SKILL SET Advise how to develop performing teams TOPIC Team building Course learning objective After completing this course, you should be able to identify the process of team building to develop an effective team. Introduction In this course, we exarnine how teams are developed. ‘A team is a type of group. Whereas a group includes two or more individuals who identify with one another due to cornmon interests and similar traits, a tearn is a group of people who work together on a common project, service, or goal and support each other along the way. A work team is considered a formal group whose membership is norrnally determined by the organisation to carry out tasks, communicate, and solve problems. Although the terms are often used interchangeably, the focus of this topic is on work teams. Therefore, the term predominantly used throughout is team. More detail on the differences between groups and teams is provided in a subsequent topic in this sarne competency area of the programme. Teams go through stages of development. The most commonly used framework for a team’s stages of developrnent was developed in the mid-1960s by Bruce Tuckman, an educational psychologist. This model has stood the test of time, and Tuckman's identification of the four distinct stages of team formation — Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing — continues to be a commonly applied model to build a tearn’s capabilities to deliver results. Tuckman added the fifth and final stage — dorming/adjourning ~ to the rnodel in the 1970s. Let's explore this framework and other prevailing perspectives on high performing teams. Scenario ~Francis Tae You are a trainee management accountant, working at Francis Turner, a clothes retailer. You have been invited to join a small team at the head office that has been brought together to look at how well the organisational brand is performing. The ultimate aim of the team is improving brand performance Your team has been called into the office of Joshua, the chief executive, for an initial briefing. Good morning everyone. | have pulled you all together to look at our brand. | would like to know how it is performing in the marketplace. My initial suspicions are that our brand perception could be better, but | would like some work done to prove that before we take any action. You look around at the group of people collected in the room. You are there to represent finance, and there are also individuals from marketing, sales, clothing design, and merchandising as well as several store managers. It is quite a diverse group, and you wonder how well everyone is going to get on with each other. It reminds you of Tuckman's model According to Tuckrnan, all teams go through the following stages when they are put together. | ) I Forming z Storming y Norming iz Performing Y Dorming! adjourning Forming You note that the team you sit with at present is in the ‘forming’ stage. This is the initial stage of tearn developrnent when people first get together. Roles and responsibilities are not yet defined, and the individuals in the group will be very dependent on the assigned leader for guidance. At this stage, the effectiveness of the team is relatively low.Select the choice(s) that best answers the question below. Question What sort of activities would be useful to optimise the performance of the team at the forming stage? Select ALL that apply. Solution A. Team building activities. B. Conflict management activities. C. Informal discussions within the team. D. Ascertaining the timetable for disbanding the team. Feedback ACor 1m buildirg activities would be approoriate at this point to allow knew one another on a friencly oasis. B Incorr its for 1. It would be unlikely that the group would be exceriencing conflict at this paint in ion, So, conflict marageTert wovlc ret be useful. © Correct. Informal ciscussions wotlc be UsefU! ir terms of builcing relationsnies and krowledge about the project ahead. D. Incorrect, This activity woulc rot be relevant so. rly in the life of tre team.Storming ‘A few weeks pass, and the team starts to work on activities to understand public perceptions of the brand, Useful information is gathered by members of the team, but initial findings cause arguments amongst members of the tearn. IE e @ Conversation Derek Bill Julie Bx Derek (marketing): The overriding message is that our clothes are slightly old fashioned. | think we need to act on this and think about changing elements of the product design process. Once we have completed that exercise, we can think about rebranding with a more up to date logo and advertising campaign Julie (product design): Well that’s typical, isn't it, Derek? It's not your fault then that sales have been falling, It’s the fault of the product designer. You need to think again! Derek: This is not my personal view Julie. | arn reflecting only the opinions we have gathered over the last few weeks. Don't shoot the messenger! Bill (store manager): I've never heard anyone say they don't like the clothes. Are you sure Derek? I've said for years we just need a refurbishment of the shops, | think you're being pushy with your own agenda here. You note that the team appears to have now entered the ‘storming’ stage. At the storming stage, decision making is difficult. Individuals will vie for power and influence and challenge the leader of the tearm and each other. It is essential at this stage that the leader works through the conflicts that arise in the team, using good communication and compromise to reach a resolution Select one choice that best answers the question below. QuestionSelect the appropriate technique to manage Derek, Julie, and Bill through their argument. Solution A. Astructured discussion looking at each individual's point of view. 8. Exploration of Bill's assertions about store refurbishment. C. Investigation of the evidence provided by Derek. D. Listening to other viewpoints about the evidence. E. All of the above. Feedback rect. All the suggestions are reason They facilitate communication, compromise, est oLtcome for the tear. tivities to Undertake ir the storming stage. nd a calm work through cf corflicts to rect. All the suggestions are reasorable activities to undertake ir tre storming stage. Trey facilitate communication, compromise, and a calm work through of conflicts to enerate the best outcome for the tear. Circorrect. All the suggestions are reasonable activities to uncertake ir the storming stage. They facilitate commuricetion, cor promise, anc 8 calm work through cf cerflicts to generate the best outcome for the tear. Lincorrect. All the suggestions are re le activities to unde Trey facilitate comrrunication, comprorrise, and a calm work through of conflicts to generate the test auteame far tre team, ke in the starrring stage. E Correct. Alll the sugges They facilitate cormtnicaticn, compromise, ard a cal generate the best outcome for the team, ions are reasonable activities to uncertake in the storming stage. im work through of conflicts toNorming Six months pass, and your team has established that (as suspected) the clothes at Francis Tumer are perceived to be slightly out of date. It has also been established that a programme of store refurbishment will also be necessary to change customers’ perception of the organisation, The team presents its findings to the chief executive who congratulates the group on pinpointing the issues in the organisation and agrees with the plans to adjust product design, store appearance, and corporate branding. You note that you have now reached the ‘norming’ stage of Tuckmar’s tear model. Things have settled down, and the team is operating well together, Roles have been well defined, and each team member understands his or her role and respects the roles and opinions of others. There is commitment to common goals, and the team is working effectively. Performing A further six months pass, and initial work to change product design has gone down very well with customers. The programme of store refurbishment has been financed and is being gradually rolled out. The new brand will be launched next month, and results are improving across the organisation. You listen with interest to a conversation between Derek and Julie. SD a Conversation Derek Julie Derek: Excellent new designs last week, Julie. Julie: Thank you. | am glad they have gone down so well. Could you run a promotion on social media to support the new look? Derek: No problern! I will get the tearn to work on it this afternoon. Should we run a promotion alongside that? Julie: It would be great if you could!You look back on the arguments Derek and Julie used to have and feel pleased to see such harmony. The team is now in the ‘performing’ stage of Tuckman’s model. This is the most effective stage in the life of the team, The tearn is operating optirnally and confidently. Members of the tear support each other, and goals can be efficiently achieved Dorming/Adjourning Eighteen months have passed since the project started. The chief executive gathers the team one more time. Okay! This will be our final meeting, team. Great