1. What are the 3 key process roles suggested for every team? What do those roles involve?

How can these roles be assigned?

How high-performing teams communicate
- In the past few years, collaboration was listed as one of the top five skills employers need the
most. Your ability to work well with others on a team is essential for developing your career in
just about every field, from health care to government, sports, education, tech, and the military.
I could go on. We find ourselves working in teams, why? Because research shows that effective
teams produce better outcomes than individuals or uncoordinated groups. And yet, many teams
struggle to reach their potential. Or to put it another way, as Malcolm Gladwell has said,
"The kinds of errors that cause plane crashes are invariably errors of teamwork and
communication."
Hey, I'm Dr. Daisy Lovelace. I'm a professor and consultant. I work with executives and teams to
improve their communication and leadership skills. You're probably wondering how can
teams reach their highest potential? The secret to a high-functioning team is excellent intra-team
communication. In this short course, I'll walk you through the practices of high-performing
teams and the pitfalls of inefficient teams. You can apply these concepts to your collaborative
efforts right away, and the exercise files will help you plan ways you can implement these
strategies in your own organization. By the end of our time together, you'll have concrete
strategies you and your team can use to improve your communication, ability to collaborate, and
ultimately your output. Let's dive in.
Why should you give everyone on a team defined roles and responsibilities? Select the best
answer.
 to avoid duplicate efforts and missed opportunities
Feedback: Having defined roles and responsibilities reduces task redundancy and optimizes team
efficiency.

Establish roles
- Whether you're a newly minted team or you've been working together for years, there's likely
room for improvement in the ways you communicate and collaborate. By giving everyone on the
team defined roles and responsibilities, you can better coordinate and avoid duplicate efforts and
missed opportunities. Some key collaboration process roles to consider are the meeting convener,
recorder, and monitor. Depending on the nature of your team, each of these roles can be
subdivided into more specific roles for your team, and these don't necessarily need to be
aligned with your functional roles in the organization. Think of these as separate working
titles for your specific team. The convener is a role the team leader often takes at least
partially, especially if he or she is accountable for the final outcome of the team's
efforts. Convening includes everything from determining whether or not a meeting is needed, to
ensuring the agenda is developed and shared, to scheduling the actual meeting time and
place. The recorder is responsible for keeping detailed notes on the discussion that takes place
during the meeting. Notes should include a list of the participants, a summary of the discussion
associated with each agenda item, and a list of the next steps. Any followup items should have
names associated with them, so that it's clear who will be acting on whatever next steps you've
discussed. Shortly after each meeting, this person should send a copy of the minutes to the
team and give participants an opportunity to clarify or add to the document as needed. The action
items from the minutes are often a topic for the agenda of the next team meeting. A monitor will
help the group stick to the agenda items and keep the discussion within the time
allotted. Keeping groups focused, particularly if you're meeting virtually, can be extremely
challenging. It's really easy to get off topic. This person should feel comfortable interrupting the
discussion if it goes off in a tangential direction. When this happens, the monitor may ask the
recorder to note that this topic needs to be an agenda item for a future meeting. Some teams
divide out these roles and keep them the same for every meeting. Others swap roles on a regular
basis to make sure this important labor is evenly distributed throughout the team. However you
choose to assign responsibilities, having defined roles will help you keep your team meetings
focused and meaningful. If your team is operating without assigned process roles, add this to
your next meeting agenda.
Collaborate to establish team goals and charter
- As a team, it's important to be in alignment on your goals, purpose, and process for
collaborating. Otherwise, you're like a group of rowers on a boat rowing in different directions,
and different paces. You'll want to spend some time discussing your purpose. Why has your team
been convened? What is it about this specific group of people, and the unique task at hand, that
you as a group have been trusted to address? And how will you do it? When it comes to setting
goals, choose a template that makes sense for your team, whether it's KPIs, SMART, or
SMARTER goals, or some other performance metric. Make sure your team collectively
establishes shared goals for your work together. There are several great courses on this topic in
the LinkedIn learning library if you need guidance on goal setting. Once you've established your
goals, take a few minutes to discuss your conditions of satisfaction. These are the minimal
requirements to reach completion of a project. Conditions of satisfaction are different than
goals. If your team's goals are on the high end of what you hope to accomplish as a group, the
conditions of satisfaction are on the low end. What's the bare minimum everyone will be
comfortable with having completed? For example, for students, the goal in a course might be to
earn an A on an assignment, but the condition of satisfaction would be a passing grade. Teams
often set lofty goals initially, but adjust their expectations once the work requirements are
understood. Having a clear definition of what is acceptable before you start your project, will
save you time, and frustration down the line. With your goals and conditions of satisfaction in
mind, you'll want to develop a team charter. A document that outlines commitments for how your
team will collaborate on your work together. This document should spell out all of your
expectations around the process, for how you'll work together to accomplish your goals. Typical
team charters include, ground rules for team meetings, norms for communicating with each
other, details for how you'll make decisions, consequences for not meeting expectations, and
what you'll do if you experience conflict. The idea is to spell out the ways you plan to work with
each other, to help avoid misunderstandings, or clashes in working styles. I'm including a team
charter template in the exercise files, so you can see an example of what this looks
like. Assigning roles for communicating in team meetings, and establishing conditions of
satisfaction will help get your team in sync, and make sure you're all rowing in the same
direction.

