We need a Team Strategy

This week in class we were talking about virtual teams and to go deeper I want share 10 principals that could be very important and a different point of view of team building

Principals of Virtual Teams (Watkins, 2013)

1. 1.     Get the team together physically early-on this means it improve the trust if it cannot be possible so a told could be skype.
2. 2.     Clarify tasks and processes, not just goals and roles means to simplify the work and use that to measure the performance and if there is necessary adjustments and training needs.
3. 3.     Commit to a communication charter, in my opinion the most important element of a virtual team for this is necessary to create a chapter that specify when a meetings, reports and the channel that will be used.
4. 4.     Leverage the best communication technologies ,means that use a platform that is well used for all of the team members
5. 5.     Build a team with rhythm ,create connections between them ,by constantly meeting so the thing that is normally a problem that each one work by then on, could be reduce.
6. 6.     Agree on a shared language it the biggest barrier so is the first step in my opinion define the language that will be used.
7. 7.     Create a “virtual water cooler” means: not only talk about work, to share social and personal information also help to increase and achieve this difficulty to work in a virtual context.
8. 8.     Clarify and track commitments, use milestones to control the productivity of each member.
9. 9.     Foster shared leadership , means that share the leadership of the team because this increase engagement because you will have members focused and proactive
10. 10.   Don’t forget the 1:1s, it is when the leaders talk individually with each team member to identify their needs and motivation and abilities that always better that working with a group.

Other´s point of view of teams buildings

I was looking for information about team build and I found and opposite side in Forbes an article that I want to share with you from Mike Myatt. He was explaining that team building is not always a consensus is an activity that try to homogenize the understanding (Myatt, 2012) . I want to share a paragraph of him:

“It is one thing to be able to recruit talent, something altogether different to properly deploy individual talent, and quite another thing to have your talent play nicely in collaboration with one another. It is the responsibility of executive leadership to set the tone for great teamwork by putting forth a clearly articulated vision, and then aligning every aspect of strategic and tactical decisioning with said vision. A lack of clarity, obviously flawed business logic, or constantly shifting priorities/positions are the death of many a venture. However chief executives who implement a well thought out and clearly articulated vision, create a sense of stability and a bond of trust among the ranks. This in turn leads to a much focused, coordinated, and ultimately, a very passionate work environment. It is not too difficult to get your crew all oaring together when these characteristics are firmly in place because they now know which direction to row.” (Myatt, 2012)

Personally I am totally in disagree with him but is good to know other side of the topic.

What activities of team building are?

Looking for the answer I found a paper of Rockhurst University Continuing Education Center, that explain many way to do a team building, if you are in a team of leading on this will help a lot because you will be able to implement the activities. The one I like the most is call The Game of Possibilities is a game that use a napkins and the creativity of the team members, the time is between 5 to 6 minutes and it is with small groups and the goal is that each member show a use of a napkin without talking .The objective of this activity is know the other, show that there many way to solve a problem and the creativity that your team have. (Rockhurst University Continuing Education Center, 2008)

References

Myatt, M. (2012). Consensus - Team Building's Silent Killer. http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemyatt/2012/04/19/consensus-team-buildings-silent-killer/.

Watkins, M. (2013). Making Virtual Teams Work: Ten Basic Principles. https://hbr.org/2013/06/making-virtual-teams-work-ten/.

Rockhurst University Continuing Education Center. (2008). 30 Team-Building Games, Activities, and Ideas.

About conflict

The Four Intercultural Conflict Styles

We saw in class that there a four types of conflict of Thomas Kilmann. Accommodating : it’s when the parties want to cooperate but the assertiveness is low, that means that ne party have a better solution and the other acceptant and start to help .the disadvantages is that your owns goals ,objectives are not the ones that will be used.  Avoiding: It’s when you are not interesting to cooperate and your objective doesn’t care. Collaborating: For me it’s the best part because both want to help each other and both care about their goals and it have high level of trust. Competing: It´s when one want to win and also want that the other lose because you are really interested in your own goal but to collaborate you don’t have any interest. Compromising it´s a middle ground but both of the parties lose. (Sources of Insight)

Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing Model

This theory was created by Bruce Tuckman that help to understand how the development and behavior of a team is and have 4 stages (Businessballs, 2015):

Forming - stage 1: The means that a member have high dependence of their leader, and they will ask a lot for information and processes and normal forgotten

Storming - stage 2: it could be one difficult part when everyone show is point on view and could create cliques that could divided the group, but to avoid this it is possible to focus on the main a general goal.

