WORK TEAMS

THAT WORK

An Experience-Based Workshop in Building and Sustaining

High Performance Teams

WELCOME

Thanks for choosing to attend this STS sponsored workshop on developing and sustaining high performance teams. Building effective teams is a tough job. To really appreciate the power of teams this week, a lot will be required of you.

You, and the other workshop attendees, are going to be encouraged to push yourselves and try new and different things. In order to be effective, this workshop requires hard work, tenacity, and willingness to have fun. If you put forth the effort, this will be one of the most rewarding educational experiences of your life.

The workshop facilitators have been selected and developed to assist and support you as you discover how high performance teams are built and sustained. The path will at times be difficult, but by Friday well worth it!

PARTICIPANTS & STAFF

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Workshop Purpose

Agenda

WORKSHOP PRINCIPLES

A Socio-Technical Systems Approach

Learning Approach

System Accountability

LEARNING

The Quest

Learning Cycle

Leaders and The Learning Process

Growth Values

Teaming Skills

Personal Learning Journals

PURPOSING PROCESSES

Team Formation

Creating a Purposeful System

PRODUCING PROCESS

Design

Producing Processes

INDIVIDUAL NEEDS PROCESSES

Identifying and Satisfying Individual Needs

Grow Up! – The Eight Stages

CONTROL PROCESSES

Understanding Managerial Leadership Function

Control Models

SOCIAL PROCESSES

Problem Solving/Decision Making Process

Team Growth Stages

ENVIRONMENTAL FIT

Guidelines for Insuring Fit

Environmental Systems

FEEDBACK PROCESSES

Developmental Grip

Constructive Feedback

SYSTEM THEORY

Systems Thinking

Glossary

AGENDA

TUESDAY

•	Introduction

-	Open Systems

-	Learning

-	Accountability

•	Search for Purpose	-Team Task 1

-	(Mission, Vision, Values, Logo)

•	Technical Producing

Process	-Team Task 2

•	Individual Needs

WEDNESDAY

•	Control Processes	-Team Task 3

-	(Introduction to Social Systems)

•	Social Processes

-	Team Growth	-Team Task 4

-	Problem Solving	-Team Task 5

THURSDAY

•	Environmental Process

-	External Needs &

Internal Fit	-Team Task 6

•	Feedback Process	-Team Task 7

•	Systems Theory and Final Team Product Planning

FRIDAY

•	Final Team Product Presentation

•	Open Discussion – Q's & A's

•	Workshop Critique & Closure

WORKSHOP PURPOSE

The biggest challenge facing American industry today is successfully coping in a world wide competitive climate. Although the textbooks promote teamwork recipes, sustained higher levels of team performance are rarely achieved in practice. A major cause of failing to "put words to action" is a lack of opportunity for many to be able to experience practical application of the concepts in a learning and developing environment.

This intensive four day workshop has been designed to provide that experience. It is called WORK TEAMS THAT WORK and focuses on participants "living" the principles and concepts used in developing and sustaining high performance in a changing and competitive environment.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this workshop is to share proven concepts utilized by companies known for sustaining high levels of performance through an intensive personal learning experience.

OBJECTIVES

•	Understand the key characteristics that will contribute to increasing levels of performance.

•	Experience being part of a successful team and contributing to that team's success.

•	Understand the impact of your own actions and behaviors on others.

•	Develop knowledge of Socio-Technical Systems (STS) in developing high performance.

•	Learn to appreciate and value feedback through giving and receiving it.

•	Discover the roles leadership and control play in reaching higher levels of performance.

•	Experience the transfer of head knowledge to heart understanding by sharing a deep sense of commitment to a team and to individual team members.

•	Experiment, apply new learnings, and build new skills for developing high performance back home.

WORKSHOP PRINCIPLES

This workshop is designed to explore three key principles of high performance:

Open System	High performance organizations exist in a "open system" and build effective processes to respond to all demands of that system.

Learning	High performance organizations understand how individuals learn and create an environment which encourages learning through exploration, experience, and continual improvement.

Accountability	High performance organizations account for their results to the larger system.

A SOCIO-TECHNICAL SYSTEMS APPROACH

WORKSHOP CONCEPTS

The workshop is designed around an Open Systems – Socio-Technical model, which demonstrates that, over the long haul, effective organizations are those that adapt well to changing internal and external environmental demands and expectations. This open systems model has seven key processes or elements that need to be understood, developed, and designed for high performance and organizational effectiveness.

These adaptations take place within the STS model and its seven interdependent processes. In the workshop, they will be referred to as:

PURPOSING PROCESSES

The team's sense of identity and purpose:

-	Who we serve

-	What they expect

-	Why our team exists

TECHNICAL PRODUCING PROCESSES

The team's primary tasks and objectives for producing the work required to fulfill its purpose.

INDIVIDUAL NEEDS PROCESSES

The team's process for satisfying their team members' individual interests and needs.

SOCIAL INTERACTION PROCESSES

Determining how members need to interact and relate to one another in pursuit of productive and individual purposes and objectives.

ENVIRONMENTAL PROCESSES

How the team is going to interact with the other teams or departments for which there is internal interdependence and external demands.

CONTROL PROCESSES

How the team members provide for leadership, organization, and control to insure the team's purposes and objectives are met.

FEEDBACK PROCESSES

How the team and its members make assessments and corrective adaptations or adjustments:

-	with each other

-	with other groups and departments

-	with external stakeholders; i.e., customers

These seven STS processes are highly interdependent, dynamic, and have to be maintained in a reasonable balance if the team or organization is to be effective. The workshop focuses on each process and its dynamics, on the interactions between the seven processes, and ways of managing them to maximize overall systems performance.

Incorporated in the learning design are multiple opportunities for the participants to learn more about themselves, their impact on others, and the seven key STS processes, and to develop interpersonal skills in communications, feedback, team membership, and leadership.

MODEL: BASIC INTERDEPENDENT ELEMENTS OF STS

LEARNING APPROACH

"I Hear and I Forget

I See and I Remember

I Do and I Understand."

–Old Chinese Proverb

"Training Won't Work,

A Tool Approach Can't Work,

Copying Doesn't Work Either."

–John J. Sherwood

"Adults learn best when they

take charge of their own learning."

–Warren Bennis

At the beginning of the workshop, participants "join" a team whose primary purpose is to "market" learning products about how organizations achieve and sustain higher performance. They play an active role in carrying out a series of "learning tasks" designed to enhance their personal growth and development.

These personal learnings are integrated into team products and "sold" through group presentations in the "market place" where other learning teams are also competing. This process builds throughout the workshop until the last day, when each team "markets" a "final product" or compilation of their week's learnings.

SYSTEM ACCOUNTABILITY

All organizations live in an environmentally competitive reality. In order for organizations to be "High Performing," they must continually measure themselves against their own expectations, the expectations of their customers, and the requirements of their environment and use these measurements to continually improve their results.

For your learning organization to become High Performing and gain the most from this workshop experience, we have designed a process to continually assess and measure the results of your learning. Each learning organization will develop a "learning product" from each learning session and sell this product to yourself and the other teams. Your organization will also purchase products from the other organizations based on what you find meaningful and helpful.

At the conclusion of each marketing period, your team will have 20 units in which to purchase products (including your own). Product purchases must conform to the following guidelines:

•	Most preferred product needs to be at least twice the value of your least preferred product.

•	No organization can receive the same point value.

•	Maximum value distributed to any one organization is 10.

Your team will be allowed ten minutes at the end of the presentations to discuss, evaluate, and spend your 20 units. You may wish to ask yourself questions like the following in evaluating the learning products:

What was new or insightful from their product?

How did the product impact me?

Did the product meet my expectations?

Do I know what I want from the Product?

Will I take something back with me from their experience?

Did the product tell me, show me, or involve me?

Did the product help me gain new understanding?

Was it the right size (quantity), the right material (quality) and the right feeling (impact)?

IN-HOUSE WORKSHOPS

We, at STS International, Inc., wish to assist you in your efforts to develop high performing teams within your organization. Work Teams That Work™ can play a key role in these efforts.

Companies sponsoring participants and desiring to include this workshop as part of their internal development strategy can do so by:

Identifying internal company resources who have attended a WTTW workshop and who can be certified as co-trainers.

Providing the opportunity for these internal resources to "staff" a WTTW and gain experience and certification.

Develop a plan with STS International, Inc., to use the materials, workshop design, internal resources, and STS resources in an in-house setting.

The written materials in this manual were designed and developed by D. F. Felten with significant contributions made by K. Simmons and J. Romans. Any reproduction of the workshop design or materials contained in this workbook is prohibited. Although we desire and encourage you to use these materials, ANY use of the materials or workshop design requires prior written permission from STS International, Inc. In this way, we can maintain the integrity of the materials and insure the responsible application of the design.

Please direct requests to use these materials, develop in-house workshops, explore the other workshops available through STS International, Inc., or any other questions to:

STS INTERNATIONAL, INC.

2823 South Church Street

Burlington, NC 27215

Phone: (336) 584-7220

Fax: (336) 584-7050

email: info@stsinternational.org

Copyright 1990 by

STS INTERNATIONAL

All rights reserved

LE	ARNING

THE QUEST

"These leaders are by no means ordinary people. They work out there on the frontier where tomorrow is taking shape, and they serve here as guides – guides to things as they are and as they will be. As diverse as they are in terms of background, age, occupations, and accomplishments, they are in accord on two basic points.

"First, they all agree that leaders are made, not born, and made more by themselves than by any external means. Second, they agree that no leader sets out to be a leader per se, but rather to express himself freely and fully."

–Warren Bennis

The Quest for learning begins within each of us and it takes only a moment. But it's a special moment. A moment of openness, of inquiry, of spontaneity, of creativity. A moment where you can say to yourself "I don't know and that's all right – I'll figure it out." A moment of LEARNING!!

Work Teams That Work™ is designed to create those moments for each participant. It is designed to help us see ourselves and our interactions differently. To understand how we gain a vision of something new, how we build new habits and processes to be competent with new skills, how we come to master a new paradigm. But each person must take the journey themselves. Only then, and after the struggle, may we reap the rewards.

THE MAP – UNDERSTANDING HOW WE LEARN

Learning is a continuous process. When we are young the new excites us. The challenge of doing something we see others do is a part of our natural existence.

Tying shoes is a simple example of this process. A young child may have watched his mother tie his shoes for him dozens of times during his first few years. Then suddenly, an awareness creeps into his mind – the awareness that he can tie the shoes himself. And so, grabbing the laces and winding them together, he tries to simply combine the laces together to look like what his mother did. But to no avail, they won't stay together.

With some instruction, the child begins to go through steps with the mother's help. Suddenly, the shoe is tied. With some more coaching, it is tied again, not too well but successfully. And again, and again, and at once, it seems, the child is capable and no longer needs coaching to tie the shoe properly. This pattern continues until the child can literally tie the shoe unconsciously, without thinking. And even begins to change, modify, improve the way he goes about it. Maybe a double bow, or a special knot, maybe he just changes the lacing pattern. The Child is becoming the master of the shoe lace. Later, he will have to rethink how he ties the shoe in order to teach the next generation.

This diagram may be helpful in
understanding this learning process.

Each of us is currently in Quadrant 1 in
one or more areas of our life. We are
Unaware of a new technology, a new
philosophy, a new tool or method for
accomplishing a task. We are
comfortable with that state and may
even tend to feel that "the King is in his
castle and all's right with the world."
This is a safe place, a secure place, but
it is blind to the "new," the exciting,
even the devastating which may be
around the next corner. When a new
idea, or talent, or methodology is
realized, we find ourselves in Quadrant
2.

Quadrant 2 is an uneasy place. We are
now aware of something new, but we
are entrenched in habits which were comfortable in Quadrant 1. We have seen something different, exciting, scary, important, or maybe essential to the survival of our company, and we don't have the new habits, skills, abilities, or knowledge to take advantage of it. This is the result of many "Benchmarking" activities. We have found a way to see something new, a different way to do something, a desirable set of benefits which might be derived from utilizing this method. But the path for us to integrate this into our lives or our company has not yet been constructed.

This uncomfortableness leads us to Quadrant 3. Here we must make the knowledge and awareness practice. Here we identify specific goals to seek, habits to break, habits to learn, and new patterns of living and working to incorporate. Here we face discouragement. We try, but fail. We may even decide to take haven back in Quadrant 1 since it is too painful to change. Here is where we concentrate and build the new skills necessary to be "competent and capable" in the new methods or habits.