work! | am so pleased with what you have achieved over the last year and a half. No doubt we will need to keep reinventing ourselves; but, for now, your work is done. You may all be wondering why | am disbanding the team at this point given how successful you all have been. | guess | am just staying ‘ahead of the game’ as it were—changing things up before you all get too cosy and complacent! But many thanks, everyone. You have done excellent work! You consider the comments about becorning too cosy and note that the team is now in its final stage—‘dorming/adjourning’. The final stage of Tuckman's model was added at a later stage to represent what happens when a team stays together too long, Effectiveness drops as ‘group think’ creeps into activities, and the team fails to reinvent itself within a dynamic environment. Team selection — The nine Belbin team roles This section examines roles within a team and draws on the theory arising frorn Professor Meredith Belbin’s research while he was at Henley Management College in Reading, UK. At its core, it is an inventory of team behaviours. Belbin argued that the composition of a team was extremely important; and that, for a team to work effectively, there needed to be a good balance of skills and personalities within that tearn. He identified nine ‘clusters of behaviour’ in the workplace which he defined as the nine Belbin team roles. Through a personality test, Belbin would allocate one of the nine team roles to each individual. Once the character types were ascertained and roles were assigned, it would be clear what sort of taskswould be well suited to each individual. The assumption was that individuals would be more satisfied and more successful if they were in roles well suited to their personalities. A well-balanced team would have a mixture of the nine character types. Depending on the work to be done, the team may need several people fulfilling certain roles. In smaller teams, it ray be necessary for an individual to fulfil more than one of the roles because a team that lacks one of these functions can struggle to operate effectively. Character types 1, Co-ordinator: Confident and mature, clearly laying out goals and delegating tasks. Can delegate too much and be annoying to co-workers. 2. Resource investigator: Enthusiastic, inquisitive, outgoing, and a good generator of ideas. Can forget to follow up on things once initial interest has subsided 3, Teamworker: Co-operative and tactful, This person diffuses conflict and disagreement and nourishes relationships within the team. The downside of this role is a tendency towards hesitancy and indecision 4, Shaper: Provides the required drive to keep the team moving, Dynamic and challenging, this person is good in a pressurised environment. Can offend people and have quite an aggressive style. 5, Plant: Highly creative, problem solver. Creative and innovative, good at generating original ideas. This person can be forgetful at times. 6, Monitor evaluator: The monitor evaluator personality is logical, rational, and strategic and good at analysing alternative options and providing an objective view. Can be slow to reach decisions. 7. Completer finisher: Good at the end of a task. Skilled at scrutinising the detail of work and adept at quality control. This individual will be conscientious, but sometimes the desire for perfectionism can be too extreme. 8, Specialist: The specialist is often an expert in a particular field. Specialists are single- minded and dedicated, but sornetimes the downside can be too narrow a view. 9, Implementer: This person is a practical, efficient, and dependable organiser. Can be inflexible and lack dynamism Following are a number of characters. Consider which of Belbin's team roles each one most sounds like. © Gerry is a supermarket manager. He is constantly offering new ideas to the head office about how things could be done differently. He is keen to please and has a likeable,gregarious personality. Sometimes he gets downhearted when his ideas aren't immediately adopted and then loses interest in work for a while * Gloria is a saleswoman. She is dynamic and driven and thrives on chasing aggressive sales targets. She likes to beat the rest of her co-workers in the monthly sales, challenge and sees it as het role to set an example and encourage others to be as good as she is, © Bill works as a writer for a newspaper. He is a stickler for detail. He loves to check his work several times before submitting it for publication and is proud of being the only person to hold a zero-errors performance record in his editorial team # Joanne is a nurse. She is extremely well organised and practical, Everything is done by the exact rules prescribed for each task, and her work is very reliable. Raquel is an entrepreneur. She likes to design new products and is highly creative Although her workmates see her as a valuable innovator, sornetimes they get frustrated with her forgetfulness. Improving performance in teams Peter Vaill, Professor of Management at Antioch University in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and an organisational change theorist, looked at what he called high performance systems or HPSs.Clarity Jelling Motivation Vaill’s high performance systems (HPSs) Environment Teamwork Boundaries Leadership Technology He found that high performance systems arose from teams that had certain characteristics: 1. Clear tear purpose - Members of the team know what they are doing and why, and they should know if they are all aiming towards the same goal as set by their tear leader. 2. Motivation, energy, and commitment of tearn members are essential for the effective tear. ‘Teamwork - Members of the team must be focussed on the task in hand. Leadership is strong and clear. Technology, innovation, inventions, and new ways of working are at the core of working Boundaries are set from the environment with rules of operation in place. Naan ow Relationship to the environment — HPSs are often problematic for others, even those who control them, because they live by their own rules. 8, The unique way in which the system comes together Vaill calls jelling.Tom Peters and Robert Waterman wrote the international bestselling book in Search of Excellence. They identified the following five common attributes of successful teams 1, Small - The numbers in the teams should be small so they remain dynamic and manageable. 2. Limited duration - The team should be forrned for a lirnited amount of time and only to resolve one task. 3. Voluntary - To encourage participation and effective working, members should want to be in the team. 4, Informal, unstructured communication - There is little documentation and few status barriers. 5. Action orientation - The tearn should be about action, not words. Scenario me You are a trainee rnanagement accountant at BGB Popcorn, a manufacturer of luxury bags of popcorn in unconventional flavours. You have been placed on a team tasked with launching a new flavour of popcorn Click the folder to review the meeting minutes. Meeting minutes Meeting minutes Attending: Phil Finch, Moharnmed Khan, Sheila O'Brien, Shappi Patel, Mo Furlon, Dez King, Lucy Tweedie, Cheryl East, Wal Johnson, Dee Harris, Sue Long, Sue Smithers, Frank Ranier, Jenny Williamson, Michelle Bage, Dave Kildaire, Tony Wootton, Barry Hil, trainee management accountant The team has narrowed the final shortlist for the new flavour of popcorn down to three. Cheryl East pointed out that she does not like any of the three on the shortlist and mentioned that she has raised this before. Barry Hill seconded this point, noting he doesn't like any of the threeand preferred sweet chilli, Michelle Bage commented that she doesn't like any of the flavours that have been considered and thinks the team needs to go back to ‘square one! Phil Finch moved that the final flavour should be selected by a vote. Results were as follows: Chilli and chocolate: 5 . Caramel and coriander: 6 . Pepper and paprika: 4 Abstain: 4 Therefore, caramel and coriander is selected as the next flavour. Dave Kildaire raised an objection stating that people voting were not as knowledgeable about flavours as he was, and the response from several members of the team was that they did not want to be part of this project and had been forced by their managers Tony Wootton proposed that production be advised to commence caramel and coriander, but Wai Johnson said there needed to be at least one more meeting before that could happen Knowl Group items ky dragging them into their corresponding boxes. Question Based on the minutes of the BGG meeting, this does not appear to be a successful team. Using the the five criteria listed by Peters and Waterman identify whether you think an issue exists in the team at BGB Popcorn. Drag each criteria item to the appropriate category. Solution Voluntary Size of team Limited duration [4] Action orientation (+>] Informal communication [+] Issue No issueKnowledge check feedback Issue © Size of team. This team is far too big for the project in hand, and this causes considerable problems. We can see