Unity of Purpose — All Teams

1.   Unity of Purpose — All Teams

Why does your team,exist?   Are you trying for the Guinness World Record for the
largest assembly of musicians in one place? Are you a soccer team, band, junto, task force, committee, project team, Navy Seal Team, or political party?  What is the purpose of the team? Asking this question, and getting clarity leads to discussion and definition of the team’s goal and/or mission.

The “end state” of the goal or mission must be clear. To win an election on November 4^th, 20XX is an example of a clear goal,with  a precise date.  It is a “brick wall” end date.  It cannot slip. You may also set a time-specific goal that will change. If you goal is to sell 10,000 tee shirts to a particular client by next week, and then the client suffers a heart attack, you will need to change the goal.

For other efforts and endeavors, the date of accomplishment cannot be estimated precisely at the outset. To make a decision about a suspect’s innocence or guilt is the mission of a jury in a criminal case.  The jury works as a team to discuss the details of a case and then make its decision. It may take hours, or it may take days or weeks.  A research project has a mission to find a cure for AIDS.  The team will attempt to find the cure as soon as possible, but a specific date cannot be estimated with precision.

 To help in unifying your team:

• Understand the requirements and scope of the effort.
• Help to plan the project and define the goal or mission.
• Help the team stay focused on the goal or mission.
• Update and revise the plan and goal as you go.
• Find out the completion criteria and acceptance criteria for the effort.
• Be sure there isa written  agreement or formal contract.

How To Measure Team Success

12.Success Measures
How will you know if your team is successful? A marriage that lasts fifty years or more is thought of as a successful marriage. Thunderous applause at a concert would be an important measure for a musical group or a theatre group. For a show, the dress rehearsal provides a critical milestone and measure of the success of the rehearsals. It shows the players how close they are to perfection shortly before opening night. Then, if more time is needed to learn lyrics, lines, or chords you will need to spend more time practicing.
To reach your goal or mission, you and your team need a sense of being on course while you work. What are the success criteria? Do you know how success is being measured on your current effort? If your goal is to win an election by winning several key states, how are you doing in the polls? The team needs to identify the incremental steps that will get you to victory in the election.
For some team efforts a certain range is acceptable. For example, there is an acceptable range in variation for the thickness of a chocolate bar, a type of quality measure. Both measures–an explicit goal and an acceptable range, work best when described as binary measures: Did we meet the criteria or not? Are there intermediary steps? For example, a theatre group has learned the singing and dancing for three songs out of twenty.
Ask team members to report progress on their individual AND combined efforts. How do individuals on the team determine their success? On a project team, team members are assigned particular activities that are estimated to be complete by a particular date.

To measure your team’s success:
• Discuss what should be measured—and when and how. Either the measure is met—or it is not. Sometimes this means that the measure has an acceptable range of variation, for example within a certain timeframe.
• Understand the success criteria and quality measures.
• Make progress reports available that show progress toward your goal.

Your comments invited.

Best wishes for a Happy Holiday Season!

Teamwork in Ten Days is available as an ebook!

This self-improvement book is for job hunters and those on any type of team.

Teamwork in Ten Days: Building Teams in the Arts, Sports, Business, and Government is now available at Smashwords. com for only $9.99, and can be read on any reader: kindle, nook, etc!

To order and download your copy, go to:

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/104440

It consists of four chapters:

Chapter One: Teams are everywhere, from a knife-throwing act to a marriage, bands, groups, orchestras, combos, theatre groups, juntos, sports, teams, committees, project teams, task forces, etc. Introduces the twenty characteristics of successful teams, and exactly what you should do as a teammate.

Chapter Two: Successful Musical Groups and Theatre Groups provides the dynamics of these groups and the same twenty characteristics of successful teams, from their view, and how-to info for each one. Team Assessments and Action Planning included.

Chapter Three: Successful Sports Teams, briefly describes the team dynamics of baseball, football, basketball, hockey, lacrosse, and soccer, and describes the same characteristics and what you should do as a teammate. Team Assessments and Action Planning included.

Chapter Four: Successful Teams in Business and Government, describes a successful project team at New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc. Describes group dynamics, social networking, collective intelligence, crowdsourcing, etc., as well as the twenty characteristics of successful teams in business and government.  Assessments and action planning included.

Fun and Humor in a Band or Theatre Group

10.  Fun and Humor

“If we couldn’t laugh, we would all go insane.” Jimmy Buffet

We all make mistakes. Depending on the circumstances, perhaps during rehearsals, or at an informal private concert, some mistakes may arouse laughter. This is ok if it’s the
“been there, done that” type of laughter. Cruel or demeaning humor, or laughing at your bandmate, is not ok.

We need to be able to stay loose, and laugh at ourselves sometimes. It shows maturity. It also means keeping things light, and controlling your temper. Though we always want to
do a good job when we are performing, it is important to remember that performing should be fun.

Bob Healey, A director of theatre groups directed a play that included a skeet shooting scene in which an actor had to shoot blanks from a gun. After one of the actors shouted “PULL”, the actor fired the starter pistol—but it made NO SOUND! The first actor again shouted “PULL”, but the gun was jammed, and again made NO SOUND! On the third
shout of “PULL”, and NO SOUND, the actor made the sound effect SCHKKKKEW! —And the audience broke into laughter.

