F.A.C.T.S. Team Model

The following F.A.C.T.S. model of effective team member behaviors (follow-through, accuracy, timeliness, creativity, and spirit) may serve as a guide for helping teams identify behaviors that support synergy within the work team.

Follow-through 
One of the most common phrases heard in groups that work well together is "You can count on it." Members trust that when a colleague agrees to return a telephone call, read a report, talk to a customer, attend a meeting, or change a behavior, the job will be done. There will be follow-through. Team members are keenly aware that as part of a team, everything that they do --or don't do---impacts someone else. 



Accuracy 
Another common phrase heard in effective work groups is "We do it right the first time." Accuracy, clearly a reflection of personal pride, also demonstrates a commitment to uphold the standards of the team, thus generating team pride. 



Creativity
Innovation flourishes on a team when individuals feel supported by colleagues. Although taking the lead in a new order of things is risky business, such risk is greatly reduced in a cooperative environment where members forgive mistakes, respect individual differences, and shift their thinking from a point of view to a viewing point. 



Timeliness
When work team members are truly cooperating they respect the time of others by turning team priorities into personal priorities, arriving for meetings on time, sharing information promptly, clustering questions for people, communicating succinctly, and asking "Is this a good time?" before initiating interactions.



Spirit
Being on a work team is a bit like being part of a family. You can't have your way all of the time, and - to add value - you must develop a generous spirit. Leaders can help work teams by addressing these "rules" of team spirit: value the individual; develop team trust; communicate openly; manage differences; share successes; welcome new members.

www.teambuildingaustralia.com.au

12 steps to make a good team a great team!

12 steps to make a good team great!

1. Roles
An effective team will have a blend of different talents, abilities and personalities. It is important to remember that leadership is only one of many vital team roles. A balanced team generally will have thinking, supporting, doing and challenger style roles in addition to the leadership role.

2. Clear objectives and agreed goals
An effective team knows the goal it is working toward. Having clear objectives and agreed goals is more than knowing what results you want. The goals of the individual must be reconciled with those of the team for effective teamwork to occur. Begin with the end in mind to scope not only where you want to go, but also what are the milestones necessary to get there.

3. Openness and confrontation
In an effective team, people feel that they can state their own views, differences of opinions, interests and problems without fear of ridicule. There is no "stab in the back" mentality.

4. Support and trust
This is the skeleton on which an effective team is built. Support is not sympathy, but strengthening through assistance. With trust, people can talk freely about their fears and problems - knowing that they will receive from team members the help they need to become more effective.

5. Cooperation and conflict
People put the team's success before their own. Individuals trust and respect the abilities of others and are not suspicious of their motives. Conflict is also present and valued in an effective team. The team will work through an issue that causes conflict and use the result to achieve objectives. Conflict helps to avoid complacency and laziness and can often be the source of new ideas.

6. Sound procedures
The effective team thinks results first and methods second, but also realises that sound and proven working methods and decision-making help to achieve results. Good procedures help ideas to be captured and worked through without being lost and also ensure optimum usage of human and material resources for a challenge. Plan well, brief well, execute well and then de-brief.

7. Appropriate leadership
The best teams have leaders whose leadership style varies according to the situation and the needs of the individual group members and the group itself. In fact, the role of leader in an open and supportive team, can change from person to person as dictated by the situation. This situational form of leadership requires both the tolerance of members and the control of egos.

8. Regular review
Good teams understand not only the team's character, but they also look at the way that a team works, how it arrives at decisions, deals with conflicts, etc. They then use this information to develop new methods or plans and then implement these ideas. Reviews are best when teams are willing to go beyond personality and simple causes to actual root causes with a view to improving operating methods.

9. Individual development
Members of high performing teams feel good. They have opportunities to attempt new and challenging situations within the team framework and know they have the support of those around them. They are motivated to be successful.

10. Sound inter-group relations
The successful team can often appear threatening to less successful groups. This can cause isolation and hostility. The effective team works at its relations with other teams and ensures that help for others will be given when needed.

11. Good communications
Team members are aware of developments within their own team and how this fits into the larger picture of the organisation. When people understand why things are being done, they avoid duplication of effort. Rumour is replaced by fact.