how difficult it is for such a large tearn to reach consensus regarding the flavour. * Voluntary. We note an issue here because certain members of the team make negative reference to having been ‘forced’ by their managers to join the team. This is likely to cause ongoing issues with motivation and attitude on the team reducing its effectiveness. © Action orientation. We note at the end of the minutes reference to holding more meetings rather than commencing production. Teams that fail to act because of a preference for continual meeting holding become ineffective. No issue ¢ Limited duration. There is no evidence in these minutes of an issue with the duration over which the team has been formed, * Informal communication. There is no evidence in these minutes of an issue with the nature of communication used by the tearn. ConclusionHow do we know if we have an effective performing team? Ultimately, the evidence is in the results of the team, From the perspective external to the team, are they achieving the targets, goals, and objectives laid down by management, the directors, and the shareholders as appropriate? From the perspective internal to the team, we would go beyond short-term results and look at whether the team members were happy in their roles. It is no good having a highly effective performing team in the short term if all the members are unhappy and about to leave. TOPIC High performing teams Course learning objective After completing this course, you should be able to understand the characteristics of high performing tearn. Introduction In this module, we will examine the role of groups and teams and the advantages and disadvantages of groups and teams in an organisational context, including managing virtual teams in today's ‘open workforce! Groups and teams The definition of a group is simply a collection of individuals, A team goes beyond this definition and is a collection of individuals who strive towards a common purpose and work together to achieve a shared goal, Therefore, in a team, generally there is a structure and process that facilitate the members to work together to achieve the shared goal. Formal group A formal groupis created to carry out a specific purpose or task. This may be a short-term task such as working out how to reduce costs in the production department or a long-term task such as the ongoing provision of a finance department. A work team is a formal group. It has a leader and a distinctive culture and is geared towards a final result.Informal group Membership of informal groups is usually voluntary and cores about because of informal decisions by individuals. Examples of an informal group would be individuals who come together, without authority, to improve the efficiency of a process under their remit. Another example could be a few people who support a specific change and who work together as a coalition, Informal groups can very effectively get things done quickly. They can also present a challenge because they exist outside of the formal systern—especially if the organisation's culture is more formal, Part of the role of a ranager is understand when to use informal groups and how to manage them Building better teams How do you do a better job of being a tearm member or leading a tearn? There are specific tools, actions, and behaviors that great team leaders do before setting up a tearn and while the team is together. This video helps you apply some of the science behind teams vs. groups that includes: © The difference between teams and groups (and why it matters) * Common challenges with teams and identify how conflicting goals hamper team effectiveness. © Teaming and teambuilding best practices, @ Review a new team kickoff checklist can help you get a new team started Click the video or the transcript button below, Building better teams You've just received an email corning across your inbox asking you to be a member of a tearn. You say great, you've been on teams before. Sornetimes those teams have worked very, very wel Sornetimes those teams have been less than optimal. As your mind races, you're thinking, what's the difference in what makes a good team versus a not so good team? And how can | be a part of a tear that's great? In the following, the routine key differences between teams and groups are outlined, what makes teams and groups so different, and how to make these teams perform at a high level. You'll alsolearn some common challenges that go on with teams, and tools that are best practices for tearns to work at a very high level Let's first look at the difference between teams and groups. A group is a collection of people who work together, but their tasks are completely independent of each other. For instance, if you're going on a flight from point A to point 8, all the passengers on that flight are a group of people. They're all going towards point B from point A. But whether you missed the flight or whether you make the flight, i's immaterial to the other people in the group. In this case, you have different tasks and they're independent of each other. Contrast that with a team. In this case and in this analogy once again, the flight crew. The flight crew is a team. And each of the members of the team are interdependent of each other. For instance, if the pilot misses the flight or is late, the flight can't take off. If one member of the flight crew can't make that flight, it stands on the tarmac. Groups have independent tasks. Teams have ‘dependent tasks. That's one key difference between a team and a group. Next, let's look at some common challenges that go on within teams. Remember, teams are interdependent upon each other. The first common challenge is the idea of purpose. Everybody has to have a clear understanding of why we are here. What's our purpose? What's our end goal? And what's critically important, is not only knowing what the purpose is but why that purpose is so important for us as a team. The second cornmon challenge in teams looks at the idea of strategy. Strategy is a game plan for how we get and achieve our goals. If the purpose is what, the strategy is how. The third key challenge with teams focuses on the roles. Who is going to do what by when, In teams, you have to have clearly defined roles so that everybody knows what they're doing, how it links with other people, so that you can achieve the same end result, The fourth cornmon challenge deals with all the different types of technology that are out there. Because the question comes up is, especially when you're a new person on the team, is how do | work this thing? Technology can be as simple as our remote. It can be as complex as a customer relationship management software system. It could be the internal ernail system. But everybody must understand how to work the technology. The next common challenge in teams looks at what goes on with communication. How are we going to communicate with each other? What's the frequency that we're going to use in terms of communicating with each other? Are we going to have a consistent way of keeping everybody up to. date? In many cases, this challenge of communication also links with the technology challenge, as mentioned. Operations is another common challenge with teams. Operations focuses on what's the tempo, what's the sequence, what's the frequency, what are the timelines that you have to adhere to in order to meet your end goal or your end deliverable.Another common challenge is the idea of people. What are the skills, capabilities, and backgrounds of the different people on the team? Different people have different expectations. And different people have different sets of capabilities and expertise. How do all of them tie together to make sure that the sum is greater than the number of the parts. And then finally, performance. What does good look like? That's where you focus on the performance metrics, the indicators so that everybody knows what has to be done, what ideal looks like, what good looks like, what unsatisfactory looks like. These are some key challenges with teams that every tear leader and every team member needs to answer either implicitly or more effectively explicitly. When you're working in a team, unless leadership is very clear on what the goals are, tearn members can have conflicting goals. That's a problern, Here's why, Nature abhors a vacuum. Unless there is a clear understanding of what the overall goal is, people in tears are hardwired to pursue their individual goals sometimes at the expense of the overall goal. This idea of competing and conflicting goals happens very frequently unless the leader specifically says here's what's most important and why. Returning to our airline exarnple, let me give you an example of two competing goals. Goal number one is to ensure that everybody gets from point A to point B on time. A second goal is ensuring that everybody is safe, and safely gets frorn point A to point B. In the absence of reinforcing the idea that safety comes first, people on the team may focus on what's best for their individual unit, or best for them individually at the expense