Creativity And Teamwork Flashcards
What do we mean by a “team”?
Many definitions
What do teams emerge through?
Adoption of a work method
Collaborative relationships
What’re the immediate benefits of teamwork?
Wider appreciation of ‘learning’
Cognitive flexibility
Increase perceived self confidence
What’re the determinants of high performing teams? (The four C’s)
- Context:
The need for teamwork, type of team needed, and the culture, structure, and systems that support teamwork. - Composition:
Team members skills, experience, and motivation, as well as team size. - Competencies:
The teams ability to solve problems, communicate, make decisions, manage conflict and so on. - Change:
The teams ability to monitor its performance and make changes as needed.
Context for the team
The organisational environment of the team.
Important questions:
- Is effective teamwork critical to accomplishing common goals?
- Who are the supporters of the team?
Effective context management is key
- measurable goals
- team understanding
- rewards systems
- teamwork culture
Composition of the team
Making sure you get the “right people on the bus”
Member motivation is key to accomplishing collective goals
Team size is also important when it comes to effectiveness. This is managed by:
- establish adequate selection practises
- personal development
- cutting loose individuals who lack skills or motivation
- managing according the skills and motivation levels
- establishing the right size
Competencies of the team
Team competencies that exist independent of individual members
High performing teams have specific competencies enabling them to:
- articulate goals and their metrics
- articulate the mean to achieve goals
- make effective decisions
- effectively communicate
- build trust and commitment
- resolve disagreements
- encourage risk taking and innovation
Change management skills of the team
Teams must change and adapt to new conditions
Factors related to team context, compositions, and competencies may change
High performing teams have developed skills to change by:
- establishing team building processes
- establishing the ‘change’ philosophy
Teamwork and creativity perspectives
Individuals tend to spend less time working alone and more time working and being evaluated in a team (Edmondson and Harvey 2017)
Being a team player is more important for career development than job-relevant knowledge, skill, and ability (level playing field institute 2003)
What’re some barriers to team creativity?
Requires free exchange of ideas
Despite the promise of teams, there are many barriers to team creativity
- process losses
- conversational bottlenecks
- laziness
- fear of rejections
Can barriers to team creativity be helped?
One possible approach is the adoption of formal roles to guide the group and to avoid problematic behaviours.
Several set of rules exist according to the literature, however these are not proven because they’re contradictory?
- go for quantity
- withhold criticism
- welcome wild ideas
- combine and improve ideas
Norms and social norms in team and creativity
Team creativity can be explained in the context of norms
Norms are collective mental representations of appropriate behaviour that guide behaviour in groups
Social norms: emerge over time as a result of repeated social interactions
What’re the five key behaviours underpinning team creativity within the norms perspective?
- participation
- independence
- elaboration
- communication
- exploration
Key behaviour in team creativity: 1. participation
Participation is key to the creative process but might be affected by social loafing
“The funnel process” (Staw, 1990)
Participation can be boosted by different norms:
- norm for accountability
- norm for equity
Key behaviour in team creativity: independence
Teams in creative work expect contribution of unique perspective
Unique perspectives tend to be lost
It is possible to foster a norm for impendence that counters the pressure to conform
-individualistic norms
