Ensuring Team Effectiveness Training Program

This training program introduces you to ensuring team effectiveness. Specifically, you will develop the skills and knowledge in the following topic areas:
1. Build teams and develop performance plans
2. Develop team cohesion and facilitate teamwork
3. Liaise with stakeholders.
Your facilitator may choose to combine or split sessions. For example, in some cases, this training program may be delivered in two or three sessions, or in others, as many as eight sessions.

Stages of Team Development and Required Skills

I was employed in Woolworths, one of the biggest retail supermarkets of Australia in the marketing and sales department of the company. I was the team leader of one of the team of the company comprising of 12 members. The main purpose of my team was to understand the demands and requirements of the customers visiting the various stores of the company and accordingly pitching them appropriate products which would help in increasing the sales of the products of Woolworths and contribute to accomplishment of the objectives of the company. The team mainly existed to assess the needs of the customers and to help them in their purchase decision by making them purchase the products of the company. The team mainly wanted to achieve the objective of the company to increase its market share.

Task 2

1. As stated by Gander et al. (2018) the skills that are required to improve the performance and the productivity of my team and its members are communication skills, co-ordination skills, leadership skills and decision making skills.
2. The above mentioned skills will help the team to move effectively through the various stages of Team Development. Each individual skill which is discussed above will help in moving through the various stages of Team Development to the performing stage.

As stated by Natvig and Stark (2016) the co-ordination skill of the team members will assist in the forming stage of team development as in the forming stage all the team members come together to work as a team with different skills and competencies. Therefore it is very important for the team members to possess co-ordination skill in order to improve the co-ordination with other co-members.

According to Parmentier and Picq (2016) the communication skill of the team members will assist in the storming stage of team development as in the storming stage the team members begin to sort out their differences and gain each other’s trust. Therefore communication is a very important skill required for the team members in the storming stage.

The leadership skill of the team members will assist in the norming stage of the team development as in this stage the team members are aware of the competition in the team and the common goal of the team. Therefore effective leadership skills are required from the team members in order to resolve various issues which can arise in the team in the norming stage.

According to Matsudaira (2017) the decision making skill of the team members will assist in the performing stage as in this stage the team members reach a high level of success which results in highly motivated and knowledgeable team members. Therefore the team members are expected to take their own decisions by themselves and as such decision making skill is required during the performing stage of team development.

1. Consultation plays a huge role in a work team in order to establish a common understanding regarding the manner organizational goals and objectives are achieved by team and individual responsibilities. Two examples of consultation in workplace are as follows

• During the implementation of various technological innovations in Woolworths, the top management ensures to undertake consultation in which the lower level employees are provided briefing about the new technologies and its benefits. Also employee’s views and opinions are taken into account before implementing the new technology so that while implementing before and during different phase’s management take into account the views of the lower level employees so that implementation can be done in an effective manner.
• During the change of leadership in the middle management of the company, the top management of the company involved consults the lower management regarding their expectations from their middle management managers so that it could be easy for the top management of Woolworths to select the best possible managers in the middle management of the company.

Task 3

1. Coaching can be used in as a tool for career development to support the staffs of the team which will help in the development of the inter-personal skills and capabilities of the members of the team and will also help in the development of the self-confidence of the various members of the team. According to Lehmann-Willenbrock, Beck and Kauffeld (2015) the benefits which will be associated with providing coaching to the members of the team are enormous such as empowerment of the team members and encouraging them to take responsibilities of their actions, increase the engagement of the team members to their tasks, improvement of the performances of the team members, increases motivation of the team members.
2. The mentoring program which is followed at Intel is different from other companies as the mentoring program of the company does not follow hierarchy model which connects junior employees of the company with the senior employees. As stated by Manning and Robertson (2016) Intel focuses on specific knowledge transfer domain skills which are currently in demand in the market place. The main effectiveness of the mentoring program of Intel is that it does not follow the general way of mentoring only the junior employees but their mentoring programs also focuses on providing mentoring to the senior employees of the company as they believe that everyone has something new to learn and everyone has something new to teach. Further their mentoring program is more embedded in the culture of the company and results in more organic connection. According to Ruch, Gander, Platt and Hofmann (2018) the recommendation to Intel in order to improve the program of the company is to develop separate mentoring programs for the junior and senior employees otherwise it may lead to creation of ego or grievances within the senior employees as a result of learning in the same platform as the junior employees.

