HCMP High-Performance Team Assignment Sample

• Subject Name : Management

Case Study: Starlite Organization 

Contents 

Introduction

The scenario of the team 

Reasons for failure in a team

Stages of team assessment

My role in the team

Action Plan

DACI – Decision-making framework

Roles and responsibilities 

End to end demo

Accept differences 

Change management aspects 

Improve communication

Create a good working environment 

Enhance Collaboration and cooperation 

Team with High performance 

Ways to increase the performance of team

Conclusion

References

Introduction

I recently joined the software development team at Starlite organization. It is an information technology company and my role is to handle the team and ensure that each of the team members performs well. Managing a team is not a very easy task as the team goes through definitive stages during the development phase. And the very first challenge for me to create an action plan for my team is to identify where does my team stand and which techniques I can adopt for increasing the performance of my team. When I joined the team, I was very excited, a bit nervous and curious at the same time. But slowly I get to know people and then I was elected as a team lead of the software development. There came a lot of responsibility under my shoulder as I have to manage the entire team and even assess where my team was and which techniques I could use to make the team members perform(Largent 2016). A team cannot become effective overnight. It is a process which requires utmost care and knowledge. If the team fails to build a solid foundation the consequences are to be experienced by the organization. My role in the team was to assess all the others and assign them work, resolve conflicts and increase the flow of information among all. Being the team lead I had to assess the team on every aspect.

A scenario of the team

I started assessing on the basis of the scale and I realized that the team members know each other well and I always communicate to the team members that what they need to perform. The communication between the team member is open and I have given them the liberty to take on different roles. Despite the freedom, the team lacks in collective desires. Each member of the team thinks in individually. It is due to this reason team fails to reach the goals. This arises conflicts in them and this is why the team fails to complete a project effectively. We were given a project to create an e-commerce application for our client. I distributed the work to each of the members that who will design the wire who all will be working on the coding part and so on. Despite assigning the work there were clashes between the team members. They were not ready to accept the idea of each and other and because of this, the team lacked in giving a demo application to the client. The team did not have the power of unity. The difference of opinions was creating conflict(Marin et al. 2018). I even realized that some of them were not intentionally doing that but I was having an impact on the team's performance.

Reasons for failure in a team

The essence of working together as a team is missing. The team members do not have trust over one another even the morals of being in a team is not present. There is no cohesion between the people. They are not ready to accept and only take care of their appreciation. Diversity in the team is another problem(Aggarwal et al. 2019). People are not able to share their views and have a different way to handle things. Due to diversity, people are not able to communicate with each other properly. It is because of this reason the team is to committed to the goals. Even the team goals are not yet clear to them.

Stages of team assessment

This incident helped in identifying on which ground the team is right now and I found that there are five stages of the team development. These include forming, storming, norming, adjourning and performing. The very first stage is known as forming stage. During this stage, the orientation of the team is conducted so that team members get acquainted with each other(Peralta et al. 2018). At this stage, there is high uncertainty because people try to take authority and leadership.

People socially interact get to know each other well. My team has scored above average in this stage but still, its foundation was not strong.The second stage of team development is the storming stage. It is the most difficult time of the team as new personalities and individuals emerge during this period. This period is even marked as a period of conflicts because at this stage members of the team can disagree with the goals. Such a situation can increase cliché and result in differences. To overcome these conflicts, the team is required to work on reducing the individual differences and together come to achieve the goals and objectives set by the organization(Woodcock 2017).I realized that even my team was facing a similar kind of conflict. They wanted their appreciation and thus were trying to pull the legs of the others so that they do not attain a higher position.

The third stage is known as the norming stage. It is marked as a stage of unity. As soon as the team emerges from the storming stage it enters into a stage where everyone unitedly decides who is going to become the leader of the team(Gillespie et al. 2017). It is found that team performance increase during this stage. I checked whether my team is in this stage or not but I found that my team was not performing up to the expectations of the company. No doubt, the team has skillset and knowledge if they come unitedly I am sure that the team will become one of the best teams of the organization. But they are not cohesively working together and brainstorming things before starting the project because they are unable to understand each other. This is the team could not be said that it entered in the norming stage.