Our continued efforts begin to pay off as we begin to be, act, and perform more according to the new methodology than to the past. We begin to do it without thinking. We tie the shoes without a thought for the steps in the process. We are quickly becoming masters of the "new" way. We are at Quadrant 4 and doing well. Quadrant 4 feels good again... and here is the next danger.

PERSONAL LEARNING – TAKING THE JOURNEY YOURSELF

Being a learner is "child's play" for the young. They have less fears of the unknown, less responsibility, less at stake if they make a mistake. As we grow older we cling to the "tried and true" methods of our past. Being a learner for adults requires giving up some security and moving outside the "box," outside the comfortable, outside the familiar, outside of Quadrant 1.

There seems to be a high wall between Quadrant 1 and Quadrant 2. As high, it seems, as we have been willing to build it. It's made of brick, much like the house of the third little pig, and ready to protect us from the outside.

Learners don't have to tear down the wall, but they have to be willing to climb up on it, to look beyond and to "see" what lies on the other side. Learners move themselves from Quadrant 1 to Quadrant 2 by exploring, and opening their minds to something new. They do not betray their box, but do not need to defend it either. They recognize that their Quadrant 1 point of view may not be entirely accurate, current, or, at least, is not the only point of view and they are willing to see the new view. Once they've seen it, they are no longer completely comfortable in their box. One songwriter recognized this during the big war when he wrote: "How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm...After they've seen Paris?"

Learners, in moving from Quadrant 1 to Quadrant 2 now have a quandary. Is it better to keep what I was doing, or to incorporate some or all of this new information into my life and activities. Learners make a choice, and when the choice is that the new information is worth pursuing, they take on the challenge to move from Quadrant 2 to Quadrant 3. This move involves the gaining of skills and abilities/competencies/knowledge (rather than just awareness).

They get specific. What does this new paradigm look like? Why is this new approach better? Why should I quit doing it this way? What results can and do I expect? And after the questions, they take a stand, set their hand to the plow, and try to make it work. There is no brick wall between Quadrant 2 and Quadrant 3. But there are hazards. The ground is unstable and may tip as you step across. It may rise up suddenly and roll you back to the protection of Quadrant 1. A wave of discouragement may strike without warning from the side and you retreat. Gusts of wind may make it hard to see your way clearly.

If you persist, concentrate, practice, fail, err, and try again... you build the skills. If you recognize that you are not "perfect" yet, you may avoid the hazard of hypocrisy. If you associate yourself with others who are making the same journey, you will find support and strength in numbers. "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." This is where the challenge is. The victory and rewards go to the persistent and new skills to the disciplined. Integrity is renewed through aligning how you act with how you have decided to be.

Learners master their new habits. They move consciously, from Quadrant 3 to Quadrant 4 through this alignment of skills and abilities to desires and beliefs. There is no wall here, no hazardous terrain, but the slope is upward. The learner can always roll backward and have to repeat the struggle, the uncertainty, the pain. Not the struggle of learning the skills, but the struggle of leaving the old patterns.

The learner meets this challenge by looking quickly toward the next awareness. Quadrant 4 becomes Quadrant 1 without a struggle, without a wall, without even an upward grade. It becomes Quadrant 1 when we have built our new box, and "rest" within it. The new becomes our present, it becomes comfortable. As William Wordsworth put it:

"The glory and the dream fade, the prison-house closes in after childhood,

and custom lies on us 'heavy as frost'."

We have grown; we have struggled; the world should recognize our effort, and how easy it is for us to feel we've made it. Eugene O'Neill struck hard at this cord with the following challenge:

"Those who succeed and do not push on to greater failure are the spiritual middle classers. Their stopping at success is the proof of their compromising insignificance. How petty their dreams must have been! Only through the unattainable does man achieve a hope worth living and dying for and so attain himself."

FOUR KEYS TO LEARNING

YOU ARE YOUR OWN BEST TEACHER

No one can teach you how to become yourself, to take charge, to express yourself, except you. No one outside of you can decide that you will be teachable and open to the new, the changing, the growing. No one can help you learn until you give permission.

YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR OWN LEARNING

Create your own university. Take the tough path. The path where you learn how "you" learn, the path where you decide how to learn better. It's easy to blame others for your inability to grow; it's much harder to hold yourself accountable for your own development. Openness to learning starts from within.

YOU CAN LEARN WHATEVER YOU WANT TO LEARN

You have the choice. Do you want to learn? What do you want to learn? Where do you go to learn? When you decide, then go for it!! Want it!! Embrace it!! Absorb it!! Then you will learn it. Unless you have the appetite and determination to absorb new and unsettling things, you won't learn.

YOU CHOOSE HOW TO USE THE LEARNING

Learning helps you move from ignorance to understanding. By opening yourself to the new, you let go of the old. By reflecting on your experiences and challenging paradigms, you build new and real understandings and nothing is truly yours until you understand it – not even yourself.

LEARNING CYCLE

The hardest part of the individual learning process is moving from Quadrant 2 to Quadrant 3. This is where you build new skills and competencies based on your new understanding and it is only accomplished through doing and experiencing. WTTW is designed based on the following experiential learning model. Giving each participant a very real opportunity to do more than just hear or see how to build a high performance team. Everyone is here to build a high performance, high output, highly successful "Learning Organization."

EXPERIENCING

Learning begins with experiencing. Become involved in an activity; acting, behaving, performing, observing, seeing. Take action – do something. Experience is the basis for learning.

SHARING

Following the experience itself, it is vital for individuals to share their reaction and observations with others who have either experienced or observed the same activity.

DISCUSSING

Individuals often share, yet the critical and often neglected part of the cycle is processing the experience. Working through the dynamics and the learning that emerges in the activity, through integration of sharing, we can explore, discuss, and evaluate the experience with others, determining what happened and why.

ADAPTING

Flowing naturally from the discussing step is the need to develop principles or extract generalizations from the experience. Here, we state learning in a way that helps all of us further define, clarify, and elaborate them.

APPLYING

The final step in the cycle is the application of the principles and learnings derived from the experience. The process is not complete until the new learning or discovery is used and tested behaviorally. Applying, of course, becomes an "experience" in itself, and with new experiences, the cycle begins again.

PURPOSING PROCESS

Team Product 1

THEORY INPUT

High-performing Work Teams That Work are characterized by collaborative teamwork focused on their primary purpose. Teamwork is the result of a number of factors – such as shared visions, common purposes, well defined boundaries, achievement, and support oriented work cultures. Work Groups that want to become high-performing teams should focus their initial efforts on getting to know each other, agreeing on team principles, ground rules, norms, and reaching consensus as to why they should exist. This helps build a shared mission, vision, and values for the team.

TASK OBJECTIVE

The primary purpose of this task is to provide an opportunity for you to develop what your team's basic purpose for being here is, why you exist, what you value, and want to accomplish.

DESIRED OUTCOMES

•	An understanding of each individual member's learning objectives, as well as personal hopes, fears, and concerns that may have an influence on your team's ability to function effectively.

•	A name and logo for your team that captures the "essence" of the team and its individual members.

•	A shared and common vision for your team that includes the team's purpose and objectives. This should include team members' beliefs about what will be required for the team to be high performing.

•	A set of operating principles, norms, ground rules, etc., to be utilized by your team.

•	A team mission statement that communicates: "This is what makes us unique in the way we accomplish our purpose."

•	A strategy about how your team will operate to achieve its purpose and objectives while being faithful to your stated principles.

•	A review of what you learned as you completed this task and your team's working theories for use in guiding future team formation and "Direction Setting" efforts.

•	A way for helping other members benefit from what your team has learned as a result of having performed this purposing activity.

(Each team will be allotted up to 10 minutes for sharing at the beginning of the next general session.)

SUGGESTIONS

Before you begin working on the task, reach agreement as to its objective and the outcomes that are expected. Once this is done, design a process for how your team will accomplish the objective and produce the desired outcomes. The following are suggestions you may wish to consider:

•	Have each member complete the pre-assessments for Growth Values and Teaming Skills.

•	Have each member of your team get better acquainted. Learn as much as you can about:

- their likes and dislikes, their hopes, and fears about the Workshop

- their talents, expertise, and experience they bring to the team

- their personal learning objectives

•	Develop a list of common learning objectives for your team.

•	Discuss the kind of culture you prefer to work in and why. Use this information to help you define your team's guiding principles, ground rules, mission, etc.

•	Identify and select a name for your team along with a distinguishing logo. Discuss and understand how and why you made the particular selections.

•	Determine why your team exists (primary purpose) and what objectives are needed to drive your team towards its purpose and shared vision.

•	Determine your team's norms. Ask for and post suggested "ground rules" (or Do's and Don'ts) that the group itself might adopt in order to help realize its own expectations and avoid its apprehensions. These team norms or ground rules should guide your team's decisions and actions during the week. Pay particular attention to the development of norms for dealing with differences of opinion and controversy or conflict.

•	Discuss what you have learned from this experience. Transform what you learn into working theories about the purposing processes of forming teams and setting direction.

•	Prepare to share your team's learning with high impact and unique content so that the other teams in the Workshop can learn from your experiences.

GROWTH VALUES

The Six Dimensions of Inner Development

PRE-ASSESSMENT

EMPATHY

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

Actively participating in the feelings and ideas of others. Embracing differing views and opinions, knowing they are essential to understanding and synergy. The acceptance of others as they are, unique and marvelous creations in their own right.

AUTHENTICITY

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

The capacity to be at peace with yourself, know who you are, what you feel – to simply be yourself. You'll only be as good as you are capable of being real. Owning up to your own weaknesses, failures, and mistakes lets others know you're human. Playing a game or hanging on to old pre-assigned roles and responsibilities in a changing environment only inhibits growth and authenticity.

SPONTANEITY

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

The capacity to think out loud and act naturally without external constraints or being held within established lines. It's the ability to self-act or react in a real and natural way as events occur.

COURAGE

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

The ability to do what is right for the larger whole, knowing at times it is not a popular choice. Confronting others when it's needed and being able to withstand the backlash. Having the moral strength to venture where angels fear to tread while resisting opposition, strain, or threat.

OPEN-MINDEDNESS

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

The ability to act and make decisions provisionally, recognizing there may be a better way introduced tomorrow. This flexibility and open-mindedness allows us to deal with individuals and teams as they are, and at their own pace. This increases our receptivity to others' arguments, ideas, and thoughts.

INTUITION

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

The ability to react with confidence on limited data or information. Willingness to trust your gut, knowing something is different but not being able to put a finger on it. At times it can be those immediate insights gained that needed to be shared, regardless of how hard they could be to substantiate.

TEAMING SKILLS

Personal Skill Promoting Group Effectiveness

PRE-ASSESSMENT

MEETING

EFFECTIVENESS

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

My ability to help a group come together, focus on the issues or purpose, establish meaningful roles and ground rules, use time effectively, involve and engage each member, measure their results, and meet their objectives.

BRAINSTORMING

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

My ability to help the group listen to all ideas openly, seek unusual possibilities, be creative, refrain from judging the merits of the ideas, build onto previous ideas, and think beyond previous boundaries and constraints.

PROBLEM SOLVING

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

My ability to work within the group to identify and clarify the problem, investigate root causes, analyze possible alternatives, weigh benefits and costs, compare against the stated objectives, collect meaningful data, and agree on solutions.

PLANNING/

ORGANIZING

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

My ability to help identify what needs to be done, establish priorities, set a timetable for accomplishing the tasks, make assignments, review progress, and follow through to meet the objectives.

DECISION MAKING

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

My ability to work with the group to review all pertinent information, listen to clearly understand each point of view, openly share biases and concerns, value personal and group needs, decide together and fully support that decision.

ASSESSING RESULTS

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

My ability to help get clear on what has to be accomplished, set goals that are both objective and subjective, establish a scale for measurement, benchmark their current state, regularly review results and progress.

CONFLICT

RESOLUTION

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

My ability to help sort through differences that are getting in the way of the group's ability to accomplish tasks synergistically and collaboratively.

GIVING FEEDBACK

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

My ability to provide straightforward, honest, and helpful feedback to other members of the group in a respectful and developmental manner and to confront difficult issues with integrity and share responsibility for results.

