Working Together

Teams

"A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable." (p. 45)

    - meaningful purpose
    - specific performance goals
    - common approach
    - complementary skills
    - mutual accountability

Working Groups

"Working groups...come together to share information, perspectives, and insights, to make decisions that help each other do his or her own job better, and to reinforce each other's individual performance goals and accountabilities." (p. 89)

from "The Wisdom of Teams" by Jon R. Katzenback and Douglas K. Smith

Meetings

come in various "flavors". One list:

    Informational--disseminate data, facts, decisions, and policies
    Validational--announce decisions and gain assent
    Planning/Strategizing--long range planning
    Problem Solving/Decision Making--short term
    Staff Conference--Progress reports and coordination
    Feedback/Evaluation--Performance against schedules and plans
    Training--education.  expand knowledge or improve skills
    Celebrational--enjoy it

from "Meeting Management" by David R. Nicoli, in The 1981 Annual Handbook for Group Facilitators

Group Effectiveness

In looking at group effectiveness, we can look at three major dimensions:

Informational

- does the task (or tasks) lend itself to discussion?
- is the group prepared?
- how well does the group "tear apart" issues? (i.e. is there productive conflict, questioning, and exploration of alternaties?)
- how well does the group come to closure on issues? (I added this item--but I think it goes naturally with the previous bullet)

Procedural

- does everyone get a chance to participate?
- how well do things get done?
- are there summaries and restatements of group activities to make sure everyone understands?
- does the group make sure that people listen to each other when conflicts occur?
- does the group relieve tension in a reasonable way? When people don't know what is expected, does someone explain to them without putting them on the spot?

Interpersonal

- Is there positive reinforcement within the group?
- Is there solidarity?
- Is there cooperativeness?
- Is there respect toward others?

based on http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~corona/meetings/eval.html I have made some modifications.