MANAGING TEAMS

Everyone who has experienced small group work can recall an instance in which they have been part of a team that performed exceptionally well, enhanced its processes over time and whose members emerged greater, fulfilled, and more competent. However, teams can be loaded with exceptionally smart individuals or highly-skilled students, but still fail to achieve their objectives, improve performance and come away from the experience more frustrated. More crucially, many examples of air crashes, medical errors and disasters have been caused by breakdowns of team collaboration. These extreme cases as well as situations in which team members fail to engage in effective teamwork and exhibit poor team performance raise questions of interest. For example, what are the properties of effective teams? What are the most powerful factors that allow teams to build up their power as a collective entity? Besides explaining why some teams thrive and others disappoint, it is important to question possible ways to achieve behavioral changes. What can team managers do to prevent a downward spiral in performance and help team engage in crucial behaviors that will drive them to success? These questions are at the top of the agenda of this course.The course ends with a team consultancy project including the analysis of a real team management situation and the formulation of recommendations.