2. What is a RACI matrix (what does it stand for)? How, why, & when do you use the
matrix?
Delegate responsibilities
- You have all the right people on your team, but how do you know who is doing what?
And, when is it appropriate to loop in other team members or stakeholders? Sharing all
information with everyone can be inefficient, but how do you make sure the right people have
the information they need at the right times? You can use a RACI matrix to track and assign
responsibilities related to the specifics of your project. RACI is a responsibility matrix or tool
you can use to keep each other informed and collectively hold each other accountable. RACI
stands for responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed. In this chart, you'll clarify task
roles and responsibilities related to your team's goal. Some benefits of using RACI include that it
one, improves team efficiency, two, reduces redundancies or overlaps, and three, coordinates
your team's efforts at multiple levels. There's a template you can download of the RACI
matrix in the exercise files so you can take a look at this tool. As you think about the scope of
your project, you can probably divide it into multiple sub-components or action items. List these
in the left column. Then, put each person on the committee, or their functional area, across the
top part of the chart. Then, you'll fill in the table, assigning each action item to a person in your
working group.
Start with R, responsible. This is the person who is completing the specific task and is
responsible for its implementation.
Accountable is the person who's held responsible by management. This person usually has the
authority to decide whether a task is a go or no-go and often has the resources needed for the
task.
The consulted are people who are asked for advice about the task, but don't actually do any of
the heavy lifting. These individuals are usually consulted before any decisions are made.
The individuals who are informed are those who are aware of the decisions and actions. They
are people who need to know what's happening but don't get involved in the decision-making
process or implementation. By defining team roles and responsibilities, you're establishing the
processes that'll make collaboration on your team run smoothly. Now you've got the right people
on your team and everyone knows who is doing what as you move toward your goals.

