Creating Successful Collaborative Teams

By Pat Dukewits and Lewis Gowin
Journal of Staff Development, Fall 1996 (Vol. 17, No. 4)

 

Schools with collaborative cultures encourage stakeholders to trust each other, share information, and work together to serve students effectively. Developing collaborative cultures takes time and commitment, but members of many school teams are taking on this challenge in an effort to make their schools better places to work and learn for adults as well as students.

—NSDC (1994-95, p. 1)

Never before has there been so much talk about collaboration in the field of education. Research stresses the importance of creating collaborative cultures within a school (Peterson & Brietzke, 1994). Our experiences, however, have demonstrated to us that collaboration doesn't happen by itself.

When a school community decides to work together, it must have a plan to develop skills that will guide it to success. Based on our experiences, we have identified five key components that productive teams must possess. We provide information about each of the components and suggest activities that a team could use to develop the skills necessary to establish a collaborative culture.

Teaming in the Missouri Accelerated Schools Project

In our jobs as coordinator and staff development specialist with the Missouri Accelerated Schools Project, we could easily say, "Teaming is our life!" Missouri Accelerated Schools is a state-funded project based on the work of Henry Levin at Stanford University (Hopfenberg, Levin, & Associates, 1993). Accelerated Schools provides a philosophy and a process for change within a school community. Parents, teachers, administrators, staff, and students form teams to restructure their schools according to their needs and priorities.

The project began in Missouri in 1988 with six elementary schools, and by 1996 has grown to 150 schools. Staff development is provided to a team consisting of the principal and at least two teachers from each school. This team is responsible for leading the school community through the restructuring process. The staff development consists of a week-long academy in the summer and day-long workshops each month during a school's first year in the project. Three workshops per year are provided for schools in their second and third years in the project.

In the early years of the project, there was little emphasis placed on creating a collaborative culture within a school. We encouraged the teachers to work in teams but didn't provide them with the skills necessary to be successful. These schools struggled in their efforts to work together and make decisions.

Since the fall of 1993, we have devoted a part of each workshop to developing team-building skills. The success of this effort is best summed up by the teacher who said:

It is fun to work on our school improvement teams now. We respect each other, and we respect opinions that are different from ours. We've learned how to handle conflict and reach consensus. We are working on the really big problem now of how to improve the academic achievement of all our students. We would never have gotten to this point if we hadn't spent time earlier on developing our teams and teaming skills.

Experience with this project has taught us that any kind of organizational change must first begin by changing the people within that organization. Teaming is an effective strategy that can alter people's behavior and produce collaborative groups that will effect positive and long-lasting changes.

Typically, a group of people are asked to come together and magically function as a team. We have all been in such a situation; we walk into a team meeting not knowing anyone. We are immediately apprehensive and the stress level increases as the discussion begins. Since we don't know each other, there is no solid footing on which to begin our work. No one seems to know what is expected, either in behaviors or team goals.

The frustration increases as the meeting continues. Eyes begin to roll and people look at their watches. There is talk about not returning to future meetings since nothing is getting accomplished at this one. Sound familiar? The fate of this meeting is sealed before it ever begins.

Instead, successful teams are created through specific strategies and hard work. We have noticed that groups sometimes view team-building activities as unimportant or a waste of time. The members of the group are so anxious to get to the business at hand and get the meeting over that they resent any time spent on developing skills. Most groups don't evaluate their performance and often fail to realize that their product will improve as their ability to work together develops to a higher level.

Reflection is vital. Whenever a group does a teaming activity, it is essential to take time to process that activity or the members will not realize its significance and value. We always end with the question, "Why did we do this activity?" Team members need time to share their ideas about the purpose and the positive aspects of the activity. This forces team members to reflect on how the activity helped their teaming skills.

Key Teaming Components

Our extensive experience with the Missouri Accelerated Schools Project has given us insight into the development of successful teams. Teams which are able to work collaboratively and productively have five key components in common. As we discuss each of these components, we will describe an activity that we use in team-building workshops to help develop the skills of the participants.

1. Establish Trust. It is difficult to trust someone you do not know and impossible to work collaboratively with someone you do not trust. Trust affects all aspects of human behavior and is especially evident in team work. One can work side-by-side with someone in the same building for years and still not know them well enough to trust them.

When there is trust among team members, it is evident in the way they treat each other. One can hear it in the way they talk to each other, and it can also be felt in the collaborative spirit that is present in a meeting room. Just as trust is very evident when it is present in a group, it is also very evident when it is not present.

Trust among team members results in open communication, a mutual respect for people and opinions, and a willingness (even eagerness) to participate. Trust helps team members to see conflict both as inevitable and as constructive.

Team members who share common beliefs, attitudes, and goals have a higher level of trust than those teams who have no vision. Trust builds slowly as people share parts of themselves with others. Trust is crucial to the success of a team and increases proportionately as the team moves through the developmental stages.

