Denning breaks down the most important elements of
high-performance teams as follows:
·
enthusiastically shaping expectations and
then exceeding these outputs
·
quickly adjusting the performance to the
needs of the situation
·
group grows stronger
·
individual performances grow stronger as
well
·
purpose of the team become more gallant as
goals become more powerful
·
team carries out work with shared passion
In my department we do work closely together though we
have not officially worked on a high performance team we do exhibit most of
these elements on any even day. For
example, as a group we work hard to make sure that we exceed the expectations that
our director sets for us (making sure the students accounts are correct, calls
are being answered, emails returned, tickets answered in Parature). We work hard to make our individual performances
better to be aligned with what our director sets forth for us. We have a motto in our department “One team
One dream” and we strive to maintain this motto every day not just for
ourselves but for our department.
When a counselor is out we come together to make sure
that the counselors queues are worked and that tickets are answered
quickly. We adjust to the needs of the
situation so that no one falls behind in their work and this helps us grow
stronger as a team. Our shared passion
for getting the work done is seen whenever our director comes up to see us and
ask how we are doing. He watches our
interactions and how we work together to handle issues and work through
problems we have with an account or even the new system. We do these things for each other without
being asked to do so and this shows that we are committed to each other and to
our common goal of providing the best customer service possible.
When it comes to shared values it is important that
everyone is on the same page.
Collaboration is relies on these shared values and if everyone is not
sharing the same values the team will suffer for it. I believe that in our department we have this
shared value as a group. We work well together about 95% of the time and we
even joke that we are a family because we spend 8 hours a day together 5 days a
week and see each other more than our families at times. Sometimes we don’t agree and when this
happens we come together to work it out and try to work out our differences so
that we are on track once again with our common goals. We see the positive
outcome this has and we don’t have to involve our director with silly little
disagreements.
The influence of having shared values is that we make a
point of working together and being a part of something that is bigger than the
individual. We are all here to make sure
the student is given the best advice, understands the regulations and how they
apply to the student, getting and keeping them on the right plan so that they
can graduate and occasionally just being there to listen to them express their
frustrations. We all want to see the
student succeed because at the end of the day that is what it is all about.
There are 4 patterns of working together to include:
·
Work group (similar work tasks and
reporting to same supervisor)
·
Team (defined responsibilities and
interaction between members)
·
Community (self-organizing, leadership is
shared by the volunteers within the community)
·
Network (large group of people who meet to
discuss various ideas but do not meet face to face)
In a work group everyone has very similar tasks to
complete but there is not much need for collaboration within this setting. The goal is the get the work done and
everyone reports to the same supervisor.
A positive experience with this is that everyone stays on task to get
the work done and the work load is pretty evenly distributed so that is not an overload
on any one person. A negative experience
with this is that there is no desire to work together and perhaps collaborate
on ways to improve as individuals and as a group. In my department we do function as a work
group however we also display many of the characteristics of team and
community. A solution to this would be
to come together and discuss better ways to work as a group and every one make
a suggestion that would improve our work.
We can vote on what would work better for us as a group.
In a team setting the goals are clear and everyone
knows what they are responsible for and there is much interaction between team
members and this will adjust to the situations and work load with the common
goal of that team. The team will work on
strengthening the weak areas and do this together. A positive experience of this is that you get
to know the members of your team very well and you work together for the common
goal as a group not as an individual. A
negative experience would be that depending on the work a team may not be the
best way to go. In my department we work
as a team however we each have certain responsibilities that would not work in
the team environment due levels of security access that not every counselor has
in the new system. As managers we are
required to run certain reports daily and do overrides that not everyone has
access to. A solution to this would be
to do some cross training on these areas so that each person understands how
these reports work and come up with a way that perhaps part of the report could
be worked together as a team (broken down by regions so each counselor has some
control over what is happening with their region) this way everyone feels
involved in the process.
In a community setting, individuals from different
backgrounds come together to work on a common goal. Not everyone will have the same views but it
is an opportunity to see things from different perspectives and perhaps come up
with a better solution. In this setting
a group would meet at the same time, same place once a week, month or year. A
positive experience would be that you can get some different views on a subject
matter that perhaps makes more sense become each person is looking at the
situation in their own way and they can bring something fresh to the table. Meeting like this can help foster progress on
a common goal of a department. A
negative experience to this would be letting things get in the way of meeting
and collaborating on issues. This is
something that I am experiencing right now in my department. We have a community group that meets once a
week to discuss issues and solutions in the new CS program. We were meeting regularly but for the past
few weeks we have not met because of deadlines and it has thrown the feel of
the community off. A solution to this
would be to analyze this community group and decide if once a week is too often
or if there is no longer a need for this group and dismiss it for good or elect
to come together at the start of the new academic year.
In a network setting you can have many individuals who
meet via chat rooms or other networks to discuss various ideas or interests
without the need to meet face to face. A
positive experience of this would be that you can do this from the comfort of
your office and you can share experiences with many other people all over the
world. A negative experience to this
would be that there are no interpersonal relationships so there is not a real
connection to each other and it may be easier to not be involved as much as one
should be. An example of this would be
team assignments in our class. I think
that because there are no interpersonal relationships and no real connection to
each other than the class it is easy to slack off and not be a part of that
network. A solution would be to break
the groups up by interests or similar work interests (though this will not
foster a community) or make the groups smaller.
No comments:
Post a Comment