of the overall goal So how do you solve this? As a leader or as a follower, you want to ensure that there's absolute clarity on what's the overall goal, You want to be clear on what that goal is, as well as why that goal is so important, The idea of why is a key element of leadership that helps reinforce the purpose, as well as clarifying our roles, our responsibilities, and our overall goals. There are some great tools out there that are evidence-based and research-based on team best. practices. One classic model is this idea of 1, forming, 2. storming, 3. norming, 4. performing, 5. dorming. Here's what those stages mean. In the forming stage, people are coming together initially to look at what our purpose is, what our timelines are, and what our game plan is to achieve the goalIn the second stage, storming, people are disagreeing and there's conflict over the best way and what's most important to accomplish the goals. This storming phase is normal, it's accepted, it's powerful, and it's positive as long as the conflict is focused on the what and doesn't degenerate into attacks on individuals The third stage, norming. Once you've gone through that storming stage, teams come together and say, these are our tules. This is our norms, These are our rules of engagement on how we're going to do this. And so you've got~ from a performance standpoint, you've got forming and then it goes down to storming, and the productivity comes back in terms of the norming, and then it accelerates with performing. People know what their roles are. There's clarity on the goals. You've eliminated or reduced the idea of conflicting and competing goals, and so teams generally perform at a high level there Once the project is completed, we focus on the idea of dorming, which happens after action review, you say, you close it out, and then you're able to move everybody back to where they were before Again, looking at the purpose. Why are we here? Number 2~ looking at the skill sets and the capabilities of the people that are on the team. Diversity is great. You want to have as much diversity as you need in order to accomplish the task within the tea The third, which goes back to the common challenges in teams, operations. You need to have project management experience. You don't need to have formal training, but you need to have project management experience to ensure that everybody knows what the operations are, what the metrics are, and how to get from point A to point B. You also need clarity. Clarity in terms of what the roles are for each member of the team. You need to make sure that everybody understands the direction that you're headed. As mentioned earlier with the project management experience, you need to ensure that there are metrics. You can use this new team checklist to help you prepare for any new team kickoff meeting. The first step, clarify. Make sure that everybody understands what the goals and expectations are for this team. Number 2- clarify what the resources are that you have in terms of time, in terms of finances, and the talent that's on the tearn. And third, look at making sure that everybody understands what the metrics are, and what's in it for us when we successfully complete our task or our project. The second piece of this checklist deals with composition. Make sure that with your composition that you have a manageable size. Groups of between 3 and 5 are ideal because you have enough diversity, as well as having a team that's srnalll enough to be able to concentrate on getting the work done. Larger tearns generally are more challenging simply because it takes so much time to get everybody's input. You want to have as much diversity as possible to ensure that you get the best possible solutionDuring your kickoff rneeting, make sure everybody understands what our rules of engagement are. How we're going to go about working, what's our operational tempo, how we're going to communicate with each other. You may want to look at something as a personal user manual where people share with them how they best work, what their hot buttons are, what their capabilities and their availability is, and ensure that you've got a common meeting time and place on a periodic and frequent basis to ensure everybody is able to stay plugged in. And then finally, after every team meeting, you may want to look at this idea of a plus/delta where at the end of the meeting you say, what did we do well, and are there sorne things that we need to work on during our next meeting to be even more powerful and more effective, which are the delta These are some tools, tactics, and frameworks that you can use to make your team work even more effective. Whether you're leading a tearm or a member of the team, these tools can help you and help your team accomplish the goal Merits of teams Teamwork can create positive results in the workplace. Efficiency, productivity, and synergy Working as part of a team can be more efficient than working alone because several members of a tearn can work on separate parts of a project simultaneously to achieve the objective at a faster pace. Complementary skills and experience can blend beneficially, leading to synergies. This is the meaning behind the expression 2 #2 = 5. Focus When given a task as part of a team, an individual can focus exclusively on that task rather than being overwhelmed by the ‘bigger picture’. However, the tearm leader must ensure that the team's efforts always align and support what the organisation wants to achieve (the bigger picture). Therefore, the team leader will have to remind the team frequently ‘why we do what we do. This will enable the tearm members to focus not only on the immediate task at hand (tearn objective) but also to concentrate their efforts towards the overall purpose that the team supports. Job satisfaction and motivation Teams create a sense of belonging and identity for members. This can increase job satisfaction significantly. Additionally, fellow team members often provide support for each other—offeringtraining and development. Team members may trust each other while working towards a common goal. This engenders a sense of not wanting to ‘let the team down’ Control When a tearm is created, expectations around behaviour and output will also be created, and this can help guide team mernbers in terms of their activities. Activities outside of expectations will be frowned upon by the team, which will lead to pressure to bring behaviour in line with the expected norms. Creative problem solving In the sense that ‘two heads are better than one’, teams can encourage idea generation Brainstorming in teams can set off a chain reaction of ideas, with members bouncing different thoughts off each other given their varying perspectives. Everyone will hold different skills and experience, and these can combine very effectively in a team. However, to realise this benefit, team culture plays a bigger role. For instance, ‘no blame' culture is essential for the team members to try out new ideas Healthy risk taking Although this merit may depend on the risk appetite of an organisation, teams can encourage a reasonable level of risk taking. The shared sense of responsibility makes it easier for a team to take a measured risk than an individual Demerits and teams Generally, although teamwork is considered to rake a positive contribution to the workplace, it can also cause issues The need for consensus With many teams, decisions cannot be made until the team reaches a consensus. This causes two problems, The first issue is the length of time it can take to reach a consensus. The second is that, by continual compromise to reach that consensus, you can end up with an outcome that absolutely no member of the team actually wanted. Therefore, the team leader needs to facilitate the process of reaching consensus so that a collective decision is made without undue delay and without losing focus on the initially desired outcome.Conflict Bringing together different personalities, experience, requirements, and needs can often result in conflict—particularly in large teams, The issue of tearn conflict is considered in more detail later: Conformity To avoid the issue of conflict, tean members can simply just agree with other members of the team on matters for an ‘easy life’. Team members can be scared to speak out or afraid to share their creative ideas if they do not match the direction of the tear. However, the team leader needs to create a culture within the team to safely challenge the direction and process followed by the team. Groupthink common term that somewhat joins the Issues of conflict and conformity is groupthink. This is where the group or team adopts a certain way of thinking and fails to see new ideas or different approaches because they are new and could upset the balance of the team. Operating in groupthink means that good new ideas may be missed, and that evidence may be ignored or missed if it does not rnatch current beliefs, Imbalance Issues with team effectiveness can occur when some members of the tearn do rnore work than others, This can