RECEIVING

FEEDBACK

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

My ability to hear and receive feedback from members of the group openly and non-defensively, seek to understand the key elements of the feedback, and respond to the feedback through responsible actions and commitments.

DECISIVENESS

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

My ability to take action and help the group move forward by listening to itself, agreeing on key elements, selecting a path, deciding and moving on. Helping to avoid waffling, false starts, and gridlock while allowing for constant field adjustments.

CREATING A

PURPOSEFUL SYSTEM

The central factor in team design is the system's primary purpose or core mission. Common purpose unifies. It unites the people inside the system with each other, as colleagues in pursuit of the same larger vision. It can unite the inside system with the larger outside system too.

The system then is united around a central value that is shared by all of the participants in the enterprise. But united action is required as well. It's not enough to simply have in mind a common vision.

The system must also be designed to produce results, to create outputs that are clearly in line with the system's mission. And to do so in a way that is responsive to continuing changes in technology, economics, social pressures, and other environmental factors. It must, in other words, be fully integrated and adaptive. It's a tall order, but it can be done. Here's some help in defining your team's purpose:

CRITERIA FOR MISSION/VISION

•	Simple, easy to remember

•	Describes "distinctive competence"

•	Singular: One aspect emphasized

•	"Unattainable," but can be pursued

•	Specific enough to see it being pursued

•	Relevant, realistic

•	One sentence reflecting learning products, distinction, customer

CRITERIA FOR PHILOSOPHY/VALUES

•	Limited number of tight statements

•	Can be tested against behavior

•	Reflects actual beliefs

•	Describes "how" mission will be accomplished

•	No unrealistic expectations

CRITERIA FOR GOALS/OBJECTIVES

•	Clearly relates to mission

•	Reflect expectations

•	Realistic and achievable

•	Describes results desired

•	Consistent with philosophy/values

LEARNING JOURNAL

PURPOSING PROCESS

Teaming Skill and Learning Checklist

(Check the areas in which you excelled)

(Circle the areas you wish to improve in next session)

Growth Values

Empathy

Authenticity

Spontaneity

Courage

Open-Mindedness

Intuition

Teaming Skills

Meeting Effectiveness

Brainstorming

Problem Solving

Planning/Organizing

Decision Making

Assessing Results

Conflict Resolution

Giving Feedback

Receiving Feedback

Decisiveness

1.	What did I learn most around Growth Values and Teaming Skills:

2.	My personal contribution to our team mission was:

3.	What I learned most about my ability to work within a team was:

4.	What made this meeting more effective? Less effective?

5.	The things I learned that I most want to be able to use back home are:

TECHNICAL PRODUCING PROCESS

Team Product 2

THEORY INPUT

Work Teams That Work places a high priority on producing products and services which are of high value to their external customers. These products and/or services are the result of well-designed, efficient production processes. These producing processes make good use of all available resources – people, equipment, facilities, money, and information – and are designed to fulfill the primary purpose and goals of the team.

TASK OBJECTIVE

The primary purpose of this task is to provide an opportunity, through experience, for you to develop your team's producing process. This should define how your team's productive work, required by your team's purpose and objectives, gets accomplished.

DESIRED OUTCOMES

•	A set of work design principles that will keep your team highly productive and motivated.

•	A producing process that describes "how" your team plans to produce its learning products and fulfill its purpose and objectives.

•	An understanding of how your team's producing process differs from traditional work processes you've experienced.

•	A working theory about designing high performance production processes considering what your team has designed for itself vs. what you have currently at work.

•	A means for helping the other members of the other teams benefit from what you learn.

SUGGESTIONS

Before you begin working on the task, review the desired outcomes and reach agreement as to its objective and the outcomes that are expected. Once this is done, design a process for how your team will accomplish the objective and produce the desired outcomes. The following are suggestions you may wish to consider:

•	Openly discuss the following questions:

a)	How does work traditionally get organized to produce a product or service?

b)	How do we want to get organized to produce our learning products and fulfill our objectives and mission?

c)	Does our process make full use of all our available resources?

d)	Does our process fully utilize our team members' strengths and developmental desires?

•	Review how you set about the task of creating your team logo, vision, mission and guiding principles. What were the steps in your "producing process?" What needs to be added/deleted in order for it to become your producing process?

•	Review and discuss Cherns' Work Design Principles prior to developing your own team's set of work principles.

•	Assess your learnings, and transform them into a working theory about designing high performance production processes. Determine the application of these theories to your home location.

•	Prepare to share your team's unique learnings in a way that the other teams will remember and can benefit from your experience. (Each team will be provided up to 10 minutes for this purpose.)

DESIGN

Cherns' Work Design Principles

The process of design itself must reflect the values found in the new paradigm. Organizational design or redesign cannot succeed in the end if the process of design does not follow certain principles. For it is the process which sets the pattern of the culture for the newly designed organization.

These principles are:

COMPATIBILITY

•	The way in which the design is carried out should be compatible with the design's objective.

•	All organization members participate toward the same objectives, no one can be omitted.

•	The degree to which this principle is respected greatly influences long-term commitment to the design.

MINIMAL CRITICAL SPECIFICATION

•	Identify only what is essential and specify as little as possible about how the work is to be done.

•	In defining roles, tasks, objectives or boundaries only the key minimum requirements should be specified so as to not close-off options and possible improvements by those who will do the work.

VARIANCE CONTROL

•	Variances should not be exported across unit, departmental, or other organizational boundaries.

•	If they cannot be eliminated, they must be controlled as close as possible to their point of origin.

•	Controlling variances at other than their source has the effect of trying to correct their consequences rather than preventing them.

•	Control of variances is also greatly affected by the location of internal boundaries.

BOUNDARY LOCATION

•	Determining internal organizational boundaries; i.e., the separation between units, sections, divisions, is critical in the design of any organization.

•	Boundaries must not impede the sharing of information, knowledge, and learning.

•	Boundaries should be drawn so that:

members have access to and control over the variances that occur while performing work;

members can develop substantial control over their own activities in achieving the goals;

members have access to all the information they need to solve the unit's problems and assess its performance; i.e., they receive adequate feedback;

the unit can complete a whole transformation process or produce an identifiable output; i.e., the boundary should not cut-through the middle of a process;

coordination between activities and people can be accomplished within the unit, leaving integration with other units to boundary managers;

the unit contains all the skills and abilities needed to accomplish its work;

the need for external control is minimized as the unit is given the means to regulate itself.

INFORMATION FLOW

•	Information processes allow the continual flow of information to a work unit and throughout the system.

•	Information should be available quickly to those who require it.

•	Blocks to information flow are not only horizontal, but vertical.

•	Information systems that provide management with comprehensive and detailed information about the operations offer a virtually irresistible temptation to over-supervise and to intervene in subordinates' decisions. Under these circumstances, the individual or team cannot feel ownership of the unit's performance and cannot truly be held responsible for it.

•	The key to designing effective information systems is to design them in cooperation with their primary users and to remember that primary users should always be the first to receive information needed to take action or control variances.

•	Information required for record should be readily available for recall when needed. Information for the control of behavior is an element of the "old paradigm" design, and if considered at all in the new design, should be given directly to unit members or teams as part of their information base for self-management.

POWER AND AUTHORITY

•	Those who need equipment, materials, or other resources to carry-out their responsibilities should have access to them and authority to command them.

•	In return, they accept responsibility for them and for their prudent and economical use.

THE MULTI FUNCTIONAL PRINCIPLE –

ORGANISM VS. MECHANISM

•	The traditional form of organization relies very heavily on the redundancy of parts and requires people to perform highly specialized, fractionated tasks. People are seen as a replaceable part. Simple mechanisms are constructed on the same principle.

•	Complex systems require a large repertoire of skills, abilities, and knowledge from the participants.

•	This flexibility allows both generalization and specialization within the organization.

•	The Organization is more adaptive and less wasteful for each element to possess more than one function.

•	The computer, for example, is a typical Multifunctional mechanism.

SUPPORT CONGRUENCE

•	The systems of social support should be designed so as to reinforce the desired results and culture.

•	If, for example, the organization is designed on the basis of group or team operation with team responsibility, a pay system incorporating individual members would be incongruent with these objectives.

•	Not only payment systems, but systems of selection, training, conflict resolution, work measurement, performance assessment, timekeeping, leave allocation, promotion, and separation can all reinforce or contradict the behaviors which are desired.

•	Management philosophy should be consistent and that management's actions should be consistent with its expressed philosophy. Not infrequently a management committed to philosophies of participation simultaneously adopts systems of work measurement, for example, which are in gross contradiction.

TRANSITIONAL ORGANIZATION

•	Starting up a new design entails a lot of stress.

•	Transition activities and leadership must continually apply and observe the objectives and philosophy of the new design or the lack of resolve will undermine the change effort.

•	Developmental and selection processes demonstrate the reality of the new philosophy.

INCOMPLETION OR THE FOURTH BRIDGE PRINCIPLE

•	Design is a reiterative process. The closure of options opens new ones. At the end, we are back at the beginning. The new paradigm is that of an organization flexibly adapting to its environment. Although a certain degree of stability is necessary to operate, the organization must be prepared to review and revise its design. Being prepared means having mechanisms built into the structure of the organization at all levels to deal with changes it must make on a continuing basis. "Redesign is not the task of a special design team; it is the function of self-regulating operating teams provided with the techniques of analysis,... and the principles of design." (A. Cherns)

(Adapted from "Principles of Sociotechnical Design Revisited" by Albert Cherns, 1992)

LEARNING JOURNAL

TECHNICAL PRODUCING PROCESS

Teaming Skills and Learning
Checklist

(Check the areas in which you excelled)

(Circle the areas you wish to improve in next session)

Growth Values

Empathy

Authenticity

Spontaneity

Courage

Open-Mindedness

Intuition

Teaming Skills

Meeting Effectiveness

Brainstorming

Problem Solving

Planning/Organizing

Decision Making

Assessing Results

Conflict Resolution

Giving Feedback

Receiving Feedback

Decisiveness

1.	What did I learn most around Growth Values and Teaming Skills:

2.	What did I learn about the connection between purpose and producing process?

3.	What did I learn as we organized ourselves and produced our product without prescribed "leadership" from outside our team?

4.	What can I do more of or less of to be more effective in producing our team's product?

5.	The things I learned that I most want to be able to use back home are:

INDIVIDUAL NEEDS PROCESSES

Team Product 4

THEORY INPUT

Work Teams That Work are able to satisfy a wide range of interests and needs of their individual members. High performing teams help their members achieve their individual needs through meaningful and purposeful work. Work teams that want to become high-
performing need to understand what the most important needs of their members are, then develop a process and plan for ensuring their satisfaction. The creation of balance between organizational and individual needs is critical for purpose fulfillment.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this task is to help you learn from experience how to identify your individual needs and those of the members of your team and develop processes for satisfying those needs, while at the same time fulfilling your team's primary purpose.

DESIRED OUTCOMES

•	A better understanding of your own individual needs, as well as the key needs of your teammates.

•	Conclusions about how well your individual needs and those of the team are currently being satisfied.

•	Guidelines or processes for functioning as a team that will increase the level of member satisfaction.

•	A means of helping members of the other teams, based on what your team learned from performing this task.

(Each team will be allotted up to 10 minutes for this purpose at the beginning of the next general session.)

SUGGESTIONS

Before you begin working, reach agreement as to the task's objective and the desired outcomes that are expected. Once this is done, design a process for accomplishing the objective and producing the desired outcomes. The following are suggestions you and your team may wish to consider:

•	Take a few minutes to glance over the material in this section.

•	Individually develop a list of conditions that contribute to your personal effectiveness and well being. These should be based on real experiences. The page "Conditions for Satisfying Individual Needs" can be used to facilitate this process.

•	Working alone, list four or five recent experiences or projects which made you feel highly energized and effective. Reflect on each experience, trying to identify what generated these feelings – which important individual needs were being satisfied? Below is a list of some common needs which you might find helpful.

COMMON POSITIVE NEEDS

having power	feeling supported

feeling appreciated	being competent

being active	being involved

feeling accepted	feeling secure

being certain	being fairly treated

being free to choose	being in control

being valued	being respected

being understood	being liked

being included	achieving things

•	On the basis of your conclusions about your individual needs and their relative priorities, write a short paragraph on the form entitled "IDENTIFYING KEY INDIVIDUAL NEEDS," that begins with "If I am to be energized, effective, and high-performing when working with others, I need to feel..."

