Team Efficiency

by Eric Vanlanduyt & Xavier Denoël

Content

The difference between a team and a group of people who collaborate lies essentially in the results obtained. The results of an efficient team are always more than the sum of individual efforts.

This synergy remains very theoretical as long as a member of a group professes different conceptions and objectives, without dialogue or cohesion, and usually rallies around majority opinion or that of an authority.

The objective of this module is to create a framework that can generate:

1. The integration and application of the principles of functioning as a collaborative team:
   • Open communication and a climate of respect where everyone’s contribution can be considered as being important;
   • A shared motivation towards reaching common objectives;
   • A collective capacity to renogotiate the stages and timing for reaching these objectives.
2. Individual experience that enables each participant to improve his/her attitudes and team behaviour, especially in delicate situations.
3. Better awareness and recognition among team members, which enable them to be able todevelop a climate of cooperation.
   • The ideal composition and conditions necessary for team efficacy
   • The main problems encountered in working in a team
   • Providing direction for a group: defining the vision, purpose and means
   • Attitudes of confidence and dynamism: the point of departure for efficacy
   • Pitfalls of competition and urgency: paralysing factors
   • Contribution of and necessity for feedback in a group: communicating without putting people on the defensive
   • Moving on from functioning to the spirit of the group: useful indicators
   • The indispensible functions: production, facilitation and regulation
   • Phases of maturity in a group and their regulation
   • The characteristics of efficient and inefficient groups
   • Maintaining the cohesion and productivitiy of the group by adopting a fair attitude towards less dynamic members or those more resistant to common objectives.
   • Personal profile and working in a team: the Belbin test

Pedagogy

A largely dynamic and interactive day, based on action learning.

Theoretical aspects are reduced to a minimum and systematically introduced through games and exercises.

Integration by feedback during de-briefings.

Initiation to the Métaplan method.

Structured exercises emerge from the group dynamics