All teams are groups of individuals but not all groups of individuals necessarily demonstrate the cohesiveness of a team. Teams out perform individuals because teams generate a special energy. This energy develops as team members work together fusing their personal energies and talents to deliver tangible performance results. The quality of decisions resulting from effective teamwork are predicated on practices of cooperation, active listening, constructive (non-judgmental) feedback, sharing of ideas, resources and workload, etc., and valuing the interests and achievements of other team members.

Everyone can exhibit constructive and/or unproductive behaviors without even being aware of it. It is important to be aware of your own behaviors as well as those of others. It also doesn't hurt to have a sense of humor when working in a team. In fact, it might be the single most advantageous characteristic to possess (nest to patience, maybe) whenever you have a vested interest in the outcome of a group's performance. The following are examples of characteristics which promote or sabotage effective teamwork:

GENERAL STRATEGIES --

Identify roles for team members. A team stands a better chance of being productive if individuals within the team assume specific roles. Different guides suggest different ways of organizing teams, but the tasks covered are similar. At a minimum, a team needs a facilitator, a note-taker, and a time-keeper at each meeting. The facilitator conducts meetings, follows the agenda, and summarizes discussions. The leader is also responsible for establishing a site for the meeting, convening the session, and establishing a time and place for the next session. These roles don't necessarily need to be assigned. they my evolve in individual groups.

In addition to the facilitator, a team needs a note-taker who keeps a record of what has been decided, is responsible for carrying out the tasks assigned during the meeting, and notes when the next meeting is scheduled and where it will be held. The note-taker should provide minutes from the meeting or an outline of what has been discussed upon the meeting's completion or at the start of the next meeting.

In order to keep a meeting running in an organized fashion, a group needs a time-keeper, someone who will make sure that the appropriate amount of time will be allocated for each time on the agenda and that team members progress expeditiously in keeping with the time allotted for each topic to be considered.

Finally, it may prove useful for a team to appoint a member who is responsible as a liason, i.e., reporting to other teams. This member summarizes the progress of her/his team so that the other teams are kept informed about the work done by her/his team.

It is possible, of course, to rotate positions within teams. It is also perfectly possible to give alternative names to the positions here described. Your team should decide at the outset how it wishes to allocate positions of specific responsibility and evaluate how effective these decisions are in light of the team's organizational strengths and weaknesses. The effectiveness of a well-organized team will be reflected by its fulfillment of meeting goals and its overall progress.

Develop guidelines for group meetings. The brevity of the quarter and the difficulty of coordinating schedules limit the number of times possible for groups to meet to discuss their plans and progress. Maximizing the effectiveness of these meetings is therefore of critical importance. While each group will develop its own meeting style, depending on the people involved and the tasks at hand, a number of guidelines are provided to help groups get the most out of their meetings from the beginning.

1. Develop a timeline for what needs to be done by the group over the group's lifetime.
   
2. One person should have responsibility to distribute (e-mail) reminder of meeting time/place.
   
3. Have an agenda with topics and approximate times to be devoted to each. Should include:
   
   

• Notes from last meeting
  
• Matter from last meeting - progress
  
• News items for discussion
  
• Other business
  
• Evaluation of the meeting
  
• Time and place of next meeting
  

1. Assign meeting roles: time-keeper, facilitator, note-taker.
   
2. Attendance is mandatory.
   
3. Start meetings promptly (e.g. 5 minutes after agreed time)
   
4. Develop a protocol for participation to ensure that everyone get to state his/her view. Facilitator should check with each individual to see if s/he has anything to add.
   
5. Develop a protocol for decision-making.
   
6. Set topics and time for next meeting before adjourning.
   
7. Maintain a file of agendas and notes.
   
8. Distribute notes from meeting to all team members after the meeting.
   
9. Decide how conflicts are going to be resolved. If at least one team member feels mediation is needed, the instructor should be contacted.
   
10. Use checklist (e.g., Learning in Teams: A Student Guide, p. 10) to review meeting after each meeting. Refer to these in preparing weekly journals:
    
    
    • Defined tasks completed effectively?
          - facilitator
          - time-keeper
          - note-taker
      
      
    • Last meeting reviewed?
      
    • Progress since last meeting reviewed?
      
    • Meeting goals set BEFORE meeting?
      
    • Goals addressed?
      
    • Appropriate time spent on each topic?
      
    • Decisions made and recorded?
      
    • Time and place for next meeting set?
      
    • Goals for next meeting set?
      
    • Meeting effective?
      
    • Meeting enjoyable?
      
    • Additional comments:
      

Each person has the right to point out when these guidelines are not being followed.

Discuss effective feedback techniques with team members. Another important component of successful teamwork is providing constructive feedback. The following points are presented to help ensure productive communication among team members:

1. Focus feedback on behavior rather than the person.
   It is more important to refer to what a person does than to comment on what we imagine he/she is. This focus on behavior implies that we refer to actions of persons rather than qualities of persons, adverbially rather than adjectivally (thus, "she acted happily" rather than "she was happy"). We might say that a person "talked considerably in the meeting" rather than saying, "That guy is a loudmouth."
   
2. Focus feedback on observations rather than on inferences.
   Observations refer to what we can see or hear in the behavior of another person while inferences are interpretations or conclusions about our meanings of what we see or hear. Our interpretations may or may not occur to any others in the team and at any rate are largely separable form the facts on which we must agree.
   
