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    Teamwork: from building to issues & conflicts to solutions!

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  • Vincent VAUBAN sharing 100 team ideas
    A.K.A Team Body Of Knowledge (TeamBOK)

    As a programmer, Vincent VAUBAN had several times worked in a team. There were teams of various kinds: tiny/big, mono-cultural/multicultural, ISO-profile/multi-profiles. After these different experiences, Vincent VAUBAN felt the need to formalize his vision on team concepts. So here it is, the recap!

    1. Optimal team size is 5 to 10 people (what-is-the-optimal-team-size )
    2. If you require innovation, seek high educated and cross functional team members. (how-demographic-diversity-impacts-teams
    3. The stronger the faultline, the greater teamwork could breaking down ( demographic-faultlines-be-very-careful )
    4. With Myers Briggs personality test, infer the diversity and the team average on each personality traits. (personality-how-diversity-in-personality-impacts-teams )
    5. Choose openness, extroversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness as team values (values-based-diversity-in-teams-personnality )
    6. Power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance and, long-term orientation define team profile. ( values-based-diversity-in-teams-values )
    7. You can come from different backgrounds but you have to cultivate the fit in terms of shared values and goals ( team-values-and-person-team-fit )
    8. Consider specificity (choose general goals), difficulty (influences performance), and commitment (influence performance too) when designing the team goals (goal-setting-in-teams )
    9. The team is structured formally (departmentation, centralization, rewards, virtuality) and informally (roles & norms).( structuring-your-team-for-excellence-apollo-13-case-study )
    10. Generalist or Specialist teams? ―Specialist teams work best in predictable, routine task environment because of added efficiency. ―Generalist teams work best in dynamic task environments because of added flexibility. ( departmentation-how-to-group-and-organize-jobs-in-the-team )
    11. Shared leadership tends to better team performance. ( centralization-how-to-structure-decision-making-in-the-team )
    12. Team performs better with group-based incentives ( rewards-how-to-structure-rewards-in-the-team )
    13. Virtuality hurts team performance ( virtuality-how-to-manage-virtual-team-structures )
    14. There are nine key team roles: ―investigator ―teamworker ―coordinator ―plant ―implementer ―finisher ―evaluator ―shaper ―specialist. ( roles-how-to-define-and-organize-roles-in-the-team )
    15. Cooperative team norms make individuals more satisfied, more performant, more compensated.( norms-how-to-create-productive-norms-in-the-team )
    16. Introduction of team charters manifest in improved communication, effort, mutual support and cohesion. ( team-charters-a-tool-for-designing-your-team )
    17. Do not tight manage your team ( team-coordination )
    18. To mitigate common information effect: ―Encourage critical thinking ―ask questions and engage ―alert of teammates different expertise―minimize teammates status difference ―rank-order alternatives. ( team-common-information-effect )
    19. To manage social loafing: ―use smaller teams, address it early ―assign meaningful tasks ―assign unique roles ―make individual contributions identifiable ―use hybrid (team/individual) reward structures ―invest in relationship formation in teams ( social-loafing )
    20. In international setting, we often equate level of fluency with expertise and competence dismissing less fluent members. As a less fluent speaker: ―Prepare! ―ask if people understand what you are saying ―ask colleagues to repeat if you missed a point ―refrain from switching to native language ( language )
    21. How to mitigate relationship conflict? ―Establish and reinforce norms that make vigorous debates the norm rather than the exception ―Address early! ―Try to transform relationship conflict into task conflict ―Avoid inflammatory language and ask people to re-state their views ―Manage task conflict iteratively ( managing-conflict )
    22. Do not resolve a task conflict by using power, but preferably drive it to negotiation: I will do this for you if you do such-and-such for me. (Using power to resolve conflict can have irrevocable damages). ( resolving-task-conflict )
    23. Evaluate team performance by focusing both on objective and subjective team performance ―Objective performance example: team's statistics --sales,costs reduction, % project completed--, and customer satisfaction. ―Subjective team performance example: team's feeling)( evaluating-team-performance )
