Building and Leading Resilient Teams: Module 2
Module 2: Boost teamwork by developing cohesion among team members.
The best measure of a team is how well it performs under pressure. When the going gets tough, the tough get going… by working together as a team. This maxim holds true for front-line teams, executive teams, and all other teams in between, including yours. You can boost teamwork by developing the cohesion of your team. The result will be more supportive and dependable relationships. Developing cohesion enhances well-being, reduces stress, and enables your team’s creativity and collective decision-making. Cohesive teams in the workplace are better able to overcome adversity, and then adapt and grow together because of that adversity.
Why build and lead resilient teams?
In any organization, getting the work done can be hard. Resilient teams thrive in challenging environments because they can overcome adversity, and then adapt and grow together. Leaders build resilient teams by creating a positive climate, developing cohesion, and providing purpose. Building resilient teams makes team learning possible. Team learning is the foundation of organizational learning and change.
Learning Objectives for Module 2: Boost teamwork by developing cohesion among team members.
Assignment 1. Learn the following key terms and ideas. Knowing these key terms and ideas is essential to understanding the concepts that support each leader task in this module. (0.5 hours)
Key Terms and Ideas
- Cohesion is the extent to which a team will stick together and remain united, even in the face of adversity.
- Social cohesion is the strength of relationships and sense of solidarity among team members.
- Task cohesion is how well a team works together to achieve common goals and objectives.
- Shared leadership is characterized by collaborative decision-making and collective responsibility for outcomes.
- Social trust is having faith that others on your team have good intentions and will not harm your interests.
- Task trust is being able to confidently rely on others to do their part in getting the job done.
- Dignity is the inherent importance, value, and worth of a person.
- Active listening is seeking to understand meaning and intent without preemptively judging.
- Collective efficacy is the belief that a group can meet challenges and complete tasks together successfully.
- Coping is what a person does to minimize stress.
- After-action review (AAR) is a technique for improving execution by scrutinizing the outcomes of an action.
Assignment 2. Reflect on your unique leader/follower experience with each of the leader tasks and concepts below. Consider ALL the reflection questions in detail. The articles are provided to prompt critical thinking about the topics. (5.5 hours)
Leader Tasks and Concepts
1. Analyze team cohesion.
Cohesion is the extent to which a team will stick together and remain united, even in the face of adversity. Cohesive teams are characterized by collaboration between people that support and depend on each other. Developing cohesion boosts teamwork.
- How would you rate the cohesion of your team?
- Did your team remain united during a recent crisis?
- Have you worked on a team previously that was especially cohesive? How did that team become so cohesive?
Cohesion is a dynamic construct. Social cohesion is the strength of relationships and sense of solidarity among team members. Task cohesion is how well a team works together to achieve common goals and objectives. Both social cohesion and task cohesion develop over time.
- Does your team have more social cohesion or task cohesion?
- How does your team develop social cohesion?
- How does your team develop task cohesion?
- Is social cohesion or task cohesion more important in your line of work? Why?
When teams are cohesive, people are more flexible, creative, and open to new ideas. Cohesive teams are better at solving problems and overcoming challenges. Developing cohesion is essential for building resilient teams.
- Are you personally more flexible, creative, and open to new ideas when you are working on a cohesive team?
- In your experience, how does boosting teamwork help teams overcome adversity and the adapt and grow together because of that adversity.
Reading:
What will Make or Break your Next Role? Find out Why Teamwork Matters
What I Learned About Team Cohesion From Little League Baseball
Building a Cohesive Team: Challenges and Tips for Leaders
7 Work-From-Home Rituals for Virtual Teams
In-Depth: How Coherence And Cohesion Are Critical To Scrum
Why Understanding ‘Team Cohesion’ can Build Organisational Resilience?
2. Organize people to work in teams.
Leaders should assign tasks to teams instead of individuals whenever possible. Teams benefit from diverse experience and expertise. Sometimes, people self-organize informally into teams to get work done. Many organizations create and support project teams to get work done. Working in teams helps develop cohesion.
- Do you prefer to work on tasks alone or with a team? Why?
- Have you worked for someone that missed opportunities to assign tasks to teams instead of individuals?
- Is self-organizing into teams to get work done a routine practice in your line of work?
- Have you worked on a project team to get work done? Did that team develop cohesion? If not, why not?
