Creating Effective Teams Book Review
4-MAT book review of:
Creating effective teams: a guide for members and leaders by Susan A. Wheelan
Brittani Lewis-Clarkson
Lead 610
ABSTRACT
Susan Wheelan, author of Creating Effective Teams: A Guide for Members and Leaders, wrote her book to share information about effective teams, members, and leaders. Wheelan bases her book on the premise that, “from the beginning of human history, people have utilized work groups to generate new ideas, get things done, and nurture individuals”1. Groups always have been and always will be an important and unavoidable aspect of society. This book dives into the process of developing a group into a high functioning team. Wheelan begins by spending time comparing group development to human development. …show more content…
She guides the reader through each developmental stage while simultaneously exploring the role of members and leaders though each stage. The first stage is dependency and inclusion. This stage is comparable to childhood. There is a need to create a sense of belonging and predictable patterns of interaction and high dependence on the designated leader2. Counter dependency and fight is the second stage. This stage, as in the human adolescent stage, is when groups attempt to become less dependent on the group leader and begin debating one another about group goals2. Wheelan warn against remaining in this stage too long. Groups who manage to make it thought stage two will enter the “young adulthood” stage2. Stage three is all about trust and structure. At this stage, groups manage to work through conflicts, begin to trust one another, and commit to more mature ways of organizing tasks. The forth and final stage of group development is work and productivity, comparable to adulthood.2 Stage four is a stage that Wheelan says is not commonly reached. Stage four groups are high performance teams2. Groups that reach this stage have resolved many of the issues experiences in preceding stages and focus energy on accomplishing tasks and achieving goals. These groups experience intense productivity and effectiveness. The group developmental stages create a solid foundation for the thought provoking team scenarios strategically placed throughout the book. These scenarios illustrate the role of team leaders and team members throughout all four stages of group development. After laying this developmental foundation, Wheelan discusses effective team members, leaders, and organizational support. Throughout these sections, Wheelan gives practical advice that forces the reader to take ownership of the position they play within their group. Team members are advised to promote group effectiveness and productivity, support the leader’s effort, and encourage open communication among other things. Team leaders are given “stage specific” advice and are told to over all, be an effective group member3. Wheelan includes check lists that allow readers to evaluate themselves in a fair and objective manner. Ultimately, Wheelan has provided readers with a “jargon-free,” “how-to book describing how work groups function and what to do to help work groups become high performing teams”1.
CONCRETE RESPONSE As I read through this book, I became reminiscent of working groups and teams I belonged to in the past.
I found myself categorizing these past team efforts into the group development stages described by Wheelan. As I reflected, I realized that no team I have ever been a member of has advanced beyond stage two, except for one. I believe I have been part of a team that had reached stage four of group development. Shortly after I had graduated from college, I was hired as a fellow for a county health department in Southeast Texas. I was assigned to a team that had been together since 2008, with the newest member being on the team for two years. This team worked incredibly well together. The team leader, who is also the department director, was a very strong, knowledgeable leader who allowed different team members to lead projects if it fell into their area of expertise. It may sound cliché but I viewed this team as a family. When not in team meetings, they had nick names for each other, knew one another’s family members, and supported one another in times of personal events such as deaths or hospitalizations. When our team met, goals, timelines, and tasks were clearly laid out. The team would strategize on the most effective and efficient ways to meet a goal and would then return to their offices to get working. Meetings were always light hearted, yet fast paced and informative. As a fellow, I rarely knew what was being discussed but team members were more than willing to explain things during the meeting. This did not interfere with the meeting’s progress because it validated everyone’s knowledge of the team’s processes and procedures. One member of this team, who I still consider to be my mentor, is a man named Nathan. Nathan is the team’s planner and radio expert. Before working with this team, I had never touched a radio. Nathan took the time to explain to me the basic functioning principals of radios. He did not have to do that, but he realized that by exposing
me to basic radio principals, I would become a more informed and productive member of the team.