3. Focus feedback on description rather than judgment.
   Make an effort to describe what occurred, not your judgment of it; talk about what happened, not whether it was good or bad. Judgments involve our values, whereas descriptions are more neutral.
   
4. Focus feedback in terms of inclusion (more or less) rather than in terms of exclusion (either/or).
   Talking about "more or less" places behaviors on a continuum, where differences may overlap and consequently be value neutral, rather than placing behaviors in sharply divided categories where the differences are assumed to be qualitative, matters of better or worse. For example, you might observe that "Joe participates less than Carla" rather than judging either as in "Joe doesn't talk enough" or "Carla talks too much".
   
5. Focus feedback on the present, the "here and now," rather than on the past.
   Feedback is more useful if given soon after an event rather than if delayed. Later your memory may fade or distort what happened.
   
6. Focus feedback on sharing information rather than giving advice.
   By sharing ideas and information, we leave the other person free to decide how to use that information. If we give advice, we force the issue, whether to accept or reject what we obviously would rather the other person accept. For example, if you tell someone, "You didn't say much in the team today," you are sharing information that the person may use as s/he chooses. If you say, "You need to talk more in the team," you are giving advice and forcing the person to either accept or reject your suggestion.
   
7. Focus feedback on the exploration of alternatives rather than on answers or solutions.
   What may appear as a solution to us may not appear as a solution to another person. Also, when we discussion alternatives we sometimes bring to light attractive possibilities we did not consider initially. May of us go around with ready solutions for what other people don't consider to be problems.
   

Reach consensus on team decisions. Decision making involves selecting a course of action to address problems and opportunities the team faces in carrying out its work. For effective teamwork, it's important that all team members have a stake in the decision and the actions needed. A decision reached by "consensus" is a decision all team members support.

Consensus is NOT a unanimous agreement or reached by a majority vote. The final decision may not be (and probably will not be ) your initial choice and it is likely that you will have to concede something for the good of the group. Consensus means that everyone in the group can live with the decision.

Reaching Consensus--

• Isolate the decision point. Clarify the conflict, problem or decision to be reached.
• Identify the current positions of the members. Try to find a common ground among the positions. Ask each other "Why?" and "What's your bottom line?" Try to find the underlying needs that each position is based on. Try not to continue to look for differences between opinions.
• Brainstorm for alternative approaches to satisfy all of the underlying needs established previously. How can everyone get their "bottom line" met effectively? For each alternative position, ask each other, "What would make this alternative attractive to you?"
• Evaluate the alternatives using the criteria of meeting the underlying needs of all members. Which alternatives can everyone live with?
• Agree on the decision. Check with all members. If everyone supports the choice, you have reached consensus.

Discuss how the team will write the final paper or develop the final project. The following issues must be addressed before the project can be brought to a satisfactory conclusion:

• What information should be included or excluded?
• Who has the information, and how will we obtain it?
• What is the technical level of our primary and secondary audiences?
• What information do our readers need in order to use our document?
• How can we best organize our information to serve the audience's needs?
• Who will write the draft? Your team has several choices:

1. All-to-one: Draft individual parts and have one member edit.

2. All: Write the document entirely together by having each team member contribute words, sentences, paragraphs.

3. One-to-all: Have one individual write the rough draft and have other members revise.

4. One-to-one-to-one: Have one member draft a part, pass it to another member who revises, pass to a final member who gives feedback to the original drafter.

Conflicts

Disagreements are expected during team discussions when opinions of team members differ, and members are taking ownership and sharing their ideas honestly. The escalation of disagreements into conflicts is of concern, however, because collaboration among team members may be undermined. Conflicts may result from a mismatch of expectation among team members, unintentional miscommunication and misunderstandings among team members. Conflicts are usually a symptom that communication is not as open and complete as it should be.

The team is getting stuck in emotional disagreements and its attempts at reaching consensus are failing, the whole team should come in to see the instructor. Issues should be resolved early before they escalate and get out of control.

Self-Assessment

Effective teamwork demands that every member of the team feels valued and participates fully. Toward that end each team will assess itself regularly so that potential problems are identified early and resolved speedily. Each team member will evaluate him/herself and the performance of other team members. This evaluation will be presented to the instructor regularly (weekly or biweekly). The "results" of the evaluation must be processed through discussion in an open climate to provide the opportunity for improved group dynamics and accomplishment.

Web Resources

Group Work And Collaborative Writing Handbook by Brian A. Connery and John L. Vohs, UC Davis.

References

Gibbs, G. 1994. Learning in Teams: A Student Guide, Oxford Centre for Staff Development. Oxonion Rewley Press Ltd. Oxford, Great Britain, 16 pp.

Jacuqes, D. 1992. Learning in Groups. Gulf Publishing Co., Houston, TX, 223 pp.

Katzenbach, J.R. and D.K. Smith. 1993. The Wisdom of Teams. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA, 291 pp.

Sandes, K. and C. Carlson-Oakes. 1997. Creating a Collaborative Learning Environment. Faculty Resource Book, 1997-1998, Madison, WI.

Woods, J.A. 1997. 10 Minute Guide to Teams and Teamwork. MacMillan Spectrum/Alpha Books, New York, NY, 152 pp.

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