Sample activity to establish trust: That's Me! Tell the team members that you are going to ask questions of the whole group. If the question applies to them, they are to stand and shout, "That's me!" Examples of questions might be:

"Who teaches at the primary level?"

"Who has a birthday in October?"

"Who has been in education 10 years or more?"

"Who had a marvelous vacation this summer?"

Questions should be tailored to fit the group. If there are parents or non-educators on the team, then most questions should not be educational in nature. There should be enough questions so that everyone gets to stand and shout several times. This is a first-level trust building activity.

Why did we do this activity? Team members should acknowledge that the activity helped them to get better acquainted, was a fun way to identify the team, and helped put everyone on an equal footing.

2. Develop Common Beliefs and Attitudes. Effective teams must develop common beliefs and attitudes. The development of this component of team building will take time and commitment on the part of team members. Less conflict will occur and a more productive team will be developed if this unity of purpose is created. An effective team needs to have a shared understanding of the school's vision. Conversations about the school vision are essential for a team to develop a common understanding.

One school in our Project was very resistant to revisiting the school vision. Teachers argued that a committee had already created the vision several years before and they were happy with it. When the group finally agreed to review their vision, in light of what they had learned about the Accelerated Schools philosophy, everyone was very surprised to find that they did not all agree with what had been written. Some teachers had very different ideas about what they considered a "dream school." This experience helped the teachers realize that they would have to develop common beliefs and attitudes about their school if they were to achieve their goals.

The specific mission of the team must also be clear to each team member. When team members are clear on the direction they are going, they will be more motivated to get there (Williams, 1993).

Sample activity to develop common beliefs and attitudes: Metaphors to Vision. Give each team a reflective picture with which you ask them to create a metaphor. An example would be a picture of a drop of water in a pool, with the resulting ripple effect. Ask the team to compare the function of their team to this picture. The team should list as many attributes as they can. When they have finished, lead them in a discussion over what they have learned about their team. Other comparisons could also be made, such as a comparison of your school to the picture, or the work of teachers to the picture.

Why did we do this activity? Team members should begin to recognize the beliefs and values they hold in common. Discussion of these beliefs and attitudes will help a team come to agreement on a shared vision and common mission. When disagreements are identified, team members will need to spend more time in discussion and/or activities to help the group come to resolution.

3. Empower Team Members. Every team member should feel the group has the knowledge and authority to make important decisions. Team members must also be prepared to assume responsibility for the decisions that they make. This will require team members to assume various leadership roles as they are needed.

Johnson and Johnson (1989) identified six task-related and six maintenance-related leadership actions which leaders can employ to be successful. Task actions include information and opinion giving, information and opinion seeking, direction and role defining, summarizing, energizing, and comprehension checking. Maintenance actions include encouraging of participation, communication facilitating, tension releasing, process observing, interpersonal problem-solving, supporting, and praising.

Team members need to discuss the benefits of each of these actions in relation to their task. This should help them to identify what they can do to provide leadership to the team and to facilitate empowerment.

Sample activity to empower team members: Empowerment Reflection. Ask team members to reflect on empowerment and have them share a story describing a situation in which they felt empowered. After everyone has had a chance to reflect, ask each member to list attributes of empowerment.

Have the recorder write the attributes on a large piece of chart paper. The team members will then clarify each of the attributes and reach consensus on the five they think are the most important. Since responsibility is an essential result of empowerment, as a last step of this activity, have the team describe how they demonstrated responsibility after they were empowered.

Why did we do this activity? It is our experience that empowerment means different things to different people. Team members need a chance to reflect on what that concept means to them and how empowerment is demonstrated. Reflection will help them develop a shared understanding of empowerment and realize the importance of assuming responsibility for the decisions that they make.

4. Effectively Manage Meetings. Have you ever been to a meeting where the leader of the team monopolized the floor and wouldn't let go? A meeting which went on and on and where nothing productive was ever really accomplished? We spend many hours of our working lives in meetings, and many of those hours are dull, boring, and frustrating.

Instead, people should look forward to meetings and view them as opportunities to address problems and implement innovative solutions. Teams need practical ideas to improve the quality of their meetings (Scearce, 1992). "Productivity, creativity, efficiency, participation, and commitment are results," Doyle and Straus (1982) write, "If you want these results from your meetings, you have to understand the process that produces them" (p. 19).

We have found that all meetings need to have certain ingredients to ensure their success.

• Standards. Also called ground rules or norms, standards are simply rules by which we agree to behave during the meeting. Common standards include beginning and ending the meeting on time, respecting all opinions, and staying open to new ideas. These standards should be developed by the team and be posted in front of the group at each meeting.