12. Celebrate and acknowledge success
In the same spirit that errors are identified openly and reviewed for improvement to occur, success needs to be identified and celebrated to ensure that "what we do well" is equally addressed in tandem with areas for improvement.www.teambuildingaustralia.com.au

Team Working

Basic Team Working

What is a team anyway?

-A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable

-Small Number

-Complementary Skills

-Common Purpose & Performance Goals

-Common Approach

-Mutual Accountability

Ten common teaming problems

-Floundering

-Overbearing participants

-Dominating participants

-Reluctant participants

-Unquestioned acceptance of opinions as facts

-Rush to accomplishment

-Attribution

-Discounts and "plops"

-Wanderlust: digression and tangents

-Feuding members

Five issues to be considered in team building

1. Interdependence

This is the issue of how each member's outcomes are determined, at least in part, by the actions of the other members. The structure of the team task should be such that it requires cooperative interdependence. Functioning independently of other team members, or competing with them should lead to sub optimal outcomes for the entire team. Tasks that require the successful performance of sub tasks by all team members are called divisible, conjunctive tasks.

2. Goal Specification

It is very important for team members to have common goals for team achievement, as well as to communicate clearly about individual goals they may have. The process of clarifying goals may well engage all of the issues on this list. Indeed, shared goals is one of the definitional properties of the concept "team." A simple, but useful, team building task is to assign a newly formed team the task of producing a mission and goals statement.

3. Cohesiveness. 
This term refers to the attractiveness of team membership. Teams are cohesive to the extent that membership in them is positively valued; members are drawn toward the team. In task oriented teams the concept can be differentiated into two sub concepts, social cohesiveness and task cohesiveness. Social cohesiveness refers to the bonds of interpersonal attraction that link team members. Although a high level of social cohesiveness may make team life more pleasant, it is not highly related to team performance. Nevertheless, the patterns of interpersonal attraction within a team are a very prominent concern. Team building exercises that have a component of fun or play are useful in allowing attraction bonds to develop. Task cohesiveness refers to the way in which skills and abilities of the team members mesh to allow effective performance.

4. Roles and Norms
All teams develop a set of roles and norms over time. In task oriented teams, it is essential that the role structure enables the team to cope effectively with the requirements of the task. When the task is divisible and conjunctive, as are most of the important team tasks in our society, the assignment of roles to members who can perform them effectively is essential. Active consideration of the role structure can be an important part of a team building exercise. Task roles may be rotated so that all team members experience, and learn from, all roles. Even then, it is important that the norm governing the assignment of roles is understood and accepted by team members.

Norms are the rules governing the behavior of team members, and include the rewards for behaving in accord with normative requirements, as well as the sanctions for norm violations. Norms will develop in a team, whether or not they are actively discussed. 

5. Communication
Effective interpersonal communication is vital to the smooth functioning of any task team. There are many ways of facilitating the learning of effective communication skills. Active listening exercises, practice in giving and receiving feedback, practice in checking for comprehension of verbal messages, are all aimed at developing skills. It is also important for a team to develop an effective communication network; who communicates to whom; is there anybody "out of the loop?" Norms will develop governing communication. Do those norms encourage everyone to participate, or do they allow one or two dominant members to claim all the "air time?"

(From Scholtes, Peter R., The Team Handbook, Joiner Associates (1988))

Belbin and the UK Election

Belbin and the UK General Election

In the run up to the general election, Teambuilding Australia thought it would be interesting to find out how we all see the leaders of the main political parties in terms of Team Role behavior! Are there really any differences between them? Do we observe different behavioral traits?

Is Gordon a Teamworker? Does David act like an Implementer? Does Nick strike you as a Shaper?

The results are in!

As we are nearing Election Day, we have looked at observer responses for Gordon Brown, Nick Clegg and David Cameron. Meredith Belbin has made the following comments:

1. Gordon Brown has the three social roles at the bottom of his Team Role profile. His top three Team Roles are Shaper, Specialist and Monitor Evaluator. This trio suggests someone who will drive his analytical thoughts through to action, on the base of acquired knowledge. His top three observer words (professionally dedicated, hard-driving and analytical) support this image. Outgoing (usually a popular word) has not been ticked at all.

2. David Cameron has the low profile roles as his bottom five. His top three Team Roles are: Resource Investigator, Shaper and coordinator. This suggests someone with energy and a propensity to control others. His top four observer words are calm & confident, competitive, opportunistic and outgoing. His fifth highest word is empire-building, which can sometimes be seen as the down-side of a Co-ordinator.