3. What is the “say-do gap”? Why is it important?

Build trust in your team
- Trust is essential in teams. In order for teams to do their best work, teammates must be able to
trust each other. You need to know I've got your back, and I need to believe that about you
also. Without a strong foundation of trust, you have a group of individuals operating out of
sync and on shaky ground. Your teammates need to trust you'll follow through. If you set the
expectation you'll attend a meeting, complete a task, or contact a client, it's important that you
follow through. If for some reason you don't or you can't, it's important to offer that information
upfront. It's better they hear it from you rather than someone else. We often make
commitments, maybe about things we don't think are a big deal, and don't follow through. Think
of your credibility as a jar you're filling with coins. Each time you complete a task as expected or
follow through, you're adding coins to your credibility jar. If you miss a deadline or task, you
empty your jar. And for some people, you literally leave a small hole in the bottom of your
jar. This means as you try to build back up your credibility, it requires more coins to get to the
same place, because some have slipped through the base of your jar. So what can you do to avoid
this? Pay attention to the say-do gap, and work to minimize or eliminate it altogether.
What do I mean by say-do gap? This is the difference between what you say and what you
actually do. Teammates need to trust each other's intentions. If you trust someone, you believe
they have your best interests at heart. This means they don't speak negatively about you behind
your back, make belittling jokes, or make you feel incompetent. Teammates are protective of the
psychological and emotional wellbeing of each other. If you trust your team, you aren't worried
about sounding dumb if you present an innovative idea. On a related note, teammates need to
trust it's okay to share opposing viewpoints. Our instinct is to shoot for group harmony. So we
choose to keep quiet instead of risking conflict or upsetting someone on the team. Instead, we
need to strive to create a culture of psychological safety, or a climate where people feel
comfortable sharing unique knowledge or ideas. This is where the magic happens on
teams. Bringing together people with diverse perspectives isn't productive when teammates aren't
comfortable sharing what they know. Finally, teammates need to trust you know how to get the
work done. It's a question of competence. Even if I completely trust your follow-through,

4. What are the 5 Ws of Accountability for teams?

Manage accountability within teams
- Imagine this scenario: you're leaving the office for the day and realize that one of your
teammates forgot to complete part of your project that's due to the client the following
morning. You've finished your part and you have plans you want to keep. This isn't the first time
this teammate has been late on their part of the project. Why does this keep happening? Well
chances are, your teammate isn't intentionally sabotaging your project or trying to keep you from
your plans. But if this doesn't get addressed, how do you prevent this from happening again in
the future? This is where documenting expectations can be very helpful for your team. There are
a number of things that need to be clear to everyone on the team.
I think of these as the five W's of accountability for teams.
The first W is what, what specifically needs to be done? What is the task or tasks that must be
accomplished?
Second, we have when. What's the deadline for getting this finished? If the deadline is Tuesday,
what time? If the product goes to the client on Tuesday, should the team have a chance to review
it prior to that? If so, is our internal deadline actually Monday? Or if we need to allow time for
edits and changes to the draft, should we set Friday as our internal deadline?
Third, who is going to take the lead in finishing this specific task? Ideally, you'll assign each task
to one person and one person only. Others may be involved, but having one person who needs to
track the details and progress is important.
Fourth, why, why is this task or project important? How does it fit in the grand scheme
of your team or organization's work? Who benefits from your work and who suffers if we fall
short? Sometimes people gloss over the reasons for a task. I'd advise against that.
And finally, the fifth W, what happens if a task is or isn't completed accurately, on time or to any
other project specifications? In other words, what are the consequences of failing to meet
expectations? And consequences don't have to be negative. Don't think of this as a punishment,
per se. A consequence of meeting a deliverable on time and under budget might be a bonus for
everyone on the team. Or a missed deadline might result in canceling a team dinner at a nice
restaurant. It's easy to quickly run through these details during a meeting to make sure everyone
is on the same page.
Let's watch Carrie confirm the five W's with a teammate.
- All right, great. I like to close out my meetings by making sure we're all clear on the next
steps. Nicole, are you able to finalize the color palette and typography for our style guide?
Yeah, I can have that by Wednesday. - Great, great, and you'll be able to get fully formed
paragraphs done, you know, making it look pretty much publish ready?
- I thought you only needed bullet points?
- Let's take the time for a publish ready version of the draft. Do you think you can have this to
the team by 12:00 PM on Wednesday?
- Yeah, I can do that.
- Excellent, this is really going to allow our team to streamline a lot of our communication
tasks. And if we can't make that deadline, we're going to have to push the publication date into
the holiday weekend.
- Notice at the end, Carrie shared what would happen if the deadline was missed.
As a team, it's important to agree on consequences for when the team meets or fails to meet
group expectations.
Accountability means we celebrate our wins together and we learn from our mistakes
together. No finger pointing or blaming.
Accountability in teams is a loaded topic, it's tricky. If you want to take a deeper dive on the
subject, I have a full course in the LinkedIn Learning Library on holding teams accountable. In
the meantime, remember to document expectations around the five W's to help keep your team
accountable.