Working in teams instead of individual silos creates the potential for shared leadership. Shared leadership is characterized by collaborative decision-making and collective responsibility for outcomes. Shared leadership can be especially effective during times of adversity.
- Do the people on your team collaborate to make decisions? If not, why not?
- Do the people on your team share responsibility for outcomes? If not, why not?
- Based on your experience, what are some other challenges and best practices for organizing people to work in teams?
Reading:
Collaboration is Key
Teamwork
Five Surprising Facts About Teams and Teamwork
Why Team Members Should Be Involved in Decision-Making
Tough Teams
Teams develop social trust and task trust between team members. Social trust is having faith that others on your team have good intentions and will not harm your interests. Task trust is being able to confidently rely on others to do their part in getting the job done. Promoting trust between team members helps develop cohesion. Most team-building events are aimed at promoting social trust and cohesion.
- How would you rate the social trust between members of your team? Could it improve?
- How would you rate the task trust between members of your team? Could it improve?
- In your line of work, is social trust or task trust more important? Why?
- In your experience, how does trust between team members affect teamwork?
Leaders can promote social trust by providing opportunities for people to get to know each other. Leaders can promote task trust between team members by recognizing people for their competence and contributions to the team. Leaders should be attentive to any loss of trust between team members.
- In your organization, are there opportunities for people to get to know each other at work? Can more opportunities be created?
- Have you ever worked for someone that did not recognize the competence and contributions of people on their team? How did that affect the team?
- In your line of work, what are the indicators of lost trust between team members?
- In your experience, is it possible for team members to regain lost trust? If not, why not?
- Based on your experience, what are some other challenges and best practices for promoting trust between team members?
Reading:
Build a Circle of Trust with Your Team
Trust
7 Misunderstood Truths About Workplace Trust
Building Trust in a Skeptical Era
Why the Key to Virtual Team Effectiveness Is Team Trust
4. Ensure mutual respect between team members.
Without mutual respect between team members, cohesion cannot develop. Respect is often gauged by the tone of a person’s voice and their body language. Courtesy and kindness are indicators of respect. Ensuring mutual respect between team members helps develop cohesion.
- Do the people on your team recognize the inherent dignity of their peers?
- Do the people on your team practice active listening with their peers?
- Do the people on your team value the opinions of their peers?
- In your experience, how does mutual respect between team members affect teamwork?
Leaders should be attentive to disrespectful treatment between team members. Sometimes, people will be reluctant to speak up for themselves. It is a leader’s responsibility to address disrespectful behavior in the workplace.
- In your line of work, is there any form of disrespect that is prevalent?
- Have you ever been reluctant to speak up for yourself at work when you were treated disrespectfully? If so, why?
- Have you worked for someone that was unwilling to address issues of disrespectful treatment in the workplace?
- How have you addressed instances of disrespectful treatment between team members?
- Based on your experience, what are some other challenges and best practices for ensuring mutual respect between team members?
Reading:
Create a Respectful Work Environment
How to Create a Better Workplace
Incivility in the Workplace
A New Look at Workplace Diversity
5 Ways to Inspire Your Colleagues to Speak Up
5. Train the team.
Team training is an iterative process that occurs as teams work together over time. On-the-job team training is situated in real experience and should be continuous. Constructive feedback from leaders and team members is essential and should become a habit. Regularly scheduled formal team training should augment on-the-job training. Training the team helps develop cohesion.
- Does your team see every day as an opportunity to improve their knowledge and skills?
- Does your team welcome constructive feedback?
- How often does your team participate in structured training events? Are those training events mostly effective or mostly not effective? Why?
As teams successfully learn new knowledge and skills together, they develop social cohesion, task cohesion, and collective efficacy. Collective efficacy is the belief that a group can meet challenges and complete tasks together successfully. Teams that have collective efficacy are better prepared to overcome adversity together.
- Does your team routinely learn new collective knowledge and skills together on the job?
- How would you rate your team’s collective efficacy? Can it improve?
- In your experience, how does training the team affect teamwork?
- Based on your experience, what are some other challenges and best practices for training the team?
Reading:
The Three Tips for Effective Team Training
How to Train Teams
5 Benefits of Team Training in the Workplace
6. Manage expectations.
Plans often do not go as expected. Being mentally prepared for the unexpected enables proactive coping. Coping is what a person does to minimize stress. Managing expectations helps the team maintain a sense of control in the face of adversity. Managing expectations helps develop cohesion.