3. Nick Clegg has the same bottom five roles as David Cameron. The difference is that his top three roles are seen as Co-ordinator, Plant and Resource Investigator. This implies someone who is keen to navigate and explore a new path. His top observer words are calm and confident, adaptable, consultative and broad in outlook. His highest negative word is critical – a Monitor Evaluator word, although he does not have the positive side of the role, which would be required for this characteristic to be accepted with grace.

Belbin Associates 2007-2010 and Teambuilding Australia www.teambuildingaustralia.com.au

Words to avoid using at work!

These nine words and phrases will make you sound noncommittal, undependable and untrustworthy.

Let's look at some specific words and phrases that are used by some people to buy time, avoid giving answers and escape commitment. If you use these words and phrases yourself, take a scalpel and cut them out of your thinking, speaking and writing. Words like these only weaken you and make you sound noncommittal, undependable and untrustworthy.

"Try"

Try is a weasel word. "Well, I'll try," some people say. It's a cop-out. They're just giving you lip service when they probably have no real intention of doing what you ask. Remember what Yoda says to Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: "Do or do not-there is no try." Take Yoda's advice. Give it your all when you attempt something. And if it doesn't work, start over.

Put passion into your work and give it your best effort, so you can know that you did all you could to make it happen. So if the outcome you were expecting didn't come to fruition, it's not because you didn't do everything you could to make it happen. It just wasn't the right time for it or it wasn't meant to be.

"Whatever"

This word is a trusted favourite of people who want to dismiss you, diminish what you say or get rid of you quickly. "Whatever," they will say as an all-purpose response to your earnest request. It's an insult and a verbal slap in the face. It's a way to respond to a person without actually responding. When you say "whatever" after another person has said his or her piece, you have essentially put up a wall between the two of you and halted any progress in communicating. It's a word to avoid.

"Maybe" and "I don't know"

People will sometimes avoid making a decision and hide behind words and phrases like "maybe" and "I don't know." There's a difference between legitimately not knowing something and using words like these as excuses. Sometimes during a confrontation people will claim not to know something or offer the noncommittal response "maybe," just to avoid being put on the spot. If that seems to be the case, ask, "When do you think you will know?" or "How can you find out?" Don't let the person off the hook so easily.

"I'll get back to you"

When people need to buy time or avoid revealing a project's status, they will say, "I'll get back to you," and they usually never do. If people say they will get back to you, always clarify. Ask them when they will get back to you, and make sure they specify the day and time. If they don't, then pin them down to a day and time and hold them to it. If they won't give you a day or time, tell them you'll call in a day or week and follow up. Make sure you call and get the information you need.

"If"

Projects depend on everyone doing his or her part. People who use "if" are usually playing the blame game and betting against themselves. They like to set conditions, rather than assuming a successful outcome. People who rely on conditional responses are fortifying themselves against potential failure. They will say, "If Bob finishes his part, then I can do my part." They're laying the groundwork for a "no fault" excuse and for not finishing their work.

There are always alternatives, other routes and ways to get the job done. Excuse makers usually have the energy of a slug, the vision of Mr Magoo and the spine of a jellyfish. You don't want them on your mountain climbing team up K-2 or Mount Everest.

"Yes, but ..."

This is another excuse. You might give your team members suggestions or solutions and they come back to you with "Yes, but . . ." as a response. They don't really want answers, help, or solutions. You need to call the "Yes, but . . ." people out on their avoidance tactic by saying something like: "You know, Jackie, every time I offer you a suggestion you say, 'Yes, but . . . ,' which makes me think you don't really want to solve this problem. That's not going to work. If you want to play the victim, go right ahead, but I'm not going to allow you to keep this up and I may have to report you." After a response like that, you can be assured that the next words you hear will not be, "Yes, but . . ."!

"I guess ..."

This is usually said in a weak, soft-spoken, shoulder-shrugging manner. It's another attempt to shirk responsibility-a phrase is only muttered when people half agree with you, but want to leave enough leeway to say, "Well, I didn't really know. . . . I was only guessing." If you use this phrase, cut it out of your vocabulary.

"We'll see ..."

