OVERCOMING INEFFICIENCY IN A TEAM¶
PROBLEMOS APRAŠYMAS | PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
For a team leader, it’s vital to know what kind of aspects lead to inefficiency in a team and how to manage team members’ behaviors & attitudes, so the team would be fully efficient. However, some aspects are more difficult to manage than others, so they require higher maturity management skills.
KATEGORIJA | CATEGORY
Lyderystė, komandos valdymas | Leadership, team management
REKOMENDACIJA | RECOMMENDATION
Tolmantas Dagys completed a comprehensive investigation on team efficiency and how to overcome team dysfunctions by a team leader. Thesis made an overview of several team efficiency models like 5 team dysfunctions model from Patrick Lencioni, T7 model from Korn Ferry and others. Highest focus in thesis investigation was on A) conflict dysfunction and B) lack of accountability dysfunction. Here are some aggregated executive recommendations that are identified as a team by author of master thesis : Tolmantas Dagys & master thesis supervisor: Artūras Bučinskas
CONFLICT PREVENTIONS PRACTICES: Team leader and team members should agree to apply these behaviors & rules like 1) Agree to disagree in some situations between team members, 2) Encourage to look for better option where possible, 3) Do not try to convince but try to understand other opinions, 3) Say constructive arguments - skip nonsense talking , 4) Use 7 why method, 5) Give everyone same amount of time to talk, 6) Think of discussion as a learning process, 7) Take notes of ideas during discussion, 8) team should understand that compromise is sometimes the only best option possible.
CONFLICT MANAGEMENT : In low conflict navigate discussion to other questions. In medium conflict make a break for a few minutes or hour. In very emotional conflict stop discussion for a day.
STRUCTURED DISCUSSIONS for CONFLICT SITUATION: Moderate discussions by a principle: team states facts, then problems and the biggest amount of time is dedicated to discussing possible solutions
STRONG CONFLICT EMOTIONAL SITUATION : If discussion can not be stopped for a day - use 7 why practice in situations when experts are holding to their opinion very strongly, but you or other team members think there could be better solutions.
SUPPORT OF CONFLICTING MEMBER : Talk separately with members who had a conflict. Help them understand why this conflict happened and how it could not appear again next time, what topics they should skip and what shouldn’t be said to another team member. Also, sometimes it’s good to tell people not to take things personally.
LACK of ACCOUNTABILITY: Team leader should provide 1) set expectations 2) provide strong leader support 3) have good task delegation process 4) enable motivation & rewards system 5) create relevant level of expected autonomy for team cooperation/decision making without management involvment
LACK of ACCOUNTABILITY: Good task delegation process should have these steps 1) Identify/define tasks, 2) Distribute with relevant strength /passion 3) Brief team members, 4) Give authority 5) Monitor progress regularly 6) Support by giving guidance & feedback
ŠALTINIS | SOURCE
Master’s thesis: TEAM LEADER’S PRACTICES FOR OVERCOMING INEFFICIENCY IN A TEAM
AUTORIUS | AUTHOR
Tolmantas Dagys