•	Repeat the process, this time identifying and analyzing three or four experiences which caused you to feel frustrated and/or experience low energy and negative feelings. The following is a list of some common "negative" feelings and needs which you may find useful.

COMMON NEGATIVE NEEDS

feeling powerless	feeling controlled

feeling regimented	feeling helpless

being manipulated	being ignored

not being valued	feeling misunderstood

being blamed	being negatively judged

feeling excluded	feeling rejected

feeling insecure	being treated unfairly

feeling uncertain	feeling anxious

•	Once again on the form provided, write a short paragraph that begins with "If I am to be energized, effective and high-performing when working with others, I need to avoid..."

•	Share your information with the entire team, then working together, interview each member to understand what they really want or need from the team in return for contributing their talents and energy toward the accomplishment of the team's purpose and objectives. Consider the following:

a)	What they believe their most important needs are.

b)	The reasons for their conclusions.

c)	Whether or not they feel their needs are being adequately satisfied by the way your team has been functioning and why.

d)	What changes should be made in the way your team is functioning to help them better satisfy their needs.

•	After all members have shared, develop a processor set of guidelines your team will follow to ensure the continued satisfaction of important individual member needs.

IDENTIFYING AND SATISFYING INDIVIDUAL NEEDS

"Get to know your people. What they do well, what they enjoy doing, what their weaknesses and strengths are, and what they want and need to get from their job. And then try to create an organization around your people, not just your people into those organization-chart rectangles. Organizations work when they maximize the chance that each one working with others, will get growth in his job."

"And look at the rewards we're offering our people today: higher wages, medical benefits, vacations, pensions, profit sharing, gymnasiums, swimming pools, bowling, and baseball teams. Not one can be enjoyed on the job. You've got to leave work, get sick, or retire first. No wonder people aren't having fun on the job."

–Robert Townsend, Further Up the Organization

Individuals are the focal center of our working systems. They provide the vitality and creativity to take technology and make it do more, do better, and go beyond its design. Understanding how to unlock this potential, knowing what inspires them to greatness, to innovate, to dedicate and commit is an essential element of high performance.

To recap – in building a unique process for individual needs, we need to identify and clarify the needs of our team members, understand what it takes to satisfy those needs in the work setting, and commit to team actions which will promote individual and team growth.

IDENTIFYING KEY INDIVIDUAL NEEDS

One way to identify your Key Individual Needs is to recall and describe your own experiences in a variety of situations and identify key need satisfactions related to them. On the next page is a worksheet that you can use to help you do this.

COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS

If I am to be energized and effective when working with others, I need to feel...

If I am to be energized, effective, and high performing when working with others, I need to avoid...

SATISFYING INDIVIDUAL NEEDS

WHAT WE WANT OR AVOID

Most individuals want and need to:

-feel influential

-have freedom to decide and act

-have some control over what happens

-feel valued, respected

-be understood

-be well informed

-be praised, credited

-be competent

-be active, involved

-be accepted

-feel secure, safe

-receive just treatment, fairness

-feel stimulated

Most individuals want to avoid feelings of being:

-powerless

-controlled, regimented

-helpless, manipulated

-ignored, not valued

-misunderstood

-ignorant

-blamed, criticized

-incompetent

-left out

-rejected

-insecure

-unfairly treated

-bored

SATISFYING INDIVIDUAL NEEDS

The following are some organizational conditions that contribute to the satisfaction of interests and needs of the individual members of an organization:

Adequate and fair compensation

-meets personal standards of sufficiency

-perceived as fair when compared with what others receive

Safe and comfortable working conditions

-reasonable hours

-minimum risk of injury or illness

-reasonably comfortable physical surroundings

Immediate opportunities to develop and use personal capacities

-exercise of wide range of skills

-adequate, timely information

-opportunities to learn new skills, to gain new knowledge

-opportunities to choose courses of action, to make decisions

-opportunities to develop and execute plans

-opportunities to do meaningful work

Future opportunities for growth, advancement

-current activities can lead to more desirable activities

(and rewards) in the future

Social acceptance and support

-relative freedom from prejudice

-considered equal, not inferior to others

-cooperative relationships

-work role that is meaningful

Recognition of individual rights

-freedom to state views without fear of punishment or reprisal

-fair treatment with regard to pay, privileges, job security, rules, policies

-recognition of right to personal privacy in non-work related matters

Balance between work and non-work demands on personal time

-work schedule allows adequate leisure and family time

-work schedules consistent with preferred life style

Social prestige of job and Company

-"society" values the Company and its procedures

-"society" approves the work role

"GROW UP!"

Eight Stages of Individual And Team Growth

The eight stages of individual development (Elkind, 1970; Erickson, 1963) continue throughout our entire life cycle and reappear whenever an individual is thrown into new situations that are both challenging and threatening, i.e., promotions, transfers, or joining a new team. These stages of development are relevant to the work situation when one considers that the team, as well as the organization, has an influence over how a working adult comes to terms with self and others. Assessing maturity begins with team members themselves understanding their own personal growth and development needs within the team. How well they have made the following shifts will greatly impact their performance as a team member, as well as the team's overall performance.

Trust – from Mistrust to Trust. Building mutual trust is essential. The degree to which team members trust one another depends largely on the care and support they receive from their fellow team members. However, when care and support are non-existent or sporadic, an attitude of fear and suspicion prevails and leads to basic mistrust. This can occur within a team or between teams and the organization, and can arise at any stage of development.

Autonomy – from Suspicion to Autonomy and Self-Control. Team members want to have a sense of autonomy – to do things for themselves when they have the capability and skills to do them. The degree to which fellow team members and their leaders allow them to act independently develops the sense of self-control and autonomy. However, if fellow team members and superiors continue to act for them, members will retain a sense of doubt. It should be noted; however, that too much autonomy can be just as harmful as too little. Giving individuals or teams a task which they are not equipped to handle (due to lack of knowledge or skills) can be just as detrimental as doing it for them. Doing it with them, on the other hand, will develop their skills to allow independent action in the future.

Initiative – from Doubt to Initiative. The manner in which team members' initiatives are viewed by others either encourages them to freely contribute or makes them feel hesitant and uncommitted. This lack of mutual support can develop a sense of doubt and guilt concerning self-initiated activities or suggestions. Differences will not be shared and resolved; team product acceptance and support will be hindered. The extent to which team members take on new tasks and activities can be greatly influenced and enhanced by how others respond to their inquiring questions. If ignored, cut short, or ridiculed, new initiatives will become fewer and fewer.

Accomplishment – from Inferiority to Accomplishment. If team members are encouraged to take on and complete projects and are rewarded for results, then the sense of accomplishment and industry will grow and develop. But if the efforts are overly criticized, the result can be an increased sense of inferiority. The core of self-esteem is accomplishment through difficult, sustained effort. Each defeat or the taking of the easy path deteriorates the individual's self-concept.

Identity – from Role Confusion to Identity. New team members need to bring together their past experiences and learning and integrate them with the needs of the team and fellow members. The extent of the integration of individuals with fellow team members' strengths and weaknesses builds a sense of identity, a sense of who they are, where they have been, and where they are going. The varied background and experiences create a diversity of opinion. These differences can create conflict between members if not resolved openly as a team and viewed as helpful and essential to synergism. The degree to which the previous four stages have developed greatly influences the team and its individual members' sense of identity.

Intimacy – from Isolation to Intimacy. The ability of individual team members to care about one another without the fear of losing their own identities develops intimacy. If individuals fail to establish sharing and caring relationships, the result is a sense of distance and isolation from fellow team members. Intimacy is essential to real support and encouragement. Team members that have worked with each other under difficult and stressful circumstances develop a strong commitment to each other that embodies this sense of intimacy.

Wholeness – from Self-Centeredness to Wholeness. When team members are preoccupied by their own needs and comforts, as opposed to being concerned about the larger system and its members, survival and growth are threatened. Team members who fail to establish a sense of wholeness fall into a state of stagnation where personal needs and wants are more important than the needs of the team. The team must be viewed as an integrated system whose very survival and success is dependent on the integration of its parts. Team synergy can only be realized through involvement of each team member. Team members need to grow together through the team's goal attainment processes, doing whatever needs to get done for the team and the larger whole.

Integrity – from Despair to Integrity. A sense of integrity develops over time when individual team members can look back with satisfaction and know that he or she has cared for others while doing the things needed for the team and the organization. Growth comes in learning to adapt to the tough trials and victories of the team. The other extreme is looking back upon the time with the team and organization as a number of missed opportunities; feeling that it's too late. Such feelings lead to disgust and disgust hides despair. To reach a satisfactory level of maturity and wisdom, an individual needs to develop through the previous seven growth stages, gaining the ability to respect and recognize the quality and uniqueness of others. Members of a successful team truly integrate their strengths and weaknesses and are willing to actively participate in doing whatever needs to get done for the whole, as well as accepting leadership responsibility when it's required.

The level of integrity versus despair within a team and an organization can really manifest itself in how individuals are treated and treat each other during highly emotionally-charged situations; i.e., discipline, reductions, demotions, promotions, deselection, etc. During these times, an individual's sense of worth and previous work contributions can either build integrity or result in a feeling of injustice and despair.

Regardless of how an organization or team approaches these issues of individual growth and maturity, one must recognize that they are individual. Each team member is unique and brings his or her own history of preferences, strengths, and weaknesses. These differences in experience help define and build the team culture. They provide the diversity essential to creativity. In building a team, each member needs to be provided the opportunity to be his or her own person, contributing to the larger whole. This can take on as many different forms as the team has different individuals with different backgrounds. Some team members may prefer to be specifically directed and guided in their activities, while others may wish to receive only general direction. Some members enjoy subgroup or team problem solving activities, while other members may enjoy working alone on certain types of tasks. Team members can learn to accommodate these differences within their group by providing work assignments that match individual preferences. The organizational design needs to handle this diversity by allowing the teams to organize how they wish to accomplish what gets done. This approach will lead to consistency in purpose and product (what gets done), while allowing the teams and their members to select the norms and patterns of work life they prefer.

Individuals who have learned to grow and mature by integrating these differences will be better team members and people. Their lives will be more effectively disciplined through principles and values, not situations. Members come to realize that while the team provided support and strength, it only enabled them to use what each already had. Individuals now can continue to empower themselves and others. The Individual Maturity Index can assist individuals in evaluating themselves. Sharing their results with fellow team members can help them validate and confirm their results. Discussing personal needs and wants in this way provides team members with a vehicle for integrating differences, while building new norms, understandings, and expectations of each other.

INDIVIDUAL MATURITY INDEX

INSTRUCTIONS: Circle the number on each of the eight scales that best reflects your own level of development within your team environment. Then list any actual examples of instances that aided or inhibited your growth.

1)	Trust	0 1 2 3 4 5

2)	Autonomy	0 1 2 3 4 5

3)	Initiative	0 1 2 3 4 5

4)	Accomplishment	0 1 2 3 4 5

5)	Identity	0 1 2 3 4 5

6)	Intimacy	0 1 2 3 4 5

7)	Wholeness	0 1 2 3 4 5

8)	Integrity	0 1 2 3 4 5

INDIVIDUAL/TEAM GROWTH

QUESTIONNAIRE

INSTRUCTIONS: Decide first the degree or extent to which each characteristic applies to you. Then, based on your first answer, decide what result or impact your behavior has for the team..

Team Characteristics

Degree/Extent

Lo_________Hi

Result/Impact

Neg_______Pos

Mutual Trust. I can state my views and differences without fear of ridicule or retaliation. I encourage others to do the same.

1-2-3-4-5

1-2-3-4-5

Mutual Support. I can obtain help from others on the team and give help to them.

1-2-3-4-5

1-2-3-4-5

Openness. I can say what I feel and how I am reacting, knowing the team is listening. I listen and try to understand other team members.

1-2-3-4-5

1-2-3-4-5

Team Objectives. No objective will be assumed by the team until it is clearly understood by all members.

1-2-3-4-5

1-2-3-4-5

Conflict Resolution. I accept conflicts as necessary and desirable. I don't suppress them or pretend they don't exist.

