Transcript Team Norms - scienceinquirer

Team Norms
What are norms?
• Norms are defined as, “The
mutually agreed upon
standards of behavior.”
• Norms usually involve
communication, consensus,
conflict, and respect.
• Social norms, norms of
collaboration, societal norms,
and educational norms are
examples.
Why are norms important?
• Sociologists believe that it
is upon norms that societies
are built.
• It is also true that it is upon
norms that teams are built.
• Norms help to alleviate
roadblocks to
communication and
collaboration.
Examples of norms
Garmston and Wellman’s “Seven norms
of Collaborative Work”:
1- Pause
2- Paraphrase
3- Probe
4- Put ideas on the table
5- Pay attention to self and others
6- Presume positive intentions
7- Pursue a balance between advocacy
and inquiry
Examples of norms
Ford Motor Company
1- Help each other be right, not wrong.
2- Look for ways to make ideas work, not for
reasons that they won’t.
3- Don’t make negative assumptions.
4- Help each other win and take pride in
victories.
5- Speak positively about each other.
6- Maintain a positive attitude.
7- Do everything with enthusiasm.
8- Whatever you want, give it away.
9- Have fun!
Developing norms
• On each of 5 note cards,
write something that is a
barrier to effective teams.
• On the other 5 note cards,
write something that is a
promoter of effective
teams.
Developing Norms
• Choose one member to
read their 10 cards.
• If anyone has a duplicate
card, discard it.
• Continue until everyone
has read their cards.
Developing norms
• Have a recorder write all
remaining cards on a
notepad in list form with
promoters on one page
and barriers on another.
• Each group member will
be given 6 stickers to use to
vote on the 3 most
important promoters and 3
most important barriers.
Developing norms
• The facilitator chooses the
top 10 vote-receiving items
(5 promoters and 5
barriers).
• The group converts these
items to norms that will
encourage the promoters
and discourage the
barriers.
Coming to consensus
• When the list of norms is completed, use
the “Fist to Five” method to come to
consensus.
• Consensus does not mean that
everybody loves the idea. It means that
everyone has had a chance to speak
their opinion, compromises are
reached, and everyone will support the
decision.
• If consensus was difficult to come to,
steps must be taken to ensure
compliance and avoid sabotage.
Fist to Five process
Fist- “I cannot live with this”
1- “I need to talk more about
this”
2- “I would like to discuss minor
issues”
3- “I am comfortable”
4- “Good idea”
5- “I want to lead the charge on
this item”
Fist to five process
Based upon how important the decision is,
determine which level is unacceptable.
i.e. VERY important decisions cannot allow
any fists, 1 or 2 fingers. Routine decisions
cannot allow any fists. Any low numbers
explain why they voted that way and
what compromise would be acceptable.
Determine how many rounds of voting or
how much time will be spent attempting to
come to consensus. If time or rounds run
out, think about it and continue next time.
Sabotage Ideas
Have a conversation beginning with:
“I know that none of you would ever
sabotage this agreement, but under what
conditions would you be tempted?”
List the conditions and discuss the proper
course of action should those conditions
arise.
Adherence to Norms
• Periodically, teams must
evaluate how well they are
adhering to the norms and
how well the norms are
working.
• A simple Likert Scale may
be used as follows.
Adherence to Norms
Assessing our norms
Low
High
Norm 1
Norm 2
Norm 3
Norm 4
Norm 5
Norm 6
Adherence to norms
• After each individual
assesses how the group is
doing, have everyone
transfer their responses to a
notepad.
• The group then discusses
strengths and weaknesses
in adhering to the norms.