Learning Teamwork Skills

Learning Teamwork Skills

Listening and Interacting well – Effective teams regularly shift the focus from themselves as a team to the students.

Team Focus

1.         Build team skills.

2.        Improve relationships

3.        Address and resolve conflicts

Student Focus

1.        Identify common goal or problem

2.        Share information

3.        Brainstorm ideas

4.        Evaluate ideas against team criteria

5.        Select and develop solution

6.        Develop an action plan

7.       Implement and monitor plan

If the team is able to divide its focus evenly between the team and the students, these characteristics evolve because of the shift:

·         Positive interdependence and mutual respect.

·         Frequent, focused, face to face exchange

·         The use of process to facilitate communication and shared decision-making

·         The use of methods for being responsible and accountable

·         Team trust derived from trusting one another and being trustworthy

Team Members Basic Communication and Outward Behavior: (These must be practiced and become habitual so to withstand the disagreement and discussions of challenging issues that teams face.)

1.        Attend to verbal and nonverbal behavior; look for your teammates’ responses to your behavior

2.       Listen first, then respond in ways that facilitate the exchange

3.       Avoid interrupting others when they are speaking

4.       Contribute in ways that do not wasted team time

5.       Speak clearly and use a vocabulary that others can understand

6.       Use team member’s name

Strategies for Leading Communication:

1.        State the issue in a way that is without criticism and/or bias.

2.       Encourage and assure

3.       Present tentative ideas as one equal to another

4.        Use agreement or disagreement statements to indicate your opinion of whether another team member is right or wrong.

5.       Use spontaneous humor to relieve tension and create a connection

Questioning Strategies to Facilitate Communication:

1.        Use open-ended questions to encourage people to describe their perspective – these begin with “how” or “what” and allow team members to explain their ideas or explore further.

2.       Close-ended questions need to be used carefully as they can leave colleagues feeling agreed with or rejected.

3.       Use indirect questions to create a cooperative climate. 

4.       Be aware that direct questions may create a non-equitable climate.

Signs of Difficulty:

·         Nonverbal behaviors

·         Rambling, speaking too quietly

·         Overly cautious making conditional statements

·         Team members not acknowledging one another

·         Viewpoints are stated as facts

Bottom line – Team members must pay attention to the ways in which they interact with each other in order to reach their goals without becoming sidetracked by unnecessary hurt feelings, incompatible communication styles, misunderstandings, or disputes.

Establishing shared values

The team must have a set of common philosophical beliefs and shared values.

Examples:

·         We all have equal status and something to contribute

·         We share the same goals and work together to achieve them

·         The student’s needs drive the services

·         All students can learn skills of value

·         Family members must be our partners because they are the constants in our children’s lives

·         We respect and trust each other

·         We make better decisions and accomplish what we cannot accomplish when we work together

Setting ground rules: These are the basic operating rules about time and commitment

This must be done to strike a balance between 1) completing the work or tasks of the group and 2) keeping the relationships among team members positive and rewarding.    Ideas to consider amongst the ground rules are:

·         Attendance – starting on time and ending on time with no interruptions for phone calls or copying

·         Discussion-everyone participates

·         Confidentiality

·         Analytic approach – get the facts so you can make informed decisions

·         Task oriented – all members have tasks and all complete them

·         Constructive confrontation – avoid finger pointing

·         Contribution – all members contribute authentically

Defining Roles and Responsibilities

Create a roles/responsibilities worksheet to be completed early in the teaming process.

Establishing a team meeting process and schedule

1.        What do we want to accomplish in our team meetings?

Examples: assess student progress; develop lessons; adapt curriculum, teaching methods and materials; assign grades; address interaction issues.  An agenda should be established prior to a team meeting and provides the reasons for meeting.  The agenda is reviewed at the beginning of meeting and revisions are made as deemed necessary.  The agenda drives the meeting and can include student-focused items as well as team focused items.  At the end of the meeting the agenda is reviewed and all items left and those that need to be added are placed on the agenda for the next meeting.  Meeting note forms may be utilized.  Good examples in the book.

2.        How will we proceed during our meetings?  At the first meeting, team members volunteer to fill roles that will help the group accomplish their job and allow leadership to be distributed among team members (ex. facilitator, timekeeper, recorder, jargon buster, processor/observer).  Then apply a procedure for how your team will go about the agenda’s business – define, share, discuss, brainstorm, evaluate, select options, etc…

3.       When and how often will we meet?  Because this is built into our master schedule, this has been established.

4.       Where will we meet?  This is tentatively established – meetings will be held in rooms of members who are not self-contained classroom teachers.

Preparing for and conducting team meetings

Initial meetings should focus on things such as redefining the school’s mission into goals that are specific to the team, defining shared values, identifying ground rules, determining member’s roles and responsibilities, and clarifying the teaming process members will use. 

Conducting the meetings

1.        Socialize a bit

2.       Facilitator opens meeting

3.       Assign roles or review assignments

4.       Facilitator leads a review of agenda

5.       Facilitator review action plan and celebrates successes with team

6.       Use team process to ensure structure and focus

7.       Timekeeper watching and keeping track

8.       Other members filling their roles or parts (note taker, encourager, etc…)

9.       Process the functioning of the team

10.   Go through agenda items and discuss, share, brainstorm, problem-solve, etc..

11.   Facilitator closes meeting

12.   Notes are recorded and disseminated to team members

Preparation for the Next Meeting

At the end of each meeting, members will leave with a defined part in one or several action plans.  Team members must come to meetings prepared.  When one or more members come to meetings unprepared, team processing is required.  Issues to consider:

Are team members overloaded with too many competing commitments?

Are team responsibilities distributed unevenly in their action plans?

Do action plans set forth workable and defined responsibilities?

Does everyone agree with the action plan?

 Do the members agree with the general goals and purpose?

Do the members share and operate by a common set of values?

Clarifying team goals

 Teams need to be aware of their purpose and reasons for gathering.