5. What are the seven components of LESCANT? Which aspect of team communication is
LESCANT associated with?
Cross-cultural communication within teams
- It's well established that today's teams are global and teams that harness their diverse
perspectives and talents have better outcomes than those who don't. And yet, communicating
across cultures can present some challenges. A model to help you think through the cultural
issues that can come up in cross-cultural business communication is abbreviated as LESCANT.
This points to seven areas, language, environment social organization, context, authority,
nonverbal, and time. To consider in international business settings,
I'll briefly highlight some things to consider in each of the seven areas, starting with L,
language. When it comes to your language, use clear and basic phrasing whenever
possible. While everyone on your team may be using the same language, it's easy for information
to get lost in translation. The same words can have different meanings in different parts of the
same country. Keep in mind, everyone on your team may not have the same level of language
fluency, and that may influence how they participate in group discussions, especially if things
unexpectedly come up. It's easy to confuse language proficiency with confidence, but that can be
a mistake. A teammate may have strong evidence to support an idea and have some trouble
articulating it, or vice versa.
In terms of E, environment, what external cultural factors impact your team's work or
dynamics? This can include aspects of your physical realities and a host of other external
factors. Next, how are the cultures represented on your team socially organized? How do
religion, race, gender, and class factor into the societies your team is constructed of? One
example that can be tied to friction on teams is how people view individualism versus
collectivism.
The next letter, C, is context. Which of your teammates are
from high- or low-context cultures? In a high-context culture, communication is
explicit. Communicators are direct and verbalize every word they need to get their point
across In a low-context culture, communication is implicit and relies more on non-verbal,
cues, silence, and the unsaid. Recognizing these subtle differences will improve your team's
communication.
The next consideration, A, is authority. How do your teammates view authority? Our
perspectives on authority, power and leadership style are all informed by our cultural background
and personal preferences. If there are hierarchies based on title or age within your team, keep in
mind that may prevent some teammates from pushing back on an idea from a more senior
teammate.
Our N, nonverbal communication, speaks volumes. Within your team, pay attention
to the things that are unsaid. If you notice from their body language that a teammate seems to
withdraw or might want to speak, but can't get into the conversation, you can be an ally for that
person by creating an opening for them. If you don't want to put them on the spot, follow up
individually and find out how your teammate wants you to act in the future. Remember, the best
ideas don't necessarily come from the chattiest people.
And finally, T is time, which I'd argue is our most valuable resource. How individuals perceive
time and their schedules varies. Some teammates may see time as more fluid or flexible, whereas
others follow a more exact and literal timing.
The LESCANT model gives us seven considerations for communicating in our cross-cultural
teams. If you don't know how your teammates think about each of these categories, plan to have
a discussion about these topics and link them to your team charter. Your team is only as strong as
your ability to effectively communicate across cultural boundaries.

