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It takes a lot of work and discussion to get a team to function productively and effectively. Tapping a team's creative power can only happen when team members recognize and value each other's contributions and strengths. In this ebook, Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro(r), will offer great "team building" ideas to help you: Understand the advantages of using teams to solve problems Discover the four "time styles" and the characteristics and behaviors of each Understand your personal time style and graph your team Determine the strengths and liabilities of each style Learn how your team members "tick" and work more effectively together Use supportive, positive communication vs. destructive, negative communication Evaluate your non-verbal signals and what you're "saying" during a meeting You'll realize the impact of your time management style on others. You'll find out how to relate positively as a team member. And you'll hear how to increase the circle of trust and understanding among your team member
Virtual Teams That Work offers a much-needed, comprehensive guidebook for business leaders and managers who want to create the organizational conditions that will help virtual teams thrive. Each chapter in this important book focuses on best practices and includes case studies and illustrative examples from a wide variety of companies, including British Petroleum, Lucent Technologies, Ramtech, SoftCo, and Whirlpool Corporation. These real-life examples demonstrate how the principles identified in the book play out within virtual teams. Virtual Teams That Work shows how organizations can put in place the structure to help team members who speak different languages and have different cultural values develop effective ways of communicating when there is little opportunity for the members to meet face-to-face. The authors also reveal how organizations can implement performance management and reward systems that will motivate team members to cooperate across multiple boundaries. And they offer the information to determine which technologies best fit a variety of virtual-team tasks and the level of information technology support needed.
Since the mid-1970s, pressure from international competition has forced U.S. businesses to look for better ways to achieve and maintain a competitive position. At the same time, public organizations have been asked to produce their services with fewer dollars. The result of these trends has been a growing urgency among public and private organizations to find new ways of reducing their expenses while maintaining or increasing productivity and quality. One popular tool is the self-managed work team (SMWT). How is it different than a work group or short-term team? Which problems compel an organization to create an SMWT? What factors explain successful SMWTs? What must the organization do to develop high-performance, cost-effective teams? In High-Performing Self-Managed Work Teams, Dale E. Yeatts and Cloyd Hyten, Principle Investigators for the three-year National Science Foundation study of the performance of SMWTs, answer these questions and thoroughly examine the most widely accepted theories that attempt to explain SMWT performance. They introduce a synthesis of these theories based on 10 case studies from three different settings: manufacturing, public service, and health care. In an accessible style, the authors lead students and professionals to better understand the theory behind SMWTs as well as the practical aspects of when to use SMWTs to find solutions and how to develop achieving teams. This book appeals to practitioners and scholars in management, human resources, organization studies, industrial psychology, public administration, organizational communication, marketing, sociology, public health, and nursing.
Dr. Brewer presents a complete guide to international virtual team communication with the most up-to-date research developments in the engineering workplace on a global scale, and a problem-solving approach to using and communicating in virtual teams. Presents guidelines heavily based on empirical data Application of virtual team communication guidelines to the field of engineering Provides strategies and sample projects for teaching
A practical guide for building and sustaining top-performing teams Based on the authors′ many years of consulting experience with teams in the public and private sectors, Creating Effective Teams: A Guide for Members and Leaders describes why teams are important, how they function, and what makes them successful. The texts covers the four stages of team development —forming, storming, norming, and performing— to help readers effectively navigate these different phases. Separate chapters are devoted to the responsibilities of team leaders and team members. Susan A. Wheelan, Maria Akerlund, and Christian Jacobsson highlight common problems that occur frequently in groups as well as provide practical tips, real-life examples, and questionnaires to help address those problems.
A popular maxim states that the only constant in business today is change. Whether the result of growth opportunities, new competition, technological advances or other internal and external factors, every business enterprise must manage change. Since the 1980s, companies have experimented with a method for driving change—High Performance Teams (HPTs), work teams that achieve a quantum leap in results in less than a year. Drawing from over 25 years of experience with HPTs, Marc Hanlan traces their history in a wide variety of industries, analyzes the key factors that contribute to success—or failure—and offers a comprehensive guide to building and managing them successfully. Featuring dozens of case examples and a detailed template for translating plans into action, High Performance Teams shows you how to: prepare the organization, select team leaders and members, set goals, accelerate development times, overcome obstacles, and measure results. Including an extensive bibliography and glossary of key terms and concepts, High Performance Teams will become an indispensable resource for business executives and owners, team leaders and members, and facilitators, trainers, consultants, and coaches. For shareholders, customers, and students of organizational behavior, High Performance Teams offers unique insight into the dynamics of breakthrough business performance.
Virtual teams can be traced back to the 1990s with the debauched development of communication technologies as well as the fast extension of the internet. Virtual teams possess unique features allowing them to combine cultural multiplicity, specific tasks, physical remoteness of team members, continuous distant communication, critical interdependence of tasks, leadership, cohesion, empowerment, confidence, virtuality, special trust creation and trust building. For a successful functioning of present-day organisations, they need to employ geographically dispersed labour force. Creating virtual teams functioning across national borders, organisations secure the most competent talent available world-wide. Employing the best available know-how, virtual teams apply the knowledge of experts from various cultures having diverse capabilities as well as varied perceptions on dealing with multiple organisational challenges from strategic perspectives. Compositions of virtual teams operating across national borders alter depending on types of industry, organisation, and organisational unit. International virtual teams functioning across national borders perform from practically everywhere all over the world if there is a secure and constant internet connection. This book is dedicated to offering a comprehensive outlook and analysis of the theoretical and practical aspects related to the creation of virtual teams across national borders as well as the specifics of their implementation. The research, published as chapters in the book, allow the detection of the key aspects and trends concerning the creation and performance of virtual teams across national borders. The book presents topics, not being investigated in-depth so far or not researched at all. The purpose of the book is to fill in certain gaps in the existing research and subsequent publications, referring to a broad variety of issues concerning theoretical and empirical fundamentals of the creation of virtual teams and their functioning across national borders, the role of virtual intelligence in relation to distance interpretation in international virtual teams, geography of virtual teams in relation to digital nomads, communication in virtual teams, creation of communal identity via implementation of virtual teams, tax implications for virtual work among numerous other issues.
Is team-based management best for your business? Will it help your organization meet the challenges of the twenty-first century to cut production costs, increase quality and service, and compete in the global economy? his practical, immensely informative book will help you make that decision. Teams tells you: When to use teams and when not to use them. What conditions must exist for teams to be successful. Which teams are appropriate for a particular situation. How to develop teams to meet the specific needs of your organization.
Teams can be a driving force for organizational performance--and managers can play a key role in teams' ultimate success or failure. Highlighting the latest research on team development and dynamics--and including hands-on tools for improving communication, resolving conflicts, promoting interdependence, and more--this guide helps managers at all levels to motivate teams to achieve higher performance.