lead to the hardworking tearn members becoming demotivated as the credit and reward are shared with team members who contribute less, This can cause conflict which may take reasonable managernent time to handle while the energy and efforts of tearn members are focussed away from the task at hand. Excessive risk taking Although one of the benefits of a team was that it encouraged a healthy level of risk taking, this can become a disadvantage if the team takes too many risks or operates outside of the risk appetite of the organisation. Additionally, tearns, more so than an individual, may sometimes be more inclined to persist when things are going wrong, Mutual encouragement can lead a false sense of hope and security. Therefore, the teams must be made aware ‘how much is too much’. If not, the disastrous outcomes may outweigh the benefits of taking risks within teams knowledgeGroup items ty dragging them into their corresponding boxes. Question The following is a selection of comments from members of different teams. Categorise the comments as either merits or demerits of teams by dragging each comment to the appropriate category. Solution | think | will doa little extra work on this task because | dor‘t want to let Colin down. [<4] I wasrit sure about expanding overseas; but, because Grace has experience in this area, | think we can give it a go. Ihave learned so much since we starte¢ working together. | dont ike the way we approached this task, but I just darerit say. My manager will be cross. We will get back to you with a decision on that next week. Most members would like product A, but one member is still fighting for product B. Merits of teams Demerits of teamsAd Hoc vs Stable Teams Sornetimes you work in teams for a long time. You get to know the strengths and weaknesses of your tearnmates. Other times, you're are in a situation where you are with a bunch of other people and you need to come together solve a problem quickly with the expertise on hand, then disband after completing the project. How do | lead more effectively with both kinds of teams? What do | need to do to give both the best chance of success? This video outlines common challenges and leadership tools you can use to overcome them in both ad hoc and stable teams © Characteristics, similarities, and difference between stable and ad hoc teams. * Power and impact of transparency and information sharing © Informal project management tools help teams achieve greater results Click the video to begin Ad hoc vs stable teams Sometimes, when you work with teams, you're ina team for a long time. That's a stable team. You get a chance to understand and learn each persor's strengths, their working styles, their hot buttons, and how to work most effectively with them so that the team can accomplish the task, Other times, you're put together on an ad hoc team where you don't know much about the other person, you haven't worked with them, and you're trying to figure things out. How do you, as a leader, lead more effectively with both a stable and an ad hoc tearn? Let's look at three tools and frarneworks that you can use when you're working with both stable and ad hoc teams. 1. Information sharing 2. Teaming hardware 3. Tearning software To illustrate the differences between stable and ad hoc teams, look at this example of a hospital tearnA stable team would be a surgeon and team that focuses in the operating theater. These stable teams have learned to work well together over time. They've gone through, before they get into the operating theater, those five stages that | mentioned in terms of forming, storming, norming, performing, and then dorming, There's also, with these stable teams, the idea of traditional project management. You have a set schedule for when the surgeries occur. Everybody knows their role. Everybody knows who's in charge of ensuring that the instruments are placed in the right way, who hands it to the surgeon, how all these different people in this tearn work together. And because it happens on an ongoing basis, and people leatn to work with each other, that ongoing teamwork just gets more and more effective In contrast to stable teams, follow this analogy of a trauma department in the hospital with an ad hoc team. Ina trauma department, you have a patient that comes in and has to be taken care of immediately, and it's urgent. You have this speed and intensity that you can't necessarily account for The second big difference between the stable team and an ad hoc team is, in this trauma department, you have a great deal of unpredictability. You don't know what's coming in through the door. You don't know the issues that are there. And sometimes you have to bring experts in from outside of the hospital. Sometimes the experts can be there face to face, but other times, they have to attend using technology with telemedicine or video conferencing, The third difference is, in an ad hoc team, you have multiple experts with deep expertise from multiple disciplines. That has great power. And also, at the same time, as a leader, you need to. ensure that everybody's clear so that that power and those multiple disciplines are all focused on the overriding goal. Finally, after the patient has been stabilized, the trauma team, these multiple experts disband, and get ready to start with the next patient that comes in through the door. One key element that you, as a leader, need to focus on, whether you're in a stable or an ad hoc tearn, is ensuring that everybody shares the information. A management and leadership maxim is the idea that you need to rake sure that everybody has the right information to the right people at the right time to ensure our chances for success. Ifyou have the right people, but they don't have the right informnation, they're going to have a sub- optimal solution. If you have the right information, and you're giving it to the right people, but it's not ina time sequence that allows ther to act on it, youve significantly eroded your chances for success Take a look at this example with the orange circles and the gray circles. In the image with the orange circles, you have three people on the team. Each of the people on the tear has very different information as signified by letters. And so there's no information overlap there. This is why it's so important that the right information gets to the right people at the right time.Acao OH Qe ee ee Noinformation overiap ‘AC: Common t al three people between three people BD: Shared by two people EF: Unique to one parson Where this gets more challenging is when people have the assumption that you see with the gray circles on the right image. Because in that right image, you have some information that's shared by everybody, in this case, content or information A and information C. And because people assume that, because they have the same information for those two elements, that everybody also has all the same information, that's a fallacy. As a leader, you need to ensure that you're finding ways to increase that pool of knowledge so that everybody has that same information with the same people, at the right time. So, what do you do, as a leader, to help ensure that everybody has this cornmon pool of knowledge? © First, the biggest drawback is this concept of knowledge hoarding. Knowledge hoarding happens when people say to themselves I've got a secret or, if| share all the information I'm not going to be as useful may be taken off the team, Your job as a leader is to look for information conflict to ensure that everybody has all the information, where you have a deep and wide pool of knowledge * Second, | mentioned teaming hardware. Here's what I'm talking about with teaming hardware. You want to look at what's going on with sizing up the team. In sizing up the team, you're looking at the parameters that you have to work with, so that you can communicate that with your team. You also want to ensure that your team has the needed expertise for your team to be successful © Third, you also need to take a look at some external collaborators that you might bring in, especially as an ad hoc team, on an as-needed basis. And finally, in sizing up, you need to ensure that everybody's clear on what their roles and responsibilities are within the team. Another tool is for you to weave your team into a cohesive whole. Here are four things that you can use to help weave your tearn together.1. Share everybody's professional bios early in the process, preferably at the kickoff meeting. That way, everybody has a better idea of who else is on the team 2. Make sure that you've got a common space where everybody can share the information. This goes back to the idea of ensuring that you have a deep and wide knowledge pool where everybody has access to the right i ‘mation for the right people at the right time. 3, Whenever possible, visit everybody else's offices so they get a chance to host the meeting, 4, If you've got the opportunity, make sure that you carve out some temporary shared spaces where people are actually in physical proximity to each other, when possible, that