Working in Teams

What is a Team?
• small number of people
• complementary skills
• committed to a common purpose and goals
for which they hold themselves mutually
accountable.
 Team Member Behavior
• Helpful
• Destructive

“BE GOOD FOR PEOPLE”

 Stages of Team Development
• Forming
– members explore boundaries of behavior
• Storming
– argue over direction
• Norming
– accept team member roles
• Performing
– working together as a team
 Key Roles of Team Members
• Member
• Leader
– keeps the team focused
• Scribe
– records meetings
• Gatekeeper
– ensures everyone stays involved
 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
(by Stephen R. Covey)
from http://www.chimaeraconsulting.com/covey.htm

• Be proactive- “Be aware of yourself, your strengths,

weaknesses, blind spots, motivations - and be proactive in
finding out as much as you can about yourself.  Then be
proactive in applying that knowledge to your relations with
others.”
• Begin with the end in mind
• Put first things first
• Think win/win
• Seek first to understand, then be understood
• Synergize
• Sharpen the saw
 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
(by Stephen R. Covey)
from http://www.chimaeraconsulting.com/covey.htm

• Be proactive
• Begin with the end in mind- “In summary, create and live by
a personal mission statement.  This may lead onto more
specific goals and objectives, but the idea is that you try to
live as the sort of person you'd like to be remembered for
when you've passed on.”
• Put first things first
• Think win/win
• Seek first to understand, then be understood
• Synergize
• Sharpen the saw
 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
(by Stephen R. Covey)
from http://www.chimaeraconsulting.com/covey.htm

• Be proactive
• Begin with the end in mind
• Put first things first-“Define what it is that really matters
in your life, then spend your time on those important
things.  Rather than spreading our time thinly across too
many activities, concentrate on doing a few things well.”
• Think win/win
• Seek first to understand, then be understood
• Synergize
• Sharpen the saw
 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
(by Stephen R. Covey)
from http://www.chimaeraconsulting.com/covey.htm

• Be proactive
• Begin with the end in mind
• Put first things first
• Think win/win- “Not an original phrase, but in all your
dealings with others, aim for each little negotiation to
provide success (a win) for both sides.”
• Seek first to understand, then be understood
• Synergize
• Sharpen the saw
 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
(by Stephen R. Covey)
from http://www.chimaeraconsulting.com/covey.htm

• Be proactive
• Begin with the end in mind
• Put first things first
• Think win/win
• Seek first to understand, then be understood- “Put another way,
we were born with “two ears and one mouth, and they
should be used in that proportion."  In your
communications, be sure you know the other person's
point of view before you start expounding your own ideas.”
• Synergize
• Sharpen the saw
 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
(by Stephen R. Covey)
from http://www.chimaeraconsulting.com/covey.htm

