<p> TWS—Lecture 3: Using Interpersonal Communication to Improve Teaming</p><p>Purpose This lecture prompts students to create techniques for addressing their team’s unique and persistent issues by directing students to identify sources of conflict in their teams and investigate ways to stem these potential conflicts through feedback. </p><p>Justification By asking individual students to define the role their own work habits play within their team, teams are given material which can serve as the basis of cooperatively-created appropriate conditions of successful interaction. Team members, then, come away with an understanding of how their work habits affect the functioning of their team which is meaningful in that it is specific to their group and is a product of their own creation—rather than being generic and didactic.</p><p>Methods A chalk/marker board is functional during the information portions of the lecture. </p><p>Walk Through Prior to the lecture, remind students to bring with them the ground rules that they created in the first lecture.</p><p>Begin this lecture reviewing what was covered in the first lecture. Then discuss how rules and roles are effective for isolated teams but fall short in the real world where teams must account for certain types of problems which are unforeseeable at the formation of a team. The first part of the lecture, then, becomes an analysis of what some of these problems might be.</p><p>Discussion: Some aspects that hinder successful teaming Solicit from the class things they have found their rules didn’t cover. Many times you get very specific responses—especially from annoyed group members. By asking students to generalize and elaborate using these specific examples, put a few main factors on the board. One way to break down these major factors is:  differences in discourse—people in different industrial setting, in different disciplines, and in different regions communicate differently (this may be less evident, in localized, single-discipline teams.)  deficiencies—teams do not always have the physical resources or abilities they need to get the job done (lack of specific technical knowledge, lack to time, etc.)  external influences—teams are often subject to the demands and pressures of non- team related influences (other classes, sickness, etc.)  personal dynamics—people have a variety of personal traits that conflict. Some which are particularly evident in teaming are: o motivation (some want to understand information, while others just want a proficient grade.) o approaches to problem solving (some like to argue, while others like to vote.) o work habits (some do things at the last minute, while others incrementally.) o personal/social features (some communicate frequently, while others vanish for days.) After adequate discussion, suggest that these things can be regulated through another teaming mechanism called feedback. </p><p>Dave Kmiec TWS Lecture 3 V 3.0 Discussion: Overcoming these hindrances through feedback We obtain information in a number of ways. Some are more effective than others and some are more appropriate in some situations than others. Feedback does not necessarily mean face-to-face open discussion of problems and solutions. In fact, any time you provide information to a teammate about their performance or behavior, you’re issuing feedback in a more or less explicit way. (At this point, you may want to discuss ways that team members give feed back. See “Discussion of information gathering techniques” in the appended supplemental exercise pages.)</p><p>There are a number of ways to make sure that feedback is effective. Discuss these with, or solicit them from, the class:  valence—giving both positive and negative feedback  balance—giving positives and negatives in perspective  timeliness—giving feedback as soon as is appropriate  specificity—giving targeted feedback with incorporated solutions  frequency—giving feedback in a consistently and often  sensitivity—giving feedback in an appropriate and considerate manner</p><p>Discussion: Why do we have to like each other? (And how much?) How much feedback is necessary? How optimal to team members have to be? These questions arise frequently in discussions on feedback. Cohesiveness in groups has a certain characteristic of diminishing returns—and even becomes detrimental in excess. This is surprising to many students; draw and discuss the following diagram to illustrate this concept.</p><p>Cohesiveness and Productivity Diagram: y t i v i t c u d o r p</p><p>I explain thecohesiveness features of this diagram as follows: 1. Everyone for his or herself—Team members do not feel responsible or accountable to each other or dislike each other. They therefore avoid interaction, complete assignments ad hoc, and do not seek to produce a quality product. 2. Backburner—Team members do not place the activities of the team as a priority. They complete assignments because they have a vested interest in seeing a quality finish product. When conflicts arise, team members often give in or become divest from the team. 3. Optimal—Team members put priority on team assignments and devote time and resources. Members complete assignments because of their own interest and because they feel accountable to the team. They actively work together to produce a quality product in which they are proud. When conflicts arise, they confront them and settle them in an organized manner, making sure everyone is satisfied. 4. Hyper-coherent—Team members may inappropriately neglect other things for team assignments, or team meetings may last for hours because of social interference. Often, team members avoid conflicts entirely because they value harmony. These </p><p>Dave Kmiec TWS Lecture 3 V 3.0 teams are subject to groupthink. (See the supplemental exercise “Discussion of the characteristics of groupthink” for more.)</p><p>Exercise: Evaluating cohesiveness and giving feedback Using the feedback sheet located in the appendix, ask the teams to identify where they are on this diagram—and then, perform 360-face-to-face evaluations. </p><p>Exercise: Revisiting ground rules Have the students reflect on the things they discussed and modify their ground rules accordingly. Then, have them write a series of objectives that they intend to achieve before the end of the semester.</p><p>Dave Kmiec TWS Lecture 3 V 3.0</p>