• Agenda. The agenda should be created with input from all team members. If one person makes up the agenda, it becomes his or her meeting. The agenda should be distributed at least one day before the meeting so that members can come prepared.

• Defined Roles. All meetings need a facilitator, recorder, and timekeeper. We recommend that all roles be rotated among the members of the team so that no one member gains too much power. This also helps all members accept responsibility for the success of the meeting. Optional roles include reporter, encourager, and clarifier.

• Minutes. Minutes provide continuity and a reference point for team members. They should be posted and available for all to review. In a school where there is unity of purpose and a true collaborative spirit, there are no secret meetings.

• Evaluation. Meetings don't usually provide an opportunity for reflection, but it is an important tool for improvement. Evaluation can be as simple as asking at the end of the meeting, "How do you feel about our meeting today?" or "Did we accomplish what we set out to do?"

Sample activity to effectively manage meetings: Help Me! Help Me! Explain to the group that problems will often arise within the group, but that problems cannot be solved unless they are first shared with team members. Give each member a card with a statement on it. Statements may be tailored to fit individual teams so that they become very relevant to members. Here are some examples:

Help Me? Help Me?

I'm afraid to talk in our faculty meetings. If I say what I really think, everyone will jump down my throat. Can you help me?

Help Me? Help Me?

One teacher dominates the discussion in our meetings. I wish she would be quiet and let the rest of us talk once in awhile. She also thinks she needs to be on every committee we have! Can you help me?

Help Me? Help Me?

Nobody ever comes to our meetings on time. They trail in 5 or 10 minutes late, and we keep having to go over what we've done again and again.

Ask team members to take five minutes to individually read the card and reflect on possible reasons for the problem. Then have them share their reflections with teammates. Finally, have the group discuss effective ways to deal with each problem.

Why did we do this activity? Team members will begin to understand what an intricate part meeting management and group dynamics play in team work. This activity demonstrates that problems need to be aired and are more easily solved when people work together.

5. Provide Feedback About Team Functioning. Feedback is one of the best ways to improve the effectiveness and functioning of a team. Time should be scheduled at the conclusion of each team meeting for the team to reflect and evaluate its performance. The group members need to process how well they did on achieving their task, as well as how well they did interpersonally.

Trust must exist before there can be honest feedback. Processing will take time, but it will be time well spent because teams that process will become more productive. Feedback will also help prevent problems from reoccurring.

Sample activity to provide feedback about team functioning: Reflection Question. The simplest type of reflection is to ask the team members to respond, either orally or in writing, to questions such as: How did our team perform today? What did our team do well today? How could our team do better the next time we meet? What did we accomplish today?

The responses to these questions should be discussed by the group and a plan created so the team will function more effectively in future meetings.

Why did we do this activity? When team members reflect on meeting outcomes and behaviors they gain insight into how they are functioning. This information will help them to decide what they need to do to improve.

Conclusion

Organizational change must first begin by changing the people within the organization. Creating collaborative teams is an effective strategy that can change people's behaviors and attitudes. There are five key teaming components that productive teams have in common.

Establishing trust results in open communication, mutual respect for people and opinions, and an eagerness to participate. Developing common beliefs and attitudes will help create productive teams which experience less conflict. Empowering team members will help them feel more ownership in decisions that are made and more responsibility in carrying out those decisions. Effective meeting management will improve the quality of the meetings and of the decisions that are made. Providing feedback about team functioning is essential for the team to improve its effectiveness.

While most school improvement initiatives stress the need for collaboration by the whole school community, school teams are frequently organized with little or no understanding of the dynamics that may exist within groups of diverse people. When newly created teams begin a concentrated effort at team building and establishing trust among the members, the results can be dramatic.

References

Doyle, M, & Straus, D. (1982). How to make meetings work. New York: Jove Books.

Hopfenberg, W.S., Levin, H.M., & Associates (1993). The accelerated schools resource guide. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Johnson, D.W., & Johnson, R.T. (1989). Leading the cooperative school. Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company.

National Staff Development Council (December 1994/January 1995). Collaborative cultures support success in schools. School Team Innovator, p. 2.

Peterson, K.D., & Brietzke, R. (1994). Building collaborative cultures: Seeking ways to reshape urban schools. Oak Brook, IL: North Central Regional Educational Library.

Scearce, C. (1992). 100 ways to build teams. Palatine, IL: IRI/Skylight Publishing.

Williams, R.B. (1993). More than 50 ways to build team consensus. Palatine, IL: IRI/Skylight Publishing.

 

 

About the Authors

Pat Dukewits is a staff development specialist, (816) 235-2455, dukewitp@smtpgate.umkc.edu, and Lewis Gowin is coordinator, (816) 235-2442, gowinl@smtpgate.umkc.edu, both at Missouri Accelerated Schools, University of Missouri-Kansas City, 5100 Rockhill Road, Kansas City, MO 64110.