The Key Objective Of A Great Facilitator

Creating Effective Teams: a Guide for Members and Leaders is a book by Wheelan (2013) designed to do as the title states; guiding members and leaders to create effective teams. Wheelan (2013) begins the book by highlighting the reasons that groups are important. Wheelan (2013) states that throughout history, “Groups have played a major role in both the survival of human beings and the development of human culture” (p. 1). The majority of the book is based on 4 stages that create a group of individuals into an effective team. The first stage is called dependency and inclusion. According to Wheelan (2013), the first stage of the group is

Team members must also be respectful of one another, welcome diversity, and establish both trust and accountability within the team. All team members must be willing to decide how they will work together by jointly developing a code of conduct, ground rules, or team principles. These should support the team mission and drive the team toward accomplishing its goal. Banutu-Gomez (2011) indicated, “Also, all the members of an effective group need to be committed to the group’s ideas, goals, and decisions or the team will be unable to get any work done” (p. 60).

Whether groups are formed for social or task oriented purposes, the ability to produce and maintain a sense of affiliation, peer support and collaboration is important for overall group functioning. The cohesion of a social group is produced through the establishment of a set of group norms, which are later defined as a guide for conduct accepted within a group of individuals. However, in order for a group to perform and produce results, the team leader should guide his/her team through the proper stages of group development, which includes the following steps: forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. Although teams should follow all these stages of group development, the forming and the norming stages are the most important,

| “The top 10 features of an effective team are: * clear purpose; * open communication; * constructive conflict; * effective problem-solving and decision making; * defined roles, responsibilities and accountability; * strong relationships; * systems and procedures; * experimentation and creativity; * measurement and self-assessment; * shared leadership.” For a team to be effective, they need to have clear

Wheelan (2013) provides many good examples of what to do in certain circumstances that deal with safety and inclusion, conflict resolution, identifying roles and responsibilities, and fostering esprit de corps during group development. In addition, she identifies the positive traits that should be displayed by both team members and team leaders alike such as involving other members in the leadership of the group and actively participating in achieving objectives.

During the group work in the course it was apparent that a few traits stood out that would help a leader effectively lead the team. First, the leader must understand the project and be able to communicate that to the team members to improve commitment and ensure quality. Second, the team should have common goals as we set forth in our team charter. This provides measurable metrics which will help identify if the team is effective. Third, accountability is a priority from the very beginning. Everyone needs to know their part and the consequences if they are unable to meet the expectations set out by the group. Lastly, the leader must be able to create an environment of open communication to enable team members to give and receive feedback that will enhance the quality of the project.

The selection of a team leader is of key decision that can have a great impact on the overall success of a team. A good team leader should be able to build and maintain team morale, instilling confidence and trusting in other team members allowing them to work together to achieve the teams goals (Llopis, 2014). The ability to understand the stages of a team and provide the guidance to all members is essential. The stages of forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning (Abudi, 2010) are a helpful framework for recognizing patterns during team conversations and the understanding that team development may not always be linear. The aptitude to walk the team through these stages and ensuring they understand the development of the team and why things are happening in certain ways is an important part of the self evaluation process. Having ways to identify when certain behavioral patterns are occurring and a way to then cause changes to the team behavior can help the team maximize its productivity.

Reid Hastie, in his book “Wiser,” discusses many of the common points of how groups succeed and fail mainly due to group think. Throughout his years of research, he found a number of attributes that effective teams have in common. From his book, we have extracted ten important lessons that we believe are the most important for teams to learn and implement to be high performing. These findings also relate to the “5 Dysfunctions of a Team” that are outlined by Patrick Lencioni. Teachings taken from “Wiser” are symptoms, or indicators, of dysfunctions within a team, and many of his solutions help teams to overcome certain dysfunctions.

Talented collaborative leaders are created of a combination of traits. A good leader is someone who communicates well and is honest with their peers. For instance, he/she tells them when they are wrong and how they could improve. Not only does a leader tell their followers when they are doing wrong but also gives motivation by providing them with positive feedback. A successful collaborative leader needs to have power to influence other people's action, values, beliefs, and attitudes (Northouse, 2016). It is important for them to not become bossy and to treat every member equally and with respect. A leader should leave stigmas behind, be loyal, and be respectful. Being involved and knowing how to manage everything is important in order for he/she to make the group environment safe in were all the

In leadership, leaders get his power from his group members. He proceeds in this position at the pleasure of members in his group collectively. The position of leadership exists in most settings regardless of group size. For instance, a leader of national or universal standing has vast influence over an expansive number of individuals while the influence of small group in a company is extremely constrained. Both are leaders in their own right and satisfy our definition of

Group norms are the rules or guidelines that are established by a team which shape the work and interaction of each team member within the organisation and external to the group. Team norms can be developed early in team meetings or evolve over time and norms can added as and when the team deem it necessary for additional guidelines; teams will often find it more effective to start with an intial set of norms to review and modify or create extra norms over time. Once the team norms have been developed they can be used as a guide for team behaviour, this means that teams can assess how theirs or others behaviour is impacting the success of the team; if the team establishes norms which are appropriate for their team it can benefit their team discipline. As the rules of the team are established so are the boundaries, the team members can be aware of what is expected of them as a apart of the team and the agreement also identifies that each individual has been accepting of the guidelines so there is no excuses as

Realizing that a group can become a high performance team is important. Accomplishing this goal is invaluable, advantageous and profitable. Once able to operate from a group to the high performing team is a great step into preparation into the big business world. Leaders and members must also realize not only how to accomplish this but that some problems will and can arise from different demographic characteristics and cultural diversity. That is if one is in such a group, which the probability would be quite high.

In management a big part of success is having team work which includes both leaders and followers. A group with all leaders will be very unsuccessful. A group with all followers will also be very unsuccessful. Every successful group has to have a mixture of leaders and followers. In our book, work teams are defined as a small number of people with complementary skills who hold themselves mutually accountable for pursuing a common purpose, achieving performance goals, and improving interdependent work processes. A part of a work team is the leadership position which is defined as the process of influencing others to achieve group or organizational goals (Williams, 290). When looking at a work team there has to be a leader, and followers because it makes the team stronger. Businesses want to be strong and successful which can be accomplished through teamwork.

Dyer, W.G., Dyer, W.G., Jr., & Dyer, J.H. (2007). Team building: Proven strategies for improving team performance, 4th edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

The science of team building is an art. The uncontrollable variables are people. Just putting a group of talented individuals together for the sole purpose of goal achievement can be met with disastrous results. It can leave individuals left feeling unfulfilled and lead to costly mistakes in the long run. While team building can be considered an art, there are some methods and approaches that can assist with successful builds. While no approach is full proof, taking time to acclimate oneself with human