• Be proactive
• Begin with the end in mind
• Put first things first
• Think win/win
• Seek first to understand, then be understood
• Synergize- “Look for ways to take your ideas and other
people's ideas and build on them together, on the
basis that the outcome will be something greater than
the sum of the inputs.”
• Sharpen the saw
 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
(by Stephen R. Covey)
from http://www.chimaeraconsulting.com/covey.htm
• Sharpen the saw- “This powerful idea can really only be described
by Covey's word-picture:
• Suppose you were to come upon someone in the woods working
feverishly to saw down a tree.
• "What are you doing?" you ask.
• "Can't you see?" comes the impatient reply. "I'm sawing down this tree."
• "You look exhausted!" you exclaim. "How long have you been at it?"
• "Over five hours," he returns, "and I'm beat! This is hard work."
• "Well why don't you take a break for a few minutes and sharpen that
saw?" you inquire.  "I'm sure it would go a lot faster."
• "I don't have time to sharpen the saw," the man says emphatically. "I'm
too busy sawing!“
 Effective Meetings
• Follow agenda
• Start and End on time!
• Report progress since last meeting
• Discuss issues
• Decide action items
– what, who, by when
• Set agenda for next meeting
 Forming Teams
• Criteria
– Objective is to form teams of 4 or 5
• Why 4 or 5?
– Historically, this project has seen most success with 4 or 5 people
per group in Pullman and Vancouver
• Must there be groups of 4 or 5?
– No. But each group will have the opportunity to take on 4 people
before any group is allowed to take on 5. Five is the maximum
allowed
• Can groups be smaller?
– Yes, but deliverables will be competing against each other without
consideration for the number of people in the group. This project
will be difficult with 4 people and historically has taken 40+
hrs/week total work. If you choose to take on that burden with
fewer people, that is your prerogative but is not recommended…
 Importance of Competitive
Deliverables
• As indicated in the syllabus, student work will be judged relative to
their peer group. As stated: “in circumstances where there is no
absolute right answer to an assignment, case, discussion question,
quiz question, or exam question, then grades will be evaluated
relative to your peer group. I cannot predict exactly how your peer
group will perform from semester to semester so I can only say that
to a certain extent all these subjective grade items are competitive.
What this means is that you need to be conscious that your
classmates may be putting in what you feel to be extra effort and
that this could make their deliverable superior by comparison. In
those circumstances, the better deliverable will likely receive a
higher score and the other one a lesser score. So I encourage you
to try your best and put in extra effort if you are hoping for a high
grade.”
 Ideal Team Characteristics
• Special concerns:
– locations (work or live near each other)
– Schedules (have discretionary time in common)
• Complementary skill set:
– Project will be completed best with division of labor.
Ideally you will have diversity of strengths in:
programming; analytical skills; interview and
presentation skills; documentation and writing skills;
deep thinkers (the group “genius”); grinders (the group
“workaholic”)
 Ideal Team Characteristics
• Special concerns-ways around special concerns of distance and
schedule:
– This is MIS.
• Development teams work in India with teams in USA and Ireland all the
time.
• Distributed teams is a fact of life. You are MIS majors and you need to do
this.
– I research and write papers with 15+ different people in several
countries and none in driving distance. How?
• Take advantage of telephony like they do in the field: email, net-meetings,
phone
– Use version control and distribute the work (assign “ownership”).
– Create standards for the group to follow
– Will have weekly time in class for group work. Goal is 30-60 minutes
on average per class. (some weeks will not have any time; others may
have 1hr+). Should need few other meetings for whole group.
 Ideal Team Characteristics Class
Exercise
• Fill out a sheet with:
– Your name, contact information, and major (and if you
are taking this as an elective)
– Your special concerns regarding:
• locations (work or live near each other)
– If you are available near campus, mark “none” for this
• Schedules (have discretionary time in common)
– If you have a flexible schedule, mark none for this
• Again, with class meetings, proper distribution of tasks, and
telephony, most team members should not be physically
getting together outside of class. Face to face meetings
should only include required personnel for that subtask!
 Ideal Team Characteristics Class
Exercise
• Fill out a sheet with your strengths regarding:
• Complementary skill set
– Project will be completed best with division of labor.
Ideally you will have diversity of strengths in:
programming; analytical skills; interview and
presentation skills; documentation and writing skills;
deep thinkers (the group “genius”); grinders (the group
“workaholic”)
What do you have to offer the group?
 Ideal Team Characteristics Class
Exercise
• For the next part, assume you could put in only 5
hours a week on your project and earn a C.
– Fill out on the sheet how important it is for you to earn
a B vs. a C on a project by stating how many extra
hours a week all semester would you put in to move a
grade up from a C to a B? If you knew you were
working on a project at a C level, how many extra
hours each week would you be willing to put in to get it
up to an B?
– Do the same thing for moving it up from a B to an A?
If you knew you were working on a paper at a B level,
how many extra hours each week would you be willing
to put in to get it up to an A?
 Ideal Team Characteristics Class
Exercise
• Write down on the list names of up to 3 other
people you would like to work with.
– Understand that I am likely to mix and match people
based on complementary skills.
– Write down any people you would prefer not to work
with as well
• I will take these home and see if we can create
teams with a good skill set with special concerns
taken into consideration as much as possible
 Class Activity #2
• Next week:
– Get together with your group
– Discuss skill set
– Determine name for group
– Discuss “good” meeting times
 Team Info Assignment
Due 1 week after you learn who is on your team
One-page typed report
• Team number and team name
• Table: w/ names, how to pronounce, phone#s, email
address, picture (digital preferred, but photocopy will do)
• Planned meeting times & location
• List of norms

• Give a copy to each team member and one to me

• Use this to evaluate yourself and your teammates
• Begin deliverable #1
 Note: Balancing Priorities
Just a reminder- make sure you are allocating your time
effectively each week.  You need to be doing your
project, homeworks, and preparing for quizzes and
exams all at the same time.  If you neglect to use time
each week for all the various parts of the course, you
will end up performing badly in an area and you will be
disappointed in your grade.  Make sure that every week
you are putting in a consistent amount of time on this
class.  If you feel there is a lull in required activity, you
are likely mistaken and need to think about what more
you could be doing on less obvious areas.