1-2-3-4-5

1-2-3-4-5

Utilization of Member Resources. My individual abilities, knowledge, and experience are fully utilized by the team, and I use those of other members.

1-2-3-4-5

1-2-3-4-5

Control Methods. I accept the responsibility for keeping discussions relevant and for the integrity of the team operation.

1-2-3-4-5

1-2-3-4-5

Individual Diversity. I respect individual differences. I don't push others to conform to central ideas or ways of thinking.

1-2-3-4-5

1-2-3-4-5

Feedback. I accept and give advice, counsel, and support to others while recognizing individual accountability and specialization.

1-2-3-4-5

1-2-3-4-5

LEARNING JOURNAL

INDIVIDUAL NEEDS

Teaming Skills and Learning
Checklist

(Check the areas in which you excelled)

(Circle the areas you wish to improve in next session)

Growth Values

Empathy

Authenticity

Spontaneity

Courage

Open-Mindedness

Intuition

Teaming Skills

Meeting Effectiveness

Brainstorming

Problem Solving

Planning/Organizing

Decision Making

Assessing Results

Conflict Resolution

Giving Feedback

Receiving Feedback

Decisiveness

1.	What did I learn most around Growth Values and Teaming Skills:

2.	What I experienced about my team's interest and involvement in helping me meet my needs was:

3.	What I felt about my role in helping other team members fulfill their needs was:

4.	The most important linkages between individual needs and team performance are...

5.	The things I learned that I most want to be able to use back home are:

CONTROL PROCESSES

UNDERSTANDING MANAGERIAL AND LEADERSHIP FUNCTIONS

Organizations need to have methods for handling external and internal conflicts, integration needs, resource allocation, purpose, accomplishment, coordination, and continuous improvement.

These tasks can be grouped into four main categories – producing, supporting, managing, and leading. These tasks and categories are highly interrelated and interdependent, forming task subsystems.

Producing tasks - These tasks directly relate to the production of an organization's products and services, such as receiving, processing, selling, delivering, operating and repairing equipment, controlling quality and costs, etc.

Supporting tasks - These are the tasks that support the production and services, such as obtaining needed resources (people, materials, information, etc.), helping design and install equipment, building facilities, and handling payroll, benefits, invoices, etc.

Managing tasks - These tasks help coordinate and integrate the activities of the producing and supporting subsystems with each other and congruent with the needs and expectations of the external environment. They include such things as helping establish standards for overall performance and effectiveness, helping measure and monitor the performance of the various sub-units and initiating action to solve performance deficiencies, helping resolve conflicts between the various teams and between the organization and its environment, and helping prioritize scarce organizational resources.

Leading tasks - Leadership is not easy to explain or readily defined. Yet a useful way to view it is the process that allows one to influence others to attain what an individual or team desires done. It is one of the functions historically assigned to the president or chief operating person at a location. The method of leadership chosen by your team will certainly influence your group's overall results as well as individual's growth and development. Leading tasks generally relate to ensuring clarity, consensus, and commitment regarding organizational visions, purposes, and strategies, developing common values, developing supportive work cultures, looking outward and monitoring the environment to detect needs for organizational renewal and change, and initiating and leading organizational planning, change, and development of activities.

Traditional organization designs have formally assigned the control responsibilities to positions labeled manager/supervisor. High performing organizations foster processes that internalize these requirements throughout the entire system to make everyone responsible.

Most of us have read or been exposed to the classic functions of management: planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling. These functions have been viewed as management's prerogative because of how organizations are classically designed. Organizations were designed in layers to isolate control points. These control points were where these management functions were focused. The following model represents this.

TYPES OF CONTROL

Organizations and teams develop different influence methods to accomplish these management functions. In the classical organization, the formal leader may use position power as a means to accomplish the task by using rewards, coercive power or legitimate power. Outside this, both formal leaders and informal leaders can use personal power through expert and referent power. Expert power is the ability to control another's behavior through possession of a special knowledge, skill, or ability that the other person does not have but needs. Referent power is the ability to control another's behavior because of their need to identify and be accepted by the power source.

There are many ways to exert influence and control. The most common are:

Reason. Using facts and data to support a logical argument.

Friendliness. Using flattery, goodwill, and favorable impressions.

Coalition. Using relationships with other people.

Bargaining. Using the exchange of benefits as a basis for negotiation.

Assertiveness. Using a direct and forceful personal approach.

Higher authority. Gaining higher level support for one's requests.

Sanctions. Using organizationally derived rewards and punishments.

Source: Schermerhorn, Hunt, Osborn, Managing Organizational Behavior, Third	Edition, p. 456.

ORGANIZATIONAL MODELS

Moving from Traditional to Shared Control

TRADITIONAL SUPERVISORY MODEL

ACCOUNTABILITY:	•	Supervisor is accountable for workers output

•	Supervisor sets schedules, orders material, reports performance

•	Supervisor directs and controls workers

•	Supervisor is responsible for quality and quantity of output

COMMUNICATION:	•	Supervisor talks to individual workers, one on one

•	Minimal interaction between workers

•	One-way feedback, supervisor to worker

TECHNICAL SKILLS:	•	Supervisor possesses technical knowledge

•	Supervisor solves technical problems

•	Supervisor makes decisions

•	Supervisor trains

•	Supervisor sometimes works

SOCIAL SKILLS:	•	Supervisor is responsible for morale and motivation

•	Behavior outside a tight tolerance is punished

ROLE OF WORK GROUP:	•	Follow the Supervisor's direction

•	Comply with specific rules

•	Operate within a specific job description

•	Minimize variances

•	Stay busy or look busy

TEAM LEADER MODEL

ACCOUNTABILITY:	•	Leader is accountable for performance, but does delegate some responsibility to key members

•	Leader is responsible for quantity and quality of output

•	Leader makes most decisions

COMMUNICATION:	•	Some interaction between members

•	Leader shares information about the business with the team

•	Leader manages dynamics of member relationships

•	Leader solicits team members' ideas

TECHNICAL SKILLS:	•	Technical skills are shared between leader and members

•	Members become skilled in more than one area

•	Members provide input into technical decisions

SOCIAL SKILLS:	•	Leader facilitates information sharing & discussions

•	Group norms emerge

•	Some diversity of ideas is encouraged

ROLE OF WORK GROUP:	•	Comply to group standards

•	Help in solving material, maintenance and production problems

•	Members can influence work environment

TEAM COORDINATOR MODEL

ACCOUNTABILITY:	•	Team owns their piece of the business and monitors performance

•	Coordinator reviews results of the team

•	Team is fully accountable for mutually developed goals

•	Leadership is shared and situational

COMMUNICATION:	•	Highly interactive

•	Coordinator is occasionally used to manage group dynamics

•	Two-way feedback is valued

TECHNICAL SKILLS:	•	Members are developed to manage training, safety, maintenance

•	Members exercise considerable judgment and discretion

•	Members manage specialists when needed

SOCIAL SKILLS:	•	Members help each other become better contributors

•	Members appropriately challenge each other

•	Diversity is valued

•	Coordinator coaches to increase team development

ROLE OF WORK GROUP:	•	Enroll in the culture of the organization

•	Contribute to the success of the plant

•	Continually solve variances

•	Coordinator manages boundaries

•	Coordinator focuses on long range

SELF-MANAGING MODEL

ACCOUNTABILITY:	•	Team manages and improves value-added

•	Team resource is a consultant to more than one team as needed and provides specific expertise when requested

•	Resource provides feedback from the external environment

•	Team allocates resources to new business opportunities

•	Team manages all seven core processes

COMMUNICATION:	•	Members highly interact with external environment (vendors, customers, corporate, consumers)

•	Two-way feedback is actively and frequently solicited

•	Continuous improvement is a way of life

TECHNICAL SKILLS:	•	Members stay abreast of technical trends

•	Team possesses all the resources to maintain and improve value-added

•	Team monitors what future skills they may need

SOCIAL SKILLS:	•	Team owns the social system and regulates its own behavior

•	Members value each other's unique contributions

•	Diversity of ideas is encouraged

ROLE OF WORK GROUP:	•	Improve the work system continuously

•	Members are empowered to create their future

•	Members transcend individual needs to the success of the business

•	Team focuses on what's right for the whole

SOCIAL PROCESSES

Without People, There Is No Social System

The Social System and its human processes bring life to and enable the organization to succeed and survive long term.

These processes work together creating a culture or social system which supports their common purpose. Social processes are always our inventions. Whether we choose to actively and consciously design them, or permit them to develop by accident is up to us.

Occurring within the team are a direct result of the effective design of these processes. This section will allow us to explore our social processes in two unique ways:

•	Experiencing and evaluating our specific process for problem solving and decision making

•	Understanding and assessing team growth and maturity in all four areas of social process development.

A healthy social system first and foremost must be able to accomplish and achieve its purpose. However, if it is to continue performing over the long haul, it must also perform three more basic functions (Cherns & Wacker, 1978). These three survival functions include adaptation in and accommodation to the external environment; integration of the activities and sentiments of people within the system; and attending to the long term development and latent resources of the organization.

Teams build effectiveness through developing healthy social processes in four critical areas, which are:

Goal Attainment -	Team processes for setting, measuring, and achieving goals in line with the system's primary objectives.

Adaptability -	Team processes for adapting to changes in the external environments in order to meet the needs of its stakeholders.

Integration -	Team processes for collaborating and coordinating with the internal environment to manage conflicts and insure overall system integrity and performance.

Long-Term Development -	Team processes for assessing, maintaining, and expanding their team and individual knowledge, skills, and abilities.

PROBLEM SOLVING/DECISION MAKING PROCESS

Team Product 5

THEORY INPUT

High performing teams develop social interactive methods to achieve their purpose while fulfilling individual needs. Trying to achieve this balance between people and production requirements while fulfilling our primary purpose for existing can create problems. As adults we have all developed various problem solving methods, which we test and improve with experience. To become a high performance team, team members collectively must establish and continually improve procedures for solving problems that prevent the team from balancing these needs.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this task is to provide an opportunity for your team to analyze its problem solving methods and to increase the effectiveness of the team's Social Interactive Processes.

DESIRED OUTCOMES

•	From the problem solving exercise, "Assignment Unknown," develop an understanding of:

a)	Your team's current problem solving process.

b)	The effect of this process on the team's ability to satisfy individual and production needs.

•	A set of guidelines that your team will use in the future for solving team problems.

•	A plan to test and improve your team's ability to solve problems that will enhance its functioning as a high performing system.

•	Based on what your team learned from performing this task, a means of helping members of the other teams benefit from what you learned.

(Each team will be allotted up to 10 minutes for this purpose at the beginning of the next general session).

SUGGESTIONS

Before you begin working on the task, reach agreement as to its objective and expected outcomes. Once this is done, design a process for accomplishing the objective and producing the desired outcomes. You may wish to consider the following suggestions:

•	Discuss with each team member the observations they had about your team performance in the problem solving experience. Summarize your team's conclusions.

•	Share your feelings and reactions about the problem solving process that your team used in the problem solving exercise. (Your Group Process Questions on the back of Assignment Unknown will be of use here.)

•	Reach consensus on the barriers that have inhibited your team from being effective at problem solving team problems and determine what can be done to improve your team's effectiveness.

•	Using the General Problem Solving Model as a start, develop general guidelines that your team can use in the future to solve team problems. Implement these guidelines.

•	Identify how your team will continue to improve its problem solving skills.

•	Assess your learnings from this activity, and develop a working theory about effective team problem solving processes.

•	Prepare to share your team's learning in a manner in which other teams will benefit from your experience. (Each team will be allotted up to 10 minutes for this purpose.)

GUIDELINES FOR ASSIGNMENT UNKNOWN EXERCISE

•	Each team member reads Assignment Unknown introduction.

•	Privately each team member completes Step 1 of Assignment Unknown by ranking the items listed "1" - "13" (Take a minimum of 15 minutes to complete this task.)

•	As a team, complete Step 2 of Assignment Unknown by agreeing on a team ranking for the items listed. Do not change your Step 1 individual scores. Take a minimum of 45 minutes to complete this step.

•	As individuals complete Step 3.

•	Call your facilitator for the Step 4 rankings.