6. What are critical ground rules for an After Action Review (AAR)? What are good
questions to ask in an AAR?
Measure success within teams
- Right now, you might be struggling to complete a project or maybe you're ahead of schedule
and under budget. If you don't know exactly why that's happening, how can you fix a problem or
replicate the success? Measuring and reflecting on your team's progress is critical for long-term
success.
Plan to evaluate your efforts at targeted points on your timeline when major deliverables are
completed and especially at the end of a project. This doesn't have to be formal or a lengthy
process. As a professor, I do a version of this regularly. Rather than wait until the end of the
course to get feedback, I typically survey my own mid-semester evaluations. If I need to pivot or
make adjustments to the course, I can do so in real time.
Your team can monitor and measure your progress by conducting an after action review. The
process is simple and straightforward, and when done well, it's extremely powerful. Start by
setting aside a team meeting for this discussion. Let everyone know the purpose of the
meeting so they can come prepared for the discussion.
There are a few critical ground rules for an effective AAR that everyone needs to agree on and
leaders should take an extra effort to model.
One, get everyone involved. Everyone who is contributing
should have an opportunity to reflect and contribute to the discussion. This conversation isn't
productive if everyone, from the most junior person to the most senior executive, doesn't have a
seat at the table.
To that point, if you have varying levels of seniority in the room, you may need to find ways to,
number two, encourage honest discussion. There may be cultural personality or rank related
reasons people on the team don't feel comfortable speaking up.
And this brings me to number three, dismantle hierarchies and ignore rank. The people
who are on the ground doing the work may have invaluable insights on how aspects of the
project are getting done. Without making them comfortable speaking up, you risk missing out on
important information that can change your work outcomes.
And finally, number four, establish a positive environment. This isn't the time for blaming or
shaming people on the team. It's okay to speak about what did or didn't happen as planned, but
it's important that the tone of the conversation remains productive.
Now that you've established the ground rules, here are the questions for your AAR. If you have a
really large group or are conducting this meeting virtually, break your team into smaller
groups so that everyone is engaged in the discussion and then reconvene after everyone's had a
chance to share their ideas.
Number one, what was supposed to happen? This seems like an obvious question. If everyone
isn't in alignment on this question, you want to revisit the team's goals and expectations next
time.
Two, what did happen? Did we meet our goal and only our goal? Or, were there unexpected
outcomes, either positive or negative, that also came along with accomplishing our goal?
Three, what worked well and why? What did we do a good job with and why did it work so
well? It's important to understand why we've been so successful.
Four, what do we need to change and why? It's also important to know what didn't go as
planned and have a good understanding for why things got derailed.
Five, how can we improve our process going forward? A thoughtful discussion about
what we can do better in the future gives your team a revised roadmap on your path forward. It's
important to get in the habit of doing these even when things are going well. Learning from
successes and failures is how we constantly grow as teams.