    24. Leverage your team creativity by using nominal group technique and time limit brainstorming (10min) nominal group technique: ―participant writes alone his ideas ―participant puts his ideas on the board ―once all ideas on board, starts an open discussion (no evaluative comments allowed) ―finally the vote by secret ballot to rank-order ( creativity )
    25. Psychological safety has massive implications on team performance. ―As a leader: be accessible, invite feedback, model openness & fallibility ―Trust in relationships: invest in interpersonal relationships ―Practice fields by trial runs, off-site/off-line meetings, simulations ―Provide organizational support: well-defined team tasks & goals, and sufficient information and resources to get the job done ( psychological-safety )
    26. Transactive memory is the most powerful way to facilitate sustainable performance and learning. To develop transactive memory, do:― Training in work teams ― Training focused on the task to be done ― Especially relevant for execution-focused teams ( transactive-memory )
    27. Leading a network is an entirely different game than leading an organization or leading a team. From the most complex cluster to the least: 1)network 2)organization 3)team ―Networks are relatively loose clusters of organizations. This network of organizations meet each other to attain common goals. ―An organization is a tight cluster of departments or teams, sharing a mission, culture and values. ―Teams is the last level of the chain: it is a one unit cluster, where team members have concrete goals. ( leading-networks-organizations-and-teams-what-are-the-differences )
    28. Most often, leaders operate in networks. In such unstructured problem, there is not a right solution but a set of solutions influenced by: ―your cultural background ―your political views ―the dynamic in the network (stakeholders gaining/losing power, emergence of new ones) ( the-complexity-of-our-world )
    29. When authority is not efficient in a conflict of interests, widen the issue to multi-issues deal. This is asking the others to come up with issues that matter to them, and then barter these issues for each other to output a common deal. e.g, You solve a part of my issue then I accept to endure part of your issues. This generates more space and flexibility for deal resolution, and more opportunities to reach a beneficial decision. ( how-to-lead-in-a-networked-world )
    30. In a networked world, project-management mindset is not enough. You need a process-managerial mindset for aligning actors, finding out what the best solution in such dynamic world. With process-based mindset: ―there is no right solution. ―you consider that problems are unstructured and that a lot of information is contested. ―you start from the solution, then try to find problems. ―decision-making is actually a continuous process: The decision is not made, it emerges. (project-and-process-management )
    31. Managers have very little time left to maintain and increase their former specialized knowledge. ―Soon, they lag behind specializations professional subordinates, making difficult to take good decisions. ―Your professional subordinates knowledge is precious. ―So foster a climate of cooperation and do not control them too much to prevent their tendency to leave the organization.( information-asymmetry-and-professionalism )
    32. To make dialogues between leaders and professionals, distinguish the substantive approach of the process approach. ―Use and mix wisely both approaches. ―The substantive approach is simply finding a substantive solution to a specific problem. It is straightforward but prone to conflict. ―The process approach is a continuous process where the solution emerges on its own. It mitigates conflict but it's slow and half-hearted.( two-leadership-approaches-substance-and-process )
    33. An organizational chart is way more complex than it conveys.―Organizational charts communicate the formal relations between organizational members and propose how decisions should be made.―But it can be impacted by informal relations like not planned encounters out of work context (public transportation...) leading to extra coordination.―All that leads to overlap showing all the complexity of organizational charts.( variety-and-overlap )
    34. Top-down versus bottom-up, approaches=>Choosing between collaboration loss or captivity
