How to Avoid Teamwork Disasters: Crash Course Business - Soft Skills #12

Summary

This Crash Course Business video explores how to transform dysfunctional teams into well-oiled machines. It emphasizes setting SMART goals, creating a team charter, and conducting efficient meetings with clear agendas. The video advises against large brainstorming sessions, suggesting individual idea generation followed by structured discussions. It also tackles issues like groupthink and social loafing, advocating for diverse opinions and ethical decision-making. The key takeaway is the importance of clear communication, delegation, and the courage to challenge the status quo for effective teamwork.

Takeaways

• 😅 **Group Projects Challenges**: Group projects often face issues like uneven workload, poor brainstorming, and lack of organization.
• 🤝 **Team Dynamics**: A good team is cohesive with aligned goals and mutual accountability, while a bad team lacks coordination and equal contribution.
• 🎯 **SMART Goals**: Establishing Specific, Measurable, Ambitious, Realistic, and Timely (SMART) goals is crucial for team success.
• 📜 **Team Charter**: Creating a charter at the outset can prevent conflicts and clarify roles, similar to a roommate agreement.
• 🤔 **Meeting Efficiency**: Question the necessity of meetings and opt for remote communication when possible to avoid unproductive gatherings.
• 📊 **Meeting Composition**: Include only essential members in meetings to maintain focus and relevance.
• 💡 **Brainstorming Pitfalls**: Traditional brainstorming sessions can be less effective; structured individual research followed by discussion often yields better results.
• 🗓️ **Agendas and Time Management**: Use agendas to keep meetings on track and allocate time wisely to avoid overrunning.
• 🤝 **Team Roles in Meetings**: Assigning specific roles like task and relationship leaders can help manage the flow and dynamics of meetings.
• 🚫 **Combating Groupthink**: Be aware of groupthink and encourage diverse opinions to avoid conformity and make better decisions.
• 🗣️ **Speaking Up**: Encourage team members to voice their ideas and concerns to prevent unethical decisions and foster a healthy team culture.

Q & A

What is the reputation of group projects according to the script?

Group projects have a bad reputation, often associated with issues such as one person doing all the work, unproductive brainstorming, or teams becoming unorganized due to a lack of initial alignment.

What does the script compare a good team to and why?

A good team is compared to the Avengers before The Winter Soldier because they are a small group of people who motivate each other, have complementary skills, are on the same page, pull their own weight, and hold each other accountable.

How does the script describe a bad team?

A bad team is likened to the Avengers during Civil War, characterized by a disorganized timetable, secrecy among members, personal goals that don't align with the group's, and a lack of accountability leading to unequal contributions.

What is the first step to improving a team according to the script?

The first step to improving a team is ensuring everyone is on the same page by setting SMART goals that are Specific, Measurable, Ambitious, Realistic, and Timely.

Why is a team charter important and when should it be created?

A team charter is important because it lists goals, responsibilities, and rules for the team, setting the tone for the project. It should be created before starting to work together to prevent problems and conflicts that can damage relationships.

What percentage of managers in a study found meetings to be unproductive and inefficient?

In the study involving 182 managers, 71 percent (129 of them) found meetings to be unproductive and inefficient.

Why should meetings be limited to only necessary participants?

Meetings should be limited to necessary participants to avoid unnecessary time consumption and to ensure that the meeting is productive and directly relevant to those involved in the project or affected by the decisions.

What is the 'Thought Bubble' segment in the script and what does it illustrate?

The 'Thought Bubble' segment is a hypothetical scenario illustrating the ineffectiveness of group brainstorming compared to individual research followed by a structured discussion, using the example of planning a budget vacation.

How can an agenda help in conducting effective meetings?

An agenda helps in conducting effective meetings by providing structure, ensuring that the meeting stays on track, and allowing participants to come prepared with relevant thoughts and information.

What is groupthink and how can it be mitigated?

Groupthink is a phenomenon where groups make subpar decisions to maintain harmony and avoid disagreement. It can be mitigated by being aware of its existence, assigning a devil's advocate, using blind voting, and keeping group sizes small.