GENERAL PROBLEM SOLVING MODEL

Nine Easy Steps

Identify basic issue/problem

Define deviation from standard or norm

Gather necessary information

Analyze causes for deviation

Develop possible actions or solutions to

eliminate causes

Evaluate consequences of alternative solutions

Implement the best solution

Monitor and evaluate results

Revise, as necessary

TYPES OF TEAM DECISION MAKING

Lack of Response

Chance

Authoritarian

Minority Rule

Majority Rule

Major Majority Rule

Compromise

Unanimous

Consensus

GUIDELINES FOR REACHING CONSENSUS

Teams must arrive at substantial agreement (not necessarily unanimity) on the rank assigned each item. This is seldom easy. Nevertheless, a group simply brings more firepower to problem solving than could any of its members, working alone.

Open and accurate communication is essential to reaching the best possible decision.

SOME GUIDELINES

No averaging, majority-rule voting, or horse-trading.

Avoid arguing to win as an individual. What's "right" is the

best collective judgment of the group.

Avoid changing your mind only to reach agreement or avoid conflict.

Accept responsibility for both hearing and being heard.

View differences of opinion as helpful rather than as a hindrance.

Make value judgments about what is best on the basis of the

information, logic, and feelings of the members.

SOCIAL 2

LEADERSHIP AND TEAM ROLES

Team Product 6

THEORY INPUT

Control is never an option; either the team controls its function or others must. High performing organizations and teams develop control processes that provide a strong sense of purposefulness and direction. Historically, we have relied on someone designated "manager" or "supervisor" to provide this. This position was responsible for the work unit task performance and human resource maintenance. Satisfaction of these two major components requires a balance between the external environment and the organization's individual need satisfaction processes, social processes, and producing processes. An effective control process, referred to in literature as managerial and leadership elements, requires the team to develop methods to achieve high levels of task accomplishment and human system satisfaction.

Control processes and systems are what create the balance required between the technical and social systems. In traditional organizations, this balance is imposed from the outside through others. In high performance organization teams, control is self imposed by the team.

OBJECTIVE

The primary objective of this task is to help your team analyze its managerial and leadership processes, and to develop ways to increase its effectiveness.

DESIRED OUTCOMES

•	Understanding of the control methods your team has been utilizing to maintain focus on team purpose and outputs and the balance between individual need satisfaction processes, social processes, producing processes, and the external environment.

•	A strategy that identifies needed changes to make your team's control process more effective.

•	Feedback on what you learned as a result of this task, and what working theory for developing effective control systems you now employ.

•	A method to share your key learnings with other workshop teams.

SUGGESTIONS

Prior to beginning work in this area, gain agreement on your objective and the outputs desired. Once you accomplish this, design your process for achieving these. The following hints may be helpful.

•	Individually read the materials and then discuss with your team members the different types of control processes.

•	Brainstorm a list of words or phrases that describe your team's managerial and leadership (control) processes.

•	Process through the items on the list, reaching agreement on which control processes in the elements of managerial and leadership your team has used. Identify who on your team has been performing these roles and activities. Reach agreement on what style was used early in the week and what style is being used now. Indicate why you have changed.

•	Think through how your team has been setting objectives, planning, organizing, soliciting feedback, and measuring performance. What level of effectiveness have you attained?

•	Reach consensus on who is controlling your team through its managerial and leadership processes. What level of effectiveness is being achieved?

•	Develop a plan to implement needed changes in your control processes and which working theory will govern these changes.

•	Analyze your experience and develop your working theory about control processes and high performing systems.

•	Develop a means to share your team's learning with the other workshop teams.

(Each team will be allotted up to 10 minutes for this purpose at the beginning of the next general session.)

ENVIRONMENTAL

PROCESSES

Team Product 7

THEORY INPUT

High performance systems regularly and actively solicit feedback from their external environments and use the information to help them maintain a good "fit" between their products and services and their stakeholder's needs and wants. Healthy relationships with the environment insure that customer needs are heard and action taken for the organization's survival and growth. Organizations that want to become high performing need to develop effective processes for obtaining and using environmental feedback.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this task is to have your team learn how to solicit and process feedback from your environment and use it to better satisfy environmental needs and your team's purpose.

DESIRED OUTCOMES

•	Identification of who your team's key stakeholders are, and determination of what demands and expectations they place on your team.

•	Understanding of whether there is a balance between these environmental demands and your team's purpose and internal processes.

•	Discussion on how well your team is managing this balance by examining your activities in satisfying the external needs in conjunction with your team's needs.

•	A strategy for making the changes needed to improve this balance and your team's ability to manage its environment.

•	An overview of what you learned as a result of accomplishing this task, and a working theory to effectively understand and interact with the external environment.

•	A means to help other members of the Workshop benefit from what your team has learned as a result of having performed this task.

SUGGESTIONS

Before you begin working, reach agreement as to the objective and outcomes your team expects. Once this is done, design a process for accomplishing the objective and producing the desired outcomes. You may wish to consider the following helpful hints:

•	Draw a picture depicting your team's environment, indicating the environment's external stakeholders.

•	As a team, identify what you think the key demands and expectations are that each stakeholder has of your team.

•	Evaluate how your team is responding to these external demands and what effect these responses are having on your team's purposes and objectives.

•	Devise a means to solicit feedback from your team's key stakeholders to determine how well your team is fulfilling these demands and expectations.

•	Review the guidelines for soliciting and providing feedback.

•	Solicit the feedback and determine what gaps exist between what your team assumed versus what is actually expected.

•	After the first solicitation, pause briefly to determine the effectiveness of your process and make whatever changes might be needed to increase its effectiveness.

•	Analyze the feedback and decide what, if any, changes your team should make to better respond to the needs and expectations of your environment. Plan to make the changes needed.

•	Summarize your conclusions.

•	Devise a means to help other members learn from your experience.

(Each team will be allotted up to 10 minutes for this purpose at the beginning of the next general session.)

ENVIRONMENTAL FIT

Actions to Clarify and Exist in the Larger Environment

•	Identify relevant external environments: educational, economic, social, political, etc.

•	Define major trends for each environment: global economy, search for quality, educational reform, etc.

•	Identify key stakeholders outside your organization/team: Staff, facilitators, other teams, customers, owners, etc.

•	Specify relevant demands, expectations, and needs of each key stakeholder.

•	Verify stakeholder needs and expectations through visitation, questioning, discussing, etc.

•	Adapt your organization/team mission and purpose for existing along with its vision for the future.

•	Re-evaluate the last five STS core processes your team's developed for possible revision.

FEEDBACK

Guidelines for Increasing the Quality and Quantity of Feedback

WHEN SOLICITING FEEDBACK

•	Let the providers know what kinds of information you want – be as specific as you can.

•	Avoid defensive or punishing kinds of responses.

•	Show appreciation for the information.

•	Ask clarifying questions so you can be certain you understand.

•	Get several viewpoints. Don't rely on one source of information – others may have a different point of view.

•	When you have received all the information you need, let the provider know – avoid data overload.

WHEN PROVIDING FEEDBACK

•	Supply the information that is solicited; volunteer additional information when it's requested.

•	Be as specific as you can. Avoid generalities or vague statements.

•	Provide first-hand information that is based on your own observations, reactions, or feelings.

•	Avoid judgmental statements that are critical and will provoke defensive reactions.

•	Focus on providing information that will be beneficial to the receiver, not yourselves.

•	Be sure the receiver understands what you are saying and is able to receive the information. Be careful not to overload the receiver with more information than he or she can handle.

ENVIRONMENTAL

SYSTEMS

The Organization in Harmony with its Environment Will Thrive

No organization is an island, complete unto itself. Like any other living thing, the organization exists only in the context of its larger environment. All of the organization's needs are drawn from this environment; all of its products are returned to the environment. To recognize this is to see transparency of all rigid distinctions between "us" and "them."

The boundary that separates inside from outside is permeable and open. It is a door more than a wall; a bond, more than a barrier; a concept, more than a firm reality. Across the invisible boundary that divides them, transactions between the organization and its environment are governed by a set of natural laws.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand these laws. Think of biospheres, ecology, bees, and flowers. Think of organisms, rather than mechanisms. The organization and its environment are living entities, united in time and space. They are inseparable, interdependent, and mutually-
creating. Like two sides of the same coin, each is required for the other's existence.

The organization exists by the "consent" of its environment. The environment, in turn, is defined and changed by the action of the organizations in it.

Purpose is the central value that unites inside with outside. The right purpose, rightly understood, radiates vitality in both directions. The organization's central purpose, and the way that purpose is pursued, must be wanted and supported by its environment.

In the pursuit of its purpose, or "core mission," the organization may identify any number of particular objectives. Many, if not all, of these will be imposed by the environment. And all of these objectives must be defined, integrated, and acted upon in ways that are both internally congruent and – externally – compatible with the environment's own many demands and needs. In short, the organization that lives in harmony with its environment will thrive; the organization that is unresponsive will wither and die.

All of this is so obvious it hardly bears repeating. It's a given. A set of basic assumptions to be taken for granted. In times of relative stability, there is no pressing need to elaborate on the required "fitness" between the organization and its environment. Not much is happening out there. So the organization's adaptive response capability goes untested.

In times of chaos and turbulence, however, the organization's very survival depends on its ability to respond quickly and well to the new environmental demands. These are such times. Consider the massive changes reshaping the face of the whole world today, and the increasing speed, complexity, and unpredictability of all these "megatrends." Consider the impact of this tidal wave on the particular environments most relevant to your own organization and on the technological, economic, social, geographic, and other fields in which you operate. Consider, too, how vastly different are the expectations and demands of your many stakeholders now, compared with those of times past.

Customers, suppliers, lenders, owners, workers, and every other direct participant in the enterprise has shaped and been shaped by those same still-rising rivers of change. Organizations that choose to ignore these developments do so at their own risk. The pressures mount. The questions persist. Where are these new trends taking us? What kind of organizations must be designed to master these turbulent times? These are the questions that must be asked and answered by every kind of organization today – questions of adaptation and survival, transformation or decay. These are big questions, even ultimate questions. But they can be answered. Organizations are human inventions, structured and managed for the conditions of the times. They can be reinvented for new times, even for times that demand continuous adaptation.

It's no easy task. All of the organization's seemingly inseparable pieces must be taken apart, examined, and put back together again – refitted to a new pattern. The process begins with a careful look at the organization-environment "set" of the past, its features in the present, and the choices available for the future.

LEARNING JOURNAL

ENVIRONMENTAL

Teaming Skills and Learning
Checklist

(Check the areas in which you excelled)

(Circle the areas you wish to improve in next session)

Growth Values

Empathy

Authenticity

Spontaneity

Courage

Open-Mindedness

Intuition

Teaming Skills

Meeting Effectiveness

Brainstorming

Problem Solving

Planning/Organizing

Decision Making

Assessing Results

Conflict Resolution

Giving Feedback

Receiving Feedback

Decisiveness

1.	What did I learn most around Growth Values and Teaming Skills:

2.	Our most important and effective response to the feedback was (or should have been)...

3.	Receiving the external feedback had the following impact on the maturity of our team:

4.	How should we use the "product marketing" and feedback to help us better account for our performance?

5.	The things I learned that I most want to be able to use back home are:

FEEDBACK PROCESSES

Team Product 8

THEORY INPUT

We know we need it; yet, mostly, we avoid it. It's called Feedback. What we have learned is that it's mostly negative, can be painful, and yet is a key to helping us choose change. High performing people, teams and organizations are dependent on it for growth and survival. We all need feedback, and we all need to learn how to share in order to create awareness. It is through awareness that alternatives can be discovered and applied. For our teams to grow, each must take responsibility for sharing and receiving feedback on how our behaviors either help or hinder other team members and the team's producing and social processes.

OBJECTIVE

You and your team are to learn effective supportive ways of sharing and receiving interpersonal feedback and how, based on this information, we can improve individual and team effectiveness.

DESIRED OUTCOMES

•	Awareness of what constitutes feedback and how to provide it in a supporting way.

•	Increased understanding of team member views and how our behavior affects performance.

•	A process that provides a method for both providing and hearing individual feedback within the team.

•	A working theory on feedback.

•	A process for sharing your learning with the other teams.

SUGGESTIONS

As before, reach agreement on your team's objective and desired outputs of this task. Once agreement is reached, design a process that will allow your team to attain the objective and desired outputs. The following will be helpful.

•	Read the article in this section entitled "How to Learn From Your Own Experience." Pay particular attention to items 1 through 11.