REFLECTION
It is often said that if something is too good to be true, then it probably is. When I saw how short Wheelan’s book was, I was excited. No book I’ve ever had to order for my Master’s program has ever been this small. I began to read hoping that the books length was an indicator that important lessons would be quickly and profoundly revealed. This was not the case. While I took away some great information from this reading, I found it to be quite repetitive. The author offered a lengthy introduction to the four stages of group development and then went onto dedicate a chapter to each stage. The chapters that covered the four stages were riddled with different scenarios that might arise during that particular stage and the author’s advice on how to address these scenarios. These scenarios were overly simplistic and idealistic. I’d like to ask Wheelan how to address issues that cannot be resolved. At what point does a team become too dysfunctional? When a team leader is no longer an effective leader, how does the team keep on track while creating new leadership? Wheelan seemed to address her own scenarios flawlessly but the scenarios seemed to maintain a “best case” status. My profession is a mix between local government and health care. For our young, fast growing county, turnover is extremely high with the exception of few outliers. In our department, most positions are entry level “stepping stones” that are occupied for an average of a year and a half. While Wheelan provided practical information on how to maintain and advance a team, I would benefit more on how to set a foundation for a high functioning team. Wheelan sited team member turnover as one reason a team could be stuck in the lower stages. It would have been nice for her to address how a team could operate in a way that would allow for fluid membership and consistent team advancement.
ACTION
Wheelan’s book offered great advice for not only being a good team leader but also a good team member. As one who is still in the early stages of her career, I plan to use the practical lessons from this book to position myself to be an effective team member of my current public health team. I am currently part of a team that is in stage two, hopefully headed towards stage three. We are having issues clarifying roles and goal and there is quite a bit of conflict and members challenging the leader, my direct supervisor. Now that I recognize the stage my team is going through, I will aim to follow Wheelan’s advice and not be a bystander4. This will require me to look inward and decide if my attitude and behavior are conducive for the advancement of our team4. If I am honest with myself, I can admit that I am passive aggressive, I complain about our team outside of team meetings but agree with everyone during the team meeting, and I don’t speak up when I have an opinion about something. That being said, I plan on working to reverse these three traits. Some steps I plan on taking to achieve this goal are to write down my thoughts and opinions during meetings. I believe that by organizing my thoughts during meetings on paper, I will have the confidence to voice those thought before the meeting is over. I also plan speak directly with team members I may have a complaint about directly instead of gossiping. I have already taken steps to address my issues surrounding gossiping. I have confided in a friend from church and she has agreed to be my accountability partner. We have begun a bible study about gossip out of 2nd Samuel, chapter 13 through 15. We have a study session once a week and we discuss our victories or short comings for the week. In addition to becoming a more effective team member, I also plan to position myself to become a team leader. To meet this goal, I plan to revisit the chapter on effective team leadership often. I plan to take opportunities to lead meetings or take charge on projects. I also plan to shadow my supervisor and learn how she leads our team. I plan to write down questions I have about her particular management styles, the positives and negatives of her position, and what she has learned in her position. I hope that by addressing traits that make me an ineffective team member and shadowing my supervisor to learn her leading style, I will position myself to become an effective leader of a high functioning team.
References
1Wheelan SA. Why groups. In: Wheelen SA, ed. Creating effective teams: a guide for members and leaders. Thousand Oaks, California. Sage; 2013:1-6.
2Wheelan SA. From groups to teams. In: Wheelen SA, ed. Creating effective teams: a guide for members and leaders. Thousand Oaks, California. Sage; 2013:7-20.
3Wheelan SA. Effective team leadership. In: Wheelen SA, ed. Creating effective teams: a guide for members and leaders. Thousand Oaks, California. Sage; 2013:91-110.
4Wheelan SA. Effective team members. In: Wheelen SA, ed. Creating effective teams: a guide for members and leaders. Thousand Oaks, California. Sage; 2013:68-90.
Creating effective teams: a guide for members and leaders by Susan A. Wheelan
Brittani Lewis-Clarkson
Lead 610
ABSTRACT
Susan Wheelan, author of Creating Effective Teams: A Guide for Members and Leaders, wrote her book to share information about effective teams, members, and leaders. Wheelan bases her book on the premise that, “from the beginning of human history, people have utilized work groups to generate new ideas, get things done, and nurture individuals”1. Groups always have been and always will be an important and unavoidable aspect of society. This book dives into the process of developing a group into a high functioning team. Wheelan begins by spending time comparing group development to human development. …show more content…
She guides the reader through each developmental stage while simultaneously exploring the role of members and leaders though each stage. The first stage is dependency and inclusion. This stage is comparable to childhood. There is a need to create a sense of belonging and predictable patterns of interaction and high dependence on the designated leader2. Counter dependency and fight is the second stage. This stage, as in the human adolescent stage, is when groups attempt to become less dependent on the group leader and begin debating one another about group goals2. Wheelan warn against remaining in this stage too long. Groups who manage to make it thought stage two will enter the “young adulthood” stage2. Stage three is all about trust and structure. At this stage, groups manage to work through conflicts, begin to trust one another, and commit to more mature ways of organizing tasks. The forth and final stage of group development is work and productivity, comparable to adulthood.2 Stage four is a stage that Wheelan says is not commonly reached. Stage four groups are high performance teams2. Groups that reach this stage have resolved many of the issues experiences in preceding stages and focus energy on accomplishing tasks and achieving goals. These groups experience intense productivity and effectiveness. The group developmental stages create a solid foundation for the thought provoking team scenarios strategically placed throughout the book. These scenarios illustrate the role of team leaders and team members throughout all four stages of group development. After laying this developmental foundation, Wheelan discusses effective team members, leaders, and organizational support. Throughout these sections, Wheelan gives practical advice that forces the reader to take ownership of the position they play within their group. Team members are advised to promote group effectiveness and productivity, support the leader’s effort, and encourage open communication among other things. Team leaders are given “stage specific” advice and are told to over all, be an effective group member3. Wheelan includes check lists that allow readers to evaluate themselves in a fair and objective manner. Ultimately, Wheelan has provided readers with a “jargon-free,” “how-to book describing how work groups function and what to do to help work groups become high performing teams”1.
CONCRETE RESPONSE As I read through this book, I became reminiscent of working groups and teams I belonged to in the past.
I found myself categorizing these past team efforts into the group development stages described by Wheelan. As I reflected, I realized that no team I have ever been a member of has advanced beyond stage two, except for one. I believe I have been part of a team that had reached stage four of group development. Shortly after I had graduated from college, I was hired as a fellow for a county health department in Southeast Texas. I was assigned to a team that had been together since 2008, with the newest member being on the team for two years. This team worked incredibly well together. The team leader, who is also the department director, was a very strong, knowledgeable leader who allowed different team members to lead projects if it fell into their area of expertise. It may sound cliché but I viewed this team as a family. When not in team meetings, they had nick names for each other, knew one another’s family members, and supported one another in times of personal events such as deaths or hospitalizations. When our team met, goals, timelines, and tasks were clearly laid out. The team would strategize on the most effective and efficient ways to meet a goal and would then return to their offices to get working. Meetings were always light hearted, yet fast paced and informative. As a fellow, I rarely knew what was being discussed but team members were more than willing to explain things during the meeting. This did not interfere with the meeting’s progress because it validated everyone’s knowledge of the team’s processes and procedures. One member of this team, who I still consider to be my mentor, is a man named Nathan. Nathan is the team’s planner and radio expert. Before working with this team, I had never touched a radio. Nathan took the time to explain to me the basic functioning principals of radios. He did not have to do that, but he realized that by exposing
me to basic radio principals, I would become a more informed and productive member of the team.
REFLECTION
It is often said that if something is too good to be true, then it probably is. When I saw how short Wheelan’s book was, I was excited. No book I’ve ever had to order for my Master’s program has ever been this small. I began to read hoping that the books length was an indicator that important lessons would be quickly and profoundly revealed. This was not the case. While I took away some great information from this reading, I found it to be quite repetitive. The author offered a lengthy introduction to the four stages of group development and then went onto dedicate a chapter to each stage. The chapters that covered the four stages were riddled with different scenarios that might arise during that particular stage and the author’s advice on how to address these scenarios. These scenarios were overly simplistic and idealistic. I’d like to ask Wheelan how to address issues that cannot be resolved. At what point does a team become too dysfunctional? When a team leader is no longer an effective leader, how does the team keep on track while creating new leadership? Wheelan seemed to address her own scenarios flawlessly but the scenarios seemed to maintain a “best case” status. My profession is a mix between local government and health care. For our young, fast growing county, turnover is extremely high with the exception of few outliers. In our department, most positions are entry level “stepping stones” that are occupied for an average of a year and a half. While Wheelan provided practical information on how to maintain and advance a team, I would benefit more on how to set a foundation for a high functioning team. Wheelan sited team member turnover as one reason a team could be stuck in the lower stages. It would have been nice for her to address how a team could operate in a way that would allow for fluid membership and consistent team advancement.
ACTION
Wheelan’s book offered great advice for not only being a good team leader but also a good team member. As one who is still in the early stages of her career, I plan to use the practical lessons from this book to position myself to be an effective team member of my current public health team. I am currently part of a team that is in stage two, hopefully headed towards stage three. We are having issues clarifying roles and goal and there is quite a bit of conflict and members challenging the leader, my direct supervisor. Now that I recognize the stage my team is going through, I will aim to follow Wheelan’s advice and not be a bystander4. This will require me to look inward and decide if my attitude and behavior are conducive for the advancement of our team4. If I am honest with myself, I can admit that I am passive aggressive, I complain about our team outside of team meetings but agree with everyone during the team meeting, and I don’t speak up when I have an opinion about something. That being said, I plan on working to reverse these three traits. Some steps I plan on taking to achieve this goal are to write down my thoughts and opinions during meetings. I believe that by organizing my thoughts during meetings on paper, I will have the confidence to voice those thought before the meeting is over. I also plan speak directly with team members I may have a complaint about directly instead of gossiping. I have already taken steps to address my issues surrounding gossiping. I have confided in a friend from church and she has agreed to be my accountability partner. We have begun a bible study about gossip out of 2nd Samuel, chapter 13 through 15. We have a study session once a week and we discuss our victories or short comings for the week. In addition to becoming a more effective team member, I also plan to position myself to become a team leader. To meet this goal, I plan to revisit the chapter on effective team leadership often. I plan to take opportunities to lead meetings or take charge on projects. I also plan to shadow my supervisor and learn how she leads our team. I plan to write down questions I have about her particular management styles, the positives and negatives of her position, and what she has learned in her position. I hope that by addressing traits that make me an ineffective team member and shadowing my supervisor to learn her leading style, I will position myself to become an effective leader of a high functioning team.
References
1Wheelan SA. Why groups. In: Wheelen SA, ed. Creating effective teams: a guide for members and leaders. Thousand Oaks, California. Sage; 2013:1-6.
2Wheelan SA. From groups to teams. In: Wheelen SA, ed. Creating effective teams: a guide for members and leaders. Thousand Oaks, California. Sage; 2013:7-20.
3Wheelan SA. Effective team leadership. In: Wheelen SA, ed. Creating effective teams: a guide for members and leaders. Thousand Oaks, California. Sage; 2013:91-110.
4Wheelan SA. Effective team members. In: Wheelen SA, ed. Creating effective teams: a guide for members and leaders. Thousand Oaks, California. Sage; 2013:68-90.