How to Decide How to Decide
Team Challenge
Making decisions when you are not all in the same time zone or online at the same time can be a challenge for teams. This type of decision-making is called asynchronous decision-making. This team exercise is designed to help your team learn how to make good decisions and provide you with a tool (Skype) to communicate.
Resources
Some teams have communication problems. A team leader wrote "Without weekly direct communication (at the least), I really think that our international team will not function properly, and we won't be able to make "group decisions." What can this leader do?
Teamwork is difficult and made more so by international separation. A closely advised team one year had two active members, one less active and one inactive one. The way the team made progress was to advance ideas by proposing issue solutions with a deadline such as "Get back to everyone within 24 hours if you have concerns - otherwise, let's move forward. Thanks!"
For example, at one point there were three viable alternatives and the team needed to settle on one or risk having too much research and development to do. As a first step, people voted for an order, 1, 2, 3 and when that didn't produce a clear winner, one member proposed one of the solutions as the idea with a deadline to make any objections known. If no objections or alternative arguments were heard, then the team was going to move forward with the proposed solution.
The deadline came and went, and no objections were raised and the team moved forward! Yea! They adopted this successful approach for all subsequent decisions.
There are several ways of making these kinds of decisions:
A: Email all teammates with a “respond yes or no by” deadline.
B: Email all teammates with “if no one responds by X date, I will assume that I can move forward”.
C: Schedule a Skype meeting to discuss the decision being made.
D: Telephone teammates to discuss the decision being made.
In addition, your team must decide if you are making decisions based on majority rule or consensus. In other words, will a vote suffice, or do all members need to agree that all of their reservations have been addressed and can live with the decision made?
Other times, teams need outside experts to weigh in on a decision. In this case, it might be helpful to use the Global Resources - Ask an Expert collection.
Also see Making Good Team Decisions
Process
BASIC LEVEL: All team members need to visit the Skype website (www.skype.com), download it, and choose a user name. Next, discuss with your team a hierarchy of how your team will make decisions. Write a brief summary of your plan and list all of your Skype usernames.
GRAB YOUR POINTS!
1. Log into eFolio. Place your work into your team's "Team Building Exercises" folder. Title your entry with [Your Name]-[Challenge title]-[Process Level] (e.g. David Gibson-Title-BASIC) so that we can credit you for your work!
2. Evaluate the Exercise.
GOING BEYOND: In the above team example, the team did eventually suffer due to the one member who was just too silent most of the time; but the team wanted to be competitive and they hung in there and were one of the winners, even though only three of the four members actually contributed significantly to the final product. How should the team above have handled the situation differently? What could they have done if one of the members stopped communicating and participating? Are you each willing to commit to the team that you will be an active participant and communicate regularly? Collaboration is a process in which different teammates take the lead at different times. Communication is the key. If you have finals or a vacation coming up, how will you communicate with your teammates to ensure they know you will get back to the team soon? Discuss the example and questions with your teammates and write a summary of your ideas.
GRAB YOUR POINTS!
1. Log into eFolio. Place your work into your team's "Team Building Exercises" folder. Title your entry with [Your Name]-[Challenge title]-[Process Level] (e.g. David Gibson-Title-GOING BEYOND) so that we can credit you for your work!
2. Evaluate the Exercise
GOING CRAZY: In addition to the Basic Level and Going Beyond, decide on a team logo or symbol for your title page. For particularly strong examples, take a look at 2007 Winners: Global T.E.A.M. Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion and InitiaTEAM: nLife - Home Networking System
GRAB YOUR POINTS!
1. Log into eFolio. Place your work into your team's "Team Building Exercises" folder. Title your entry with [Your Name]-[Challenge title]-[Process Level] (e.g. David Gibson-Title-GOING CRAZY) so that we can credit you for your work!
2. Evaluate the Exercise