Concept of a Team in Your Own Words, Teamwork | ETM 5221, Study Guides, Projects, Research of Engineering

Download Concept of a Team in Your Own Words, Teamwork | ETM 5221 and more Study Guides, Projects, Research Engineering in PDF only on Docsity! ETM5221 Engineering Teaming Spring 2002 Pre-Class Questionnaire Results 1. Define the concept of a team in your own words. 1. A group of people that combine individual talents/skills for a common purpose or goal. 2. A team is a group of people working together & supporting each other to achieve a common goal. 3. A team is a group of individuals working towards a common goal. 4. A team can be defined as a group of people that worked together to accomplish a common goal. 5. A team is a group of individuals working together to accomplish a shared goal. 6. A team is a group of individuals who have come together out of their own self interests or through appointment by a authoritative body to perform an action requiring that they combine their efforts to produce a result that could not have been possible had they worked as individuals. 7. A group of individuals integrated to achieve a common goal. 8. A team is a group of individuals working toward a common goal. 9. A team is a group of people working together to achieve a common goal. 10. The concept of a team is a group of people or coworkers assembled to accomplish a specific task together. 11. A: I believe the concept of a team is taking individuals with different talents and specialties and meshing them together to accomplish one goal. 12. A group of individuals functioning as a unit to achieve a common goal. 13. A team is group of individuals formed for the sole purpose of accomplishing a common goal. 14. A team is comprised of a 2 or more people working together towards a common goal. 15. My concept of a team is a group of individuals with a common goal and a vested interest in achieving that goal, such that, when working in unison they achieve a functional synergy, which eclipses the abilities of the individuals themselves. 16. A team is a group of people of various disciplines working together in order to achieve a common goal. 17. A team is a group of people who work together to achieve a goal. 18. A team consists of more than two people working together for a mutual purpose. Team members don’t necessary have to agree with one another nor they share the same core values; however, they must tolerate each other’s point of views in order to accomplish the tasks 2. Define teamwork. 1. Interaction between members of a team that serves a purpose to benefit all parties. 1 2. Teamwork is individuals supporting each other & coordinating their activities to maximize the effort of the group in pursuit of a goal. 3. Teamwork- combining efforts to accomplish specified tasks. 4. Teamwork can be defined as a group or groups of people focusing on different tasks, but ultimately working towards the same goal. Teamwork requires good communications, brain storming sessions, etc. 5. Teamwork is activities performed by more than one individual to accomplish a common goal. 6. Teamwork is the coordinated actions involved in teaming that provide the impetus for the team to work towards their common goal. Teamwork may require that the individual team member subordinate his/her own interests. 7. The group actually working together, interacting and cooperating with each other and not as just a group of individuals performing work within a team. 8. Teamwork is having all members of the team contribute to the final product. 9. Teamwork is the collective output of a team. It is the collaborative effort of the team members to resolve an issue. 10. Teamwork occurs when this group of people actually performs the work together to achieve the desired results that they set out to accomplish. 11. Teamwork is the act of meshing different individuals together to accomplish one goal. 12. Two or more people working together towards an end. 13. Teamwork is the coordinated activities and efforts of a team or group of individuals with common goal, with each member having one or more specific functions. 14. Performing either identical or collaborative tasks in an effort to complete a larger task. 15. The best analogy to describe my vision of teamwork is the comparison of individual team members to the pistons in an engine. All members of the team are valued and weighted equally. Each piston fires independently but in sequence with the other members of its team. Each piston benefits mutually from the other pistons functioning properly and in the correct sequence and suffers proportionally as well, if components of the system fail. And just as with any high performance engine, preventative maintenance is the key to successfully maintaining the longevity of a high performance team. 16. Teamwork is the synergism that is achieved when a group of people combine their talents and skills to progress toward a goal. 17. Teamwork is cooperating with others to ensure that the group goals are achieved. 18. Teamwork is a result of cooperation between team members. Each member brings his her own technical expertise as well as his/her own experience to enrich the collective knowledge. 3. In your view, what type of projects or tasks are teams best suited for? 1. Projects that ultimately affect a large group of people, such that all persons being affected are represented by a smaller group. 2. Teams are best suited for complex multi element projects in which areas of responsibility are connected yet separable. 2 17. Projects or tasks where each person has divergent/conflicting goals or situations where personal preference is the largest determining factor in the decision. 18. Teamwork is not best suited for social group activities, which ought to include group members with similar social background and similar belief system 5. Describe the BEST project team experience you’ve had to date. 1. Until my current project, I have only been on the outside looking in. 2. The best project team experience I have had was on a DC to DC Converter product development team. The team was comprised of individuals from varying backgrounds and fields of expertise mostly reporting to the same manager. Everyone had specific responsibilities and defined roles. Additionally, everyone knew that one of their responsibilities was to support the other team members. The team met every morning to discuss what needed to be done that day, resolve issues, and decide prime and supporting responsibilities for each task. The team lead and manager worked to remove roadblocks and keep things moving through out the day. Responsibility and authority was pushed down to the working level so that people could accomplish their tasks. And everyone was dedicated and personally committed to meeting the team’s goals. Each individual’s contribution was expected, sought, and valued. The effort of the team was truly greater than the sum of the individual contributions. 3. Development of the engine water wash program. Everyone worked well together and handled their responsibilities. 4. My job is to work on 6-Sigma projects, and teamwork is a necessity to all my projects. The best project experience I have had is my current project team. I have experts from engineering, maintenance, operators, supervisors and managers. Every member was engaging during meetings. Everyone participates and contributes, which makes the meetings go a lot faster and the project proceeds smoothly. 5. The best project team to date was associated with the development of a new bone marrow biopsy needle platform that utilized a crown tip cannula and trocar stylet. The team consisted of a project leader (R&D engineer from Chicago who designed the product and coordinated all activities), manufacturing engineer (developed grinding processes), myself, engineer (developed all secondary processes and documentation), and project coordinator (ensured/documented adherence to design control policy). The project leader was very well organized and involved all team members in all decision points during the project, including the design of the product. Each team member was allowed the freedom to complete their tasks in their own manner. Changes during the project were discussed with all team members, to ensure that all affected areas were identified. Project was completed under budget and only one week late from a project deadline developed 9 months earlier. 6. As a quality engineer with AT&T/Lucent I had the opportunity to serve as a coach for the Quality Improvement Story teams. These teams were generally composed of a cross section of management, engineering and hourly shop employees. Working with these groups provided an opportunity to exercise the quality improvement skills training that all employees were required to complete. 7. The project that I’m currently working on consists of group of people from various technical and non-technical backgrounds that understands why we’re better together 5 than as individuals and agree to what/why we’re all working towards. They all have high degrees of personal motivation and a can do attitude. 8. Several years ago, our annual program budget had been increased to $100M. This was the first time it had been so high. A cross-functional team was formed and challenged to execute this high dollar program within the year, a feat never accomplished before. The team worked hard all year, had some ups and downs, but accomplished the goal ahead of schedule. 9. The best project experience was a design project. The team was primarily comprised of mechanical engineers. We were able to present our portion of the design on a weekly basis for review. Each team member presented ideas to resolve design issues. The communication was open and without conflict. We respected each other’s opinions. Together we created a very nice design with very few design issues. 10. The best team experience I have had to date is one at my present job. A team was assembled together to organize and deliver a plan for clearing some facility space. The team had one person in charge. This person delegated tasks to each individual. Each of the team members completed the task and we assembled the information into a workable plan. This project worked because the leader had the goal and specific tasks well organized. When the tasks were assigned each team member knew exactly what was expected and the accountability involved. 11. The best project team experience I have had involved only one other engineer, along with Marketing and Purchasing. The other engineer and I were able to make decisions amongst us, and were held accountable. Our supervisor did not micromanage, although that was only because my supervisor was too busy putting out other fires. 