Team Building

Inherently embedded in the concept of professional learning communities is the necessity for effective team building. Straus (1998) defines team building as a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.
Smith (1994) believes that good team members listen carefully, brag about their colleagues, don’t get involved in petty disputes, pitch in without being asked, encourage cooperation and sharing, work together to make each other better, and give credit and take responsibility. Fullan (2001) warns that by creating teams of like minded members you trade off early smoothness for later grief. Thus, teams should be created in which members have diverse skills and viewpoints which are included and valued in order to reach a better solution.

As a team matures, members gradually learn to cope with emotional and group pressures. This generally occurs in four stages:
1. Forming: Members cautiously explore boundaries of acceptable group behavior as they make the transition from individual to group member.
2. Storming: Most difficult stage because people begin to realize how difficult or different the task is.
3. Forming: Emotional conflict is reduced as previous competitive relationships become more cooperative and the ground rules are accepted.
4. Performing: Members assess and solve problems and implement changes as an effective, cohesive unit.
(Siccone, 1997, p. 155).

“Every team needs an agreed on decision-making process” (Wald & Castleberry, 2000, p. 68). Ground rules should be specific and concrete rules which serve to provide a guide for the way the collaborative learning groups or teams should function. When teams clearly articulate their ground rules and give responsibility to the group members to enforce them, team members function with less stress and greater productivity (Wald & Castleberry, 2000). Consensus is the optimal decision-making process for collaborative teams, as when teams use the consensus process, the group “more fully owns the final decision, thereby fostering a more accepting atmosphere for the change” (Wald & Castleberry, 2000, p. 68). It is often necessary to test to determine if the group is nearing consensus. This may entail asking each group member individually if they are in support of the decision, ask for their open opinion, or using a consensus continuum chart.

Six steps for decision making, as outlined in Interpersonal Relationships (University of Windsor, 2003) begin with first defining the decision making process, followed by defining the issue, generating alternative solutions, assessing alternative solutions, selecting the best alternative, and finally, implementing and monitoring the decision.

Learning how to learn together is absolutely essential to productive collaborative learning teams. “Teams must continuously evaluate and refine how they communicate, how they run meetings, how they share information - how they function as a team” (Wald & Castleberry, 2000, p. 71). Team reflection is a means for members to examine what they are doing well and what needs to be improved.

Wald and Castleberry (2000) suggest questions for group members to ask themselves, such as:

• What ground rules did we use well?
• What ground rules do we need to improve on?
• Exactly what will we do differently next time?

The establishment of clear ground rules, a commitment to consensus, and a comprehensive decision-making process do not negate the fact that conflict is inevitable. A conflict can be negative and destructive, or it can be positive and constructive (Beane, 1999). People who want to bring about change come into conflict with those who want to maintain the status quo. However, it is not whether you have conflict, but how you deal with the conflict that makes the difference.

People respond to conflict in different ways, but there are 5 approaches that are most prevalent:
1. Avoidance - pretend the conflict doesn’t exist
2. Accommodation - give in to others, often to the extent that you compromise yourself
3. Competition - work to get your own way, rather than clarifying and addressing the issues
4. Compromise - mutual give and take
5. Collaboration - focus on working together

Although there are advantages and disadvantages to each approach, often the chosen approach is dependent on the current situation.