increases the likelihood of sparks and other great ideas coming together And lastly, a tool with teaming hardware is this idea of project management. Focus on three big tools here. 1. Using that pool of knowledge, how does that translate into project management as to whether something needs to be done sequentially or in parallel? And you also want to make sure that you're reciprocal where everybody has a chance to serve in the role as a project manager and grow their skills in that way as well 2, Let's look at this idea of teaming software, Teaming software basically focuses on the idea of purpose. And this is a role that you, as a leader, have an integral part in, Asa leader, you need to make sure that everybody understands the overarching purpose of our project, of our goal, of our deliverable. And in looking at that purpose, you're asking three questions. a, Question number one - what's the end goal? », Question number two - why is this in goal so important? ¢. And then question number three ~ why are we uniquely suited to help accomplish this very challenging goal? 3. Whether you're working with ad hoc teams or stable teams, you want to instill the idea that your tearm can do almost anything, And that the idea of being able to do almost anything focuses on the concept of fearlessness Here are three elements that you as a leader need to look at in terms of fearlessness. 1. Question number one ~ every person in every tearn asks thernselves, who am | here? Who are the other people here? Will | be able to contribute and fit in? If you can answer those questions and ensure that everybody knows the answers to those questions, this idea of fearlessness in your tear. you'te helping to inst2. The second thing to look at is how you ask questions. Especially early in the stages of your teams, you want to ask the question of, what if we did this? Because when you've got an ad hoc team with multiple experts and rnultiple disciplines, it can easily go down a model of, "this won't work because’ from their own perspectives and individual levels of expertise. You, as a leader, can ask the question, what if we tried this? What might be true? That's a very powerful set of questioning tools for you as a leader. 3. The third element is to look at how you model the behavior that you're looking for with your tearn. You want to make sure that you're asking these questions, what if what if what it? And one final great tool that you can use with your teaming software is look to how to combine different ideas, the idea of "and." When you're working with your team, you say, what if we did this and this second thing? The idea of "and is a very powerful tool at your disposal as a leader. In your career, you're going to be asked to lead both stable and ad hoc teams. This idea of tearing hardware, tearing software, and information sharing are great tools to help you lead both a stable and an ad hoc team. Virtual teams Driven by globalization, advances in technology, and constantly fluctuating markets, organisations are now managing in a new paradigm. This not only involves ‘virtual teams" within organisations, but often involves a complex mix of local and international providers, freelancers, contractors, consultants, and external businesses partners. While there are most certainly advantages to this, new “open workforce” in terms of ensuring a competitive advantage by attracting and engaging the best talent, there are also challenges. For example, performance management, this requires keeping abreast of the cost and quality of external talents, supporting effective decision making and mitigating risk to the organisation. How do | increase the effectiveness of working and leading in virtual tearns? This video focuses on some key tools you can use when you are leading or working in a virtual format. How the location of team members (including time zones and international geographies) plays a factor in virtual tearn success or failure. ‘* Four common warning signs like these can cause a virtual or remote team to underperform, © Key tools from research that great virtual team leaders use while setting up conditions for success with their virtual teams.How to grow relationships in virtual teams and adapt communication tools. Click the video to begin Virtual teams In today's work environment, it's almost a necessity that you work in a virtual team. Virtual teams by their very nature, have some commonalities as well as some differences with stable, ad hoc, and face-to-face teams. Here, we define what virtual teams are and some of the hiccups that sornetimes happen with virtual teams. Then I'll share with you some tools and tacties you can use to be more effective on the virtual team. What is a virtual team By definition, a virtual team has team members that are interdependent with each other who may be in different locations, may be in different time zones, may even be in different geographies. In today's work world, you have people working around the world, on the same team, accomplishing the sane tasks interdependently. But when you're working on a virtual tear, there are some diagnostic tools that you can use to see whether your virtual team is starting to slip in terms of its effectiveness. Let me share with you three big warning signs that you can use. 1. Ifyou see people missing meetings and or deadlines, that's a warning sign. Everybody will miss a meeting every once ina while, but if you see this recurring pattern, that’s a warning sign that your virtual tearn is starting to slow down and be less effective. 2. There's confusion over what the deliverables are and what decisions are rnade. 3. There's uneven participation. Whether you're leading the tearn, or whether you're a tearn member, pay attention to these warning signs. Use these methods to help reduce their effect. 1. Meeting Management 2. Discussions versus decisions. 3. Meeting start time. Let me walk you through each of thern. Meeting Management Don't mix the different types of meetings. You can and should have three different types of meetings on an ongoing basis.One is a daily huddle. It's basically called the 300-second meeting, five minutes. And in those five minutes, everybody is getting together simply to ensure that everybody knows what needs to be accomplished that day. You hold that S-minute meeting no matter what. If it's only one or two people, you still hold it. You want to establish that operational tempo that we'te going to get together for five minutes to ensure that everybody is together. The second type of meeting is this idea of an operational meeting. That generally takes about 45, minutes. Because within that 45 minutes you're looking at, number one, what are the goals? Number two, what are the deliverables? And number three, how close are we meeting to those deliverables? That takes five minutes. Once you've got those five minutes, then you spend the rest of your weekly agenda building off of it. Where are we behind? Where do we need to reallocate resources? Where do we need to provide additional resources? That happens about 45 minutes once a week. And then every month or every quarter, you go into an hour-long meeting where you're looking at, where are we now? Where do we need to go in the future? And then, are we on track to getting there. Discussions vs decisions The second thing that you need to make sure of is that you're ensuring that everybody understands the difference between discussions and decisions, That's where meeting minutes have such a powerful impact. In the last five minutes of every meeting, ensure that everybody knows who is going to do what by when. And what resources, time, treasure, and talent do you want to ensure that everybody has, so everybody is clear on what the next steps are. There are sometimes where you want to simply discuss, just be intentional about it but don't confuse discussions and decisions. Meeting start time The third is a very important but overlooked tool when you've got people in different time zones Change the start time for when the meetings are with different time zones. Just because you may be in the headquarters, or the central office, doesn't mean that everybody needs to be on that time zone. If you have people in the Asia-Pac region, people in Western Europe and so forth, change the order and start tirnes to make it convenient for everybody. That way, yau show interdependence and the fact that everybody is together on a team. Here's another tool that you can use to help grow relationships. And | use the word grow intentionally. Because you cant build relationships, you have to grow them. They take time, they take effort, and they take ongoing care. Here are three things that you can use to help grow relationships. Number one, at the start of every weekly meeting, you can ask people to just share their trip report, where they went, what they learned from the customer, or what they did on that trip. A second tool that you can use is this idea of personal histories. You can have these ice-breaker type activities that help people understand that people are people. Some that | use