How many times did we hear our parents say this? We knew they were buying time, avoiding a fight or confrontation or really saying no. It's better to be decisive and honest by saying, "I need more information. Please present your case or send me the data-both pro and con-so I can make an informed decision." That way the interested parties will contribute to an in-depth, well-researched "verdict."

This column is an excerpt of Surviving The Toxic Workplace (McGraw-Hill, 2010) by Linnda Durre, a psychotherapist, business consultant and columnist.

Team Development - the process

Forming - Storming - Norming - Performing

This model was first developed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965.

It is one of the best known team development theories and has formed the basis of many further ideas since its conception.

Tuckman's theory focuses on the way in which a team tackles a task from the initial formation of the team through to the completion of the project.

Tuckman later added a fifth phase; Adjourning and Transforming to cover the finishing of a task.

Tuckman's theory is particularly relevant to team building challenges as the phases are relevant to the completion of any task undertaken by a team.

One of the very useful aspects of team building challenges contained within a short period of time is that teams have an opportunity to observe their behaviour within a measurable time frame.

Often teams are involved in projects at work lasting for months or years and it can be difficult to understand experiences in the context of a completed task.

Forming

The team is assembled and the task is allocated.

Team members tend to behave independently and although goodwill may exist they do not know each other well enough to unconditionally trust one another.

Time is spent planning, collecting information and bonding.

Storming

The team starts to address the task suggesting ideas.

Different ideas may compete for ascendancy and if badly managed this phase can be very destructive for the team.

Relationships between team members will be made or broken in this phase and some may never recover.

In extreme cases the team can become stuck in the Storming phase.

If a team is too focused on consensus they may decide on a plan which is less effective in completing the task for the sake of the team.

This carries its own set of problems. It is essential that a team has strong facilitative leadership in this phase.

Norming

As the team moves out of the Storming phase they will enter the Norming phase.

This tends to be a move towards harmonious working practices with teams agreeing on the rules and values by which they operate.

In the ideal situation teams begin to trust themselves during this phase as they accept the vital contribution of each member to the team.

Team leaders can take a step back from the team at this stage as individual members take greater responsibility.

The risk during the Norming stage is that the team becomes complacent and loses either their creative edge or the drive that brought them to this phase.

Performing

Not all teams make it to the Performing phase, which is essentially an era of high performance.

Performing teams are identified by high levels if independence, motivation, knowledge and competence.

Decision making is collaborative and dissent is expected and encouraged as there will be a high level of respect in the communication between team members.

Adjourning & Transforming

This is the final phase added by Tuckman to cover the end of the project and the break up of the team.

Some call this phase Mourning, although this is a rather depressing way of looking at the situation.

More enlightened managers have called Progressive Resources in to organise a celebratory event at the end of a project and members of such a team will undoubtedly leave the project with fond memories of their experience.

It should be noted that a team can return to any phase within the model if they experience a change, for example a review of their project or goals or a change in members of a team.

In a successful team when a member leaves or a new member joins the team will revert to the Forming stage, but it may last for a very short time as the new team member is brought into the fold.

Team Building Feedback

'Thank you for all your support over the past two months and for delivering a wonderful program.' Gosford City Council

'What an awesome night! None of us have had that much fun in a long long time. Thank you very much for such a memorable evening.' Fairfax

'Thanks for putting together an excellent day yesterday... the feedback from everyone has been really positive!' Dept of Defence

'The best team building we have ever done!' TELSTRA

"Feedback was excellent! Comments such as "best teambuilding ever!"

were common". 3M HEALTHCARE

What can I say! You and your team were an absolute hit! Our entire team's response, indicated the activity was a huge success! ING

www.teambuildingaustralia.com.au

Team Issues

The Elephant in the Living Room There is a popular analogy today that refers to "the elephant in the living room". This phrase is an amusing way to talk about a very serious matter, un-discussable team issues. What makes an issue un-discussable is anyone's guess. It could be that the unmentioned issue will create embarrassment for someone, might surface unwanted conflict, or is simply a topic that team members don't know how to broach. Much like an elephant in the living room, the unmentionable issue gets harder to ignore over time. The longer it goes unattended, the messier and larger it gets. It eventually interferes with team functioning like an elephant in one's living room would hinder a normal lifestyle. Although the issue is never directly confronted, it takes team energy and focus away from the job, and preoccupies the team with a disruptive distraction. As you might suspect, to move the elephant out of the team living room you must deal with it. The first step in doing so is to acknowledge that it exists. This means that someone on the team must be brave enough to bring up the issue and accept the consequences involved with shedding light on the subject. The person who does so should be ready to hear others deny that the issue is real, and that it has relevance to team functioning. Despite these protests, the party who sees the issue must be able to provide tangible evidence that the undisclosed topic is indeed pertinent to team success. It is necessary to remember that un-discussable issues remain so because they pose a threat to something or someone that the team values. Be as discreet, kind, factual, and non-judgmental as possible when surfacing the issue and you will increase the likelihood that the topic will be addressed rather than swiftly swept under the carpet again.