•	The "Team Development Grid" is one vehicle for providing and receiving feedback. Each team member can duplicate the "more of, less of, keep" on a flip chart pad, starting by listing what they feel they need to do more of, less of, or keep. Then, all members can post theirs on the wall, asking others to add to theirs.

•	Follow these guidelines when sharing your feedback charts.

a)	Feedback receivers should only be allowed to ask clarifying questions - such as, "Could you explain that more?"

b)	Paraphrase in your own words what you have heard at the end of your feedback to the team.

c)	Thank the group for the feedback.

d)	At this point, you may give whatever thoughts or insights that come to mind. It is a perfect opportunity to self-disclose or declare what actions you might take.

e)	After the first couple of rounds, check the effectiveness of your process and make whatever changes are needed.

•	Analyze your team's experience and develop a way to share your group's learning with the other teams.

(Each team will be allotted up to 10 minutes for sharing.)

TEAM

DEVELOPMENT GRID

For: ______________________________

(Name)

Instructions: Have each team member complete one of these sheets. Then post and ask each team member to contribute their thoughts. Use behavior-descriptive language only. You may, if you wish, ask for the facilitator's help in wording your thoughts. Complete one of these sheets for each of the team members present.

Behavior description examples: "Keep asking for clarification when the group does something that's not clear to you." Or, "Stop joking with Les while the group is working on serious business." Do not use evaluative, emotional-laden or vague language about "attitudes" or feelings. (Do not say: "Be more sensitive," or "Keep being yourself," or "stop feeling paranoid.")

START	STOP	KEEP

I will: _________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

HOW TO LEARN FROM YOUR OWN EXPERIENCE

What is it to be an open person, or to have an open relationship? The Johari Window provides a graphic way of looking at personal and interpersonal openness.

The window represents your whole person.

The "open" area includes that part of you – your behavior, feelings and thoughts–which you share freely with others. When you form a new relationship, this area tends to be small. What you share with a new acquaintance is governed largely by social convention and limited to things that are public knowledge anyway. As you get to know and trust another, you are both willing to share more of yourselves and the open areas grow in size.

The "blind" area includes behavior you are not aware of, although another may be. "Would that God the gift would give us, to see ourselves as others see us." You find out about your blind area through feedback from others.

The "hidden" area includes thoughts and feelings that you have not yet revealed to others through your behavior. You share your hidden area by self-disclosure.

The "unknown" area is that part of you which you once knew and have forgotten, or which you have not yet discovered. What helps you to probe into your unknown is experiment and play. Small children are experts at self-discovery, simply because they are experts at play. As people grow older, they often tend to lose their capacity to play, to test, to experiment, to fool around.

In this context, being "open" focuses on behavior (words and actions) and reactions to behavior (understanding and feelings). When you communicate freely with another about your behavior, perceptions and feelings, you are being open. When you are evasive, defensive, reserved or silent about them, you are not being open.

You can use the window to look at yourself, to help you to understand how open you are and what growth in openness means. You can also use it to look at different kinds of relationships one to one, one to group and group to group.

For example, assume that the window describes the relationship between you and someone else in the group with which you are now working. The four quadrants represent the total relationship. The relationship is defined by two points of view, your own and that of the other person. The quadrant of the window that describes which is actually shared in your relationship is the "open." Your relationship develops and grows beyond what it now is when you both move into the "blind," the "hidden" and the "unknown," and become more open within yourselves and to each other. The broken line in the diagram represents potential growth in openness.

Enlarging your area of openness by reducing the hidden, the blind and the unknown, is always a little risky. There is risk to you and risk to the other. Will you hurt him? Will you make him angry? Will he reject you? What will he think about you? What will you find out about yourself? The risk, the pain and the fear of being open can be strong deterrents. When is openness worth it? When is it possible? When is it constructive?

Attention to the following points increases the probability that openness will improve a relationship rather than harm it.

1.	There must be a good reason for being open. Openness must have a purpose beyond itself. You are open because you care enough about improving a relationship to make it worth the effort. If a certain measure of caring does not come across in your attempts to be open, you may well be perceived as meddling, manipulative, threatening, aggressive or even hostile.

2.	Openness is not an absolute value. It is not always possible or even desirable. It must be put into a context of sensitive responsiveness to the other. It must serve not only your needs, but the needs of others.

3.	Openness involves risk-taking. There is always the possibility of rejection, anger, new and frightening knowledge, being hurt. The risk is on both sides. It is important to remember that when you risk and initiate openness, the other person may be running an even greater risk by being open in return. He has many safer options: to evade, to flee, to be defensive, to attack, to be silent. When you offer your openness, he can back off. When he accepts your openness, you are both committed.

4.	Realize that openness is sharing and that it is a contradiction to thrust openness on another. The other has to be willing to be open with you. Otherwise, openness becomes coercive.

5.	Defenses are not all bad. We need them from time to time. Being open should never be an excuse to strip another of his defenses. Openness should build trust to the point where another feels safe enough to be able to drop his defenses of his own accord.

6.	Openness means facing and accepting yourself. It means owning your thoughts, feelings and behavior and being responsible for them, and responsible for changing them or not.

7.	Openness means accepting the thoughts, feelings and behavior of the other as facts, and letting him be responsible for them, and responsible for changing them or not.

8.	The aim of openness is not to change the other, but to share an understanding of your relationship. It helps you to know how you perceive each other's intentions and behavior, and how you feel about each other's actions. This awareness of each other should open up new behavioral alternatives. The change that grows out of openness, should be self-
determined.

9.	Being open is not the same as being "personal." Revealing a lot of personal details about your past can be a defensive substitute for dealing with here and now behavior, thoughts and feelings.

10.	There are a number of simple communication skills that are useful in trying to be open. These skills can be acquired by attention and practice. It is usually more helpful if you...

•	separate behavior from feelings

Less helpful:	"	You jerk!" (an accusation)

More helpful:	"What you just said (your behavior) made me very angry (my feeling reaction)."

•	are descriptive of behavior rather than evaluative or judgmental of the person

•	are specific rather than general

•	separate thoughts from feelings

"I think that this is a good idea, but I feel very threatened by it."

•	let the other draw his own conclusions

•	state the other's idea in your own words to check out if you have properly understood. This is called paraphrasing.

•	are provisional rather than absolute.

11.	Giving and getting feedback plays a key role in being open. Feedback is a way of seeing the impact on another of what you say or do. Feedback on your behavior, on how you come across, can help you to consider some alternative ways of behaving. If it is not given constructively, it can just encourage defensiveness, or simply be destructive.

Feedback is constructive if...

•	it is asked for rather than imposed.

•	it is well timed. Feedback is most often useful when it is given immediately after the behavior in question. Sometimes it is better to wait, especially if the recipient is angry, confused, upset, or defensive, and not inclined to listen.

•	it is not saved up and dumped all at once. This is usually accompanied by a build-up of feeling which is hard to sort out from the message.

•	it is checked to insure accurate, clear communication.

•	it is checked for validity against the perceptions of others.

•	it is intended to be helpful to the recipient. It meets his needs, rather than the needs of the one giving the feedback.

•	it leaves the recipient free to do with it what he wants, to change or not as he chooses.

•	it is specific rather than general. Examples of exact statements and behavior are most useful.

•	it simply describes the recipient's behavior and its impact on others, without making any judgments about what he is as a person.

•	it is given in a climate of trust, with a feeling of caring and support.

•	it focuses on things the recipient can do something about.

•	negative feedback is preceded by positive feedback. This helps given support.

•	it is received non-defensively. A good rule of thumb is to ask only clarifying questions when receiving feedback.

•	the recipient has a chance to say what he thinks and feels about the feedback when it is all over. This can lead to a better understanding of why he behaves the way he does.

JOHARI WINDOW

Self-Rating Sheet

LEARNING JOURNAL

FEEDBACK PROCESSES

Teaming Skills and Learning
Checklist

(Check the areas in which you excelled)

(Circle the areas you wish to improve in next session)

Growth Values

Empathy

Authenticity

Spontaneity

Courage

Open-Mindedness

Intuition

Teaming Skills

Meeting Effectiveness

Brainstorming

Problem Solving

Planning/Organizing

Decision Making

Assessing Results

Conflict Resolution

Giving Feedback

Receiving Feedback

Decisiveness

1.	What did I learn most around Growth Values and Teaming Skills:

2.	I can use the feedback I received to be more effective by...

3.	As I gave feedback to other members of our team, I felt...

4.	The difference between giving feedback and having a process to give and receive feedback is that...

5.	The things I learned that I most want to be able to use back home are:

FINAL PRODUCT

Team Product 9

THEORY INPUT

To remain profitable and competitive, high performance work systems place a high priority on producing products and services which are of high value to their customers and clients. These products and services are the result of well-designed, efficient processes. These seven core STS process designs make good use of all available resources – people, equipment, facilities, money, and information.

TASK OBJECTIVE

The primary purpose of this task is to provide an opportunity for you to learn from your week's experience how the seven core processes are integrated and ways of developing plans for producing and marketing team products and/or services that reflect your team's learning during this Workshop.

DESIRED OUTCOMES

•	A process for producing a team product and/or service that will meet the following specifications:

a)	Accurately reflect all significant learnings during the week within the scope of the workshop objectives.

b)	Be judged as having value for your market, which is the other teams and staff.

c)	Develop and produce it within the framework and constraints of the Workshop environment.

d)	Be ready to present your team's final product Friday morning.

e)	It can be delivered to your customers (the other members of the Workshop) in a time frame that lasts between 15-20 minutes.

SUGGESTIONS

Before you begin working on the task, reach agreement as to its objective and the outcomes that are expected. Once this is done, design a process for accomplishing the objective and producing the desired outcomes. The following are suggestions:

•	Based on your understanding of the task, identify ways you might go about determining what your customers/clients will want, translating this information into product ideas and evaluating these ideas to determine what form your product will take.

•	Determine what kinds of resources you would need to produce your product alternatives and where you could obtain them.

•	Then, for each alternative product/service idea that you might be able to implement, determine what kind of a process you might use to produce and market it.

•	Make your final choice as to what kind of product and/or service your team will produce and how and when you will complete your design for producing it and executing a marketing plan.

•	Produce your product and prepare your presentation.

NOTE:	Blocks of time will be set aside each day for planning and producing your product. Keep in mind the fact that learning will be occurring throughout the week and the product delivered on Friday morning should reflect all significant learnings for the week. Advertising slots will also be provided throughout the week at your request.

KEY PERSONAL LEARNINGS

New Understanding About Myself

"The more you are like yourself, the less you are like anyone else, which makes you unique."

–Walt Disney

"Work will win when wishy washy wishing won't"

–Anonymous

"All men dream, but not equally. They who dream in the dusty recesses of the mind awake to find it is vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous. For they act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible."

–T. E. Lawrence

Based on the personal assessments I've done, the feedback I've received and the experiences I have had this week, I have uncovered the following new understandings about my abilities, talents, behaviors, and skills:

This is my plan for using what I have learned this week to improve as a person and a vital contributor to our organization transformation:

This is what I feel I can specifically change within my work environment:

GROWTH VALUES

The Six Dimensions of Inner Development

POST-ASSESSMENT

EMPATHY

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

Actively participating in the feelings and ideas of others. Embracing differing views and opinions, knowing they are essential to understanding and synergy. The acceptance of others as they are, unique and marvelous creations in their own right.

AUTHENTICITY

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

The capacity to be at peace with yourself, know who you are, what you feel – to simply be yourself. You'll only be as good as you are capable of being real. Owning up to your own weaknesses, failures, and mistakes lets others know you're human. Playing a game or hanging on to old pre-assigned roles and responsibilities in a changing environment only inhibits growth and authenticity.

SPONTANEITY

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

The capacity to think out loud and act naturally without external constraints or being held within established lines. It's the ability to self-act or react in a real and natural way as events occur.

COURAGE

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

The ability to do what is right for the larger whole, knowing at times it is not a popular choice. Confronting others when it's needed and being able to withstand the backlash. Having the moral strength to venture where angels fear to tread while resisting opposition, strain, or threat.

OPEN-
MINDEDNESS

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

The ability to act and make decisions provisionally, recognizing there may be a better way introduced tomorrow. This flexibility and open-mindedness allows us to deal with individuals and teams as they are, and at their own pace. This increases our receptivity to others' arguments, ideas, and thoughts.

