About this course: In this course, you will learn how to build your team, improve teamwork and collaboration, and sustain team performance through continuous learning and improvement. Specifically, you will learn best practices for composing a team and aligning individual and team goals. You will also learn how to establish roles, build structures, and manage decision making so that your team excels. This course will also help you manage critical team processes such as conflict resolution and building trust that have a profound impact on your team’s performance. You will discuss some of the best ways to harness the productive potential of teams while mitigating the risks and traps of teamwork. In modern organization, most of work is done in teams, yet the results of teamwork are exceptionally mixed. Many teams are poorly designed and structured, fraught with dysfunctional conflict, experience coordination breakdowns and serious motivation challenges. As a result, many teams fail to realize their potential and frequently underperform even individuals working on similar tasks. After completing this course, you will acquire a set of tools and practices that enable you to effectively set up, run, evaluate, and continuously improve your team. Such insights will both make you a more effective team leader but also a standout contributor in team settings.
Created by: University of Michigan
Taught by: Scott DeRue, Ph.D., Edward J. Frey Dean at the Ross School of Business
Management and Organizations, Ross School of Business
Taught by: Maxim Sytch, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Management and Organizations Michael R. and Mary Kay Hallman Fellow
Management and Organizations, Ross School of Business
| Basic Info | Course 4 of 5 in the Leading People and Teams Specialization |
| Commitment | 4 weeks of study, 1-2 hours/week |
| Language | English, Subtitles: Vietnamese |
| How To Pass | Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. |
| User Ratings |
Syllabus
WEEK 1
Designing Your Team for Excellence
As a team leader, you must determine how best to compose and structure your team. You will need to determine the optimal team size, diversity of team members, values, and goals for the team -- all of which will have a big impact on team dynamics and performance. In this module, you will learn strategies and tactics to design your team effectively.
15 videos, 5 readings
- Video: 01.01 - Intro: Designing Your Team for Excellence
- Reading: Help us learn more about you!
- Reading: Introduction to Jeff Brodsky, Chief Human Resources Officer at Morgan Stanley
- Video: 01.02 - Designing Your Team with the Client in Mind
- Video: 01.03 - What is the Optimal Team Size?
- Video: 01.04 - Demographics: How Demographic Diversity Impacts Teams
- Video: 01.05 - Demographic Faultlines: Be Very Careful!
- Video: 01.06 - Personality: How Diversity in Personality Impacts Teams
- Video: 01.07 - Values-based Diversity in Teams (Part 1)
- Video: 01.08 - Values-based Diversity in Teams (Part 2)
- Video: 01.09 - Team Values and Person-Team Fit
- Reading: Introduction to John Beilein, Head Coach, University of Michigan Men's Basketball Team
- Video: 01.10 - Building a Collaborative Climate
- Video: 01.11 - Goal Setting in Teams
- Reading: Can You Compose Your Team With Too Many Stars
- Video: 01.12 - Managing Individual Expectations
- Video: 01.13 - Emphasizing Shared Goals
- Video: 01.14 - Avoiding Self-Similarity in Composing Teams
- Video: 01.15 - Recap: Designing Your Team for Excellence
- Reading: Unit Lecture Slides
Graded: Designing Your Team for Excellence
WEEK 2
Structuring Your Team for Excellence
In the first module of the course, we discussed your role as a team leader in designing your team's size, composition, diversity of personalities and values, and goals. In addition, you must determine how best to structure your team, specifically how you will structure decision making, rewards, and roles. You must also ensure the team has a clear set of norms that guide its behavior. In this module, you will learn strategies and tactics to structure your team effectively.
13 videos, 5 readings
- Video: 02.01 - Structuring Your Team for Excellence: Apollo 13 Case Study
- Reading: Gene Kranz Video
- Video: 02.02 - Departmentation: How to Group and Organize Jobs in the Team
- Video: 02.03 - Centralization: How to Structure Decision Making in the Team
- Video: 02.04 - Rewards: How to Structure Rewards in the Team
- Reading: Rewarding Teams or Individual Stars
- Video: 02.05 - Team Rewards and Punishments
- Video: 02.06 - Virtuality: How to Manage Virtual Team Structures
- Video: 02.07 - Roles: How to Define and Organize Roles in the Team
- Video: 02.08 - Every Role Matters in Teams
- Video: 02.09 - Keeping Individuals Motivated When They Do Not Get Their Preferred Role
- Reading: Template: Team Charter
- Video: 02.10 - Norms: How to Create Productive Norms in the Team
- Video: 02.11 - Creating a Culture of Teamwork Through Norms and Expectations
- Video: 02.12 - Team Charters: A Tool for Designing Your Team
- Reading: Team Charter Documents
- Video: 02.13 - Recap: Structuring Your Team For Excellence
- Reading: Unit Lecture Slides
Graded: Structuring Your Team for Excellence
WEEK 3
Managing Team Dynamics
It is common to see teams working on identical tasks and having similar access to organizational resources and talent produce systematically different performance outcomes. This occurs because we mismanage team processes, or how teammates work on the task and interact with one another during teamwork. In this module, you will learn how to recognize most typically process hurdles in teamwork and how to overcome them, thus creating high-performing teams.
8 videos, 2 readings
- Video: 03.01 - Coordination
- Video: 03.02 - Common Information Effect
- Video: 03.03 - Social Loafing
- Video: 03.04 - Language
- Video: 03.05 - Working Across Cultures
- Video: 03.06 - Managing Conflict
- Reading: Conflict Resolution from The Office
- Video: 03.07 - Resolving Task Conflicts
- Video: 03.08 - Recap: Manage Team Dynamics
- Reading: Unit Lecture Slides
Graded: Managing Team Dynamics
WEEK 4
Creating Sustainable Team Performance and Learning
This module is focused on creating sustainable levels of high-performance in teams. In this module you will therefore learn how to evaluate team performance and how to ensure this high performance is sustainable in your teams. Relatedly, we will discuss how to ensure team learning and effective flow of new ideas in your teams.
15 videos, 2 readings
- Video: 04.01 - Evaluating Team Performance
- Video: 04.02 - Assessing Performance
- Video: 04.03 - Managing Teammate Satisfaction
- Video: 04.04 - Managing Team Performance
- Video: 04.05 - Creativity
- Video: 04.06 - Psychological Safety
- Video: 04.07 - Engaging Your Team
- Video: 04.08 - Hit and Hug
- Video: 04.09 - Building a Safe Environment
- Video: 04.10 - Transactive Memory
- Video: 04.11 - Facilitating Team Learning
- Video: 04.12 - Learning from Adversity
- Video: 04.13 - Instilling a Learning Mindset
- Video: 04.14 - Manufacturing Team Success
- Video: 04.15 - Creating Sustainable Team Performance
- Reading: Unit Lecture Slides
- Reading: Post-course Survey
Graded: Creating Sustainable Team Performance and Learning
Graded: Improving Your Team’s Performance
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Pricing
| Audit | Purchase Course | |
|---|---|---|
| Access to course materials | Available | Available |
| Access to graded materials | Not available | Available |
| Receive a final grade | Not available | Available |
| Earn a shareable Course Certificate | Not available | Available |
Ratings and Reviews
An excellent course that teaches you to design your team for excellence. It broadens the way you view the team and its performance.
I have gained a lot of insight after taking this course, and redirected my thinking after certain methods that I thought was correct was proven to be the opposite effect through studies. I would recommend this course for any aspiring managers and top level management for the basics of personnel management.
This course covers a lot of ground. It also does a good job in tying it together.
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Great informative course