What is the 'pizza rule' mentioned in the script and why is it suggested?

The 'pizza rule' suggests that if you can't feed everyone with one pizza, you should have fewer people at the meeting. It is suggested to prevent social loafing and to ensure that everyone has a clear role and contributes effectively.

Outlines

00:00

😅 Group Projects and Teamwork Challenges

This paragraph discusses the common issues that arise in group projects, such as uneven distribution of work, lack of brainstorming success, and disorganization. It introduces the concept of transforming a bad team into a good one by setting SMART goals, creating a team charter, and avoiding unproductive meetings. The analogy of the Avengers before and during the Civil War is used to illustrate the difference between a good and a bad team. The paragraph emphasizes the importance of setting clear goals and responsibilities from the outset to prevent future conflicts and ensure everyone is working towards the same objectives.

05:00

📋 Effective Meeting Strategies and Avoiding Groupthink

The second paragraph focuses on how to conduct effective meetings and the importance of not relying solely on brainstorming sessions. It suggests that meetings should be well-planned with an agenda and that only necessary participants should be included. The paragraph also touches on the idea that brainstorming in large groups can be counterproductive and instead recommends that individuals prepare and research ideas independently before discussing them in a meeting. Additionally, it highlights the role of team leaders in guiding meetings, the importance of every team member's voice, and strategies to avoid groupthink, such as assigning a devil's advocate and keeping group sizes small.

10:05

🗣️ Encouraging Open Dialogue and Ethical Decision-Making

The final paragraph emphasizes the importance of open dialogue and ethical decision-making within teams. It suggests that team members should feel empowered to speak up against groupthink and make decisions that are not only productive but also considerate of ethical implications. The paragraph also hints at the upcoming topic of difficult workplace conversations, promising to provide guidance on how to handle such situations in a respectful manner. It concludes with a call to action for viewers to join the Crash Course community on Patreon and a recommendation to watch a related Crash Course Sociology video on formal organizations.

Keywords

💡Group projects

Group projects refer to collaborative tasks where a team works together to achieve a common goal. In the context of the video, group projects are highlighted as often being challenging due to issues like unequal distribution of work or lack of organization. The script uses humor and examples to illustrate the potential pitfalls of group projects, emphasizing the need for effective teamwork strategies to avoid such disasters.

💡Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a creative technique where a group generates ideas spontaneously. The video challenges the traditional view of brainstorming in a team setting, suggesting that it can lead to a disorganized mess of ideas rather than productive outcomes. It contrasts brainstorming with more structured, individual research followed by focused discussions, as illustrated in the 'Thought Bubble' example where friends plan a vacation.

💡SMART goals

SMART goals are a framework for setting goals that are Specific, Measurable, Ambitious, Realistic, and Timely. The video emphasizes the importance of aligning individual SMART goals with a larger team goal to ensure everyone is working towards the same objectives. This concept is central to the video's message about effective team management and the avoidance of unproductive meetings.

💡Agendas

An agenda is a plan or a set of goals for a meeting. The script advocates for the use of agendas to structure meetings and keep them on track, preventing them from becoming unproductive. It suggests that distributing an agenda before a meeting helps participants understand the purpose and stay focused, which is crucial for efficient teamwork.

💡Delegation

Delegation is the act of assigning tasks or responsibilities to others. The video discusses delegation as a strategy to avoid meetings that drag on without accomplishing anything. By clearly assigning roles and tasks, teams can ensure that work is distributed evenly and that meetings are purposeful and efficient.

💡Team charter

A team charter is a document that outlines the roles, responsibilities, and goals of a team. The video likens a team charter to a roommate agreement, emphasizing its importance in setting expectations and preventing conflicts before they arise. The charter is presented as a foundational document that helps teams stay organized and aligned.

💡Accountability

Accountability refers to the expectation that team members will be responsible for their actions and tasks. The script mentions accountability as a key factor in preventing team members from going 'rogue' and ensuring that everyone contributes equally to the team's objectives.