INTUITION

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

The ability to react with confidence on limited data or information. Willingness to trust your gut, knowing something is different but not being able to put a finger on it. At times it can be those immediate insights gained that needed to be shared, regardless of how hard they could be to substantiate.

TEAMING SKILLS

Personal Skills Promoting Group Effectiveness

POST-ASSESSMENT

MEETING

EFFECTIVENESS

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

My ability to help a group come together, focus on the issues or purpose, establish meaningful roles and ground rules, use time effectively, involve and engage each member, measure their results and meet their objectives.

BRAINSTORMING

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

My ability to help the group listen to all ideas openly, seek unusual possibilities, be creative, refrain from judging the merits of the ideas, build onto previous ideas, think beyond previous boundaries and constraints.

PROBLEM SOLVING

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

My ability to work within the group to identify and clarify the problem, investigate root causes, analyze possible alternatives, weigh benefits and costs, compare against the stated objectives, collect meaningful data, and agree on solutions.

PLANNING/

ORGANIZING

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

My ability to help identify what needs to be done, establish priorities, set a timetable for accomplishing the tasks, make assignments, review progress, and follow through to meet the objectives.

DECISION MAKING

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

My ability to work with the group to review all pertinent information, listen to clearly understand each point of view, openly share biases and concerns, value personal and group needs, decide together and fully support that decision.

ASSESSING RESULTS

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

My ability to help get clear on what has to be accomplished, set goals that are both objective and subjective, establish a scale for measurement, benchmark their current state, regularly review results and progress.

CONFLICT

RESOLUTION

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

My ability to help sort through differences that are getting in the way of the group's ability to accomplish tasks synergistically and collaboratively.

GIVING FEEDBACK

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

My ability to provide straightforward, honest, and helpful feedback to other members of the group in a respectful and developmental manner and to confront difficult issues with integrity and share responsibility for results.

RECEIVING

FEEDBACK

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

My ability to hear and receive feedback from members of the group openly and non-
defensively, seek to understand the key elements of the feedback, and respond to the feedback through responsible actions and commitments.

DECISIVENESS

Self Rating

1 2 3 4 5

My ability to take action and help the group move forward by listening to itself, agreeing on key elements, selecting a path, deciding and moving on. Helping to avoid waffling, false starts, and gridlock while allowing for constant field adjustments.

SYSTEMS THEORY

Team Product 3

THEORY INPUT

Organizations are made up of seven interdependent and interactive parts. High performance teams understand and balance these parts as needed to produce higher levels of performance. Systems thinking helps us look at how the processes are designed to fit together in order to produce the balance that effective teams need. Building a high performance team requires using systems thinking. Everything is interdependent with external elements in order to grow, profit, and survive.

TASK OBJECTIVE

The primary purpose of this task is to provide an opportunity for you to explore and learn how Socio-Technical theories and models interact to form the basis of High Performance Work Teams.

DESIRED OUTCOMES

•	To reach consensus on the characteristics of High Performance Systems.

•	To gain an understanding of the "Whole Systems" Theory.

•	To understand how key design elements of an organization and its environment interrelate to achieve optimum "FIT."

•	To determine how the various models and theories relate to each other and interact collectively to build a High Performance Work System.

•	To gain an understanding how team systems promote learning initiative and self-regulation in the workplace.

•	To develop a means for helping the other teams benefit from what your team learned from this task.

SUGGESTIONS

Before you begin working on the task, reach agreement as to its objective and the desired outcomes that are expected. Once this is done, utilize your teams producing process for accomplishing the objective and producing the outcomes desired. The following are suggestions you may wish to consider:

•	Individually read the articles in this section and take note of the key points.

•	Discuss your key points with others in your team and summarize your team's conclusions.

•	Examine the key characteristics of Socio-Technical Systems and reach consensus on their validity and how they differ from traditional closed systems approaches to organizational design.

•	Build a team definition for systems thinking.

•	Determine what relationship, if any, exists between your team and whole systems theory. Summarize your conclusions.

•	Discuss what you have learned from this experience. Summarize what your team learned into your own working theory about whole and open systems.

•	Prepare to share your team's learning so that the other teams can benefit from your experience. (Each team will be allotted up to 10 minutes for this purpose.)

SYSTEMS THINKING

"All organizations are perfectly designed to get the results they get."

–David Hanna

Systems thinking requires us to let go of our current methods of viewing organizations and risk exploring new possibilities.

"An understanding of how systems work has to begin, of course, with an idea of what a system is. A system is a collection of interdependent parts which interact with each other to function as a whole. The cooling system in a car, for example, may consist of a radiator, a fan, a water pump, a thermostat, a cooling jacket, and several hoses and clamps. Together they function to keep the engine from overheating, but separately they are useless. To produce a product or service, all parts must be present and they must be arranged in the proper way." (Introduction to Systems Thinking, Future Systems, Inc.)

Now, our cooling system acting as a single unit can be part of a larger system and can be called a sub-system.

Early organization theory focused on pieces and not interrelated parts. Most organizations today still function as independent or closed systems, not understanding the interdependency with a large number of other systems.

Organization systems thinking recognizes and responds to the need for an appropriate relationship between the system as a whole and the larger social, economic, and other outside systems in which it operates as a living co-producing part. All systems exist as a series of agreed-on methods for doing work in the organization. These integrated agreements or sub-systems, regulate all aspects of organization life. For success, it is vital that the systemic aspects of the organization be in agreement with the broader shared cultural and environmental demands.

Within organizational systems thinking, we are primarily concerned with the following three sub-
systems:

•	Social System – The defined ways that people interact to communicate, solve problems, adjust, decide, etc.;

•	Technical System – The method for getting the core work (product/service) accomplished to include arrangements of equipment, material, work flow processes;

•	Control System – The standards, rules, and guidelines that direct the other sub-systems. This could include compensation, supervision, justice system, benefits, budgets, etc.;

These three interdependent sub-systems need to be designed to meet the demands of the larger system in which the organization must exist.

Systems Thinking helps us design organizations that meet customer needs, business needs, and people needs. By recognizing the interdependency of the organization's sub-systems and its dependency on the larger system it supports, a flexible self-sustaining system can be created.

PARADIGMS AND SYSTEMS THINKING

"The world of the 90's and beyond will not belong to 'managers' or those who make the numbers dance, as we used to say, or those who are conversant with all the businesses and jargon we use to sound smart. The world will belong to passionate, driven leaders...People who not only have an enormous amount of energy, but who can energize those whom they lead."

–Jack Welch, GE

Just recognizing we can and should use system thinking will not solve our pressing issues. We must apply these ideas in new ways by shifting our models, beliefs, and methods of designing organizations. Creation of high performance work systems requires a paradigm shift in the way we look at structuring, developing, and managing organizations for growth, profit, and survival. In essence, several "shifts" need to occur to create high performance through systems thinking. These "shifts" are detailed on the next page.

THE "SHIFTS"

OLD PARADIGM

Maximum task breakdown; simple, narrow skills

External controls (supervisors, specialists, staffs, procedures)

Tall organizational chart, autocratic style

The technology imperative

People as an extension of the Machine

People as an expendable spare part

Competition

Gamesmanship

Organization's Purpose Only

Alienation

Low risk-taking

NEW PARADIGM

Optimum tasks grouping; multiple skills; breadth & depth of skills

Internal controls (self-
regulating, integrating sub-systems)

Flat organizational chart, participative style

Joint optimization

People as complimentary to the Machine

People as a resource to be developed

Collaboration

Collegiality

Member's and Society's Purpose Also

Commitment

Innovation

WHERE IT IMPACTS IN THE ORGANIZATION

Structure:

•	Division of labor

•	Responsibilities

•	Authority

Work Design

•	Philosophy

•	Information

•	Knowledge

•	Rewards

•	Selection/

Retention

Systems thinking guides us to view organizations from broader perspectives than before. In systems terms, our approach:

IS NOT	IS

• Problem driven	• Purpose/product driven

• Canned or recipe solutions	• Collaborative centered

• An overlay/add on	• Whole system design

• Business as usual	• New way of doing business

Through this approach, organizations are created and designed to produce optimization of its sub-
systems with the larger environment.

Systems thinking is a process that allows management to look at choices around the design variable to increase optimization of the parts and produce better outputs. The ideal is to create a balance between the environment, technical, and social systems.

OPEN SYSTEM ANALYSIS

Organizations, like other systems, are dependent on the external environment to grow, profit, and survive. Successful organizations have learned to look at their environment and adapt to meet ever changing needs. We want to know who's out there, and what their requirements are, and finally, how well are we meeting their requirements. All organizations' needs are drawn from the environment; and all its products or services returned to the environment.

Organizations exist with the support and consent of the larger environment. The organization's central purpose (mission) and the way it pursues (producing process) that purpose must be wanted and supported by that environment. In the pursuit of its purpose, the organization then establishes objectives to meet its internal and external demands. For success, these objectives must be defined, integrated and acted upon in ways that are both internally congruent and externally compatible with the environment's own demands and needs.

In short, the organization that lives in harmony with its environment will grow, profit, and survive; the organization unresponsive to its environment will wither and die.

GLOSSARY

Systems Terminology and Definition

Boundary - An imaginary region or line that separates a system and its component parts from its environment.

Control processes - Activities that regulate, integrate, and coordinate the various internal parts of elements within a system, and between the system and its environment.

Core process - That conversion process that is central to the accomplishment of the primary task of the system.

Environment - Everything outside the system's boundaries. A system's environment is that portion of its environment with which it must interact to accomplish its purpose.

Equifinality - All living systems have the ability to reach the same end points through a variety of paths. There is not necessarily any one best way to accomplish a given purpose, objective, or task, although some ways are better than others.

Feedback - Information that lets a system and its members know whether or not it is pursuing the right goals or is on track toward meeting its goals.

Inputs (intakes, imports) - Whatever enters the system from its environment—materials, information, energy, etc.

Living systems - These are systems which have the capacity to regulate their own activities in the pursuit of purposes and goals.

Open systems - These are systems whose survival depends upon regular interchange and interdependence with its environments.

Outcomes, outputs - The results of the activities of a system; everything that is exported from a system into its environment to fulfill a need.

Permeability - The degree of openness of a system's boundary to inputs from its environment.

Primary task - That task which is central to the accomplishment of the primary purpose of the system.

Producing Systems - Systems that are directly involved in converting or transforming into outputs.

Purpose - A systems reason for existence.

Renewal - The activities required to maintain a good fit between the elements of a system, or between the system and its external environment.

Social process - The interactions and relationships between the members of a social system.

Social system - The relationships between a set of persons who are interdependent with respect to some common output or outcome.

Socio-technical system - Any system whose purpose must be achieved through the joint optimization of both a social and a technical system.

Steady (stable) state - The tendency of all living systems to maintain an orderly balance among their component variables, as well as with their task environments.

Stress, strain, and threat - External demands constitute stresses on a system, which in turn cause strains within a system. Threats are anticipated stresses.

Structure - The arrangement of the sub-systems and components within a system at a given moment in time.

Support systems - An individual or group whose primary purposes are to support the producing (operating) sub-systems.

System - A collection or set of interdependent elements which interact with each other to achieve a purpose.

Task system - The human activities and physical resources required to convert a system's inputs into its outputs.

Technical system - Transformation or conversion of inputs into outputs.

Technology - Procedures, machines, methods, knowledge, and techniques for accomplishing outputs.

Transformation - An alteration or change in the state of the throughput of the system, or of the system itself.

–Adapted From Herb Stokes

LEARNING JOURNAL

SYSTEMS THEORY

Teaming Skills and Learning
Checklist

(Check the areas in which you excelled)

(Circle the areas you wish to improve in next session)

Growth Values

Empathy

Authenticity

Spontaneity

Courage

Open-Mindedness

Intuition

Teaming Skills

Meeting Effectiveness

Brainstorming

Problem Solving

Planning/Organizing

Decision Making

Assessing Results

Conflict Resolution

Giving Feedback

Receiving Feedback

Decisiveness

1.	What did I learn most around Growth Values and Teaming Skills:

2.	The main differences between thinking functionally and thinking systemically are:

3.	My team is struggling with...

4.	To help my team be more decisive and organized I can...

5.	The things I learned that I most want to be able to use back home are: