+1 862 207 3288 1. Based on the textbook’s definitions of team and group which are you? How did you determine this?
2. Circle where you think you fall on the spectrum from dysfunctional to effective, according to the Five Common Dysfunctions of Teams presented in the text book:
Example: Lack of trust ———O——————————————–Trust
Lack of trust —————————————————–Trust
Fear of conflict —————————————————–Healthy conflict
Lack of commitment —————————————————–Commitment
Avoidance of accountability —————————————————–Accountability
Inattention to results —————————————————–Results orientation
For any that were closer to the left (before the mid-point), describe the opportunity for improvement:
3. Which of the Stages of Team Development is your team in?
Forming
Storming
Norming
Performing
Adjourning
Describe why you selected this stage. Describe what is required for your team to move into the next stage.
4. What type of team are you? Why?
Functional
Cross-departmental (functional)
Self-directed
After you answer this question, verbally share examples of times you’ve worked on one or more of each types of team, and what made them either effective or not effective.
5. Team performance and productivity peaks at about five members, based on studies by Ivan Steiner. Other studies have suggested that the best-performing teams range in size from three to six members.
Why do you think five might be optimal? How many members are on your team? How productive is your team? And what can you do to reach this peak level of performance?
6. According to the textbook, team diversity can provide a healthy level of disagreement that sparks innovation and leads to better decision making. “Diversity” in this context does not refer only to gender or ethnicity differences. “Diversity”, here, refers to differences in skills, knowledge, experience, attitudes, etc.
How diverse is your team? What can you do to take better advantage of this diversity?
7. According to the textbook, a high performing team has a compelling, specific, and clearly-defined purpose as well as a well-defined set of goals.
What is your team’s purpose?
8. The textbook’s definition of team cohesiveness is as follows: the extent to which members are attracted to and motivated to remain in the team and work toward shared goals. Based on this definition, consider the following:
Is your common goal well defined? Why or why not?
Are you motivated to remain in the team? Why or why not?
9. Describe which of the following Determinants of Cohesiveness may be a factor to help influence more team cohesiveness on your project team:
Interaction
Shared mission and goals
Personal attraction
Competition with other teams
Team success
10. The textbook defines groupthink as the tendency of people in cohesive groups to suppress contrary opinions.
Is groupthink a risk for your team? Why or why not?
11. Are both the task-specialist and socioemotional (relationship-oriented) needs of team members being met so that people are experiencing both friendly support and goal accomplishment?
If yes, who is playing the task-specialist role, and who the socioemotional role (can be more than one each), and how?
If not, how can you change this?
12. The textbook defines a team norm as a belief about appropriate conduct that is shared between team members and guides their behavior.
What team norms were communicated as part of this assignment? How is the team doing relative to these norms?
13. Is your team a Conventional, Virtual, or Global team? How do you know? Does it work effectively? Why not and what could make it more effective?
14. The textbook defines conflict as “antagonistic interaction in which one party attempts to thwart the intentions or goals of another.” And it provides two types of conflict: Task and Relationship.
Does your team experience conflict? If so, which kind?
Which of the styles of handling conflict as offered by the textbook could you employ to address the conflict on your team?
Is Negotiation an option? Why or why not?