💡Groupthink

Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon where group members strive for consensus and harmony, often leading to irrational or suboptimal decisions. The video warns against groupthink, suggesting strategies like assigning a devil's advocate or using blind voting to mitigate its effects and encourage diverse opinions within a team.

💡Social loafing

Social loafing is the tendency of individuals to put in less effort when working in a group than when working alone. The video connects social loafing to the size of team meetings, suggesting that larger groups can lead to some members not contributing as much, as they can remain unnoticed or because there is not enough work to go around.

💡Conformity

Conformity is the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to group norms. The script discusses the importance of avoiding conformity in team settings to ensure a variety of opinions and prevent the suppression of individual ideas. It encourages speaking up and challenging the status quo to foster innovation and prevent groupthink.

💡Ethical decision-making

Ethical decision-making involves considering the moral implications of choices and actions. The video touches on the importance of not remaining silent when a team is making a decision that could be unethical or offensive. It suggests that the consequences of inaction can be greater than speaking up, even in the face of potential opposition or discomfort.

Highlights

Group projects often have a negative reputation due to potential issues like unequal workload distribution and lack of organization.

A good team is characterized by mutual motivation, complementary skills, shared goals, and accountability.

A bad team may suffer from misaligned personal goals, lack of transparency, and poor contribution equality.

The first step to improving a team is ensuring everyone is on the same page with SMART goals.

SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Ambitious, Realistic, and Timely.

Creating a team charter can help set expectations and responsibilities from the outset.

Meetings should be held only when necessary and should include only essential participants.

Brainstorming in large groups can be less effective than individuals preparing and then discussing their ideas.

An agenda distributed before a meeting can improve structure and efficiency.

Assigning team roles, such as a task leader and a relationship leader, can help manage meetings.

Encouraging participation from all team members and avoiding dominance by a few is crucial for diverse ideas.

Groupthink can lead to subpar decisions; assigning a devil’s advocate can counteract this.

Blind voting can help reduce the influence of conformity on decision-making.

Smaller team sizes can prevent social loafing and encourage individual contributions.

Excluding the boss from certain meetings can sometimes encourage more open discussion and avoid groupthink.

Speaking up against unethical or offensive decisions, even if unpopular, can lead to positive change.

Public speaking can be nerve-wracking, but it's important for team members to voice their opinions.

The video concludes with advice on planning meetings, delegating, and encouraging diverse opinions to foster a healthy team dynamic.

Transcripts

Group projects have such a bad reputation that there are hundreds of memes about all

the things that can go wrong.

Maybe one person does all the work, the brainstorming falls flat, or the team becomes super unorganized

because they weren’t on the same page from the start.

We’ve all been there.

But we’re here to show you how to avoid teamwork disasters, in and out of the workplace.

You’ll be able to help a team set goals and work better together, use agendas and

delegation to avoid meetings that go on forever, and keep that workflow, well, actually flowing.

I’m Evelyn From the Internets.

And this is Crash Course Business: Soft Skills.

[Intro Music Plays]

Before we dive into any advice, we need to talk about what makes a good or bad team!

Basically, a good team is like the Avengers before The Winter Soldier.

It’s a small group of people who motivate each other and have complementary skills.

Everyone is on the same page, pulls their own weight, and has individual goals that

line up with the bigger picture.

And they hold each other accountable, so no one goes too rogue.

A bad team is like the Avengers during Civil War.

The timetable is all over the place.

People are hiding things from each other and have personal goals that don’t match the

group’s.

Everyone’s practically doing their own thing without much accountability, and they’re

not contributing equally.

Seriously, Thor.

Where were you?

The first step to turning a bad team into a good team is making sure everyone’s on

the same page.

Everyone should come together to set SMART goals.

Remember those?

A SMART goal is Specific, Measurable, Ambitious, Realistic, and Timely.

Ideally, you’d have some individual SMART goals that match up with one, big team SMART

goal.

Once you have goals, you should list them out, along with some responsibilities or even

rules for the team.

Write all those things in a charter before you start working together, to set the tone

for your project.

Generally, no one thinks to have a charter until they run into problems.

And by then, it’s sometimes too difficult to reassign tasks or solve conflict without

damaging relationships.

Think of a charter like a roommate agreement.

You want to figure out that cleaning schedule and a policy on overnight guests before you

passive-aggressively let dishes pile up.

Once you’ve set team responsibilities, it’s a safe bet that you’re going to need to

hold meetings to check in and, you know, work as a team.

In a good meeting, everyone is given a chance to speak their minds, you don’t hate the

meeting or the people in it, and there’s a goal that’s actually accomplished.

And, just to be clear, good meetings are not unicorns.

They do exist!

But we’ve all had our fair share of bad team meetings.

They’re kind of like a supervillain’s monologue -- they waste enormous amounts of

time and should be avoided.

In one study involving 182 managers with different careers, 129 of them said meetings were unproductive

and inefficient.

That’s 71 percent.

Not chump change, people.

So the first question you should always ask yourself is: “Does everyone need to

be in the same room together, and will it accomplish anything I couldn’t do remotely?”

You should hold a meeting if you need someone else’s input, or if you’re sharing something

seriously important that should be done in person.

But if you just need to give a quick update, maybe try an email or a memo instead.

If we have too many unnecessary meetings, not only do we accomplish less, but those

meetings will mean less.

It’s like the organizational equivalent of crying wolf.

So if your team is leaving for a conference, don’t put everyone in a room for an hour

to decide who’s bringing what presentation supplies.

Send out a checklist.

But if you need to figure out a complex plan to make amends and rebrand your team after

a PR nightmare, a meeting is probably the way to go.

When you schedule a meeting, only include anyone who’s absolutely necessary.

You’ll need to determine who that is, but generally, it means people who are directly

involved in your project or immediately affected by your decisions.

I’m gonna be real here.

Some people may be there because of office politics.

Like maybe they’re a senior manager who could probably just read meeting notes, but

they may feel excluded if they don’t have the chance to chime in.

But otherwise, most people will appreciate being left off the roster if they’re not

required to be there.

Plus, getting the whole team together for a brainstorming session is... pretty much

useless.

I know.

Brainstorming sounds catchy.

And there’s that whole inspirational movie bit with a team of determined young professionals

launching ideas at each other in a conference room late at night.

But in real life, it’s pretty counterproductive.

Getting people together to think spontaneously doesn’t lead to better ideas.

It just leads to more ideas to talk about in more meetings.

To see what to do instead, let’s go to the Thought Bubble.

It’s college graduation time.

You’ve worked hard for four years, saved up money from part-time jobs, and you’re

ready for one last hurrah before you join the proverbial rat race.

So you and your two best friends meet up at your favorite coffee shop and spend an hour

brainstorming the perfect vacation on a budget.

But once you get started, ideas fly, and you’re left with a jumbled mess of a Google doc!

No one can agree on anything.

You want to go hike in Hawaii, but honestly you’re not even sure if all the islands

have good trails, or how easy it is to get between them.

One of your friends wants to go a on a cross-country road trip, but can’t name any places other

than the Grand Canyon.

The other wants to backpack through Europe to “find yourselves,” but doesn’t really

have a plan besides staying in hostels, maybe.

Since brainstorming wasn’t productive, you and your friends agree to do some solid research

on your own and meet again in a week to each give a small pitch.

You each look through travel blogs and make more detailed itineraries ahead of time, texting

each other little questions like what your budgets are or whose car has better gas mileage.

So when you meet up again, you can talk about what matters, like overall cost, transportation,

and timelines.

You even put together a pros and cons list!

After talking over the options, you realize you’ll be able to save a few hundred dollars

and put that money towards a few more travel days if you drive Route 66 together, with

stops for hiking and camping.

Plus, you’ll be on the beach in Santa Monica for a perfect last day.

Thanks, Thought Bubble!

An agenda that’s distributed before a meeting helps people walk in knowing exactly what’s

going on and provides a bit of structure.

Assuming they read the agenda.

You can lead a horse to water... and all that.

It’s important to keep meetings from going overtime, and a 30 minute meeting can easily

turn into 3 hours without some guidance.

That being said, you don’t always have to follow agendas to the letter.

As long as side-conversations aren’t super off-topic, you may generate great ideas!

Really, a successful, balanced meeting structure depends a lot on the team and company culture.

But assigning team roles can also help make sure that everything stays under control.

A task leader can make sure that the agenda is actually getting accomplished and cut

off people that are going on tangents.

And a relationship leader can make sure that everyone gets a chance to speak, or mediate

conflict so everyone doesn’t end up grumpy and hating each other.

I know it’s sometimes hard to make yourself heard, but try not to get down when someone

interrupts you or dominates the conversation.

You were hired for your work ethic and your outlook -- never forget that!

And if you have a great idea or have worked on a project longer than the person sitting

next to you, it doesn’t give you have a free pass to talk forever.

It’s a meeting, not a presentation, Robert.

Don’t be that guy.

So check yourself, and try to encourage people to speak up that haven’t contributed.

Plus, teams need a variety of opinions so ideas don’t fall flat!

So take steps to avoid conformity.

Large teams, and even like-minded people, can run into groupthink.

That’s when groups make subpar decisions because people value harmony more than making

the best decision, so they avoid disagreement.

It’s kind of like peer pressure in the office.

If you want a fun read, look at the Abilene

Paradox, where four people take a miserable trip no one wanted to take, just because they

thought everyone else wanted to go.

It’s hard to completely stop groupthink, but knowing it’s there is a first step.

Assigning a devil’s advocate to poke holes in ideas during meetings can also help.

Since our brains are weird, we’re sometimes unconsciously influenced by the first opinion

that gets said.

So if you’re voting on a decision, you should vote blind on slips of paper.

If you’ve seen 12 Angry Men -- you know.

But the the best way to lower conformity is to keep your group size small, roughly between

3-6 people.

Follow the pizza rule!

Basically, if you can’t feed everyone with one pizza, you should probably have fewer

people at the meeting.

Larger meetings can lead to social loafing, which is when some people don’t contribute

because they can fly under the radar or there’s too many people with not enough to do.

And depending on the situation, if you can, it may be best to exclude the boss to avoid

groupthink.

Nobody really wants to challenge the boss.

Plus, you could feel like your boss doesn’t care or your opinion won’t change anything,

especially if your company tends to ignore recommendations.

But even if meeting situations aren’t ideal, remember that you can help stop groupthink,

and that whole movements have started because people have spoken up.

Changes for healthier company cultures are

so important.

But also without Richard Montañez, the Frito-Lay janitor, we wouldn’t have flaming hot cheetos.

The world would be a darker place.

And if you think your team may be making a bad decision that’s unethical or offensive,

the repercussions for staying silent may be greater than for speaking up.

Even if you feel outvoted.

We’ve all seen insensitive ad campaigns that should have gotten stopped in production.

...Pepsi...

And if you’re afraid of speaking up because public speaking is tough, it’s gonna be

okay.

People are self-centered, and they are probably way more concerned with themselves than

what you’re saying.

Plus, most people are more forgiving of spoken mistakes than written ones.

Nerves are real!

So cut yourself some slack, because no one is perfect.

But if we help each other learn, we’ll all get a little bit better.

So go take on the world with an awesome team, and remember:

Only plan team meetings when absolutely necessary.

Making agendas, delegating responsibilities, and managing work effectively will keep your

meeting time low.

Don’t brainstorm as a team.

It’s not necessarily productive.

Come up with ideas on your own and then get together to discuss them.

Your opinion matters, and don’t be afraid to speak up to fight groupthink.

Next week, we’ll tackle difficult workplace conversations you don’t really want to have,

in a way that’s productive and respectful.

Thanks for watching Crash Course Business.

If you want to help keep all Crash Course free for everybody, forever, you can join

our community on Patreon.

And if you want to learn more about teams in formal settings, check out this Crash Course

Sociology video on Formal Organizations.