Improving_Team_Performance

Running head: IMPROVING TEAM PERFORMANCE Improving Team Performance University of Phoenix Improving Team Performance Most people have heard that a team is only as strong as it’s weakest member. It’s true when a baseball team has top notch batting, but the pitching staff gives up the most runs in the league. What about team performance in business, family, and personal goals' No one person can do anything in life without the help of others, whether it’s running a business, taking care of a family, or obtaining goals one sets for him or her self. Normally a team of this nature knows what they have to do and how to go about reaching the common goal of winning without any differences. In business, one will have to consider what skill sets a coworker has and what their specific intentions are. According to Friedman and Behfar (2009), even though team members are all technically on the same side, they often have different priorities and imagine different ideal outcomes. Setting goals and being on the same page are extremely important to team success. Learning Team Charter While attending classes at University of Phoenix, class members are placed in learning teams working on various projects and establish the Learning Team Charter. Four areas to discuss and establish are the Team Member Skill Inventory that shows areas each member can contribute and develop. Learning Team Goals, include project assignments, group processes, quality, and possible obstacles in achieving the goals. Ground Rules that include the team schedule, locations to meet, expectations on team members’ attendance, agenda, completion of assignments, and methods of communication. The 4th major area is Conflict management in which the team must identify potential conflicts that might arise among or between team members during the course. Once identified, the team must determine how they will deal with these conflicts. Team Differences In evaluating each team member, self-assessments work very well, providing the person is being honest with him or her self. Learning Team D in the MGT/521 class at University of Phoenix took two assessments and met on their weekly conference call to discuss the findings. The two assessments were Do I Trust Others and How Good Are My Listening Skills (Robbins 2007)' It was determined that all team members had similar traits when looking at the listening skills and how trusting they were. One member was very trusting and had been taken advantage of many times in the past, but continues to trust people in general until something happens to lose that trust. The other two members were overall trusting of others but were a little reluctant to trust fully until they felt comfortable with certain individuals. Mostly by paying attention to nonverbal forms of communication as well as verbally. Now that the team has an understanding of each other, the Learning Team Charter (University of Phoenix, 2007) will be used to set the goals, ground rules, and manage potential conflict. The goals are to have full cooperation and involvement of all team members to provide a unified charter. Ground rules were established making sure attendance is mandatory twice weekly, when assignments are due to the team, and who will be responsible for each part of the projects. To manage conflict, each member needs to be open and honest with each other. Any decisions that are made must have unanimous approval. If conflict cannot be resolved, a mediator will be assigned to help resolve the issue. Conclusion Every person has different traits and they are normally learned from past experiences or values that were instilled from childhood. Lang (2009) noted that national culture is a learned trait that is reflected in the designs of organizations, influencing a person's conception of self, relation to authority, and ways of dealing with conflict (Inkeles & Levinson, 1969). As organizations continue to expand globally, culture has added even more complexity to the organization, and, as a result, firms are making teams and groups increasingly more important in solving complex issues (Stewart & Barrick, 2000; West, 2002). Cross-cultural negotiations between individuals in the same organization or from different organizations have the potential to be more complex and confusing than in-culture negotiations (Godfrey, 1995; Puffer & McCarthy, 1995). References Brett, J., Friedman, R., & Behfar, K. (2009, September). How to Manage Your Negotiating Team. Harvard Business Review, 87(9), 105-109. Retrieved September 9, 2009, from EBSChost database. Inkeles, A., & Levinson, D. J. (1969). National culture: The study of modal personality and sociocultural systems. In G. Lindsey & E. Aronson (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (2nd ed., pp. 418-506). Lang, M.. (2009). Conflict Management: A Gap in Business Education Curricula. Journal of Education for Business, 84(4), 240-245.  Retrieved September 9, 2009, from ProQuest database. Puffer, S. M., & McCarthy, D. J. (1995). Finding the common ground in Russian and American business ethics. California Management Review, 37(2), 29-46. Stephen P. Robbins. (2007). Pearson Prentice Hall, Self Assessment Library, Retrieved September, 7, 2009, from https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/secure/aapd/sas/robbins_sal3v3/sal3v3web.html Stewart, G. L., & Barrick, M. R. (2000). Team structure and performance: Assessing the mediating role of intrateam process and the moderating role of task type. Academy of Management Journal, 43, 135-148. University of Phoenix. (2007). Learning Team Charter. Retrieved September 9, 2009 from http://www.apollolibrary.com/LTT/download/learningteamcharter.doc West, M. A. (2002). Sparkling fountains or stagnant ponds: An integrative model of creativity and innovation implementation in work groups. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 51, 355-424.