After you have performed with the same performers for many years, a level of comfort develops. Spontaneous humor occurs. My former bandmates still perform regularly, and once in a while I join them. We were playing some old classic rock songs and old blues songs at an informal party for friends and family several years ago. We were all trying to
recall songs we had played in the past, and of course some renditions were tighter
than others. The ends of songs were determined on the spot by a head nod, or a wave of a guitar. After a couple of slightly sloppy endings, we ended the fourth song very gracefully. I got a laugh from the audience and the band with a simple statement: “Hey—that was our best ending yet!” It worked because of the informality of the party. It might not work for a conductor of a symphony orchestra to say that after performing a piece.

To promote a loose and comfortable team atmosphere:

• Be willing to laugh at yourself.
• Don’t take yourself too seriously. Performers need to be perfectionists–but
  not maniacally obsessive, or uptight.
• Avoid humor that is cruel or demeaning.
• Stay loose.

To promote a loose and comfortable team atmosphere–business and gov

10. Fun and Humor on Business and Government Teams (Excerpt)

“With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die.” Abraham Lincoln

Laughter has repeatedly been shown to improve our health and well-being. Humor
contributes to group cohesiveness. It keeps us loose.

Teambuilding sessions are often used during a project to give the team a break, to have fun, and to strengthen relationships. On one project, our department manager decided
we needed a little break, and invited the whole team out to go bowling on a Friday afternoon. We were told on that Monday that we would be bowling on  afternoon. Just that announcement made that whole week happier and more comfortable! Most people were looking forward to having fun together, even though several people from other countries on the team had never bowled before! Then on Friday afternoon we DID have fun together, and we learned the names of other folks on the team that we did not work with directly. Those who were more experienced gave pointers to the newbies. We cheered for one another. We high-fived everyone who rolled a strike (knocked all the pins over). We
actually continued those high-fives during the next week!

Acceptable humor does not include making fun of someone, unless it is oneself. Inappropriate sexual humor has been found to poison the work environment, and may show that certain women or men are not taken seriously. It could indicate that the object
of the humor has little if any chance of promotion. This kind of humor has crossed the line into sexual harassment, because it makes the work environment uncomfortable. Racial, ethnic, and age humor can also be offensive and poison a work environment. In 1987, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued guidelines that advised employers that derogatory remarks and joking about a person’s age might violate the law. Focus instead on what we ALL have in common, we ALL make errors—do this, and you will never run out of material!

To promote a loose and comfortable team atmosphere:

•  Poke fun at yourself. Be able to laugh at yourself.
• Show your sense of humor. When things go wrong, try to find some humor in the
  situation that will set the team on a positive course.
• Find ways to have fun together.
• Avoid any type of age-related, sexual, racial, or ethnic humor that may be
  offensive.
• Avoid pranks that are malicious, or that damage a person or property, such as
  chair-pulling.
• Respect your teammates and know which topics are off limits for humor.

Steve Jobs Approach to Teamwork

Steve Jobs was a visionary, and provided the type of leadership to Apple employees and others that is legendary.   This is an excellent article.  Check it out.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/10/the-steve-jobs-approach-to-teamwork/

Tom

 

Teamwork for Teachers

Folks,

As we all know, the USA needs to improve our education system. Teamwork is already taught, and used in many if not most schools, but improvement is certainly needed.  If you are a teacher and know a teacher, pass this site on to them.

http://www.ndt-ed.org/TeachingResources/ClassroomTips/Teamwork.htm

Thanks,

Thomas Charles Belanger

Author of Teamwork in Ten Days: Building Teams in the Arts, Sports, Business, and Government.

 

 

To promote a Loose and Comfortable Team Atmosphere (Excerpt)

10. Fun and Humor for all teams (Excerpt)

Nothing loosens people up like a good hearty laugh. This means sharing humor that most will enjoy—but never making fun of someone unless the person is “in” on the humor and willingly accepts it. Humor reduces tension and helps pull the team together. Instead of laughing at someone else, try self- deprecating humor, which is laughing at oneself. This kind of humor is unlikely to upset someone else.

Cartoons can easily be found on the Internet for any topic. Every day, newspaper print and online editions show cartoons that poke fun at every topic imaginable. Keep your eyes open, and cut them out or create links that you can use when the team meets. Cartoons are great as icebreakers at the beginning of a meeting, and can usually loosen up a serious group.

Do your part to keep the atmosphere of the team light and not unnecessarily serious. Sometimes, at a tense moment, a touch of humor immediately sets the team at ease. You do not have to be a back-slapping joke teller to share a laugh. Saying something
as simple as: “Maria called me today—you should have heard what she called me!” invites
laughter and loosens up the group.

Teams have found many ways to have fun together, whether at work or at a separate event, such as a pizza party. Some go out for drinks on Friday night. Some teams celebrate all of the team birthdays and company anniversaries that month. Some have a “baby picture” day. Others have a beach outing or bowling event or Halloween party, with a costume contest.
Look for ways to share a laugh together. Get to know the “outside of work” person.

To promote a loose and comfortable team atmosphere:

• Look for cartoons that are appropriate for your team, and show them.
• Be on the lookout for anecdotes that are appropriate.
• Be willing to laugh at yourself.
• Look for humor in challenging situations. This often leads to creative solutions!
• Participate in team-building exercises.
• NEVER use hurtful humor, or humor that could be interpreted as being discriminatory toward any individual or group.
• NEVER use humor that can be interpreted as sexual harassment.