Task 5

1. The strategies to improve the participation of the team members in planning and decision making process are as follows:

• As opined by Houghton (2014) setting up suggestion boxes in order to help the team members share their suggestion anonymously which they could not suggest in various meetings or brainstorming sessions with the fear of being ridiculed or being laughed at.
• Initiating surveys on the team members in order to get the feedback of the team members regarding a particular task.
• As stated by Dumitrescu, Lie and Dobrescu (2014) allowing members to choose their training will improve participation as it will help in better engagement of the teams members in the decision making process

References

Dumitrescu, C, Lie, I. and Dobrescu, R. (2014). LEADING MULTICULTURAL TEAMS. FAIMA Business & Management Journal, 2(4), [Online] 43–54. 

Gander, F, Ruch, W, Platt, T, Hofmann, J, Elmer, T, Kenkel, M. and Sheldon, K. (2018). Current and Ideal Team Roles: Relationships to Job Satisfaction and Calling. Translational Issues in Psychological Science, [Online] 4(3), 277–289. Available: doi: 10.1037/tps0000165 [Accessed on 21 Sep. 2018]

Greenwood, G., and Rasmussen, E. (2013). Workplace conflict management: legal intentions versus managers’ experiences. New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations 

Houghton, T. (2014). How intelligent is your firm’s leadership team?(Managing Organizations). New Hampshire Business Review, [Online] 36(23).

Kiweewa, J., Gilbride, D., Luke, M., and Clingerman, T. (2018). Tracking Growth Factors in Experiential Training Groups Through Tuckman’s Conceptual Model. The Journal for Specialists in Group Work [Online] 43(3), 274–296. Available: doi:10.1080/01933922.2018.1484539 [Accessed on 21 Sep. 2018]

Lehmann-Willenbrock, N., Beck, S., and Kauffeld, S. (2015). Emergent Team Roles in Organizational Meetings: Identifying Communication Patterns via Cluster Analysis. Communication Studies, [Online] 67(1), 1–21. Available: doi:10.1080/10510974.2015.1074087 [Accessed on 21 Sep. 2018]

Manning, T. and Robertson, B. (2016). A three factor model of followership, part 2: research on the three factor model and its application to team roles. Industrial and Commercial Training, [Online] 48(7), 354–361. Available: doi: 10.1108/ICT-01-2016-0004 [Accessed on 21 Sep. 2018]

Matsudaira, K. (2017). Resolving conflict.(tips for conflict management in the workplace)(Practice)(Column). Communications of the ACM, [Online] 60(1), 42–44. Available: doi: 10.1145/3009834 [Accessed on 21 Sep. 2018]

Natvig, D., and Stark, N. (2016). A Project Team Analysis Using Tuckman’s Model of Small-Group Development. The Journal of nursing education, [Online] 55(12), 675–681. Available: doi: 10.3928/01484834-20161114-03 [Accessed on 21 Sep. 2018]

Parmentier, G., and Picq, T. (2016). Managing Creative Teams in Small Ambidextrous Organizations: The Case of Videogames. International Journal of Arts Management, 

Ramsbottom, J. (2015). LEADING CHANGE: MANAGING TEAMS TO BUILD A LEAN ORGANIZATION. Printing Industries of America, The Magazine, [Online] 7(3), 12–13.

Ruch, W., Gander, F., Platt, T., and Hofmann, J. (2018). Team roles: Their relationships to character strengths and job satisfaction. The Journal of Positive Psychology, [Online] 13(2), 190–199. Available: doi:10.1080/17439760.2016.1257051 [Accessed on 21 Sep. 2018]

Senaratne, S., and Udawatta, N. (2013). Managing intragroup conflicts in construction project teams: case studies in Sri Lanka. Architectural Engineering and Design Management, [Online] 9(3), 158–175. Available: doi:10.1080/17452007.2012.738041 [Accessed on 21 Sep. 2018]

Toegel, G., and Barsoux, J. (2016). How to preempt team conflict.(Spotlight on Managing Teams). Harvard Business Review, [Online] 94(6), 78–83, 117.