Team Roles, Definitions and Tasks

Criticism Tasks

1. After assessing each team member, develop a profile describing how you think each member will tackle the project that lies ahead.
2. The team leader should be supportive because there is usually some task competence, but low to medium commitment.
3. Review and adapt the ground rules to cover each situation that arises. Ground rules are sometimes broken. Discuss them, and adapt them to the team culture.
4. If team members resist the task, utilize active listening techniques to find out what the problems are and adjust plans accordingly.
5. Attempt to define what conflict management styles members are using to deal with their resistance and feelings of being overwhelmed. Remember: conflict avoidance is overused during this stage of team development.
6. Use the Anger Action Model SOLVE to handle sharp fluctuations in attitudes about the team and project's success. Many of the emotional issues in the criticism stage actually arise from differences in working styles or time management issues. These issues are covered over by defensive emotional reactions such as frustration, apathy about team structure, or anger regarding the organization of the course.
7. Motivation levels need to be considered when delegating tasks. Assess the motivation level of each team member and delegate task in the appropriate manner.
8. If members are feeling frustrated about the organization of the project, discuss the team’s feelings openly with your faculty advisor or instructor to move the process along.
9. After clearly stating the problems, make discussion and resolution of these items part of the Agenda so they are not avoided or mishandled.
10. Review overall goals with the team: becoming as efficient and as high performing as possible to accomplish the task.
11. After a milestone is reached, summarize how the team used their time to understand how the time was really spent.
12. Facilitation of discussions during the Criticism Stage will be a large factor in determining how quickly your team reaches the accomplishment stage.
13. If roles are rotated, the team leader should make out a team leader transition report for the next team leader.