Learning Team Skills / Edition 2

by Arthur Bell, Dayle Smith Ph.D.

Overview

Broad, practical coverage of team skills offered in a conversational tone that encourages reader participation.

Teams offer us many advantages as an organized way to accomplish tasks — but what are the best methods and practices for harnessing the full power of a team successfully? In its second edition, Learning Team Skills offers insight into how both those in a college and corporate environment can use teambuilding skills as well as their individual strengths to create, participate in, and lead successful working teams. With a concise format and relaxed tone, this text teaches readers about the overwhelming advantages of teamwork over individual striving as well as how teams can foster meaningful interpersonal relationships, aide in conflict resolution, and, in due course, lead to goal achievement.

The newly-revised second edition of this practical and interactive text retains its many reader participation features and true-to-life anecdotes while adding major new sections on best practices for virtual teams; ways to diagnose team problems; measurement instruments for evaluating the motivation of team members; cultural considerations when building a strong team; effective inclusion of team members born after 1985, and more than a dozen online resources for forming and managing excellent teams.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780137152599
Publisher:	Pearson Education
Publication date:	02/12/2010
Series:	Alternative eText Formats Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	120
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Arthur H. Bell is Executive Director of MBA Programs and Professor of Management Communication in the School of Business and Professional Studies at the University of San Francisco. He holds his Ph.D. from Harvard University and is the author of 51 books on management, communication, language, and literature topics. Art is an avid cyclist and a jazz pianist in his spare time. Together, books by Bell and Smith have been translated into 16 languages.

Dayle M. Smith is Director of the Honors Program and Professor of Management in the school of Business and Professional Studies at the University of San Francisco. She has written 12 books on a variety of management topics, ranging from employee motivation to the challenges for women in the workplace to leadership development. Dayle is a club tennis player and an active community leader.

We encourage you to visit this Blog at www.learningteamskills2epearson.blogspot.com. The authors will be answering student and faculty questions here as well as adding interesting articles and other pieces on team skills.

Read an Excerpt

As with other books in this series, we intend this discussion of teams to be more of a conversation than a lecture. At frequent points throughout these chapters, you will have a chance to "talk back" in the Your Turn exercises. We hope you will use these opportunities to write down your experiences, attitudes, objections, insights, and feedback. In this way you will participate with us in learning about teams and their importance in organizational life.

You can talk back in a more immediate way by e-mailing us with your questions, comments, thoughts, and reflections about the contents of this book. Please contact us at [e-mail]—and plan to receive a response within 48 hours or sooner.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Why Teams?

Teams and Buy-In

Teams and Censorship, Pro and Con

Teams and Cross-Training

Teams and Follow-Up Responsibilities

Teams and the Social Aspect of Enterprise

Chapter 2 Assessing Your Team Experience and Insights

Chapter 3 Building a Balanced Team

The Importance of Balance

Causes of Team Imbalance

How and When to Plan for Balance

The Limits of Personality Tests

Making the Most of Gender Balance

Characteristics of Men’s and Women’s Communication Habits

Chapter 4 Becoming a Team Member and a Team Leader

How to Know If Your Organization Needs Teams

Putting Together Your Case for a Team

A Sample Communication to Management Regarding Team Formation

Preparing for Team Membership

Preparing to Lead a Team

Activities for the First Team Meeting

Writing an Informal Agenda for Team Meetings

Taking Notes or Minutes for Team Meetings

Keeping the Team Informed Between Meetings

Virtual Teams

Chapter 5 Observing Team Leadership Skills at Work

Welcome to the New Employee Orientation Team

The Meeting Begins

Chapter 6 Observing Team Member Skills at Work

Welcome Back to the New Employee Orientation Team

The Meeting Begins Again

Chapter 7 Understanding and Resolving Team Problems

A Case History of a Troubled Team

Teaching People How to Be Team Members

Five Common Team Problems and Tools for Repair and Prevention

How People Indicate That a Team Is in Trouble

A Lighter Look at the Challenge of Managing a Team

Chapter 8 Motivating Team Members and Leaders

Eight Motivators for Productive Teams

Chapter 9 Completing Collaborative Projects Through Teamwork

Why Teams Often Have Trouble with Collaborative Projects

Why Collaborative Projects Are Good for Teams and Good for Business

Steps in the Collaborative Process for Documents and Presentations

Guidelines for the Team Leader of a Collaborative Project

Chapter 10 Developing Intercultural Teams

Shared Information Without a Shared Culture

What’s at Stake in Understanding Cultural Differences

Grasping the Deeper Aspects of Cultural Difference

Communication in the Intercultural Team Meeting

Preface

As with other books in this series, we intend this discussion of teams to be more of a conversation than a lecture. At frequent points throughout these chapters, you will have a chance to "talk back" in the Your Turn exercises. We hope you will use these opportunities to write down your experiences, attitudes, objections, insights, and feedback. In this way you will participate with us in learning about teams and their importance in organizational life.

You can talk back in a more immediate way by e-mailing us with your questions, comments, thoughts, and reflections about the contents of this book. Please contact us at [e-mail]—and plan to receive a response within 48 hours or sooner.