Monthly Archives: February 2018

Stage IV of Team Development: The Autonomous and Creative Team

At stage IV of team development, the team has evolved into an autonomous team that is practicing continuous improvement through creative problem-solving.

A team at this stage has reached operational maturity and are committed to achieving team goals. They are proactive to improve their performance by continuously looking for opportunities to solve problems that affect their productivity.

Continuous Improvement & Problem Solving

To practice continuous improvement through problem-solving, the team members need to learn how to facilitate problem-solving meetings. This means learning and applying facilitation techniques to lead groups in brainstorming, nominal group technique, force field analysis and other problem-solving techniques. Having effective meetings is crucial to keep team members engaged in these types of activities.

Relationships

Teamwork and high team spirit are evident at this stage. Team members know what’s expected of them and assume their responsibilities. Trust level among members is high. The team has worked through conflicts and have learned to apply good interpersonal communication skills to function at this higher level.

Additional skills

Practicing continuous improvement and having problem-solving meetings will require presenting recommendations to management to get approval to act. Thus, team members need to learn presentation skills, so management can easily see the benefits of the recommendations of the team.

Success

It’s important at this stage to celebrate success. Goals are being achieved and people are performing at a high level. Team members need to develop the habit of giving positive recognition and feedback to each other.

The leader’s role

As the team becomes more autonomous they take on many management responsibilities and so the leader’s role evolves. The leader now has more time for coaching the team and individual team members and to work on strategic planning and special projects.

In stage III of team development, the team experiences cohesiveness and becomes more autonomous. Having worked through the conflicts that arise in stage I and stage II, team members have now developed the skills to communicate and support each other towards achieving team goals. Here is an article and video, Navigating Through the IV Stages Of Team Development.

Cohesiveness

As the team develops an identity and members become sensitive to the needs of others, the trust level between members increases. Team members become sensitive to the needs of others and people are more willing to share ideas, information and opinions.

The manager or supervisor defines limits of authority and delegates higher level decisions to the team. The team members become responsible for administrative tasks that previously was performed by the manager. They can take on high level responsibilities such as the hiring and firing of team members.

Thus, the team is become empowered to decide on the team’s makeup and success. For this to happen the manager or supervisor needs to have evolved his/her style of leadership towards a participative style.

Relationship skills

The skills required by team members at stage III of team development is mutual coaching for continued mutual support and for setting goals in accordance with the company’s overall mission and goals.

Tasks related skills

In stage III of team development, the team is becoming more self managing and can assume all managerial responsibilities. The supervisor leads an autonomous team.

The team practices continuous improvement and prepares reports and proposals for management that all team members take turns in presenting.

The skills that team members need to learn at this stage are the ability to interpret data correctly, conduct continuous improvement initiatives and how to communicate effectively with management.

Successful teams

Few teams make it fully to this stage and may only display certain components of it. Leadership of the organization needs to understand the relationship and task considerations at each stage to note what stage each team is at. They also need to ensure that managers and supervisors are evolving their style of leadership to be participative.

Checklist

Do your team members support and coach each other?

Are team members sensitive to the needs of others?

Is the manager or supervisor delegating managerial responsibilities to the team?

Can the team hire and fire team members?

Is the team empowered to decide what makes them successful?

Is the team setting goals on their own?

Is data they need to measure performance and success being provided?

Do the team members know how to analyse and interpret the data?

Is the team practicing continuous improvement and able to present their ideas to management?

Answer the questions above and see what you need to do to bring your team to the Stage III of team development. Involve the team, plan and take action.