Additional material

Define expectations in your team

- Reasonable people with the same goals will approach projects differently. This is why it's
critical for teams to document expectations and norms for how they'll work together. Take for
example, Ted and Fred. Ted is one of those people who gets a burst of energy right before a
deadline and does his best work under pressure. Fred, on the other hand, likes to plan out every
detail and paste the work evenly to completion. You can easily see how this led to friction among
teammates. Left unspoken, this friction turned into a simmering conflict. Trust eroded, and
everyone involved couldn't wait to get out of the project. This could have been avoided with
some constructive conversations to communicate clear expectations. The team's charter should
establish some ground rules for how to handle these types of things. I've added some questions to
help you think through these topics in the exercise files. After your team has decided on norms
for communication, operating procedures, and general expectations, you can document all of this
in your team charter. Let's join a newly-formed team to see how they can course correct to a
more effective communication plan around expected behaviors. This team quickly developed a
charter and now frictions can easily be observed. It looks like you're the first team to finish your
team charter. I have a copy of it right here. Do you guys feel comfortable that you're all in
alignment on your team's expectations?
- Yeah, I think so.
- Definitely. - Yeah.
- Okay.
Well, since I wasn't in the meeting, I'd love to get a better sense of your team's expectations. As I
look at this here, I want to start with a simple one. Your charter says that all team members are
committed to delivering work product on time. If a report is due on Friday, what does that really
mean?
Or when does it really due?
- First thing, 8 am.
- End of day 5 pm.
- I would think 5 pm, but because it's the weekend and people aren't going to be
working, probably 8 am on Monday.
- Sounds like you should set aside some time to revisit your answer to that question.
Okay, I see here that you're committing to starting and ending meetings on time. Let's circle back
to the beginning of this meeting.
(clock ticking)
- Hello.
- Hey, I hope you can hear me. Did I miss anything?
- No.
- All right.
- Oh, your audio.
Provide feedback within teams
- Actionable feedback is critical for team success. It's so important that we tell our teammates
what is working well, a And probably more importantly, what needs to be changed or
improved. But giving and receiving feedback can be tricky, especially, when it's with someone
you work closely with. It's important to establish a culture of feedback on your team. This means
you create an environment where feedback both positive and constructive is regularly shared in a
timely fashion. If you can give it instantly, that's even better. A short and simple framework you
can use to deliver feedback is the SBI framework,
where S is situation, B is behavior, and I is impact.
Let's take a look at each of these.
The first part, the S is the situation. When giving feedback, the more specific you can be the
better. You want the context you're speaking of to be crystal clear, rather than a broad
timeframe give as close to the exact moment in time as you can.
Next, you want to highlight a specific B, the behavior, that you find problematic, disruptive, et
cetera. It's important to make sure you're using verbs when describing behavior. You're talking
about the person's actions not their motives or their character.
Finally, point out the I. The impact that this specific behavior had on you or the team as a
whole. You're only speaking from your perspective. You don't want it to seem like you've
spoken to others about this, and you're representing them.
Here's an example of this framework in action.
- [Woman] Hi, Jeff, is this a good time for feedback?
- [Jeff] Sure.
- [Woman] So last week you submitted yourself forecasts on Thursday afternoon.
As you know, the deadline for this was Wednesday. The operations team had to work overtime to
adjust to the projections that you provided. In the future, if you can't meet our deadline, could
you please let me know in advance?
- [Jeff] Yes, and thank you for this feedback.
- Now, if you're the recipient of this feedback there's only one tried and true response,
and that is thank you for your feedback. Even if you disagree with what's been shared. If you
really need to, you can ask clarifying questions about the feedback you've received, but only if
it's absolutely necessary for you to understand what's being said.
Don't make excuses, explain what happened, or get defensive. Remember, it isn't easy or
comfortable for most people to provide constructive feedback. Think of it as a gift. You can take
it or leave it, but you still want to be polite to the person who gave it. Giving feedback can be
uncomfortable which is why we often avoid it. But the more you give it, the more natural it'll
become. SBI works for positive feedback as well. So that's a good place to start practicing.
Manage conflict within teams
- Not all conflict is bad. In fact, conflict on teams is inevitable. And if you manage it
productively, it can lead to positive outcomes in your work. But, if conflict on your team is
mismanaged, a seemingly small misunderstanding can quickly spiral out of control. There are
lots of reasons that reasonable people working together towards the same goals, may experience
different types of team conflict. Avoiding or ignoring it, won't make them go away. There are
two sources of conflict teams often face
that I want to differentiate, task and interpersonal.
Let's talk a bit about each.
Task conflict is tied to disagreements about how your work gets done. This can be about what
constitutes the actual deliverable, or about the process for getting to the deliverable. Diverse
teams have more potential for task conflict because teammates are addressing problem
solving from different perspectives. Whether they're drawing from their personal experience, or