fairly frequently are, what was yourfirst job? Number two, where you went to school. Number three, what was the first car that you paid for? And number four, what's on your music list with whatever music player that you use? The last tool that you can use in terms of growing relationships is this idea of giving people a sneak peek at new features, and new benefits, and new things that are about to come out, so people get an advance notice of this idea of the sneak peek before everybady else. That promotes tearn cohesion That also produces and contributes to this idea that we're all here together. A second tool that you can use is this idea of over-cornmunicating. You may think that you're saying the same thing over and over and over again, but especially in the virtual team, you've got to amplify emphasize, and over-communicate over and over again. Here's some things to think about. Number one, think of this idea of full spectrum, At the end of every rneeting, determine who needs to know this information. Think those people who are above you in the organizational hierarchy. Think about those people that are your direct reports. Think of your internal, or your external peers. Make sure that everybody knows what's going on The second tool is this idea of ornnichannel. Don't just use email. Don't just use a text. Can be video chat. And it can be face-to-face phone calls, but you want to ensure that you use as many different tools omnichannel as you can The third, when you're over-communicating, especially as a leader, is this idea of practicing muscle spasm, Not muscle spasm, but muscle spasm, And an acronym that you can think of because you want to listen more than your talk, is you want to think of the acronym ‘WAIT.’ Why Am | Talking, These tools, working in a virtual team, growing relationships, and over-communication can help you be even more effective as a team member or a leader of a virtual tear Group items by dragging them into their corresponding boxes. Question The following is a selection of considerations for managing virtual teams. Categorise the items as either advantages or challenges of an open workforce by dragging each item to the appropriate category. SolutionSecuring top talent {+ Contracting for services rather than increasing headcount (+) Aligning team performance with overall objectives. +2) Generational and cultural differences (+f) Team building in a virtual environment (<] Knowledge cf local business environment {+ Advantages Challenges Conclusion A teamis a collection of individuals who strive towards a common purpose and work together to achieve a shared goal. Therefore, in a team, generally there is a structure and processes that facilitate the tearn members to work together to achieve the shared goal. Although generally considered to make a positive contribution to the workplace, tearnwork can cause issues, such as conflict, groupthink and conformity. Recently, virtual teams have become more common within organisations. These teams often involve a complex mix of local and tearn members. While there are most certainly advantages to this new “open workforce’ in terms of ensuring a competitive advantage by attracting and engaging the best talent, there are also challenges. For example, performance management, and effective decision makingTOPIC Decision making Course learning objective After completing this course, you should be able to understand principles for effective individual and team decision making. Introduc} We're good at decision making. The more experience we have, the better we seem to be, Our experience, training, and expertise all serve us well 95% of the time. But on those relatively rare instances (5%) — when stakes are high, when we are inexperienced, or itis our first time dealing with a particular issue — we tend to revert to those tools we are used to and are comfortable with. In this topic, welll cover insights, tools, and frameworks to enable better decision making by individuals as well as teams Individual decision making Our minds can lead us down dangerous paths, following processes that make us comfortable with but lead us to bad outcomes. That's called a decision disaster. How do you improve the quality of critical decisions when the stakes are high, and the outcome is far from certain? This video will focus on three main behaviours that can reduce our risk of making decision disasters * The double-edge outcome of confidence versus overconfidence © The concept of anchoring and adjustment © The concept of looking for information that supports our point of view © Science-based tools and frarneworks to combat cornmon decision disasters Click the video or the transcript button below. Individual decision makingMost of the time we're great at making decisions, but sornetimes when the stakes are high, the issue is complex, or we don't have a lot of information, we sometimes fall back on tools and rules that we've used other times that are successful. That won't help us with these problems. The following shares the science behind what goes on with individual decision making and how you can make even better individual decisions. The following also shares three common decision-making biases that we alll have, and tools that you can use to help reduce their effects. 1. The first is this idea of overconfidence. 2. The second is the idea of anchoring to our initial point of view. 3. The third is looking at evidence that simply confirms our point of view. Let's look at each of these in turn. Let's look first at overconfidence. We, by our nature as a species, are a very confident and optimistic bunch. The more you've been promoted, the more experience you have, the more confident you are in your abilities and your expertise Let me give you a couple of examples of this overconfidence bias Because while we think that we're a very confident group and we are, sornetimes this confidence gets us into trouble. If | ask a random set of 100 drivers, do you think that you're a better than the average driver? Almost every person will raise their hands saying yes, | think I'm a better than average driver When asking MBA students at the start of every class, “if | graded on a bell curve and only 10% of you would make an A, how many of you think that you would make an A in the course?" Almost every hand goes up, even though mathematically that's impossible. This all goes back to this idea that we think sometimes that we're better than we are or the fundamental attribution bias where we think we're stronger, we're faster. The second big cognitive bias that we use with decisions is this idea that we anchor onto our initial estimate. The very first piece of information that we have, we lock onto it, or we anchor to it. And then, we tend to adjust a little bit to the left or to the right, but we don't do it a great deal. It's common to everybody. Let me give you some examples. Consider that you're asked to give an estimate on how much time or how much a certain project is, going to cost. And you estimate based upon what it is that you had, but it was very limited information. Once you do that, it's hard for you to rove off of it even if you've got that newinformation because you're a confident individual, and you don't want to have this idea that you were wrong with the first with the first bit of information. So, you anchor to it. You may see it in budget talks. You may see it in cost estimates. All of these are examples of this concept of anchoring and adjusting. And one of the most frequent is somebody saying, yes, we can get this done rnuch earlier than we thought without fully understanding how much it's going to cost or how long it's going to take. The third decision bias that we all are hardwired with is this idea of looking for evidence that confirms our initial point of view. Just like anchoring and adjusting, we tend to anchor on the first piece of information and then we double down on this idea. So that we look for information that supports that particular idea. It's cornmon, but frequently if you only look for confirming information or confirming evidence, you will run into a decision disaster because we all have limited information And you can‘ do and get as much information as you can for every single problem, so you tend to look for the first and then confirm it. So how do we combat this? First, we must be aware and know that we have these decision biases. They're hardwired into all of us. So simply knowing that they're there can help reduce their effects. You can ask questions like, what if this is not true? You can also document these different assumptions that you have about the problem, and then as you go through these assumptions, you're going back and asking that question. What if this is not true? How will this change what it is that we're doing? One last point. One of the most powerful pieces of advice from a senior leader is when the leader talked about the idea in a group when the boss says, | think the thinking stops. His point is wait and let everybody else on the team weigh in on the situation, or on the problem before you weigh in because