      ―Top-Down Approach: the leader using his formal authority directly (command and control), (+): it's clear, (-): it has little potential for cooperative behavior.―Bottom-up approach: trusting the lower organizational levels to generate their problems and solutions, (+): potential for cooperative behavior, (-): leader may become captive. (two-leadership-approaches-top-down-versus-bottom-up )
    35. Forming, storming, norming, and performing are the ways teams evolve ( group-development-from-tuckman )
    36. What is the forming stage of Tuckman's team theory?Tuckman's theory focuses on the way in which a team tackles a task in different stages: Forming - Storming - Norming - Performing. ―During the forming stage, the group members are just getting to know each other and usually do not yet have a clear idea of what is expected of them. ―They spend time observing each other, are cautious in how they present themselves, and want to be accepted by the rest of the group. ( the-forming-stage )
    37. For innovative goal, compose your team of members who are dissimilar to each other ( team-composition )
    38. Team building is a process not an event (team-building )
    39. Stage of conflict is the nature of the storming stage ( the-storming-stage )
    40. Conflict can sometimes be good and should be stimulated! ( team-conflict )
    41. Tasks related conflict promote organizational success and prevent premature consensus ( intrateam-conflicts )
    42. Do “transformational leadership” is the best way for conflict management ( managing-conflict )
    43. Encourager, Harmonizer, Compromiser, Gatekeeper, Standard setter, Commentator, Follower are the informal team roles ( informal-team-roles )
    44. Resolved disagreements and personality clashes result in greater intimacy, and a spirit of co-operation emerging ( norming-stage )
    45. Norm are very hard to change ( transmission-and-stability-of-norms )
    46. With group norms and roles established, group members focus on achieving common goals, often reaching an unexpectedly high level of success ( performing-stage )
    47. Use extrinsic and intrinsic motivation to motivate your team members ( motivation-and-team-performance )
    48. Offer feedback on observed behavior, not on perceived attitudes ( constructive-feedback )
    49. Power reserve, reciprocity, loser respect, process completion, one chess board at a time, no turnaround are the basic rules of the game ( rules-of-the-games )
    50. Frame your information but do not lie ( are-you-allowed-to-lie )
    51. Teams can accomplish tasks and projects that individuals cannot ( what-can-teamwork-achieve )
    52. Interdependent work and common objective is the difference between team and group ( the-difference-between-team-and-group )
    53. Clearness, commitment, rules, respect, process is the secret of high performing teams ( secret-of-high-performing-teams )
    54. Maintain team tasks & relationships, both are important ( maintain-team-excellence )
    55. Who are we? Why are we here? What is the task? are the questions highlighted in forming stage ( forming-an-orientation-stage )
    56. Who is in charge? How will we do this? are the questions highlighted in storming stage ( storming-a-stage-of-friction-and-conflict )
    57. Responsibility, agreement, commitment, acceptance are the questions highlighted in norming stage ( norming-a-stage-of-fitting-in )
    58. Difficult to tell who the actual team leader is, typically defines the performing stage ( performing-the-stage-where-the-work-gets-done-efficiently-and-effectively )
    59. Understand the ending, celebrate closure, feel contribution appreciation, are the actions done in adjourning stage ( adjourning-the-ending-stage )
    60. The way we work within a team is shaped by our personality ( how-personality-traits-and-attributes-influence-teamwork )
    61. When it comes to accuracy, if you put a horoscope on one end and a heart monitor on the other, the MBTI falls about halfway in between ( what-is-the-mbti )
    62. Conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness to experience, extraversion composed the five-factors model ( five-factor-model )
    63. Implementer, coordinator, shaper, plant, resource investigator, monitor evaluator, teamworker, complete finisher defines the belbin team role types ( belbin-team-role-types )
    64. No one should ever be typecasted in a role ( role-descriptions )
    65. Starting, doing and completing project requires different roles ( team-roles-during-the-project-lifecycle )
    66. Put in place a strategy for overcoming role weaknesses ( characteristic-weaknesses-of-role-types )
    67. The Team Charter consists of 4 sections: the Team, Team Dynamics, the Project, Timetable ( team-charter )
    68. A meeting is effective by achieving its objectives in minimum of time with satisfaction of everyone ( what-makes-an-effective-team-meeting )
    69. Prepare the meeting, process the meeting and finally commit to actions for next team meeting ( steps-for-planning-team-meetings )
    70. Defining objectives, scope, WBS, schedule and responsibilities is a good start ( key-steps-for-planning-your-project )
    71. Define SMART objectives: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timed ( project-definition )
    72. Decompose your main task in sub-task is the purpose of the work breakdown structure ---WBS-- ( work-breakdown )
    73. To schedule: define your action plan and visualize it in a GANTT ( schedule )
    74. Improve your team decision-making with brainwriting, nominal group technique and decision matrix ( team-decision-making-techniques )
    75. Brainwriting gives everyone a chance to articulate their own ideas before being influenced by other ( brainwriting )
    76. Group nominal technique is useful when there are many possible ideas ( nominal-group-technique )
    77. Evaluate options according to a grid of criteria with decision matrix ( decision-matrix )
    78. There are no set rules as to how team leadership takes its shape ( when-should-you-lead )
    79. When trust is missing, support the development of the social and emotional aspects of the team ( absence-of-trust )
    80. When trust is feared, encourage debate and acknowledge that not all conflict is bad ( fear-of-conflict )
    81. When commitment is lacking, support all team members to voice their ideas and opinions ( lack-of-commitment )
    82. When accountibility is avoided, raise the difficult issue of team standards and expectations ( avoidance-of-accountability )
    83. When there's inattention to results, find a way to make membership to the team more rewarding ( inattention-to-results )
    84. Collaboration is the result of assertiveness and cooperation ( assertiveness-and-cooperation )
    85. Graded assertiveness is a communication technique used in areas like aviation and healthcare for raising safety concerns, one step at a time=> Hint, preference, query, suggestion, statement, command ( graded-assertiveness )
    86. Poor communication: Poor communication within a team can result in a failure to meet goals. => Agree on communication channels and schedule regular team meetings ( poor-communication )
    87. Differing expectations/ goals: Often team members will be working with different objectives in mind and sometimes with hidden agendas.=> Agree on team members goal with a team charter ( conflict-differing-expectations-goals )
    88. Poor work standard of a member: Point out immediately sub-standard work with clear directions ( conflict-poor-work-standard-of-a-member )
    89. People taking control/dominating: A dominant team member can cause others to withdraw and their voices to be lost.=> Ensure everyone has their say ( conflict-people-taking-control-dominating )
    90. People being actively critical: It is difficult to participate if you fear ridicule by a team member who is constantly critical of your ideas.=> Make the critics written on a white board ( conflict-people-being-actively-critical )
    91. Free riding/ social loafing: Some people do not put in an equal amount leaving others with a heavier load.=>Use graded assertiveness ( conflict-free-riding-social-loafing )
    92. Staying ahead of conflict: Everyone feel heard? Everyone happy? Everyone pulling their weight? ( staying-ahead-of-conflict )
    93. Diversity is relevant for everyone, everywhere: Be yourself, be observant, be aware ( diversity-is-relevant-for-everyone-everywhere )
    94. There are different kinds of diversity: The different dimensions of diversity Educational, dispositional, circumstantial and cultural diversities ( the-different-dimensions-of-diversity )
    95. Extending the conversation: Extends conversation with 'closed', 'open-ended', broadcast', 'expanding', 'ricochet', 'back to the sender' questions ( extending-the-conversation )
    96. 10 types of listening responses: Use 'Giving advice', probing, feeling, paraphrasing responses ( 10-types-of-listening-responses )
    97. Engaged Listening: An engaged listener conveys to a speaker that they are focused on what the speaker is saying thanks to Position, pause, acknowledge and be sincere ( engaged-listening )
    98. What makes a good listener? Concentrate, be active, do not interrupt and do not overreact ( what-makes-a-good-listener )
    99. Final word: Where there is unity there is always victory. -- Publilius Syrus
    100. Stay positive: Your feelings matter

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