disciplinary expertise, they see the work differently, and have different ideas about how to
address it.
Some of these differences are interpersonal differences, such as values, personality, needs, and
preferences. Oftentimes, there isn't necessarily a right or wrong on these topics. It's simply that
people view or have experienced these issues differently. And as a result, teammates must find a
way to agree to disagree, and learn from each other's perspective. When you notice conflict
happening on your team, the first step is to identify which type of conflict you're dealing with.
Both types of conflict are tied to miscommunication, so we can use effective communication
strategies to mitigate and resolve conflict in our teams.
The first step is to acknowledge the conflict. Awkward tension will just fester
and make things uncomfortable for everyone.
The first step is to identify that there is a problem. Now, we're on our way to resolving it.
Second, identify a good time for a discussion. Whether this conversation includes the entire
team, or just those involved with the conflict is up to you all. But find a good time to meet in a
neutral space. It's important to have ground rules
for how you'll conduct these conversations. And if you think emotions are too raw, consider
bringing in a neutral third party to moderate and facilitate the discussion.
Third, give each person equal time to articulate their perspective. Let's say Mariah is upset
with Bob. She can describe the specific actions or behavior she finds troubling. Mariah can
structure the statement using the "When you do," or "I feel," pattern. It looks a little like
this. When you say or do X, I feel Y. It's important that she doesn't make any value judgements in
these statements. Instead, Mariah talks about the observable behavior. Next, Bob re-articulates
his understanding of Mariah's perspective. So Bob would say, "When I did or said X, it made you
feel Y." Note, Bob doesn't get to defend what he said or did in this moment. Instead, he's taking
ownership of what he said or did, and acknowledging Mariah's feelings. After Mariah has a turn,
Bob gets a turn, and so on. The key here is to understand the perspective of your
teammate. Notice I said understand and not agree with. Bob may never see things the way
Mariah does because he's had a different lived experience. But, if Bob understands Mariah's
perspective, that can inform his behavior in the future. After everyone has had a chance to
share their perspective, each teammate has the choice to determine how they want to proceed.
Some teams like to end the conversation there, and take time to think about what they've
learned. Others choose to continue the discussion. Based on the information that's been
shared, you may want to apologize for something you said or did. Or you can simply thank the
person for sharing their perspective.
Fourth and finally, as a team, consider how this can be avoided in the future. What can you
learn about what's happened here, and how can you grow to improve for the future? Many
misunderstandings or miscommunications occur as a result of not thoughtfully developing a team
charter. With strong inter-team communication, you can reduce conflict and leverage it for your
team's benefit.
Communicating virtually within teams
- Virtual teams experience some unique benefits and challenges. Luckily, there are things we can
do to improve the performance of virtual teams by focusing on our team's communication. One
of the most important things you can do is take the extra time to build connections with your
colleagues. This might not feel natural at first, but it's critical, relationships matter.
Three ways you can get to know your teammates virtually are,
one, create virtual spaces or times for conversations. Open office hours or town hall style
meetings give people a chance to check in and voice ideas or concerns.
Two, post monthly or quarterly virtual socials. A happy hour, trivia, or game night are a fun
way to connect with your team outside of your work.
Three, ask good questions. If I ask you how you're doing, you'll likely respond with a one-word
answer. In fact, it's become somewhat of an ignored greeting to ask someone how they're
doing and for them to respond with good or okay. To get people to open up, ask open-ended
questions. For example, tell me about how your day is going or what's new in your world. This
opens the door for the person to talk about themselves, a spouse, child, pet, or whatever they
want to share.
Building relationships are just as important for virtual teams. So it's important to make an effort
here. When it comes to work-related communication, there are tons of tools you can use to share
information within your team. You want to use the right technology for the task and keep things
as simple as possible. And keep in mind how the recipient of the information is likely to
respond.
Emails are great for informational updates and chat is useful for real-time information,
but remember to pick up the phone or turn on the video camera and have a live discussion when
you need to talk about delicate or sensitive matters.
This brings me to my final and most important tip. Document everything using an agreed
upon method that is easily accessible to everyone on the team. This may seem like
overkill, but over communication keeps everyone informed. Chances are, your team uses chat,
email, phone, video conferencing, text messaging, and so on.
Pick one central place to regularly update and store information so that everyone is aware
of work status and next steps. You don't want to have to go back and check five or six different
communication platforms to find information when you need it. Let's say you and Jayma make a
material decision on your project, but don't update the project management software or CRM
platform with your decision. This means that others in the team aren't in the loop which could
create problems down the line. Even if your team is dispersed across the globe, you can take
comfort in knowing you're operating at an optimal level when you invest in good team
communication.