Norming - stage 3: After all the point of view were talked there is a consensus so, roles and responsibilities are accepted and defined .This stage is when Commitment and unity get strong. Also, the relationship get stronger.

Performing - stage 4: In this stage the team member know what to do and the reason why they are doing it .The participation of the leader is little and the team members work motivated (high degree of autonomy).Finally this is the stage that all the teams want to stay.

What are other elements have influences in a conflict?

There are some that I want to share .First of all , the main concept that I have talking all the semester that is culture and I include ethnic and race .That background affect a lot in how a conflict could escalate .Second ,Gender and sexuality ,affect in the way how is perceive the conflict and their behavior. Third, knowledge that is more internal for each matter about the topic that they are arguing applying the theory it could be avoiding because one of them don’t know nothing or competing if both know what they want. Finally, that past experiences and the attitude of the messenger affect. All this element we have to take in account. (OHRD, 2015)

References

Businessballs. ( 2015). tuckman forming storming norming performing model. http://www.businessballs.com/tuckmanformingstormingnormingperforming.htm.

OHRD. (2015). he Role of Perceptions in Conflict. https://www.ohrd.wisc.edu/onlinetraining/resolution/aboutwhatisit.htm.

Sources of Insight. (s.f.). 5 Conflict Management Styles at a Glance. http://sourcesofinsight.com/conflict-management-styles-at-a-glance/.

Other sources

Much more can be said about this subject. We have posted an article as an additional resource: "Managing Intercultural Conflicts Effectively," by Stella Ting-Toomey, 1994.

 This topic is well addressed in the writings of Professor Deborah Tannen, who has focused extensively on gender differences in communication.

Motivations Theories

Today I will talk about two very interesting topics about motivations of Human Beings:

Three Needs Theory

It was created by David McClelland in one of his book The Achieving Society .The most important contribution is the division of the dominant motivator for humans n three .Need of Achievement is when persons  have: Likes to works alone and accomplish the goals by himself; like to set many goals in their life and also when he is performing ,they  like to restive feedback on his progress. Need of Affiliation is the second one that is for persons that are the opposite side of the achievement’s one. They want to be in groups ,have friend ,be liked from others, don’t like risk and conflict. Need of Power is the final motivator factor: it is when persons  likes to talk a lot in the meeting and wan to influent other and control the desertions that will take the team, if there is any discussions they always want to win for status and recognition. This are the three motivation factor that if you identified in your team will help with your strategy of goals, feedback and rewards. (Mindtools, 2015)

Expectancy Theory (Vroom)

In this theory Vroom the author separate effort, performance, and outcomes with the objective that is maxima pleasure and minimize pain. He divided in three variables. Expectancy is that they think that if work harder they will be better  .Instrumentally means that on how you do the things you will have that in your outcome i.e. if you do well you will restive a good thing for that. Valence is the last variable, means that persons have a special item that motive them could be (family, recognition ,money) the offers that will increase their performance have to be the same as the desire . (YourCoach , 2013)

Let’s see a video that explain other motivations in peoples life’s

How motivation theories can be use in the workplace?

Looking for the answer I found an article of David Ingram that explain that there are four steps with expectancy theory.

First: as the employees put an almond of effort for each activity look for the ones that refuse to do it or said that they are not paid to do that.

Second: Use tangibles and intangibles rewards for the ones that have a deeper integration and do an extra effort

Third: Develop a program to compensate the employees ,the same as the second spay tangibles(money) are not the only reward .After identify with the human resources area with of the employees have power, acceptance or personal achievement .Dived in groups an motivate differently

Four: After segmenting the employees in this three groups use driver motivation for each and implement the strategy that will help to they all stay engaged. (Ingram, 2015)

References

Ingram, D. (2015). How to Apply Motivational Theories in the Workplace. págs. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/apply-motivational-theories-workplace-10962.html.

Mindtools. (2015). McClelland's Human Motivation Theory Discovering What Drives Members of Your Team. págs. http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/human-motivation-theory.htm.

YourCoach . (2013). Vroom expectancy motivation theory. págs. http://www.yourcoach.be/en/employee-motivation-theories/vroom-expectancy-motivation-theory.php.