the moment you weigh in on it, the moment you say, | think we should do this, the conversation shifts from, let's look at possibilities to let's implement what the boss thinks. We all have these decision-making biases. It's useless to try to root them out completely. What we can do is. be aware of thern so that we can prove our decision making, especially with that 5% where the stakes are high, the outcome is uncertain, and we have very limited expertise. Team decision making Your tearm has people with multiple sets of strengths, capabilities, and perspectives. How do you help your team make great decisions without having strong personalities or points of view derailing the outcome that the team is trying to achieve? This video focusses on powerful and practical frameworks to help you and your team make better team-based decisions.Analyse how our brains are hardwired to quickly make decisions Analyse why people tend to take more risks if they are in situations in which they face the prospect of losing something (and what to do about it) Understand how people tend to anchor to their initial point of view Apply tools that can help you lead your team to make better team-based decisions Click the video or the transcript button below, How to make better team decisions Consider this. You're sitting around a conference room table where your boss is asked you and your team to come up with a solution or recornmendations for a very sticky problem. Those members of your tearn have a lot of experience, expertise, and passion, What are some ways that you can ensure that you're getting the best out of your team to give your boss and manager the very best set of solutions that you can? The following gives you some tools you can use to help increase your effectiveness in leading tearm decision-making We're hardwired to make decisions quickly. And the better we are, the rnore complex decisions are given to us. And because we're good, we want to make those decisions and move on to the next problem or challenge. But with these difficult high stakes team decisions, I'd urge you to step back and look at this diamond where you first look at how do we go about creating choices. How do we widen the aperture? How do we widen the lens? How do we increase our pool of knowledge, before we narrow down and make choices to figure out what's the best course of action? There's a time and place for both. Biases When you look at creating choices before making choices, you create a much richer, robust, and powerful solution set from which to work, There are three additional biases that tend to be more pronounced when you're working in team decision-making, Let's look at those biases, and then let's look at their impact, and how you might overcome them 1, One is the concept of sunk cost. 2. A second is the idea that we're more likely to try to reverse a loss, than we are to try to increase a gain. 3. The third is the idea of escalation or doubling down, Now remember, there's a tire and place to create choices, that's where we flare out and try to widen ‘the aperture. A time and place where we make choices, where we focus. And then finally, where wemake decisions, figure out who has to do what about when so that we can follow through and achieve a great result Here's what | mean by the sunk cost bias. We tend to keep throwing money, time, and resources after a decision once we've made the decision, because we think of it as, we've already put that much time and effort and people against it. If we just do a little bit more, maybe it'll be better. It's almost never the case. Because one of the things that we've seen happen repeatedly in research is that people have this tendency to throw good money after bad because they don't want to be seen as being a poor decision-maker. Ifyou look at professional sports, people who have been drafted high in the draft generally will be thrust into playing time early in their career, even when it's not in the team's best interest because the general manager or the owner has sunk a lot of money into this player. Why is this so difficult? It's so hard for us to be able to step back and say, we did this, it didn't work out the way that we wanted it to. Let's look at doing something else. A second decision-making bias is this idea of loss aversion, And this loss aversion comes from about a Nobel Prize winning study where they talked about the idea of prospect theoty, People have a very difficult time with the prospect of losing money or losing something, That idea of being more averse to loss is psychologically more powerful to us than the idea of being able to gain something It's called cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance means that we tend to want to ensure that we're aligned with what it is that we say and what it is that we do. And whenever they're mismatched, it causes a fair arnount of mental distress. The third tearn decision-making bias is the idea of escalation. We tend to escalate our commitment, we tend to escalate our time, effort, and we tend to be more boisterous and forceful with what it is, that we say. Again, because we don't want to be seen as someone who doesn't make a good decision. Now as you look at these different decision-making biases, you see some overlap between what happens with teams and what happens with individual decision-making. These decision-making biases, again, are hard wired, But you see this escalation most often when we look at this idea of anchoring to our initial estimate, and then making a small adjustment. And if that's not enough, then we tend to escalate our commitment and locking into what it is that we said earlier. Reduce biases What ate sorne ways that you can either, as a team lead or working in a tear, reduce these decision- making biases by teams? One is to look and ensure that you're validating the assumptions. Also, the second tool that you can use is to focus on this idea of, let's discover all the different possibilities. Let's flare out before we make our decision. This goes back to this model of creating choices before making choices. The third is to use this decision mitigation matrix, which is a powerful tool if you're going to look at the benefits and the risks of each possible decisionThe first is validating the assumption. This is a very important tool for both individual as well as team decision-making because it's so powerful. You must document and ensure that the assumptions that you're using are accurate and making the decision with each one, is each assumption true or is it false? And once you make that decision as to whether that's a true or false assumption, what's the effect? Sometimes the effect is minimal. Sometimes the effect is very powerful The second decision-making tool as a tearn, is to ensure that you look at this idea of flaring, creating choices before you look at making choices or focusing. Each has their time and place, but you want, to ensure that you get the biggest effect thinking about what the different possibilities are. Flaring out, thinking about the question, what if this is true or what might be true before you go about deciding which one is which. Notice the sequence. You've got to, especially with these wicked problems, look at as wide a view as possible before you start narrowing down. Once you narrow down and you make the choices, then you're laying out the plan. Who has to do what about when to ensure effective follow through for that project to be completed? There's a time and place for each, there's a sequence for each. Dor't mix up the sequence The decision-making matrix is a tool that you can look at for each of the possibilities that you've laid out. Once you've flared and created choices and you have these possibilities, then you lay them out ina grid ora table-like forrnat where you look at each possibility, jotting down what the benefits and the risks are for each of those possibilities Then the powerful piece of this mitigation tool is then looking at each one of those after you have documented the possibilities, benefits, and risk; what are sone ways that you right be able to mitigate sorne of those risks or amplify some of the benefits Now you've learned a little bit more about sore team decision-making biases, as well as some tools to help overcome them. The idea of the sunk cost bias, our tendency to be more averse to losing than we are to gaining, and our tendency to escalate our commitment are common hardwired decision-making biases, especially in tearns. But some tools that you can use, again, validating the assumptions and their effect and focusing on the idea of flare, open the aperture before focusing and then following through. Those are two very powerful tools. Finally, if you look at the decision-making matrix, where you outline the risk and benefits of each of the different possibilities that you've come up with, and then finding ways to mitigate, frequently comes back to a much more powerful solution set for your manager. That increases the manager's, confidence in you and your team’s decision-making; and that promotes a very virtuous circle.