The imperative of effective teams

- Most teams underperform their potential. If you refine your ability to collaborate and work well
in a team, it can be career-altering. These skills will help you become a team member who is
trusted and respected for your ability to help the team reach its goals. At the outset, some people
feel hesitant about working on a team project. Before knowing the techniques included in this
course, I've coached people, worried they'd end up doing the lion's share of the team's work, or
they might damage relationships with colleagues by redoing their work without sharing
feedback. Challenges related to working in teams are tied to interpersonal, intrateam
communication and collaboration. There's also a phenomenon at play in the background called
social loafing. The easiest way to describe it is when people on teams slack off because they
know someone else will pick up the slack. You can combat social loafing in your teams by
implementing best practices for team communication. The work you're invested in is worth
getting right, so come back to this content to refresh your memory on the best practices when
things aren't going as well as they could be, or when you join a new team.
Quiz
1. You are the team lead for Project Stream. Which action would you take first in setting
expectations with your team?Set shared goals.
2. What is NOT a function of a team charter? Determine who will be on the team.
3. Half of a team works remote and half works onsite, dispersed in three time zones. When
they create a team charter, what is the least likely expectations element needed in their
project charter? personality expectations
4. What are common process roles you should consider for high functioning teams?
Convener, Recorder, Monitor
5. What is a key benefit of conducting AAR after project completion? Learning from
success and failure helps the team grow and allows success to be replicated in the
future.
6. Lox is using a RACI matrix to identify all the people and their responsibilities for a
program team. Which role has the authority for a go-no-go decision on a task?
Accountable
7. What is NOT a benefit of RACI matrix? determines scope of the project
8. What should you do when a team member fails to meet an expectation? Take group
accountability.
9. What is NOT an example of trust that can be seen in high functioning teams? Trusting
team members to compensate for your lack of productivity.
10. To help build and maintain trust, leaders can reduce the say-do gap and try to _____
promise and _____ deliver. under; over
11. When should collaborative expectations be set? when formulating the team charter
12. What do you call the difference between what you say and what you actually do? say-do
gap
13. A team is losing trust in their leader and questioning his credibility because he does not
follow through. What would you tell the leader to do? Get rid of the say-do gap.
14. What is the most appropriate response to receiving feedback? Thank them for the
feedback, and then ask clarifying questions.
15. What should you try to avoid? always scheduling virtual meetings based on the
majority of the team's availability
16. What is the first step in resolving a conflict? Acknowledge the conflict.
17. Which is NOT a benefit of the RACI Accountability Matrix? clarifies the team charter
18. What is the best time to share critical feedback? privately, at a time that is convenient
for both parties
19. What question should NOT be asked when addressing accountability? Who is to blame?
20. Which example best follows the SBI framework? During this morning's project
presentation, I noticed that your slides had spelling and grammar mistakes. My
supervisor was present and I am concerned about how we will be reflected as a
team.
21. You need to give positive feedback to one team member, and constructive feedback to
another team member. Which framework would you use to deliver both types of
feedback? the SBI framework
22. Joelle is a project manager, and is establishing her team's roles and responsibilities.
Which role is responsible for the final outcome of the team's effort? the convener
23. What is the C in LESCANT and why is it important? Context. It is important to know
whether the teammate is from high or low context culture .
24. Nonverbal messages team leaders send during meetings include _____.social, facial,..-all
of these answers
25. What action is most important when working with a virtual team? Document everything
using an agreed upon method that is easily accessible for everyone on the team.
26. Why is the LESCANT model important in international business settings? It helps you
think through cultural issues that can come up in cross cultural business
communication.
 Exam
1. Jamal tells Carla that something she said was hurtful to him, although Carla hadn't meant
it in a cruel way. When considering conflict management, which strategy should lead to
the most favorable outcome? Give each person time to articulate his or her
perspective.
2. When should your team establish its charter? as soon as your team has formed, once
your team has hit a rocky patch, before you start working together- all of these
answers
3. You are in a meeting when the team members start straying off topic. Who has the
responsibility to manage this situation? the monitor
4. Catalina is leading a team in the development of their team charter. Which element
should the team leave out of the team charter? a RACI matrix
5. What are the correct ground rules to set for an effective AAR? get everyone involved;
encourage honest discussion; dismantle hierarchies and ignore rank; establish a
positive environment
6. You are leading a new team with members unfamiliar with each other. The project needs
to start sooner than expected. Which tool can you use to ensure the team members are
accountable for their roles? the five Ws
7. You manage a virtual team that is geographically dispersed. Which tip would most likely
help your team to engage in conversations? Ask open-ended questions.
8. You have a large number of people directly and indirectly on your project team. Which
type of tool can you use to keep everyone informed of the project's status? a RACI
matrix
9. Research shows that _____ produce better outcomes. Teams
10. Kim is leading a global system implementation. Her team is using the LESCANT model
to identify explicit and implicit communications for the team charter. Which area of the
model deals with this? Context
11. What does RACI Matrix stand for?Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed