Group Dynamics and Multicultural groups

Resource Investigator: Extroverted, enthusiastic, communicative. Explores opportunities and develops contacts who can help the project. Team Worker: Cooperative, mild, perceptive and diplomatic. Listens, builds, averts friction and calms the waters. Coordinator: Mature, confident and a good team leader. Clarifies goals, promotes decision-making and delegates well.

Shaper: Challenging, dynamic, thrives on pressure. Drive and courage to overcome obstacles. Implementer: Disciplined, reliable, conservative and efficient. Turns ideas into practical actions. Completer-Finisher: Painstaking, conscientious. Seeks errors and omissions. Delivers on time.

Plant: Creative, imaginative, unorthodox. Able to solve difficult problems. Specialist: Single-minded, self-starting, dedicated. Provides knowledge and skills in rare supply. Monitor-Evaluator: Sober, strategic, discerning. Sees and evaluates options. Judges accurately.

Belbins team roles

People

Action

Thinking

Recognizable roles in a ”normal” group

• The “boss”

• The underdog

• The party guy

• The funny guy

• The serious

• Etc.

As the group develops (It may develop)

• Meeting facilitator• The versioning responsible (systematic)• Software / Technical responsible• Conflict mediator• Language and reference responsible• Contact to supervisor• The planner

• The difference between the beginner

group and the professionals –

discipline, experience & knowledge

Talking about multicultural project groups / statements

Managing differences?

• Sometimes I feel that the xxx students in my project team don’t accept differences. When I did some things in my way they commented or even laughed that it is stupid or useless etc. But for me it was normal what I was doing - because I was taught to do that during all my life.

Different process strategies

• For example, in the south of Europe, is not very impolite if you interrupt someone when he is talking. We use to do it. (Spanish student)

Why don’t Danish students care about their project?

- But they do care … very much!

- But they almost never shout at each other!

Resistance to teamwork?

All the time I have to rely on others. I hate that. … I have nothing against working in a team, but sometimes you need to feel independent to develop your imagination and creativity. And now, even when you are doing your homework you have to adapt to others, you have to wait when they are available, and finally when they come to you to work, or you have other plans, or maybe you need to be alone. (Lithuanian student)

Being here I learned how group work is important. It was the main source of new ideas I got from others, and with their help I developed the ideas I already had. (same student, 2 months later)

Lunch!

Also I would like to speak about lunch. WHAT ABOUT THE TIMETABLE FOR LUNCHING!!! Because in Denmark we have just a break of 30 minutes… and I CAN’T EAT IN 30 - So I wait until 3 o’clock to lunch.

The challenge of multicultural teams

Problems:• Reaching agreement is more

difficult• Communication is more difficult• Building trust and respect is more

difficult• More stress

Conclusion Team members must pay extra

attention to the team’s process

Research shows that the behavior of people in work teams varies across cultures.

What’s the problem?

• Misunderstandings and misinterpretations

• Because we interpret the other person’s behaviour within the framework of the values, beliefs, and norms of our own culture

Problem: ”The rush to structure”

Most newly formed multicultural teams jumps straight to a discussion of the task

• Failed to devote enough time to discuss the interactive process– Style and patterns of communication– How to conduct meetings– How to build relationships– How to make decisions etc.

• Result: problems later on

Canney Davidson, S., Snow, C., Snell, and S.A. Hambrick, D.C., (1993): Creating High Performing Transnational Teams: Processes, Phases and Pitfalls, ICEDR Report, 30

The central question

How can we create an effective team that will enable us to • be coherent• find procedures that suits all team members

despite the cultural differences among us?

OR

How can we work together to defy the pull of gravity from our local cultures?

Pros and cons

• Heterogeneous teams can outperform homogeneous teams• Research indicates that multicultural teams tend to perform

– EITHER much better than monocultural teams• Identifying problem perspectives• Generating alternatives

– OR much worse than monocultural teams• Failure to overcome differences in attitudes, values, behaviour,

experience, background, expectations, language

The solution?

Talk, talk, talk • expectations related to the task• expectations related to the process

“You have to start slowly and end faster; by starting too fast, you run the risk of not ending at all.”

What prejudices do you have about each other?

Take turns telling you prejudices about nationalities (not individuals) – good and bad aspects. The nationality who is being spoken about stays silent.

You can discuss:

– Where and how the nationality live?– What are unusual for the nationality?– Education and field of expertise– Sports and music?– Food and drinks?

After a round where everyone has told their prejudices about a single nationality, the nationality responds to what is true and what is not .

Groupdiscussion

Six steps to effective intercultural communication

1. Be aware of your own cultural assumptions and values.

2. Accept the reality of your own cultural conditioning.

3. Accept the reality of the cultural conditioning of others.

4. Don’t assume that what you meant is what was understood.

5. Don’t assume that what you understood is what was meant.

6.Test for understanding.

Think differences in whendelegating responsibilities and work

• Delegate responsibility in a clear way

• What is each member’s responsibility towards the group and the individual members

• What is the group’s responsibility towards the individual members

• Delegating work

• Try not to become too much of a specialist in different areas – you are still solving the same overall problem!

• Discuss the different tasks regularly. The students working on each task hand out questions to the rest of the group prior to the discussion.

• Evaluate and qualify each others work – and writing.

Working together in a groupThe typical writing process

Groupmembers writetheir text based upon content brief and the agreement

The group develops a content brief and agree upon who is doing what:

subjects, ideas,perspectives, coherence to other

project parts

Groupmembers sends all material to the rest of the group for comments and

review

Groupmembers review and comment upon text

Groupmembers get together and present

feedback and comments

Group agrees upon changes

Groupmembers implement changes

Group meetings and communication

1. Follow an agenda

2. Assign a chairperson and a minute-taker

3. Is there any unfinished business from last meeting

4. Use written contributions to provide input for the discussion

5. Visualise the project and the schedule

6. Summarise and conclude on each discussion

7. Try to ensure that the meeting/discussion results in some form of written work

8. Make sure everyone understands their “homework”.

9. Evaluate your meetings and your communication from time to time.

Group developmentLenneer-Axelson 1995

Forming

Get to know each other – finding one’s place

Storming

Discussions start – small conflicts

Norming

Strong relations – group culture

Performing

Energy and synergy produce results

Adjourning

New individual directions – Good-bye

Teamwork for real!!

Don’t flip the bozo bit Get everybody's head into the game Create a shared vision

Together we stand

Jim McCarthy, Dynamics of Software Development

Don’t know what you don’t know

Be an authority, not an authority figure

The world changes – so should you

Who are you?

Jim McCarthy, Dynamics of Software Development

Never forget the triangle Don’t treat a bad date for a bad

date Don’t shake the jello When you slip don’t fall Remember to celebrate

Design, plan and get there!

Jim McCarthy, Dynamics of Software Development

Design time at designtime Avoid the feature shoot-out Every milestone deserves a

no-blame postmortem

Be SMART (not JM)

Design, plan and get there!

Jim McCarthy, Dynamics of Software Development

SMART objectives

http://www.rapidbi.com/created/WriteSMARTobjectives.html

Be aware of the lonely guy in the room

Nobody reaches a milestone until everybody does

Isolation and burn-out

Jim McCarthy, Dynamics of Software Development

The Group Charter

Describes how the group has agreed to work together• It describes the group• It describes the groups values• It describes the promises the group members gives to

each other• It basically describes the preliminary problem that the

group has agreed to try to solve

It is basically the “project contract” among the group members that each individual in the group promises to keep.

Some questions regarding task issues• What is the team’s mission & priorities

– Schedule (how much will you work?)– Learning (what?)– Develop a good quality project report– Good grades– Others??

• What is the expected output of your project?• How should time be managed e.g. How important are deadlines?• How will work be organized and divided? - What can be done together?

Apart?• How should decisions be made (vote, consensus, compromise)?• Which technologies will you be using?• How will information be passed on? To whom? When? Formally or

informally? Within the group or outside?

Some questions regarding process issues• Is trust important? What is trust and how is it developed? • How much time for social activities, when, why, how?• If it appears that the input of some members is being ignored – What do you

do? • How will you secure good communication among the group members?• How is conflict managed? Avoided? Confronted?• To what extent do we compromise? Is negotiation seen as win/lose, lose/win

or win/win?• How can we ensure participation from all members?• How and when to evaluate performance?• How direct can feedback be and how is it presented?

The Group Charter

Week14

Week20-23

Week8

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Week11

Week12

Week15

Week16

Week18

Week19

Week17

Week13

Week10

Week7

Project implementation

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Project Period – reference: Project supervisor

PM Course – reference: PM teacher

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Setting expectations (when)Important dates

To the next time

• Read guidelines for preparing project reports

• Read your mails regarding supervisor and class (Henrik, Sven og Lars)

• Develop Group charter and send to supervisor

• Upload Groupcharter to your room at studienet