New Teambuilding Program

Graffiti Skool Teambuilding

Creativity in a can!

Looking for that visual edge, or another way to creatively express your values in the form of a tag or your logo, then enrol in Graffiti Skool.

Graffiti is regarded as a form of expressive visual art, the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner. We allow your team to develop their own graffiti using many methods of creativity.
With expert tuition, teams get to explore the creative side of Graffiti street art.
Following an introduction, teams are given equipment to design their work. Safety equipment is provided and with guidance from an expert, teams learn and create their very own graffiti art piece.

5-500 pax - any time, location, anywhere....

Basic Team Working's

Basic Team Working

What is a team anyway?

-A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable

-Small Number

-Complementary Skills

-Common Purpose & Performance Goals

-Common Approach

-Mutual Accountability

Ten common teaming problems

-Floundering

-Overbearing participants

-Dominating participants

-Reluctant participants

-Unquestioned acceptance of opinions as facts

-Rush to accomplishment

-Attribution

-Discounts and "plops"

-Wanderlust: digression and tangents

-Feuding members

Five issues to be considered in team building

1. Interdependence

This is the issue of how each member's outcomes are determined, at least in part, by the actions of the other members. The structure of the team task should be such that it requires cooperative interdependence. Functioning independently of other team members, or competing with them should lead to sub optimal outcomes for the entire team. Tasks that require the successful performance of sub tasks by all team members are called divisible, conjunctive tasks.

2. Goal Specification

It is very important for team members to have common goals for team achievement, as well as to communicate clearly about individual goals they may have. The process of clarifying goals may well engage all of the issues on this list. Indeed, shared goals is one of the definitional properties of the concept "team." A simple, but useful, team building task is to assign a newly formed team the task of producing a mission and goals statement.

3. Cohesiveness. 
This term refers to the attractiveness of team membership. Teams are cohesive to the extent that membership in them is positively valued; members are drawn toward the team. In task oriented teams the concept can be differentiated into two sub concepts, social cohesiveness and task cohesiveness. Social cohesiveness refers to the bonds of interpersonal attraction that link team members. Although a high level of social cohesiveness may make team life more pleasant, it is not highly related to team performance. Nevertheless, the patterns of interpersonal attraction within a team are a very prominent concern. Team building exercises that have a component of fun or play are useful in allowing attraction bonds to develop. Task cohesiveness refers to the way in which skills and abilities of the team members mesh to allow effective performance.

4. Roles and Norms
All teams develop a set of roles and norms over time. In task oriented teams, it is essential that the role structure enables the team to cope effectively with the requirements of the task. When the task is divisible and conjunctive, as are most of the important team tasks in our society, the assignment of roles to members who can perform them effectively is essential. Active consideration of the role structure can be an important part of a team building exercise. Task roles may be rotated so that all team members experience, and learn from, all roles. Even then, it is important that the norm governing the assignment of roles is understood and accepted by team members.

Norms are the rules governing the behavior of team members, and include the rewards for behaving in accord with normative requirements, as well as the sanctions for norm violations. Norms will develop in a team, whether or not they are actively discussed. 

5. Communication
Effective interpersonal communication is vital to the smooth functioning of any task team. There are many ways of facilitating the learning of effective communication skills. Active listening exercises, practice in giving and receiving feedback, practice in checking for comprehension of verbal messages, are all aimed at developing skills. It is also important for a team to develop an effective communication network; who communicates to whom; is there anybody "out of the loop?" Norms will develop governing communication. Do those norms encourage everyone to participate, or do they allow one or two dominant members to claim all the "air time?"

(From Scholtes, Peter R., The Team Handbook, Joiner Associates (1988))