Effective, high performance teams do not just happen. They must be created, coached, and recognized for their collective efforts. In this course, you will learn the steps needed to create and manage effective work teams, including how individual communication and personal style affect team performance. See how groups differ from teams and how collective problem-solving and decision-making differ for methods used by individuals. Finally, you will explore how to maximize team contributions during the typical phases of performance planning and review. 16 hours (Textbook required)

Fee:

$218

W29T

Creating the High Performance Team by Buchholz, S. & Roth, T. (1987) Karen Hess (editor), John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York (ISBN 0471856746)

By taking this course, students should:

• Be able to recognize and understand team dynamics in real life work situations.
• Gain an understanding of some steps that can be taken to make teams more effective.
• Understand how diversity, communications, and trust interact in building high performance teams.
• Gain an understanding of the dynamics particular to electronic (vs. face to face) teams.
• Gain confidence in personal ability, as a team leader, to integrate course material into team situations.

Week 1: Teams in today's organizations: overview and introduction.

Week 2: Roles, rules, and styles: determining authority, gaining commitment, common roles on teams, setting up the team.

Week 3: The role of alignment in high performance teams: stages of development, myths, mission, purpose, and culture.

Week 4: Communication and trust: conducting team meetings, building cohesiveness, communicating within and between teams.

Week 5: Managing change to remain future focused: evaluating and rewarding team members, building team momentum.

Week 6: Collective problem solving: using different tools to create great solutions, knowing your problem solving style, benefiting from diversity.

Week 7: Decision making and team work in face to face vs. electronic environments: reaching consensus, when to decide as a team.

Week 8: Creating synergy in spite of conflict and difficult behavior: managing the dynamics of resistance, differences, and conflict.

• 25% -- Lecture/Video
• 25% -- Role Play
• 50% -- Discussion/Case Studies

Assignments:

• Week 1: Buchholz/Roth, Chapter 1; Scholtes, "Types of Teams" (provided)
• Week 2: Buchholz/Roth, Chapter 2 and 3
• Week 3: Buchholz/Roth, Chapter 4
• Week 4: Buchholz/Roth, Chapter 5 and 7
• Week 5: Buchholz/Roth, Chapter 6
• Week 6: Buchholz/Roth, Chapter 8; McIntosh-Fletcher, Chapter 7 (provided)
• Week 7: Buchholz/Roth, Chapter 9; Scopec/Smith, Chapter 8 (provided)
• Week 8: Buchholz/Roth, Chapter 10; Harvey/Drolet, Chapter 4 (provided)

Other handouts and short articles may supplement the above list.

In addition, each student will be asked to provide, on a weekly basis, at least two concrete examples of how they have seen the previous week's topic demonstrated positively in their workplace, and two examples where the topic was demonstrated negatively. For example, following the discussion of communication and trust, students should return to class the following week with concrete examples of positive communication/trust and negative communication/trust issues from their workplace to discuss.

All students are expected to prepare for and participate fully in all class discussions and role plays.