The next stage of the team assessment is the performing stage. It is during this stage everyone plays their role to meet the objectives and function well with one another. The team at this stage is said to be matured and well-functioning. At this stage, all the members are committed to the mission of the team. Even at this stage, the problems may arise but they are dealt constructively. The major function of the team member is to solve the problem(McVey et al. 2017)Since the team failed to perform well in providing the draft to the client to indicate that it is not even in the performing stage. The team required enthusiasm and team spirit which was lacking in it. I was not even able to manage the team correctly. Despite providing them with the opportunities to perform exceptionally at both individual level and collective level but they did not perform well.

The last stage of team development is the adjourning stage. By the time team reaches here most of the goals get accomplished. The focus of the team member here is to wrap up the final task and document. As the work gets finished therefore at this stage the team members can be disbanded and can be assigned to some other team. Since all the above stage were not achieved this is why it would take a long time for the team to get to this stage.

My role in the teamI enjoy working with new people and finding out new opportunities to improve myself. I always focus on the results and the same things I want from my team as well. I do not enjoy an unstructured meeting conducted without having a team's agenda and do not like to sit quietly when I found that the team is leading to the wrong direction. I always try to influence people so that they can make the correct decisions for the team. I always look for the new things and development and same thing I communicate to my team members as well. I make me feel pleasured to now my colleges better and establish a good relationship with them. But I always motivate them to bring perfectionism in their work. I feel satisfied when I can stretch my imagination into reality and when I analyze the problem before and try to find a suitable solution for it. In a difficult situation like the one experienced in my team, I try to manage the task by finding out which task can be performed by which person in the best way that is I will assign the task based on technical skills. I will also focus on the actions that I need to take to increase the performance of the team. I will try to use my analytical skills and enhance my leadership qualities.

Action Plan

Here are the techniques that I will use to improve the performance of my team.

DACI – Decision-making framework

This framework helps in making group decisions effectively as it helps clarify the role of each member of the team and let the team agree on who will be the decider and who will be the contributor of the team project. Every time if there will be any conflict in the organization, the best way is to create a DACI. It will be beneficial when the stakes are high and the situation is complicated.

Roles and responsibilities

It can be easily derived from the name itself that this particular technique will help in assigning the roles to team members that is what they are responsible for and what they need to do. It will also help in identifying what the team members expect from one another(Söderhjelm et al. 2018). It will also help to uncover the chances of false assumptions in case if the team is in the norming or storming stage.

End to end demo

A visual presentation of the final product will be provided to the stakeholders so that they can give proper feedback. You can start by creating wireframe to discuss it with the stakeholders. It will help in increasing fidelity and ultimately help the team to prosper in the organization.

Accept differences

There will be some circumstances in the team where the team will not agree on a person’s idea and would find the idea as strange. But instead of embracing that person, the team will be thought the importance of balance and how they should embrace the disagreements and how to appreciate the differences(Taras et al. 2019). The team would be thought how to respect each other’s opinion with respect and care so that every member of the team remains happy. The team will have different attributes, but the team needs to realize and consider it as the strength of the team rather than a disgrace for it.

Change management aspects

Seeing the current scenario of the team it is important to find out ways that would help manage the team through a change.
Improve communicationI will communicate the purpose of the change and need of the urgency in the team. I will motivate them to take the step to talk to one another and create a sense of trust and respect for the opinions and values of the other(Tang 2019). This will help establish the foundation of the team strong.

Create a good working environment

It is found that the work environment and infrastructure plays an important role in improving efficiency. This is why I will take care of the environment and would not let my team member feel unsatisfied or condescending. I will not let the team get affected due to politics I will also try to be biased with all the team members and create a healthy competitive environment for them.

Enhance Collaboration and cooperation

I will try to bring the people together to plan and execute the work properly. I will ask them to cooperate to achieve the target assigned to us by the higher authority.
Team with High performanceA team which can communicate one another and share their opinions in public without having a fear of disagreement can be said to be a perfect team. High-performance teams very seldom get into conflicts, they spend most of the time in solving the real-world problems and help each other by providing them with the feedback. It is observed that despite the diversity, the team members make it as their strength instead of the weakness(Super 2020). They value and respect the opinions of each other and try to find out ways by which they could accomplish the project without any difficulty. All the team members are found to be cohesive and work unitedly with one another. They have trust over each other which is the most required thing today. It is observed that the team embers to do not focus much on individual performance rather pays attention to how to improve the team’s outcome. A team possessing these characteristics can be said to an ideal team with high performance.