12. I worked with a small group on a cross-functional team to resolve a series of observations found during a ISO compliance audit. The group was formed from the various functional areas that were involved in the investigation, review, design and implementation of the correction actions. The group started with a clearly defined goal, and each member worked together to find the best course of action. The corrections were implemented and a periodic review was initiated to insure continued compliance. This was one of the few times I have seen the cross-functional team concept work in my company. 13. A year ago, I coordinated a team to perform a designed experiment covering a thirty- six hour period. Consistency was of utmost importance, but the time frame required shift work to make machine adjustments and gather data. 14. The most recent product team was a good example. There were only 5 people on the team and everyone was willing to work together. The team leader was the newest employee and received help from those with more company knowledge. The project has not been without some difficulties but those were handled well by the team. 15. One successful example I have seen in a large corporation was when experts from each discipline necessary to develop & manufacture electrical connectors were placed on a “Product Focus Team”. This team formed an integrated and complete network of knowledge, which quickly became the industry’s source of information on a specific type of electronic interconnection system. 16. The best teaming experience that I’ve had is a team to address a known problem we had with our product. The goal of the team was dictated at the beginning of the 6 project, and we were rewarded with upper management kudos when we showed progress. The team was structured and we all knew our responsibilities. 17. Two years ago I worked a design for a new communications system for the Navy. It involved two divisions within Raytheon (Texas and Florida), the Navy, and the Navy’s technical oversight agency (both in the Northeast). With budget and schedule pressures looming, the two divisions actually cooperated with each other (a major feat), and with the Navy (a near miracle) to complete a successful design on time and budget. Open communication between the groups was the key 18. I work for City of Tulsa’s Permit and Licensing System (PALS), which include twelve team members. We have a project charter, a project manager, a project lead, a business analyst, and program analysts. We meet once a week to discuss weekly- accomplished tasks as well as challenges. Team members help each other to coordinate implementation processes. 6. Describe the WORST project team experience you’ve had to date. 1. The one I am currently experiencing. Our core team is limited by involvement of one member of the team in particular. That representative is from marketing and all of the rest of the team’s actions depend on theirs. 2. The worst project team experience I’ve had was on a team providing sustaining engineering support to an electrical power system. The team was comprised of individuals from all across the organization and many different company sites across the country. Everyone remained on their primary team with its own responsibilities and team goals while supporting the sustaining engineering team at the same time. Everyone reported to a different manager over each primary team. It was very difficult to get support from any one individual since the goals of the primary team were always of higher priority. The primary team managers treated the goals of the sustaining engineering team as secondary and to be done as filler tasks. The primary team managers were provided sustaining engineering team budget without any responsibility for achieving any of its goals. As a result, sustaining engineering money was spent without much to show for it. 3. Development of a program to install fan blade platforms. Too many people not doing their job and too many others trying to do everyone’s but theirs. 4. My worse experience with teamwork would be when I was working in Goodyear, Lawton. It seemed like that many people were not willing to accept changes. Some of the operators have been working for GY longer than I have lived, and they resisted new ideas of doing things. They did not contribute much even when the team was together during a team meeting. 5. The worst project team to date is actually a project that I am currently working on. The project is concerned with the development of a new product, a thoracentesis drainage system using a pigtail catheter. The team consists of a project leader (R&D engineer from Chicago), various manufacturing engineers, including myself (each engineer specializes in one or more project activities: grinding, assembly, documentation, etc.), and a project coordinator. The project leader and various third party designers designed the product. No input was gathered from any of the other team members during the design process. Upon “finalizing” the design, each team 7 permanently damaged. Over time, engineering has taken the attitude that the problems belong to manufacturing and manufacturing has increased their knowledge of the new process somewhat such that there is less interaction between the groups. However, tension still exists. Management did not and still has not gotten involved to help clarify or rectify the situation. 18. I used to work in a helpdesk team and hated it so much. There were plenty of blame games going around whenever something went wrong. The environment was very stressful and very confusing; customers called repeatedly for every minute problem. Lack of communication and lack of a rigid organizational structure hindered best teamwork efforts 7. What do you consider to be the causes or correlates of effective teamwork? 1. Equal power amongst the team members and a good system of consensus decision making. 2. Effective teamwork is difficult to accomplish without common goals, clear responsibilities, direct accountability, appropriate authority, and appropriate priority. 3. Accountability and responsibility for completing individual assignments. A strong and proficient team leader whose sole responsibility is to correlate everyone’s duties. 4. Inffective teamwork due to: lack of management support; As an inexperienced engineer fresh out of college, I did not anticipate the degree of difficulties of working with well experienced operators; Operators were not willing to participate in the teamwork, because they were told to be there; Lack of communication all around. 5. Open communication and sharing of information; a well organized, knowledgeable leader; open minded members and managers; a well defined project goal and scope; sufficient resources. 6. Effective teamwork is facilitated when the team members recognize that the project or task ahead of them will lead to benefits (or avert disasters) for all of the members. Effective teamwork is also enhanced when there are not distracting personality or philosophical differences between the team members. 7. Agreement on a common purpose/goal, respect of others, ability to regard others idea’s, dedication towards achieving a goal, everyone pulling their own weight. 8. Clear guidance/understanding of the goal of the team; Team members willing to accept/understand different opinions; Norms established by the team for acceptable interactions. 9. Effective teamwork starts with the organization. A team consists of a leader and members. Each has their role. The team leader must recognize the value of each member. The leader must make sure that strong personalities are not the only opinions being heard and considered. Mechanisms must be in place to resolve differences whether it is by vote or the leader has ultimate decision power. The leader must encourage participation. The environment must be conducive to constructive criticism to allow for contributions from all members. The team needs to be constructed from qualified willing participants. Effective teamwork is enabled when the members respect each participant’s contributions to the team. Individuals must be recognized for their contributions. A well constructive team can be ineffective if the objective of the team is not clearly stated. Without a clear objective, it is very easy 10 for the team to stray from its intended purpose or wander aimlessly. The team must have the ability to make decisions that can be implemented with in the organization. Teams should be recognized for their contributions to the company. 10. I think effective teamwork has several correlates. One is that the team should be well organized by management. The team should report to the same manager during the project. If it is possible, I think another aspect of effective teamwork is to have members with personalities that do not clash 11. Effective teamwork is a product of the combination of effective communication, respect for the team leader (all teams I have been on have had some sort of so-called leader), and the ability to clearly understand the overall objective and how each individual’s job contributes to the overall objective. 12. People must be willing to work together; Open communication; Trust; Respect. 13. Team members must know why they are involved. There must be a cooperative spirit among all participants. And, there must be a clear and concise goal in mind. There must be support from upper management. 14. Team members that know, understand, and appreciate their responsibilities. Team members that know, understand, and respect their team member's responsibilities. A defined, well understood, and accepted goal; including the guidelines required to achieve said goal. 15. Management recognition that regardless of their technical skills, not all people have the ability to function effectively in a team environment. Recognition that the members of a team are still individuals and need to have ways of expressing themselves and being recognized within the team format. Acknowledgement that training is a necessary component of the conversion to a team structure. Proving to individuals that they will all benefit from the team’s successes. 16. The synergism achieved by effective teamwork is directly related to good communication, effective delegation of responsibilities, structure of team meetings, and effective leadership. 17. In order of importance…communication skills, commitment to the team goals, flexibility. 18. Effective teamwork requires clear and open communication. Team members must work toward a common and achievable goal and must be open to suggestions 8. Do you think technologists (engineers, knowledge workers, scientists, etc.) in general like to work alone or would they rather work in teams? What do you see as the major barriers, if any, in getting a technologist to work in a team with other technologists? 1. I think that most technical people prefer to work alone. Most engineers and people in highly technical positions that I know typically have strong opinions about a particular solution. Probably because that solution lies within the realm of that person’s technical strengths. 2. In my experience, technologists generally prefer to work alone. Barriers keeping technologists from effectively working together include the work required to effectively communicate with others, feeling as though they must compromise to 11 work in a group, ability to let go of some responsibilities and trust that others can successfully accomplish them, feeling that they can handle it all themselves. 3. I think they work alone best and prefer to do so. It is difficult to get many intelligent people to work together and respect each other’s job functions and knowledge. 4. Some technologists like to work alone rather than in teams. I have been told that 2 brains work better than 1, and 5 works better than 2. Without other peoples’ input and knowledge, some projects just simply cannot get done. With teamwork, many projects can be done more effectively and efficiently. 5. In general, I think technologists like to work alone. Some of the major barriers include pride (my ideas are better than your ideas), different problem solving techniques and work methods, and a hesitance to share risk/reward with other individuals. 6. The answer to this question depends on the type of project or task that is involved. When the task does not require multidisciplinary input, technologists often like to work alone. When there are several “routes to the destination”, the technologists is often more comfortable selecting the route than having a copilot. In situations where the task solution crosses technological boundaries, technologist are comfortable working with other technologists as long as those brought in to the mix limit their input to that which falls in their technological realm. Technologist can also be loath to work in teams that contain technologists (or management personnel and shop labor for that matter) when these groups represent a barrier to the solutions that are proposed by the technologist. 7. Alone. Usually because they are very opinionated, highly creative, close-minded to others ideas, believe they are the only one with the answers and that they’re design’s are error-proof. 8. I believe that technologists, like the general population, have some folks who will work well in teams and some that won’t. I believe one barrier that may arise more often with technologists than with others is egos. 9. My observation is that technologists prefer to work alone. Technologists tend to be introverted. Also, they like to be recognized for their contributions. I believe that with experience, technologists learn to work with others. It is through experience one can see the need for peers to work together. No one can have all the answers. 10. I think the majority of technologists desire not necessarily to work alone but to make the major decisions. I think this stems from liability. In a technical project, the engineer is responsible for success or failure. In cases such as this the engineer wants to be sure he or she doesn’t get hung out to dry. If I were going to choose any barriers it would be the liability issue. When liability is part of the equation it is hard to get technologists to be open to teams. 11. I think in general, technologists prefer to work along. I see egos and turf protection as the major barriers in getting technologists to work with each other in a team environment. 12. In general, technologist would prefer to work on the engineering or science of their project. They are not interested in the regulatory or social side of teams. Technologists are happy to work on collaborative teams to resolve a technical problem but for the most part want to be left alone. A technologist is typically working on a new idea. By working in a team, it is taking them away from their lab 12 16. Teams can utilize the knowledge of experts in a variety of fields with many different skills, and they can achieve a synergy of which individuals are incapable. 17. Vastly improved cultural literacy, distributed risk, ability to achieve constant strong performance, the opportunity to learn from the strengths and weaknesses of others, reduced stress. 18. Each team member contributes his/ her best personal efforts to achieve deliverable goals and objectives. Diversity is the best quality of any team. Team members provide each other needed technological, emotional support, and career growth 10. What do you see as the major barriers to teamwork? 1. Most people harbor their feelings about a decision even though they made a ‘consensus’ decision. When those people go back to their original groups, they do not effectively promote the team’s decisions. 2. Major barriers to teamwork include not invented here syndrome, having responsibility and authority at the appropriate levels, the work & time required to strive for consensus, and the ability to lead a team effectively. 3. Too many chiefs and not enough indians. 4. If the team does not have a good leader and was not communicated clearly from the beginning, very little will be accomplished. 5. Some of the major barriers to teamwork include: insufficient resources; inadequate project design controls; poor project goal and scope; inexperienced or unmotivated team members. 6. When teams are composed of “cooks” with their own “recipes”, and the “cooks” are unwilling to change, share or combine their “recipes with the other “cooks”, teamwork is virtually impossible. When there is a dominant team member who overrides the majority rule of the group, the team members become disillusioned and discontinue contribution to the group. When the team is formed to address a poorly defined task or problem, the teams results may stray from their intended purpose. 7. Ego’s, biases towards ethnic or social backgrounds, no common purpose/goal. 8. Negative connotations from past experiences; Lack of understanding by team members that diverse personalities actually help the team. 9. Egos are a major barrier to teamwork. People like to be recognized for their contributions. As a team, an individual may not be recognized. 10. I think the major barrier to teamwork is mismanagement. 11. I see the turf protection, egotism, and general fear of the unknown as barriers to teamwork. (Also, butt kissing is anti-productive in the team environment). 12. Personality conflicts; Team members not contributing; Poorly defined objectives; Not defining to level of empowerment 13. Personalities are probably the major barrier to teamwork. Participants must be willing to listen to every ones’ opinion, regardless of what they think. One manipulative or negative person can stop a team in its tracks. 14. Weak team members. Weak team leaders. Lack of authority given to team. Lack of tools or resources given to team 15. Creating an environment where the individuals that are key to the success of teams are recognized and rewarded adequately for their contributions. Getting all levels of management to buy into the team concept and allocate the freedom and resources to 15 implementation of a true team system.Finding team members that not only have the technical skills to perform well, but also have the interpersonal skills that are crucial to their ability to function in a team environment 16. Major barriers to teamwork may be in personality differences (and people who are unable to deal with them), team members who have motives other than the team goal, poor leadership, and ineffective team structure. 17. Empire building, territory protection, one-way communication, not giving credit where credit belongs. 18. Communication, personal interest, social belief systems, and trust are the major barriers to teamwork 11. What do you hope to learn from this course? 1. How to strengthen the weaknesses I see in my current project team. 2. I hope to learn to effectively lead teams, foster teamwork, identify why teams are working well together, and how to correct it. 3. How to successfully lead a team situation. 4. My job requires me to be a good team leader. I want to learn how to effectively organize and utilize a team to its full potential. 5. I hope to first learn the skills/concepts required for effectively applying teamwork to engineering related activities and projects. Second, I hope to establish a plan for myself for actively applying the skills/concepts I’ve learned to my everyday work as both a project leader and member. Lastly, the course will be an effective tool for my ultimate career move, that of a veterinary practice manager/owner. 6. Methods for determining team composition; Team facilitiation; Team conflict resolution. 7. To understand how to get a group of individuals from various backgrounds and level’s of experience to cooperate with each other to achieve a common goal on a consistent basis. To understand why some groups fail and others succeed to achieve teamwork 8. I hope to learn different options for teaming among engineers and others, when teaming should and should not be used, and the proper why to implement and lead a team. 9. I would like to learn from an unbiased source the proper way to manage team dynamics. I would like to learn about new technologies to manage teams. Also, I would like to be able to recognize when a team is not effective and how to re-direct the team. 10. ·What types of projects are best suited for teams; What types of projects are not well suited for teams; How to organize and effectively manage a team to get the best results. 11. : I hope to learn better on how to assemble successful teams, attributes of successful teams, and how to manage different personality types in the team environment. I also hope to learn some advice on how to effectively communicate with others in certain situations. 12. More insight into engineering teaming, and how to better manage the team structure. 13. I would like to learn more about facilitation. I am considered one of the “younger” engineers (50 years old, but working on second career) in the company. Some of 16 those who have been around for a long time resent new comers and feel we should take our place in the back of the room. I have over 30 years of leadership experience and deserve the opportunity to apply those skills. I just need a few more tools in my tool box. 14. How to better participate on, lead, and implement a technical team. 15. I hope to learn how to enhance my ability to recognize when and when not to use the team approach, how to operate more efficiently while utilizing the team concept and how to analyze an individual’s personality in a short timeframe to determine what type of work environment they are best suited for. 16. I hope to learn how to effectively facilitate teamwork in a technological environment. This includes knowing when teamwork is an effective option and overcoming the obstacles to teaming 17. Strategies to work more effectively with those who are the more difficult team members. 18. I hope to be able to learn different approaches to teamwork (what works and what does not work) and different team building philosophies 17