- How often do plans not go as expected in your line of work?
- Does your team prepare for the unexpected?
- Have you worked for someone that failed to plan for the unexpected?
- In your experience, can teamwork suffer when plans go astray?
- Based on your experience, what are some other challenges and best practices for managing expectations?
Reading:
Managing Expectations is a Crucial Leadership Responsibility
7. Talk about setbacks.
Talking about setbacks is an opportunity for teams to learn from their mistakes. Conducting an after-action review (AAR), especially when things don’t go as planned, sets the stage for learning and growth. An after-action review (AAR) is a technique for improving execution by scrutinizing the outcomes of an action. Talking about setbacks helps develop cohesion.
- Have you worked for someone that was reluctant to talk about setbacks? If so, why do you think they were reluctant?
- Have you worked for someone that was unwilling to admit their mistakes? How did that affect the team?
- In your experience, how does talking about setbacks affect teamwork?
- Based on your experience, what are some other challenges and best practices for talking about setbacks?
Reading:
Talking about Setbacks is an Opportunity for Growth and Team Building
How To Empower And Develop Your Team Using A Project Retrospective
Assignment 3a: Group Discussion. For students participating in an instructor-led course, the group discussion of leader tasks and supporting concepts is a key element of the learning experience. Group discussion of the factual (what), conceptual (why), and procedural knowledge (how) relevant to each leader task ensures that students are well-prepared for the RBLP, RBLP-C, and RBLP-T leader certification exams. Students participating in an instructor-led course may also want to make use of the Exam Prep Study Tool described below. (3.0 hours)
Assignment 3b: Study Tool. For students conducting self-study of modules 1-3 only in preparation for the RBLP leader certification exam, we recommend using our new spaced repetition study tool to improve the learning experience. Spaced repetition is especially effective for adult learners who study in shorter, yet more frequent sessions. It’s a personalized and self-paced method to retain information longer, which ensures that learners become more competent and confident as they prepare for their certification exam. The Exam Prep Study Tool is only $24.95 for a month of access. (3.0 hours)
RBLP® Leadership Certifications
Resilience-Building Leadership Professional® (RBLP) Certification.
People who earn the Resilience-Building Leadership Professional® (RBLP) certification are qualified to build and lead resilient teams in the workplace by creating a positive climate, developing cohesion, and providing purpose.
RBLP is our core leader certification for supervisors and people seeking a supervisory position. Applicants for RBLP leader certification must have at least two years of work and/or college experience.
During the 1.5-hour oral RBLP exam, the applicant is required to show competence in factual (what), conceptual (why), and procedural knowledge (how) in the Create a Positive Climate, Develop Cohesion, and Provide Purpose competency domains (Modules 1-3 only).
Resilience-Building Leadership Professional Coach® (RBLP-C) Certification.
People who earn the Resilience-Building Leadership Professional® Coach (RBLP-C) certification are qualified to build and lead resilient teams in the workplace by creating a positive climate, developing cohesion, and providing purpose. They are also qualified to facilitate team learning.
RBLP-C certified leaders can coach others on these leadership competencies.
RBLP-C is our leader certification for managers and people seeking a management position.
During the 2.5-hour oral RBLP-C exam, the applicant is required to show competence in factual (what), conceptual (why), and procedural knowledge (how) in the Create a Positive Climate, Develop Cohesion, Provide Purpose, and Facilitate Team Learning competency domains (Modules 1-5 only).
Resilience-Building Leadership Professional Trainer (RBLP-T) Certification.
People who earn the Resilience-Building Leadership Professional® Trainer (RBLP-T) certification are qualified to build and lead resilient teams in the workplace by creating a positive climate, developing cohesion, and providing purpose. They are also qualified to facilitate team learning and support organizational learning.
RBLP-T certified leaders can coach others on these leadership competencies and provide training that prepares people to sit for the RBLP, RBLP-C, and RBLP-T certification exams.
RBLP-T is our leader certification for senior managers and people seeking a senior management position.
During the 3.5-hour oral RBLP-T exam, the applicant is required to show competence in factual (what), conceptual (why), and procedural knowledge (how) in the Create a Positive Climate, Develop Cohesion, Provide Purpose, Facilitate Team Learning, and Support Organizational Learning competency domains (Modules 1-7).
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