Ways to increase the performance of the team

Here are some steps that I will take to increase the performance of the team.

1. Conducting meetings: To increase the performance of the team I would ensure that meetings are conducted with a clear objective in mind. As it can propel a team forward or it can distract the team from understanding the core objectives. At the meetings, I will make the team clear with the needs and expectations of the organization.

2. Exchanging feedbacks: It is another way of increasing the team’s performance(Keller and Meaney 2017). All the team members will help one another to improve their productivity by providing feedback for improvement.

3. Guide without micromanaging: Being the team lead of the project. It is my responsibility to micromanage the team because I understand that too many start and stops can break the momentum. It can make the team members cautious about their work. I need to judiciously decide when I need to involve myself in the team and when I should not.

4. Engage in team-building games: One of the characteristics of improving the high performance of the team is to engage the team members in fun games(Robbins and Ballou 2019). Taking a break from the work is must it not only helps in enhancing the creative and problem-solving skills of the employees but also help in increasing the communication between the team members.

Conclusion

It can be concluded from the above findings that my team was in the storming stage of the team development and was facing challenges in the opinions as the team members of the group were from different diversities. The team due to these reasons were not able to complete the task assigned to it and was thus the performance of the team was very weak. To improve the performance some action plan was identified as the team can improve by using DACI framework. It can enhance by accepting differences and taking it as a strength of the company. I adopted these techniques to establish a cohesiveness in the team so that all the members can effectively take part and increase the performance of the team. Along with these some change management aspects and teams with high performance were evaluated and at last, some tips and techniques are given to overcome the team development challenge and make it reach the performing stage.

References

Aggarwal, I., Schilpzand, M.C., Martins, L.L. and Molinaro, M. 2019, July. Team Cognitive Versatility: Managing Cognitive Diversity in Teams. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2019, No. 1, p. 16111). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.

Gillespie, N., De Jong, B., Williamson, I.O. and Gill, C. 2017. Trust Congruence in Teams: The Influence of Cultural Diversity, Shared Leadership, and Virtual Communication. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2017, No. 1, p. 15580). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.

Keller, S. and Meaney, M. 2017. High-performing teams: A timeless leadership topic. McKinsey Quarterly, 1(3), pp.81-87.

Largent, D.L. 2016. Measuring and understanding team development by capturing self-assessed enthusiasm and skill levels. ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE), 16(2), pp.1-27.
Marin, A., Hinojosa, A., Randolph-Seng, B. and Randolph, A. 2018, July. Why Do Good Teams Fail? Toward A Theory of Team Action Identification. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2018, No. 1, p. 16982). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.

McVey, M.A., Luchies, C.W. and Villicana, A.J. 2017. Impact of High-Performing Teams on Student Learning. In American Society of Engineering Education.

Peralta, C.F., Lourenço, P.R., Lopes, P.N., Baptista, C. and Pais, L. 2018. Team development: Definition, measurement and relationships with team effectiveness. Human Performance, 31(2), pp.97-124.

Robbins, P.T. and Ballou, K.N. 2019. The role of high-quality connections in high-performing teams and creativity (Master's thesis, Handelshøyskolen BI).

Söderhjelm, T., Björklund, C., Sandahl, C. and Bolander-Laksov, K. 2018. Academic leadership: management of groups or leadership of teams? A multiple-case study on designing and implementing a team-based development programme for academic leadership. Studies in Higher Education, 43(2), pp.201-216.

Super, J.F. 2020. Building innovative teams: Leadership strategies across the various stages of team development. Business Horizons.

Tang, K.N. 2019. Team Development. In Leadership and Change Management (pp. 37-46). Springer, Singapore.

Taras, V., Baack, D., Caprar, D., Dow, D., Froese, F., Jimenez, A. and Magnusson, P. 2019. Diverse effects of diversity: Disaggregating effects of diversity in global virtual teams. Journal of International Management, 25(4), p.100689.

Woodcock, M. 2017. Team development manual. Routledge Location: London

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