aware of non-verbal messages - when delivering a message face to face, particularly for difficult messages or ones you may not agree with
Extra thought will be needed for remote teams as some methods are not available (such as daily buzz meetings) and alternatives such as weekly audio or video conferences may be needed instead
What positive behaviours can contribute to team effectiveness?
9
- Reliability
Team members need to be known to deliver in accordance with agreed plans and on occasions where deadlines are not met, a reliable person with be proactive in providing this information to give the team an opportunity to do something about it. - Excellent communication skills
Messages given are understood as are given in a way that are clear and constructive. Skills also include the ability to listen. - Sharing of information and knowledge
Only if all team members have access to relevant information , can they perform to their masimum effectiveness. It can create resentment in the team when people are reluctant to share knowledge and incorrect decisions may be made without it which impacts the quality of work. - Flexibility
Not only in their approach to the work but also with their working times and holidays. It can cause frustration when times for completing a certain task is refused to be altered. Flexibility is required to be able to cope with changes in the commercial environment. - Give and receive feedback
Unless performance feedback is provided, and the person is able to recieve itm they will not be able to improve their performance and ultimatley, the service delivered to the customer. This required trust and respect between team members to deliver. - Commitment
When someone does more than just turning up, they put in extra effort when it is required because they look beyond achieving their own goals to achieve the teams. This doesnt have to be in extra hours but can be in other ways as when only half of the team put in extra effort this causes a rift. - Treats others with respect and support
Having respect for others in all aspects in team interation such as communication but also their personal views and ways to get the job done without conditions. - Positive disposition
Thos who are positive and cheerful create a more positive atmosphere instead of demotiviating from grumbles. - Can do attitude
Such as volunterring for tasks
How do negative behaviours impact a team’s morale & motivation?
Things like not always being honest, being blunt or rude, showing no respect or not listening to others distracts team members from their purpose as they focus on negative energy and they are stopped from making use of the benefits gained from the positive behaviour of the team members.
