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Presentation on theme: "Team Communication and Stages of Team Functioning"— Presentation transcript:
Slide1
Team Communication and Stages of Team Functioning
TECM 4180
Dr. Lam
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Social Loafing
Occurs when an individual exerts less effort working in a team than if they would have worked by themselves.
Slide6
What causes slacking?
Large teams?
Sort of
…
Lack of peer reviews?
Just barely
Randomly assigning teams?
Not really
All of these factors explain only 4.5% of the variation in social loafing.
About 20 peer-reviewed research studies on these factors alone
Slide7
What else causes slacking?
Communication and team cohesion explain 53% of the variance in social loafing
Slide8
Communication is important…
Slide9
So, where to start?
With media choice
…
It may seem obvious to select a medium that matches your synchronicity needs, but
…
98% of all student communication was through email (Lam, 2013)
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Media Synchronicity Theory (MST) (Dennis, et al., 2008) synchronicity as a predictor of communication performance
Synchronicity is defined as a “state in which individuals are working together at the same time with a common focus.”
MST focuses on the capability of media to support synchronicity
.
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Transmission velocity- How fast will the message get to the receiver?
Parallelism- How many transmissions can be sent simultaneously?
Symbol sets- what are the different ways of encoding a message?
Rehearsability
– Can you edit or fine tune a message before sending it?
Reprocessability
- Can you retrieve a message again in order to process the information further?
Slide13
Let’s Practice
What is the transmission velocity of the
following?
Phone call?
Face-to-face meeting?
Text message?
Chat or IM?
Email?
Discussion board post?
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According to MST
There is no “best” medium
Texting isn’t better than IM or email, for example
Instead there is a “best fit” for certain situations
This is especially important when you think about communicating with your team members
Remember, almost ALL students default to email. While email is a great “fit” for some instances, it’s not for others
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How to determine “fit”
Consider your feedback needs.
Do you need immediate feedback?
Can you wait to have a discussion?
Consider the communication context.
Is it new information that requires considerable discussion?
Is it familiar information that requires less discussion?
Consider social circumstances.
Have you agreed upon using certain mediums for certain tasks?
What is appropriate? (Is it 4am and a text would wake up your teammate?)
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Step 1: Considering your feedback needs
If you need Immediate Feedback, consider a synchronous medium
Text message
IM/Chat
Phone call
Video conference
Face-to-face meeting
Other?
If you don’t need immediate feedback, consider a less synchronous medium
Email message
Social media message
Discussion board posting
Other?
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Step 2: Considering the Context
What are the characteristics of the communication process?
Is it new and complicated?
Use a medium that allows you to have a detailed discussion (e.g., face-to-face, video conference, IM)
Is it familiar information?
Use a medium that doesn’t require as much set up time (e.g., texting)
Do you need to record the content for a later date?
Use a medium that allows for recording (e.g., avoid phone or video conference)
Mixed situation?
Consider multiple mediums. For example, send a text and then a follow-up email.
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Step 3: considering other social factors
Have you agreed on a particular medium?
If you’ve agreed to use
gchat
for group discussions, then use it. However, you may have to use an additional medium that can notify everyone to join
gchat
(like a text).
What are the social norms?
E.g., Is it appropriate to initiate a video chat at 2 AM?
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Let’s look at some examples
Consider synchronicity needs, communication process, and other social factors.
Scenario: It’s 6pm on Thursday afternoon. You won’t see your group again until the next Monday. You want to make sure John is almost done with the outline that is due on Monday.
Answer
the following:
Do you
need (or want)
immediate feedback?
Is the information complicated or simple
? Should it be saved or recorded?
Do you know what medium John prefers or will most likely use?
Based on those answers, what medium did you choose?
Slide20
More examples
Consider synchronicity needs, communication process, and other social factors
.
Scenario: It’s
9pm
on
Sunday afternoon
. You won’t see your group
until Monday
. You
want to contact John so that you can get the outline and edit it before class Monday.
Answer the following:
Do you need (or want) immediate feedback?
Is the information complicated or simple? Should it be saved or recorded?
Do you know what medium John prefers or will most likely use?
Based on those answers, what medium did you choose?
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Even more examples
Consider synchronicity needs, communication process, and other social factors
.
Scenario: It’s
1 hour after class just ended. You have met with your group and divided all the work up until you meet again in two days. You suddenly realized that no one has volunteered to complete the audience analysis.
Answer the following:
Do you need (or want) immediate feedback?
Is the information complicated or simple? Should it be saved or recorded?
Do you know what medium John prefers or will most likely use?
Based on those answers, what medium did you choose?
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Final example
Consider synchronicity needs, communication process, and other social factors
.
Scenario:
Your final project is due Monday. It’s Sunday afternoon and you need a group decision on the final report. Each team member has a different section and you are in charge of putting all of the sections into one single document.
Answer
the
following
:
Do you need (or want) immediate feedback?
Is the information complicated or simple? Should it be saved or recorded?
Do you know what medium John prefers or will most likely use?
Based
on those answers, what medium did you choose
?
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So, what’s this Slack thing then?
It’s a tool for team communication
Caveat: It won’t solve your team communication problems
BUT, it does have capabilities of several mediums all-in-one
Rehearsability
– Write and edit messages before sending them
Reprocessability
– You can search and find all messages within slack
Slack shouldn’t be the only way your team communicates
Face-to-face meetings are essential
Phone call should still be used for urgent/time-sensitive messages
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Slack terminology
Public #channels- These are topic-specific forums that anyone on your team can participate in (note: whoever creates the channel needs to invite the rest of the team)
r
esumes
pm-documents
d
rafts
f
inal-deliverables
Private Channels – Topic-specific forums that are between only specified parties
Direct messages – One-to-one communication between you and another team member
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Stages of Team Development
Provide us with a framework for team progress
Is not absolute truth for all teams
Help us make sense of team productivity and individual behavior
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Tuckman’s Stages of Team Formation
Image from: http://
www.mspguide.org
/tool/
tuckman
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Let’s Form
Team Charter – Due Monday, February 1
See course website for template
Work Breakdown Structure and Project Schedule due Monday, February 3
